Today’s Millcreek Gardens gardening tips are perfect for everyone who thinks they’re too busy for gardening.
A packed schedule doesn’t have to prevent you from creating gorgeous outdoor growing spaces, or enjoying your own home-grown fruits and vegetables. The secret to enjoying your garden more (and working on it less) is to take advantage of gardening shortcuts.
Below, we share six of the best time-saving gardening tips for people with on-the-go lifestyles.
No. 1: Choose Perennial Flowers over Annuals
If you want color in your garden, go with perennial flowers.
Using perennials instead of annuals means you spend less time gardening, as the blooms will return year after year. And, many varieties increase in size over time, offering more of a visual impact without any extra gardening effort.
For time-saving gardening, choose low-maintenance perennial flowers that don’t require much attention, such as hostas or daylilies.
No. 2: Plant Self-Cleaning Flowers
Do you want your outdoor plants to always look fresh and tidy, without spending a lot of time pruning and cleaning up? If so, fill your garden beds with self-cleaning flowers.
Planting self-cleaners is a great way to cut down on gardening time. With self-cleaning varieties, the flowers fade and fall off on their own. This means you don’t have to deadhead or remove the spent flowers.
No. 3: Consider Watering Needs Before Planting
When laying out your garden design, consider how you’ll be doing the watering. For maximum time savings, avoid putting extra-thirsty outdoor plants in spaces that are difficult to reach.
Place the plants with high water needs closest to the house, and those that don’t require as much water toward the far edges of your garden. And, to cut the time needed for hand-watering, group your plants according to their watering needs
No. 4: Use Slow-Release Plant Food
Fertilizing can be a time-consuming gardening task. However, if you give your outdoor plants time-release foods, you won’t have to tackle this chore very often.
Slow-release plant foods are covered with a coating that dissolves over time in water. Since the food is released gradually, you should only need to feed once every few months.
No. 5: Mulch Your Garden Beds
Mulch is definitely a time saver, as allows you to water and weed less often.
Adding mulch to your garden helps suppress weed growth, so you won’t have many weeds to pluck. Mulch helps keep the soil moist and cool, which reduces the need for watering.
No. 6: Weed When the Soil is Moist
No garden is weed-free, so you may still have to do some weeding now and again. But some weeds can be difficult to pull out of the ground.
To make this gardening chore easier, do the weeding when the soil is moist. Weeds surrender more quickly and without as much effort if you pull them after it rains or after watering the garden beds.
Do you need more gardening tips or advice on selecting low-maintenance outdoor plants? The knowledgeable staff at Millcreek Gardens, Northern Utah’s leading plant nursery, can help. Visit us in Salt Lake City today to learn more of our favorite time-saving gardening tips.