Mother Nature is an expert on low maintenance gardening – her undisturbed gardens flourish without anyone needing to water, weed or prune. There are lessons to be learned from this.
The first question to ask yourself is what climatic zone your garden fits into – it could be semi-desert, coast, grassland or fynbos. Trying to grow a tropical garden in the Karoo is not a low maintenance option, and neither is having a garden full of frost-tender plants in an area that is prone to cold snaps and frost. On the other hand, indigenous plants that occur naturally in an area have adapted to the conditions in that area and will be able to cope with the temperatures, rainfall and soil type. Exotic plants that come from similar regions elsewhere in the world will also require less maintenance than plants that are not suited to your climatic zone.
The second question to ask is what conditions are like in your garden. Generally speaking, north- and west-facing slopes are hot and dry, while south- or east-facing slopes are cool and moist. Hard surfaces reflect heat. Water collects at the bottom of the slope, making these areas damp. Take these concepts and principles, and apply them to your garden beds. It is useful to draw a rough sketch of your garden, and label each bed with short descriptions, such as: hot and dry, shady and dry (under big trees) and shady and damp.
Next, look at the plants you already have, and categorise them according to the amount of light that they require (sun, semi-shade or shade) and their water needs (high, medium or low). You can do this exercise on paper by making a list of the plants and having separate columns for light and water needs. Refine this by grouping like with like: put thirsty plants in one group, drought-tolerant plants in another and those that are in-between in a third group. Then split these groups into sun, semi-shade and shade. Now match these plant groups to the appropriate zones in your garden. In nature, the link between plants and their environment is so strong that a knowledgeable person can tell what the environmental conditions are simply by looking at what plants are growing in an area.
Careful placement of focal plants will allow you to create an element of surprise, just as nature surprises us with a single tree in flower, or bright red aloes amongst the withered grasses of winter.
Article by Megan Taylor of Rand Water