The phrase “low maintenance garden” usually reminds us of images of dull, continuous shrubs and evergreen trees.
However, author Anne Wareham and photographer Charles Haws created the Ved Bead, a garden that bursts with character, colour and structure.
And as the author of Deck Chair Gardener (see affiliate links, disclosure), Anne is known for her nonsense approach to what is considered unnecessary gardening chores.
The 2-acre Ved is a large garden, but the low-maintenance garden tips also work in small or medium gardens.
Anne Wareham and Charles Haws created veddw for 38 years. They cut hedges professionally, but otherwise they use Anne’s practical approach to gardening chores to take care of the two acres themselves. It shows that low-maintenance gardens can also be stylish and colorful!
Give up vegetables that grow (unless you love it)
Vegetarian diets are the most challenging task of gardening, as food crops require almost daily attention. They grow faster and are more likely to require watering and fertilizer. And they are vulnerable to pests, so they need protection.
Cultivating yourself is extremely rewarding. But it doesn’t fit in a low maintenance garden.
If you don’t like growing food, just let it go. Focus on flowers, trees and shrubs. If you still need homemade produce, add fruit trees.
Anne and Charles gave up on growing vegetables. Currently, the bed features an elegant contrast between silver gray cards and bronze constellations. The contrast of the leaves works well to add interest to the garden, and does less work than flowers that usually require deadheads.
Plant active plants (thugs) to reduce weeding
Anne plantes a large drift of violent plants that spread quickly to fill the border. She calls these plants “thugs.” She also considers this to be the most effective in terms of design: “I don’t like the whimsical stuff and two plants dotted.”
Strongly growing plants quickly cover the soil and cause weeds to crowd. You don’t need to weed frequently, but in many cases it’s not the case at all.
Active plants also mean that you have more flowers without making a fuss. And it can save you money.
Anne recommends the geranium “Rosanne”, Persicaria, or fern. These are particularly good in mild or humid climates.
In my less rainy climate, I found that nepeta (catmint), euphorbia, Promise Russeliana and globe thistle (Echinops ritro) are recognized as “active plants.”
I got some promise scraps from a friend. Now, one dry, difficult boundary is completely full of promises.
Different plants often spread across different locations, so you need to find something that works in the climate and soil. However, you will find some good things to consider in the spreading plants.
Self-seeded plants can provide flower colour without effort. And self-ceders grow well as they choose where they grow. See 25 top self-seed plants.
In veddw, geraniums, including “Rosanne” and “Johnson’s Blue,” grow violently. They cover the weeds of Earth and the competition.
Note that both diffused plants and self-ceders can be invasive in the wrong place. The difference between “thugs” and invasive plants is that thugs grow well, but running away won’t put the countryside in danger.
The same plant can be difficult to grow in one place, and is an excellent, active plant in another, and invasive in a third.
When invasive plants invade the countryside, they compete for local plants that can rob local wildlife from food and shelter. And they can be expensive to remove. So, try to know which plants are invasive near you.
“Now we’re all more tolerant of weeds,” Anne says. She allows earthly elders to bloom, and there are also a variety of earthly elders (see above). She says she has little weeding after summer, as all the plants are packed tightly and there is no room for new weeds to be established.
Add structure using bold hedges
One of the reasons Anne and Charles’ relaxed planting works well is that it combines with a powerful structure.
Veddw’s garden is divided into rooms with thick clip hedges. The hedge creates a pattern as you go down the hill.
Anne and Charles maximized the impact of hills and hedges by creating reflective pools that reflect hedges.
Hedges require trimming only once or twice a year, so maintenance is relatively low.
Try the Beach, Yew, or Horn Beam. You can easily trim once or twice a year. Avoid planting yew in flooded soil. I don’t like sitting in the water.
These hedges need to be clipped once or twice a year, but in between you need to be very careful. The strong shape is a great contrast to the wider parts of the garden. Anne and Charles made their own benches. The back and legs are wind blocks, and the seats are made of wood.
Wildness and Structure 2: Balance of Passes, Benches and Ornaments
Paths, benches and sculptures also create structures that balance the wild.
