The Best Hardy Plants for Your Garden
Having a beautiful outdoor space is a spring and summer aspiration for many, but keeping up with weeding, watering, pruning and mowing can be tricky. Many gardeners enjoy working in the yard, but many want the garden to look hassle-free. Luckily, there are plenty of plants you can grow successfully, even if your thumb is definitely brown.
How to choose oriental plants for growing
Choosing low maintenance plants will depend in part on your region. Keep rainfall and temperature in mind when choosing plants for landscaping to make them easier to care for. If you don’t know what your average rainfall or seasonal temperature is, you can usually ask your local university horticulture department for advice .
For ground cover plants, plants with the word “creeping” in the name are usually suitable. This means that they are more likely to spread on their own without your help. Creeping thyme , creeping sedum , and creeping jenny are all ground cover varieties that will spread on their own with little or no interference. They all also have beautiful flowers at some point in the season, making them beautiful and attractive to pollinators.
As for shrubs , oak-leaf hydrangeas , weigela and juniper bushes do not require special care. While hydrangea and weigela are flowering varieties, juniper is an evergreen that will add greenery to your yard even in winter. Juniper comes in a variety of varieties that can grow low to the ground or grow upwards. All they need is enough sunlight and a haircut once a year.
For annuals that will grow with very little care, plant sunflowers , bachelor buttons , and zinnias from seed and water them. They don’t need anything but sunlight to thrive and will grow into large, bright, showy flowers. Growing sunflowers in combination with ground cover ensures that weeding is kept to a minimum by crowding out competitors around the base of the sunflower stem.
Among perennial bulbous flowers, the simplest are crocuses , daffodils and hyacinths . They tolerate spring rain well, but after that, they really only need sunlight to thrive. These bulbs will produce flowers season after season and can be integrated into the groundcover to create a colorful meadow look. Planting them along fence lines will reduce the amount of pruning and weeding in those areas, allowing for flowering and long lasting foliage.
To add some interest, you may want to consider ornamental grass . Herbs such as red hot poker , fountain grass , and maidengrass will thrive in well-drained soil with minimal maintenance. Most grasses just need to be cut once a year to keep them looking their best, and you may need to weed or mow around them once a season to avoid spreading. These sticky grasses help avoid soil erosion because their roots grow deep and hold the soil together.
If you have more shade than sun, you can grow hostas , female ferns , and begonias with little effort. All these varieties are shade-loving and do not require special care after planting. Because these plants are self-propagating, they will also come back season after season, with only a slight pruning or dividing of the bulb once a season to keep coming back.