Low maintenance garden ideas that really cut the work

A low-maintenance garden isn't an empty one. It's a garden where every plant suits its spot, bare soil is covered, the lawn is simple to mow (or gone), and the jobs that remain fit into a few sessions a year. These low maintenance garden ideas start with how the work arises in the first place, weigh up the popular shortcuts honestly, and finish with tough, hardy plants I'd trust in a North East garden.

What a low maintenance garden really means

No plant is maintenance-free, as the RHS points out, but many hardy evergreens need little care once they're established. Good low maintenance garden design is about making the outdoor space easier to manage, not stripping it bare. Most garden maintenance comes from fighting the garden rather than working with it: mowing grass that struggles in shade, watering small pots, staking floppy perennials and replacing plants that were never suited to the spot. Fix the cause and the upkeep shrinks with it.

Seven low maintenance garden ideas, from soil up

Put the right plant in the right place

This is the one idea that makes all the others work. Before choosing plants, note how many hours of sun the area gets, whether the soil is clay or sandy, and how exposed it is. Salt-laden wind on the coast scorches soft leaves, while dry shade under trees and waterlogged ground defeat most plants, so pick from a short list of plants for tricky conditions rather than fighting the site. The right plants for the spot need less watering, feeding and spraying, and they won't need replacing. That single step does more to reduce garden maintenance than any hard surface.

Plant densely and use ground covers

Weeds need light and bare soil. Plants sold as ground cover tend to be tough and knit together to keep weeds down, which the RHS recommends for an easy-care garden. Plant fewer different varieties in larger groups: it looks calmer, and it means fewer different needs to keep track of. Space plants by their final spread, not their size in the pot, so you don't have to prune them back every year to keep garden borders in shape.

Mulch every bit of bare soil

A mulch at least 5cm deep, and ideally 7.5cm, keeps weeds at bay and holds in water, according to the RHS. Spread it once a year in late winter or early spring, on moist soil that isn't frozen, and keep a 10cm mulch-free circle around woody stems so they don't rot. Garden compost or bark rots down and feeds the soil; gravel and slate suppress weeds but don't improve soil structure. Once a bed is mulched, weed seedlings rarely get a hold and are easy to hoe off.

Make the lawn smaller, simpler or longer

If your garden is small and you don't have children, the RHS suggests you ditch the lawn altogether: big borders with a paved, gravelled or decked area are less work than keeping a little patch of grass looking good. If you keep a lawn:

• Lay a permanent edge of bricks or paving stones, or small gravel set lower than the grass, so you never trim the edges.
• Smooth out awkward corners so the mower can do the work in one pass.
• Let some areas grow longer and mow a path through them, leaving the clippings on the lawn.
• Re-sow with a hard-wearing "amenity" or "low maintenance" seed mix; some include micro clover, which needs less watering and feeding.
• Give up on grass in deep shade under trees, which the RHS says will always be difficult.

Build year-round structure with evergreen shrubs

Hardy shrubs are long-lived and won't need replacing every year, and evergreens look good all year and drop fewer leaves than deciduous plants. Replacing some perennial planting with shrubs cuts out staking, cutting back, lifting and dividing. Swap seasonal bedding for permanent planting, and avoid large numbers of tender plants that need lifting or wrapping each winter. Mix leaf shapes and textures, such as glossy rounded leaves next to fine ornamental grasses, so the border still looks good in January without extra colour.

Go large with pots, or have fewer of them

Containers need regular watering, feeding and repotting, so planting in pots is rarely the low-maintenance option. Big pots hold more compost and dry out more slowly than small ones. In a small garden with little or no soil, group plants in a few large pots or raised beds rather than lots of small pots. If you do keep several pots, a simple drip irrigation system on a timer takes over the daily watering in summer.

Choose slow hedges and self-clinging climbers

A hedge needs one clip a year, and slower growers such as yew or holly are less work than fast hedging. Self-clinging climbers such as ivy, Virginia creeper and climbing hydrangea hold on without wires or tying in. Trained fruit and wall-trained wisteria look lovely but need regular pruning.

The honest trade-offs: artificial grass, gravel and paving

Hard surfaces are the usual answer to a garden that feels like too much work. They do save mowing, but each comes with a catch. The RHS describes paving the whole garden over as the most common answer to a lack of time, and says there are much better ways to manage a garden without becoming a slave to it.

Artificial grass

The Society of Garden and Landscape Designers, backed by the RHS and the Landscape Institute, campaigns against plastic lawns. Its case is that they kill the soil life underneath, can't currently be recycled in the UK, and aren't maintenance-free. A real lawn cut a little longer, or a border in its place, usually works out better for the garden and for wildlife.

Gravel and weed membrane

A gravel garden is a genuinely low-maintenance choice on a sunny, well-drained site, planted with drought-tolerant plants such as lavender, sedum and Phlomis. The RHS notes that weeding is heaviest in the first few years, until the plants are big enough to shade out weeds. If you lay a sheet under gravel or bark, always choose a permeable one: a waterproof layer causes surface run-off and drainage problems elsewhere.

The lowest maintenance plants for UK gardens

These are low-maintenance plants I'd rely on, with growing conditions and hardiness taken from each plant's RHS profile. Two labels help when you're choosing plants at garden centres. The RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is the RHS's independent recommendation that a plant is likely to do well in ordinary garden conditions. The hardiness rating tells you how much cold it takes: H5 plants are hardy through most of the UK even in severe winters, while H4 plants are hardy through most of the UK apart from inland valleys, high ground and central or northerly locations, which takes in parts of the North East.

Native plants aren't automatically lower maintenance, and nor are exotic ones: what matters is the match between plant and place, rather than the types of plants you prefer on paper. Every plant in the table is a hardy perennial or shrub that will come back year after year, which is the heart of an easy-care garden.

Planning a planting plan that looks after itself

Creating a low-maintenance garden comes down to choosing plants well, which matters more than choosing lots of them. The RHS advises buying younger plants rather than large, semi-mature ones, because they establish faster and need less watering and staking. Check each plant's final height and spread against the space, so nothing needs regular pruning to keep it in bounds. Then repeat a handful of tough plants along the border instead of dotting single plants about. If you'd rather not work out the layout and quantities yourself, I can draw a planting plan that looks after itself from your photos and measurements, wherever you are in the UK, using fewer, tougher plants and ground cover that keep weeds down.

Seasonal jobs you still can't avoid

Even the lowest maintenance garden needs a few jobs each year. With the plants above, the list is short.

Lavender is the one plant in the table with a firm annual job attached, so it's worth knowing when to cut back lavender before you plant a row of it.