PHOTO BY IAN KIRKLAND

Design a Low Maintenance Garden

Why are naturalistic-style gardens trending today among older adults?

By Catherine Gannon Taintor | Gardening

August 2022

Naturalistic gardens are relaxing. Peaceful surroundings help us to relax, meditate, and be thankful.

Naturalistic gardens are eco-friendly. A naturalistic garden minimizes the need for pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizer. Move over millennials: Seniors also know the importance of being environmentally conscious.

Naturalistic gardens are low-maintenance gardens. As we age, we need to grow gardens that are physically easier to maintain. Less weeding, less hedge pruning, and less lawn edging mean less strain on aging bodies.

WHAT IS A NATURALISTIC STYLE GARDEN?

Naturalistic gardens are gardens that mimic nature. Greg Loades, author of the Modern Cottage Garden explains it beautifully “The new perennial garden is naturalistic, meaning that it is supposed to look natural, as if the plants that are grown together are growing in the wild…think of a garden that is largely made of flowering perennials, grasses, and sedges.” Plant shapes and colors blend seamlessly with their surroundings. The part of the country you live in dictates what your garden will look like—woodland, prairie, desert, etc.

By their nature, natural gardens are informal. Loades writes: “The new perennial garden is one that flows, with no straight lines, instead sinuous paths of planting held together by pockets of colorful perennials.” Boundaries and garden paths are curved. In contrast, formal gardens are planted in a symmetrical layout of pathways and garden beds. Informal gardens use baskets and pots made of natural materials. Formal gardens use geometric designs and topiaries.

Informal doesn’t mean ‘no design’. Garden design is just as important for informal gardens as it is for formal gardens, particularly in small spaces. Combine plants to co-mingle. And be sure vigorous plants don’t overtake the space.

YOUR DESIGN NEEDS TO ANTICIPATE YOUR AGING

Growing gardens that are low maintenance will mean less work for you as you age.

• Choose hardy perennials that are hardy in your climate. These are plants that will come back for a minimum of three to four years. This is great for seniors who don’t want to plant every year.
• Plant bushes and flowering shrubs that look wonderful without extensive pruning.
• Use organic mulch to avoid weeding. This also improves the soil and locks in moisture.
• Add a bench to enjoy your sanctuary

EIGHT DESIGN TIPS TO CREATE A VISUALLY STUNNING, NATURALISTIC GARDEN

(From Alexandra Campbell, The Middle-Sized Garden channel and blog)

1. Design your garden to please from a distance as well as close up. Bold colors and large plants may look good from a distance but can overwhelm your landscape design close up.
2. Match your front garden to the theme of your back garden. If your back garden has a seaside garden theme, your front garden should continue that theme.
3. Plant perennials and shrubs in a single color. This makes a cohesive, pleasing design.
4. Use repetition and symmetry to create unity and flow in your design.
5. Echo or contrast the color of your front door with your plants.
6. Choose shrubs, small trees, and plants with a pleasing, soft texture, e.g. ferns, ornamental grasses, and soft needle conifers. We added ‘silver mound’ Artemisia (a wonderful one-foot mound of soft textured silvery gray foliage) to our garden last year. Start with a few evergreen shrubs for structure and add ornamental grasses and perennials to fill in. Perennials and ornamental grasses should spill out onto the path creating a soft, informal design. Avoid using thorny plants, e.g. yucca, cactus, and cotoneaster.
7. Train a climbing plant to go up and over the side of your front door for a dramatic impact. Use a metal garden arch or trellis. Anchor the climbing plant with wire. Good climbers include: wisteria, jasmine, clematis, or climbing rose.
8. Plan a fragrant garden path. If you have a sunny front garden, lavender is wonderful lining a front path, releasing scent as you pass by. In our Vermont house, we planted creeping thyme between our front-path pavers. The plants grew over and softened the lines of the pavers. They released a wonderful scent as you walked up the path.

GARDEN WALKWAYS

Use natural materials, such as stepping stones, gravel, flagstone, wood slices, and recycled pallet wood for walkways. Create a curved pathway or set the path leading to your front door on a diagonal. Don’t be afraid to breach borders. Plants that billow over the edge of a pathway soften the lines.

WHAT TO AVOID WHEN DESIGNING A NATURALISTIC GARDEN

1. Specimen plants. Specimen plants are large showy plants grown singly. As such, they draw attention away from your informal garden.
2. Ornaments and geometric shapes. Avoid using geometric shapes, which are common in modernist garden designs
3. Topiaries. Topiaries are shrubs that have been clipped and shaped. As such, they are better suited to formal gardens.

HOW TO CREATE NATURALISTIC PLANT POTS TO ENHANCE YOUR GARDEN

Growing plants in containers help make the most of small outdoor spaces. Container gardening is a wonderful “opportunity to grow plants together to create a definite garden style” rather than just a collection of random plants in pots, says Loades.

Try using three plants of three different heights. Put one tall single plant in the center of the pot to serve as the main focus. Fill in with medium-height perennials. Finally, add trailing plants around the edges. The trailing plant adds an informal touch.

Tall plant suggestions: Russian sage, a poker plant, and fountain grass.

Medium-height plant suggestions: Black-eyed Susans, moonbeam coreopsis, and double begonias.

Trailing plant suggestions: wandering jew, sweet alyssum, Swedish ivy.

Plant pots can line your steps or be grouped together to make a dramatic impact in your garden. Consider using a single color in your plant pot groups to add impact.

Plant pots are portable. Have fun experimenting with different color combinations as you move your pots around. If your perennials require full sun, they can be grown in the back garden in pots and then moved to the front garden.

HANGING BASKETS

Natural hanging baskets made from Black Seagrass, Woven Resin, and Natural Grass add color and softness garden. Many plants used in hanging baskets require sun.