The phrase ‘low maintenance garden‘ usually conjures up an image of dull, regimented shrubs and evergreens.
But writer Anne Wareham and photographer Charles Hawes have created Veddw, a garden bursting with personality, colour and structure.
And, as the author of The Deckchair Gardener (affiliate link, see disclosure), Anne is known for her no-nonsense approach to what she regards as unnecessary gardening chores.
At two acres, Veddw is a large garden, but the low maintenance garden tips work in small and middle-sized gardens too.
Anne Wareham and Charles Hawes created Veddw over 38 years. They have the hedges cut professionally but otherwise they look after the two acres themselves, using Anne’s pragmatic approach to gardening chores. It shows that a low maintenance garden can also be stylish and colourful!
Give Up Growing Veg (Unless You Love It)
Vegetable gardening is the hardest work in gardening because food crops need almost daily attention. They grow fast, so are more likely to need watering and fertiliser. And they’re vulnerable to pests, so need protection.
Growing your own can be hugely rewarding. But it does not fit into a low maintenance garden.
If you don’t love growing food, let it go. Focus on flowers, trees and shrubs. Add a fruit tree if you still want some home-grown produce.
Anne and Charles gave up growing veg. Now the beds feature an elegant contrast of silvery-grey cardoons and bronze heuchera. Foliage contrasts work well to add interest to a garden and are less work than flowers, which usually need dead-heading.
Plant Vigorous Plants (Thugs) to Cut Down on Weeding
Anne plants big drifts of vigorous plants that spread quickly to fill the borders. She calls these plants ‘thugs.’ She also thinks that this works best in design terms: ‘I don’t like plants in fiddly ones and twos dotted about.’
Strong-growing plants quickly cover the soil and crowd out weeds. You’ll need to weed less often—and often not at all.
Vigorous plants also mean you’ll have more flowers without fussing. And it can save you money.
Anne recommends Geranium ‘Rozanne’, Persicaria, or ferns. These are especially good in mild or damp climates.
In my less rainy climate I find that Nepeta (catmint), Euphorbia, Phlomis russeliana and Globe thistle (Echinops ritro) qualify as ‘vigorous plants.’
I got a few scraps of phlomis from a friend. Now one dry and difficult border is completely full of phlomis, because it has spread well without my needing to do anything.
Different plants spread well in different places, so you’ll need to find out what works in your climate and soil. But you’ll find some good ones to consider in Plants That Spread.
Plants that self-seed can also provide flower colour without effort. And self-seeders grow well, because they choose where they grow. See 25 top self seeding plants.
Geraniums, including ‘Rozanne’ and ‘Johnson’s Blue’ grow vigorously at Veddw. They cover the earth and out-compete weeds.
Note that both plants that spread and self-seeders can be invasive in the wrong place. The difference between a ‘thug’ and an invasive plant is that a thug will grow well, but doesn’t endanger your countryside if it escapes.
The same plant can be difficult to grow in one place, a good vigorous plant in another and invasive in a third.
When invasive plants invade the countryside, they out-compete local plants which can deprive local wildlife of food or shelter. And they can be expensive to get rid of. So get to know which plants are invasive near you.
‘Now we’re all more tolerant of weeds,’ says Anne. She allows ground elder to flower and has some variegated ground elder (see above) too. She says she does very little weeding after mid-summer, because all the plants pack together tightly and leave no room for new weeds to establish.
Use Bold Hedges to Add Structure
One of the reasons why Anne and Charles’s relaxed planting works so well is that it is combined with a strong structure.
The garden at Veddw is divided into room with chunky clipped hedges. The hedges make a pattern as they go down the hill.
Anne and Charles have maximised the impact of the hill and the hedges by creating a reflective pool, which mirrors the hedges.
Hedges are relatively low maintenance as they will only need trimming once or twice a year.
Try beech, yew, or hornbeam. They’re easy to trim once or twice a year. Avoid planting yew in soggy soil—it doesn’t like sitting in water.
These hedges will need clipping once or twice a year, but in between those times, they’ll need no care at all. The strong shapes are a brilliant contrast to the wider parts of the garden. Anne and Charles made the bench themselves. The back and legs are breeze blocks and the seat is timber.
Balance Wildness with Structure 2: Paths, Benches & Ornaments
Paths, benchs and sculpture also create structure to balance wildness.
This path, bench and sculpture at Veddw give the meadow structure. Anne and Charles made the sculptures by buying globes which had been part of a water feature, then attaching them to wood from trees they had had to remove.
