Low Maintenance Flower Beds

Question:

Our local council have decided to grass over four of the flower beds along our road due to cost cutting. They have said that they will consider alternative use of the beds i.e. monument or alternate designs. It has to be low maintenance and be appropriate for the seaside setting as the cliffs are about 200yards away. Can you offer any design ideas or websites that I can use to get advice.

Answer:

Hello, thank you for your email. What a shame you council have decided to remove the flower beds. However, I think one solution that would work well in terms of location and minimal maintenance is to produce gravel gardens. Basically they can remove existing planting and check that the soil is sandy and free draining, if not they can mix in a good quantity of gravel. Add sheets of weed suppressing membrane then top off with gravel and some decorative boulders, stones, driftwood etc. For planting they should use grasses as they will look good for most of the year and only need cutting back once a year, usually in the spring.

I suppose if this is thought to be too much maintenance they can just plant one or two (depending on the size of the beds) pampas grasses in each bed. They require little or no maintenance and can be quite impressive when in full flower.

Another idea, although not exactly coastal in design is to use prostrate woody plants such as Cotoneaster horizontalis, Cotoneaster dammeri, Pyracantha (instead of training it against a wall let it spread along the ground). These plants will soon cover a large area and once establish require no maintenance at all. If a weed suppressing membrane is laid before planting then the weeds should be kept away until the plants establish. An added bonus is that the berries in autumn will feed the local garden birds and the flowers in spring attract butterflies and bees. The links are to Crocus.co.uk to show you what the plants look like.

Similar Articles:

• Clay Soil - I have very bad soil that is impossible to dig, it has a lot of clay in it. How can I break this down and make the soil soft and ready to plant. I am not frightened of a bit of hard work. Share and Enjoy: ...
• Lawn Weedkiller - I would like to know a weed killer that kills weeds on lawns but not the grass. Share and Enjoy: ...
• Wildflower Gardening - Every year I spend hundreds of pounds on my garden, and every year everything dies. I would like a wild flower garden, that will attract butterflies and bees, I have loads of elderberry trees behind my back fence, which hang over into my garden (which I like) they attract the birds, I would also like ...
• Dying Laurels - In October last year I planted 300 Laurels, they looked very healthy and doing well, now I have noticed that some of the leaves are turning yellow and dropping off. Are they dying? Share and Enjoy: ...
• Fritillaria Imperialis - I have a fritillaria imperialis in a tub, soon after purchase and transfer the flowers died and the leaves are brown at the edges, can you suggest something please. Share and Enjoy: ...