Posted on Jun 15, 2020 in Senior Activities
If you like the idea of a garden brimming with foliage but you have little time or inclination for endless yard work, don’t lose hope.
Not all plants are labor-intensive to grow, crucial as you enter your golden years.
Since we’re here to save you time today, we’ll get straight down to business with 12 easy-care plants and shrubs for your garden.
If you’re looking to cover your garden with a plant that blooms year-round, this hybrid makes a wonderful choice.
Whether you choose to plant quartz rose verbena directly into your flowerbeds or into containers, this colorful plant demands little beyond a loose organic soil that drains well.
Plant it in full sun during spring once the danger of frost has passed and you’ll enjoy a dash of brightness to pep up your garden.
The best thing? You can achieve this without any real effort on your part.
You get a pair of advantages with lavender in your garden over and above the fact it’s a cinch to grow and maintain…
You can see the benefits clearly with an abundance of blue, purple, and white blooms. Beyond that, lavender smells incredible.
All you need to do is prune it directly after flowering. If you provide lavender with a well-drained spot to grow, it’s remarkably tolerant and undemanding.
The stereotypical indicator that spring is in the post, snowdrops add a vibrant splash of color to liven up any yard.
It’s best to bring snowdrops on as early in the season as possible. Look for a partially-shaded area that’s nice and moist for best results.
Once snowdrops are done flowering, they’ll simply die out on their own.
Dwarf globe blue spruce is a towering shrub better suited to larger gardens.
If you’re looking to make a statement and you’ve got plenty of space, this spruce is a superb option.
Plant in full sun making sure the soil is moist. You’ll need to give it plenty of water until it’s established. Once it’s up and running, all you need is to give it enough moisture and nature will take care of the rest.
This spruce doesn’t respond well to harsh winds or excessive sun so think about the climate where you live before launching in.
If you fancy lounging on your garden furniture surrounded by blooming foliage rather than endlessly pruning and tending to your plants, popping in some spiraea is a great way to achieve this.
The burnt orange and vibrant pink flowers come out to play as summer kicks in.
This shrub will work in partial shade, but you’ll enjoy superior flowering under full sun.
Water it until it’s fully established in well-drained soil. From this point, all you need to do is fertilize it over spring and prune it slightly when it enters the dormant stage.
Next up in this look at easy-care plants and shrubs is wooly thyme, an evergreen perennial that bears arresting pink flowers along with muted gray leaves.
All you really need to do is mulch it after the first frost and this will help the towering shrub through the winter.
Another low-maintenance behemoth, sunflowers can climb up to 15 feet tall making a great focal point in the garden.
Sunflowers prefer sheltered conditions. Growing them up against a wall works well if that’s practical in your garden.
Beyond that, they’ll need plenty of sun and not much else by the way of TLC.
Ivy is a wonderful plant if you need to cover any walls that need refreshing.
Rather than call in the painters or builders, plant some ivy instead. This plant will cover a multitude of sins without crying out for too much attention.
You won’t need to water it particularly often, so it’s ideal to grow if you’re not so mobile in your golden years.
Ivy grows best in shaded areas and doesn’t cope so well with direct sunlight.
If you don’t want to grow ivy up a wall, it can offer outstanding ground cover instead. It’s a very versatile plant worth its place in any low-maintenance garden.
This improbably-named shrub does not cause allergies as is commonly believed.
It’s a short, squat perennial that blooms into golden flower as the tail-end of summer turns into fall.
Goldenrod is a highly drought-tolerant shrub that’s tailor-made if you’re looking for a shrub that looks great without requiring watering on a daily basis.
This perennial grass needs planting in nicely drained organic soil in the full sun.
Aside from pruning while dormant and dividing once every few years, all you need to do is kick back in your deckchair with a coffee and drink in the sight of this shiny grass that will set off your flower beds a treat.
Another incredibly fragrant choice that makes a welcome addition to any garden big or small, jasmine also calls for very little attention.
Aside from a quick spray of water during any unusual dry spells, there’s nothing you need to do except inhale that delicious aroma and congratulate yourself for choosing such an easy-care plant.
Last but by no means least, heather might call for a token gesture of effort in the early stages, but then it’s a case of set-and-forget.
To bring heather on in a healthy fashion, water twice weekly for a year or so. After this point, you need to do literally nothing and it will look after itself leaving you to enjoy all the flowers and shrubs in your garden to the fullest without breaking a sweat.
We hope this curated selection of plants and shrubs has shown you there’s no need to spend an eternity gardening to enjoying a striking outside space.
Invest in a handful of the above plants and shrubs and start spending more time firing up the BBQ and less time wielding the shears and hosepipe.
If you have any questions at all – not just about plants! – reach out to our friendly team here at Landmark Senior Living and we’ll be delighted to help out.
