• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Grow Where You Sow

There's beauty in the ability to grow.

  • Homebase
    • About Me
    • Freebies
    • Contact & Privacy Policys
    • Work With Me
  • HOMESTEAD
    • Homesteading Beginners
  • Livestock
  • GARDEN
  • HOMEMAKING
    • Holidays
    • Favorite recipes
  • The Basics
  • SLOW DOWN
    • INTENTIONAL LIVING
    • Zero Waste
    • Decluttering
Home » Blog » 10 tips for creating a low maintenance garden

10 tips for creating a low maintenance garden

June 18, 2020 by Chelsea Wells-Barrett 2 Comments

A low maintenance garden is an appealing thing. I work a full-time job and run a blog, on top of gardening and keeping a household tidy (most the time at least). We all wouldn’t mind saving a little time in the garden, busy schedules, or not. Here are a few tips for creating and keeping a low maintenance garden, saving time on pulling weeds and watering.

low maintenance garden

Table of contents

  • When you have a busy schedule or work a full-time job, it can be helpful to have a low maintenance garden and easy upkeep.
    • Mulching for a low maintenance garden
    • Companion planting
    • Creating compost
    • Build raised beds
    • Garden in containers
    • Plant drought-tolerant crops
    • Invest in growing perennials
    • Garden with a neighbor
    • Don’t over-garden
    • Grow your garden closer to your home
    • Related to low maintenance gardening:

When you have a busy schedule or work a full-time job, it can be helpful to have a low maintenance garden and easy upkeep.

Gardening doesn’t have to take up all of your time. There have been studies proving that getting your hands dirty is great for you. But the time it takes to grow a successful garden sometimes feels like far too much. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Mulching for a low maintenance garden

Mulching is wonderful for so many reasons, starting with suppressing weeds. I’m in Central Florida and the weeds here are Frankenstein weeds! They grow deep and they grow plentiful.

Mulching to keep the weeds at bay, and if I’m lucky non-existent, meaning that I get to spend less time fighting to pull them!

Additionally, mulching preserves the health of your soil by protecting it from the sun and keeping it cool and moist, allowing your plants’ roots to reach deep and stay hydrated and healthy.

Companion planting

Practicing companion planting is a great way to avoid pests in the garden. This summer season of 2020, we had a serious pickle worm problem on our zucchini. We actually pulled all our plants up *sigh*.

Since the caterpillars mostly come out at night to feast on the crops, I was going out and spraying my crops at night with BT (which is safe for organic gardening).

Let’s face it, this is the exact opposite of a low maintenance garden setup. It was exhausting. By companion planting, you can naturally work towards preventing pests which means it’s less likely you’ll be spending time picking caterpillars off your zucchini plants or spraying them with BT late at night.

Creating compost

Composting helps mostly in the long run because it means no more trips to the store to add nutrients to your garden. I suggest hot composting in order to produce compost quicker, but the decision is completely up to you. It mostly matters on how much space you have.

Build raised beds

It’s so much more convenient to have garden beds a little higher off the ground for easy maintenance. It’s also a little more simple to control the soil composition in a raised bed, although some will say you do have to add more nutrients than when ground gardening.

For our situation, raised bed gardening has been the best because we stack thick layers of cardboard in the beds before adding soil. This means that weed activity is kept to a minimum, save me (and my back) time and energy.

Garden in containers

Container gardening is a wonderful garden method for small spaces and folks who need a more controlled environment. Container gardens can be moved around your yard as needed, meaning season to season you can position your plants for more or less sun, therefore leading to healthier crops!

We have added hoop shades to our raised bed gardens and, although it was a one-time thing, it was more money and time that had to be invested in my garden. If you have less time on your hands, that might not be ideal.

Plant drought-tolerant crops

By planting drought-tolerant or drought-resistant crops, you’re increasing the likelihood of a low maintenance garden because you’re watering less!

Among crops labeled as drought-tolerant/resistant are corn, okra, and some varieties of beans. There are great resources on the web that will tell you exactly what crops and varieties are good for your area, like this one for California.

