Compass Garden Design

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Experienced and Friendly
Garden Designer Bath

Ideas for a Beautiful Low-maintenance Garden

Low-maintenance gardens can be high on beauty and excitement. The whole idea is to save precious time, allowing you the luxury of relaxing outdoors with family and friends.

If you are looking for a garden designer who can re-imagine your outdoor space to free you up from a lot of routine gardening chores, Compass Garden Design can help. We specialise in designing beautiful gardens to suit you, carrying out projects in Bath, Bristol, Bradford on Avon and across South West England.

Over recent years, we have noticed a growth in demand for low-maintenance gardens. One reason is that so many people now lead busy lives, constantly juggling priorities. Often, older people, or those with disabilities, also need to reduce the work involved in gardening.

Perhaps you are someone who has always loved looking after a large, demanding plot but now your personal circumstances have changed, meaning your space needs a rethink. Or you may have moved home, and now have a new, smaller garden which is in need of a re-design. Either way, we can advise you and help you to create the landscape which will perfectly suit your needs. We will start by looking at what matters to you, how much time you have available, and what kind of garden you want.

So where can maintenance be reduced?

Downsize Your Lawn

Lush green lawns tend to be the area of the garden which make the greatest demands on time and energy. Some gardeners prefer to remove the grass completely and replace it, perhaps with a mixture of gravel and paving stones. This will still look effective, and make a good backdrop to your planting scheme.

However, if you would miss your lawn, you may prefer to make it smaller and have a simpler, more streamlined shape, which will be easier and quicker to mow. You could also experiment with raising the blades on your mower, which can help to keep the grass healthy.

Right Plant, Right Place

At Compass, we strongly believe in this philosophy, championed by the great Beth Chatto. It means choosing the right plants not only for your soil type, but also for the specific area of the garden where they will be placed. Our planting consultancy service can advise you on which plants will work best for you.

Instead of exotic varieties unsuited to the conditions in your area, hardy native plants are likely to look good without needing a lot of TLC. Many shrubs will provide structure and colour all through the year with minimal care. Bulbs also need relatively little attention and add a lot of interest. Choosing slow-growing hedges can also save a lot of time on pruning.

Watering Systems

If you are finding watering a strain, it can help to install an automatic irrigation system which will do the work for you, being programmed to water as and when it is needed. Choosing plants which don’t need so much watering and using mulches which preserve moisture in the ground will also help to reduce the need for additional water, as well as ‘future-proofing’ for a climate where annual rainfall is reduced.

Time-saving Kitchen Gardens

Vegetable gardening can be time-consuming, so, if you are looking to reduce garden maintenance, you may want to think again about which types of veg you really want to grow yourself. Courgettes, chillies, beetroot, dwarf French beans and radishes are among the crops which take relatively little maintenance.

Growing veg in raised beds and buying young plants in spring rather than growing them from seed can also help to save time. Again, a garden designer can advise you and help you to cut down on unnecessary work, while still enjoying delicious home-grown vegetables.

Garden Maintenance

In addition to our garden design services, if you need help with garden maintenance, we can provide this either as a one-off or on a regular basis. We can also offer follow-up maintenance after your new landscape garden design is completed, to make sure your garden keeps looking exactly as you want it to – giving you more time to relax and enjoy it. We cover a wide area, including Bath, Wiltshire and Somerset. Click here to contact Compass Garden Design and arrange a consultation.