While certain growth circumstances may appear more difficult to manage than others, the key is frequently to plant the correct plants in the right locations. You can find a sun-baked hill or a shadowed nook difficult to navigate. Perhaps frequent heat waves and droughts cause everything in your yard to wither. Alternatively, maybe deer continue to nibble on whatever that does choose to develop.
However, hold off on using the trowel just yet! These five garden designs provide an abundance of vibrant, low-maintenance plants to help you tackle your most challenging landscaping issues.
Plan a Heat-Loving Garden
The perennials in this easy garden design will withstand any heatwave that summer throws at them. (Of course, you will still need to water occasionally when the soil dries up, particularly in the early growing season.) The main feature of this garden is its massive, striking dahlias and lilies, which are supported by sturdy spike speedwell, penstemon, boltonia, and purple moorgrass. The end effect is a bed covered with vibrant flowers that are ideal for cutting throughout the warmer months of the year.
Garden Design Resistant to Deer
Although adorable, deer can do a lot of damage to a garden. Choose plant kinds that rank lower on their favored menu to prevent hungry animals from chowing down on your valuable plants. This deer-resistant garden design includes a number of fragrant or texture-challenging flowering perennials. bright yellow flowers of spurge and yarrow contrast with purple blooms of lamb’s ears, iris, globe thistle, and Russian sage in the pattern, which is further enhanced by bright orange blossoms of potentilla. The front of the bed has a tidy appearance thanks to the low-growing thyme and artemisia leaves.
Low-Use Garden Design
Hardy plants that can survive with little watering are ideal for a dry garden area. Drought-tolerant plants have a variety of special traits that nature has designed to help them survive. Sedum, for example, stores surplus water in its thick, succulent leaves. Lamb’s ear fuzz reduces the rate at which the leaves evaporate.
Plant these and other water-wise choices from our planting plan to make a lovely show along your road, in front of your house, or close to the foundation of your property. Designed to maintain its aesthetic appeal even during prolonged periods of drought, this garden is filled with low-maintenance plants that flourish in both full sun and well-drained soil.
Easy Shade Garden Design
If you want to grow anything bright, it might be difficult to find room beneath the branches of a tall tree. Fortunately, a few perennials don’t mind receiving little sunshine. Many of these plants may be included in this low-maintenance shade garden design, adding vibrant flowers and lush foliage without any effort on your part.
This garden is best assembled by working forward from the rear edge. The first layer is composed of robust hostas and elegant bleeding hearts, then frothy bells and hellebores. The front of the bed is piled high with deadnettle and barrenwort, while a lower growing, fine-textured layer is formed with astelbes and painted ferns.
Design for a Drought-Tolerant Slope Garden
Tame a difficult-to-mow slope with this low-maintenance design that has a water-wise assortment of plants, such sedums that do well in hot, dry, sunny weather. Wide stairs and other hardscape features help transform the inaccessible sloping area into a welcoming space. Climbing thyme and other groundcovers serve to soften their edges. Boulder clusters provide natural beauty and anchor the plants.