This path, bench and sculpture of Veddw gives a meadow structure. Anne and Charles purchased gloves, which were part of the water feature, to create sculptures and attach them to the trees from which they had to be removed.
Anne and Charles made a path from the local quarry with “dust from gravel.” This is also known as “20mm to Dust”, “Crush and Run”, or other names. It is the smallest size of gravel, and part of it is just dust.
Dust from the local quarry is mixed with local clay soil. A few months later, the road will harden with rain and scaffolding.
They also designed their own benches. The bench is the focus on almost every “garden room”. They range from regular wooden benches in meadows to dramatic orange benches made of breeze blocks and wood.
Active plants and geometric black painted pergola – a combination of wild and structure.
Here, the structure is provided by stairs and hedges and is complemented by more wilderness planting.
Skip big autumn or early spring sunny weather
Anne says she’s never seen the point of cleaning your boundaries in autumn and dragging cut material into a pile of compost. “When it rots, you’re reclaiming it and spreading it out as compost to the border,” she says.
Instead, she chops and drops.
In autumn or early spring, reduce faded growth with sheer, streamers or hedge trimmers. You can slice it in several lengths.
Next, leave it as mulch. It feeds the soil and reduces watering.
When these boundaries are over, Charles and Anne simply throw them away, leaving the dying leaves at the border. It acts as a mulch and then decomposes to feed the soil. So we don’t direct the ferry’s debris towards the compost pile, we don’t spin the compost, nor will we return it back when it breaks down! Definitely a low maintenance garden strategy!
Say no to the rim of the garden
Anne also thinks there’s no need to frame the lawn. “It’s not just a piece involved in chopping neat edges on your lawn or border,” she says. “I like the plants flowing into each other, not split by sharp lines.”
They grow resilient plants like Alchemilla Morris at the edge of the boundary. You can quickly mow them.
Anne likes the plants flowing through each other, not splitting with sharp edges. So they cut them all the way to the border – active plants like Alchemilla Morris don’t bother them being cut off from time to time.
Makes the harvest easier
When Charles mows the lawn, he doesn’t always care about moving chairs and tables. He just mows them.
It looks attractive. And since flowers are weeds, if you want to sit at the table, you don’t have to worry about trampling on them.
Instead of moving, mow the garden furniture! The long grass and butter cups look attractive and don’t mind being crushed when you want to sit around the table.
Growing the walls in Ivy
Ivy will not damage the walls if properly maintained. It keeps your home warm and gives your garden a romantic and classic atmosphere.
Trim it regularly like a hedge and let it do.
The Royal Horticultural Society states, “In most cases, Ivy can be maintained in a gentle, manageable size without damaging the building or cultivation fence and can increase the biodiversity of your garden.”
Ivy does not damage walls in good condition, but roots can penetrate cracked walls. And if you wrap it around your ditch, a strong wind may defeat it. Anne trims the ivy once a year and enjoys the benefits of insulation and wildlife.
“The roots are on the ground,” she says. “However, Ivy can stick to the wall with a small pad and leave a mark when you pull Ivy apart. So, once you start growing ivy on your wall, I recommend you continue doing it.”
Veddw’s wall covering. You need an annual clip to control it and keep it in good condition. However, in the US, English ivy can be very invasive, so decide to grow it before checking for ivy and intrusion.
Make your own low maintenance garden style
Your garden will evolve. Note which combinations work and which jobs seem unnecessarily needed in your yard.
For example, I would see aphids on roses every June. Sometimes I couldn’t wash them off. Then I realize they’re gone anyway.
And that makes sense when I interviewed Neil Miller, head gardener at Heber Castle, about the roses I’m growing up. He says they don’t spray 4,000 roses on aphids. In the summer, birds pick them up for them.
So I realized that the same thing happened if I left aphids on the dahlias. (See Chemical-free Arowig, Slug, and Snail-free Dahlia.)
Find what works and what you can’t add to the joy in your garden, and don’t add to your work.
Observe your garden. And most importantly, enjoy it.
More about Veddw House & Gardens
Veddw is open to the public at certain times of the summer. Garden clubs and coach parties are also welcome.
And you can learn more about how Charles and Anne created it by subscribing to Anne Wareham’s Sacak here.
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