When it comes to gardening it doesn’t always have to be hard yakka. You can have a pretty garden with very little input.
That means, forget weeding and any sort of backbreaking work.
As a result of Covid lockdowns and isolation periods, research shows more Australians have taken up gardening than ever before. However, now that some of us are back in the office, or have home schooling to deal with as well as work, new garden enthusiasts might just need some tips to save their plants from dying.
PLAN YOUR GARDEN
It’s important to know your soil. If you don’t know what soil texture you’re dealing with, then you should head to your local garden nursery and pick their brains.
You will need to figure out what plants will thrive in your garden outside, and which ones will adore the indoors. Choosing the right plants will reduce the amount of work you need to do in the future.
A recent international survey by digital platform and ‘all you can read’ magazine app, Readly, found about 39 per cent of Aussies took up gardening in the past year.
Of these people, 71 per cent started potting plants and flowers, and 68 per cent planted vegetables and herbs. So don’t waste time, let’s get planting.
INDOOR AND OUTDOOR PLANTS YOU CAN’T KILL
Too busy chasing after your kids or making sure they are doing their schoolwork?
Or are you too busy rushing to and from work with little time to ponder in the garden? Then, renowned horticulturalist Mike Wells, of Wellsley Horticulture, suggests these good looking indoor and outdoor plants you can’t kill.
“People need to remember to check on their gardens and their indoor plants. Most indoor plants can last a week without watering but they need a quality potting mix,” says Mike.
“Now that (some of us) are back at work or in Covid restrictions, people need to remember they must maintain their plants and gardens.”
He says there’s plenty of low maintenance plant varieties to choose from if you still want to be a green thumb.
Mike says one of his go-to and easy-to-please plants is succulents, for both indoors and outdoors.
Succulents have a tendency to dislike wet feet, which causes rot, and means that a potting mix with ‘sharp drainage’ is best for container growing, he says.
Bromeliads are another plant you can’t kill, Mike adds.
“They are colourful, tropical and flower for years. Most species don’t need a lot of watering and will grow in pots or garden beds,” he says.
“Bromeliads are inexpensive, require very little care, and reward growers with long-lasting blooms and ornamental foliage.”
Mike says when choosing an indoor plant that requires very little love, you can’t go past Devil’s Ivy. Also impossible to kill, this pretty veining plant has heart-shaped leaves that are variegated in green and yellow. It’s a fast grower, hardy and can tolerate a variety of growing conditions.
LAZY GARDENER’S DREAM: ‘SET AND FORGET’ PLANTS
Look no further than easy-to-grow crops you can just ‘set and forget’ – a total bonus if you don’t have time to tend to the garden. There’s nothing more exciting than harvesting your own vegetables, is there?
As Aussie homeowners are unable to invest in holidays at the moment, online service platform hipages has seen continued spikes in home improvement investments, in particular the outdoors and maintenance-related garden tasks, which has increased by 74 per cent.
Mike suggests for those looking to green up their garden but with less time, a raised garden bed is an option.
You don’t have to worry about digging a garden and hurting your back, he says.
There’s benefits of growing your own food too. Think fresh sprigs of rosemary over your roast lamb, or fresh mint leaves tossed through a salad. Now, when it comes to growing mint, these plants love water and are not so fussy for sunlight.
Tomatoes, once established, need a bit of ‘treat them mean, keep them keen’ type attitude.
Then there’s set and forget rosemary, and you should see how it takes off. These plants can be trimmed into a standard or kept as a long-life shrub – it even thrives in pots.
SUPERCHARGE YOUR PLANTS
Mulching is the best way to maintain a healthy weed-free garden. Mike says keeping up with the weeds can be an absolute nightmare.
For time-poor gardeners he recommends adding mulch for ornamental gardens which really should be different to a vegetable bed.
Mike says ornamental gardens should have a chunky mulch material to let rainfall through to the soil.
“Cypress pine wood chips are best to 50 to 75mm deep. For a vegetable garden, these would be too coarse, so a chopped lucerne or fine sugar cane mulch to no deeper than 50mm is recommended,” says Mike.
“For the gardeners who don’t want to fertilise often, choose a controlled release plus organics product which should only need light incorporation every six months.
“There’s no foliar sprays that will feed plants completely.”
For potted plants, a controlled release fertiliser is best. They normally last six months, says Mike.
THE HIGH-TECH GARDEN
Is the thought of unravelling a garden hose just a bit too much to handle? Or does your busy schedule get in the way?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you need to sort out a self-watering system for your plants.
They reduce the amount of water you need for the garden plus do all the hard work for you. Set up the automatic timer and away you go.
There are several options when deciding on an indoor or outdoor plant watering system. Some are so high tech you can operate them using a mobile phone.
For indoor plants, saucers not only help retain water for your plants but also make it so the soil does not leak out from the bottom of your pot, keeping everything nice and tidy.
Outside, you can install a drip irrigation system hooked up to your outdoor tap.
It will perfectly water your garden when needed. You can unhook it when it is not in use so that you have your outdoor water supply for other things.
If you’re tech savvy, invest in garden watering and irrigation control equipment controllable via your smartphone (available at hardware stores). Now that you’ve made your mark and demonstrated your green thumb skills, both in the backyard and inside your home, all you need do is enjoy.
BEST OUTDOOR PLANTS FOR LAZY GARDENERS
Dwarf Sacred bamboo – Look for newer cultivars such as ‘Flirt’, ‘Obsession’ and ‘Lemon and Lime’
Aeonium arboreum – Great in a pot in a sunny spot
Bromeliads – Available in a range of shapes, sizes, colours and flowering forms, in pots or the garden
Clivias – Dry, shady spots
Philodendron – Full sun or part shade, pots or garden
BEST INDOOR PLANTS FOR LAZY GARDENERS
Zanzibar Gem – It is a tropical perennial plant native to eastern Africa, from southern Kenya to northeastern South Africa.
Mother-in-law’s Tongue – Good for oxygen production at night.
Devil’s Ivy – Great for trailing over a bannister or tumbling from a bookcase.
Spider plant – The tip of each stem produces a small bunch of leaves.
Rubber plant – Likes to be in soil with a good amount of moisture, avoid placing it somewhere drying, such as near a draughty window or vent, heater, or in direct sunlight.
For all the latest lifestyle News Click Here