Anne and Charles created their paths with ‘gravel to dust’ from a local quarry. This is also called ’20mm to dust’, ‘crush and run’ and other names. It’s the smallest size of gravel, some of which is only dust.
The dust from the local quarry mixes with their local clay soil. After a few months, the path is hardened by rain and footfall.
They also designed their own benches. There is a bench as a focal point in almost every ‘garden room’. They vary from plain wooden benches in the meadow to the dramatic orange benches made of breeze blocks and timber.
Vigorous plants and a geometric black-painted pergola – a combination of wildness and structure that works well.
Here the structure is provided by steps and hedges, complemented by the wilder planting.
Skip the Big Autumn or Early Spring Clear-up
Anne says that she has never seen the point of clearing your borders in the autumn and dragging the cut material to the compost heap. ‘Then when it’s rotted down, you take it back again to spread on the border as compost,’ she says.
Instead she does chop and drop.
Cut down faded growth with shears, a strimmer or hedge trimmers in autumn or early spring. You can slice it down in several lengths.
Then simply leave it in place as a mulch. It will feed the soil and reduce watering.
When these borders are over, Charles and Anne will simply strim them down and leave the dying foliage on the border. It will act as a mulch, then decompose to feed the soil. So there’s no ferrying detritus to the compost heap, no turning the compost and no bringing it back again when it has decomposed! Definitely a low maintenance garden strategy!
Say No to Garden Edging
Anne also consider it unnecessary to edge lawns. ‘It’s not just the work involved in chopping a neat edge to your lawn or border,’ she says. ‘I like plants to flow into each other, not be divided by a sharp line.’
They grow resilient plants like alchemilla mollis on the edges of their borders. You can mow right up to them.
Anne likes plants to flow into each other, not be divided by the sharp lines of edging. So they mow right up to the borders – the vigorous plants like alchemilla mollis are not too bothered about being occasionally clipped.
Make mowing easy
When Charles mows the lawn, he doesn’t always bother to move the chairs and table. He just mows round them.
It looks charming. And because the flowers are weeds, there’s no need to worry about trampling them if you want to sit at the table.
Mow around the garden furniture instead of moving it! The long grass and buttercups look charming and won’t mind being squashed when you want to sit around the table.
Let Ivy Grow Up Walls
Ivy doesn’t damage walls if managed correctly. It can keep your house warmer and gives your garden a romantic, classic feel.
Just trim it regularly like a hedge and let it be.
The Royal Horticultural Society says that ‘in most cases, ivy doesn’t cause any damage to the building and fences it grows on and it can be maintained at a modest and manageable size to boost the biodiversity of your garden.’
Ivy won’t damage walls that are in good condition, but the roots can penetrate cracked walls. And if you let it wrap itself round your guttering, a high wind may bring it down. Anne trims their ivy once a year and enjoys the insulation and the wildlife benefits.
‘The roots are in the ground,’ she says. ‘But the ivy attaches itself to the wall with little pads and those can leave marks when you pull the ivy off. So once you’ve started to grow ivy up your walls, it’s a good idea to continue with it.’
Ivy covering Veddw’s walls. It just needs an annual clip to keep it under control and in good shape. However, in the United States, English ivy can be very invasive, so check ivy and invasiveness before deciding to grow it.
Make it your own low maintenance garden style
A garden evolves. Notice which combinations work and what jobs don’t seem to be necessary in your garden.
For example, I used to see aphids on my roses every June. Sometimes I didn’t get round to washing them off. Then I’d realise they were gone anyway.
And that made sense when I interviewed Neil Miller, head gardener at Hever Castle, on Growing Roses. He says that they don’t spray their 4,000 roses against aphids. In the summer, the birds will pick them off for them.
So I noticed that if I left aphids on my dahlias, the same happened. (See Keep Dahlias Free From Earwigs, Slugs & Snails Without Chemicals.)
Finding out what works and what doesn’t can add to the pleasure you have in your garden without adding to the work.
Observe your garden. And most importantly, enjoy it.
More about Veddw House & Gardens
Veddw is open to the public at certain times in the summer. They also welcome garden clubs and coach parties.
And you can find out more about how Charles and Anne created it by subscribing to Anne Wareham’s Substack here.
Pin to remember low maintenance garden tips
And do join us. See here for a weekly email with more gardening tips, ideas and inspiration.