Invest in growing perennials

What saves more time than not having to even sow the seeds to grow your garden? We have a few great asparagus beds that are the most low-maintenance gardens on our homestead.

We re-mulch them every other season to keep weeds at bay and just clip the dead stalks when needed. They are so low-maintenance that I actually forget they exist outside of the season!

Garden with a neighbor

I’m not even kidding here! Think about a community garden. You have multiple people pitching in to water, weed, pull diseased crops, etc. It can be beneficial to receive help from folks who would also like to benefit from the bountiful crop.

If you have a little space but aren’t sure your neighbor does, see if they’d be interested in a team-effort, low maintenance garden.

Don’t over-garden

One of the biggest mistakes you can make it planting too many crops. When creating your garden space, keep in mind what you can handle. Even more important, when you are planting your garden keep in mind that every crop that grows will need to be harvested, prepare, or even preserved.

Plant what you know you’ll need, and no more, unless you have the time to spend on tending to the crops. Waste not, y’all. Here’s a handy calculator to try and decide how much to plant!

Grow your garden closer to your home

Last, create your garden closer to home. If you have to trek all the way out to the garden space, that means you’re spending more time commuting to your garden than doing chores to maintain what should be a low-maintenance setup.

You can grow a “kitchen garden”, which is simply a garden outside the kitchen. This way you can harvest the vegetables you want, when you need them, while not spending to much time doing so.

low maintenance garden

Related to low maintenance gardening:

  • The gardener’s first aid kit
  • Best vegetables for raised beds
  • How to plant a vegetable garden

Filed Under: Blog Category Page, Gardening, Homesteading, Homesteading Beginners

Previous Post: « Simple Homestead Blog Hop #264
Next Post: Simple Homestead Blog Hop #265 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. anneinthekitchen says

    June 27, 2020 at 4:16 am

    Thank you, for sharing! We are restructuring our gardens. We both work full time and are in our 50’s so low maintenance is becoming more and more important. This was a very timely post for me!

    Reply
    • Chelsea Wells-Barrett says

      June 27, 2020 at 4:28 am

      Hi Anne! I’m so glad you enjoyed my post and hope you found a few helpful pieces of advice. I totally understand needing a little more time! Keep moving forward – you’re doing great!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I’m Chelsea! I’m here to help you THRIVE on your homestead. Together we’ll grow gardens, raise happy, humane livestock and learn to grow where you sow in every way! Learn a little more about me here!

Reader Favorites:

How to Cut Feed Costs with Fodder_ Homesteading 101

How to cut feed costs with fodder

Best Vegetables to Plant in Your Raised Garden Beds

Best vegetables for raised garden beds

Natural Sources of Nitrogen for Plants (that are Easily Accessible!)

Natural sources of nitrogen

17 tips for keeping chickens warm in winter weather

Make it yours with reCap mason jar lids.

Homesteading basics – right at your fingertips.

  • Homebase
    • About Me
    • Freebies
    • Contact & Privacy Policys
    • Work With Me
  • HOMESTEAD
    • Homesteading Beginners
  • Livestock
  • GARDEN
  • HOMEMAKING
    • Holidays
    • Favorite recipes
  • The Basics
  • SLOW DOWN
    • INTENTIONAL LIVING
    • Zero Waste
    • Decluttering

Footer

WELCOME

Hi, I'm Chelsea! I'm here to help you THRIVE on your homestead. Together we'll grow gardens, raise happy, humane livestock and learn to grow where you sow in every way! Learn a little more about me here!

Just so you know…

The contents of this site are property of Grow Where You Sow. Feel free to share, but please link back to the original post. Information found here is not intended to be, nor does it constitute, the giving of medical advice. Content found here is for informational purposes only. Grow Where You Sow is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Read our Privacy Policy HERE!

Join the flock!

Need to keep track of projects, livestock and harvests on the homestead? Subscribe to get instant access to 14 free printables today!

    We won't send you spam. Unsubscribe at any time.
    Powered By ConvertKit
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

    Join my affiliate program!

    Copyright © 2021 · Midnight theme

    Copyright © 2020 · Midnight theme