Even though the summer of 2024 seems to rain every day, looking out the window at my easy-care garden, I can’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction. The warm, damp weather has made the garden lusher. The bright pinky-purple flowers of the loosestrife arrived later than usual but clothed stems taller than I have ever seen. The richness of leaf colours in the variegated evergreen shrubs and grasses shout out – look at me!
The garden has become my sanctuary, where I can escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. I can spend more time relaxing and less time maintaining due to the low-maintenance approach I have adopted for the garden. Gardeners often spend too much time doing gardening chores like endless mowing and not enough time enjoying the pleasures of their labour.
A key component of my garden is the structural, drought-tolerant evergreen shrubs. Once past their first year, most shrubs become established and require little watering, if any, helping to conserve water and reduce time spent tending to the garden. I have also selected native and non-native plants to suit the local climate and soil conditions, reducing additional care requirements usually involved with forcing a plant to grow somewhere it doesn’t want to.
Besides the practical benefits of my easy-care, low-maintenance garden, I also get more satisfaction from spending time in the garden not working. It is satisfying to have time to watch the flowers bloom, butterflies flutter, and bees buzz from flower to flower. I have always found spending time outdoors surrounded by nature to be a source of relaxation, enhancing my well-being.
