The best plants for a low maintenance garden

Let’s face it, we all want a beautiful garden but we don’t all want to spend the time to maintain it. If you don’t have a green thumb then tending to a garden on a routine basis will quickly become a chore.

Rather than planting a high maintenance garden only for it do wither and die, consider building your garden out of plants that require little to no attention. There are plenty of great choices for low maintenance plants that don’t compromise on the beauty of your garden.

Let’s take a look at some of the best low maintenance plants for your garden.

Native Australian plants

Australia’s hot and dry climate has forced the most successful plants to become very tough. As a result these plants require little watering and thrive in the local climate.

Some plants will do better in different climates and its worth doing some research to see what works best for your region. Some popular native plants are the westringia, callistemon and pilotheca species.

Cacti and succulents

Succulents are well known for their self-sufficiency and cacti are symbolic of desert conditions around the world. Both of these plants require little watering and will tolerate extreme heat from the sun.

Some of the best species are aeonium arboretum, senecio mandraliscae, portulaca grandiflora, echeveria and crassula campfire.

Cottage plants

Rosemary officinalis and lavender anonview are two incredibly hardy shrubs that will grow well without much maintenance. They can be planted as a potted specimen, in the regular garden or even as a hedge.

The brachysome multifidi and argyranthemum frutescens are another two cottage plants that are popular low-maintenance garden additions.

Modern plants

Cordyline is able to give the garden a wonderful modern feel with its dark and long foliage that gives a great contrast against a green garden. Some other modern plants that do well with little maintenance are the lomandra longifolia, philodendron xanadu, dietes grandiflora and cycads species.

Garden design is still important

A garden full of low-maintenance plants still needs to be properly planted in order to get the best visual affect. If you do this right the first time then you’ll be closer to the ideal, no fuss, garden you’ve been looking for.

Make sure that your most visually interesting plants are dotted around at anchor points around the garden. You don’t want to have your entire cacti planted one after the other and nowhere else in the garden.

Make sure not to place too many bright and outlandish plants in the garden so that you can enjoy a balance of colours. Too many eye catching plants will detract from each other so that none of them really stand out.