I am a working mom and would like to spend more time tending to the veggies than the landscape. Right now, I have hydrengeas, roses, some evergreens around the house, coupled with mulch (I would never put it again, it's been a breeding ground for mosquitos). I need to think about what to do for the next year and would like to remove mulch,and either put some kind of stone and then maybe a few containers for annuals (we can install simple irrigation) and call it the day. Any ideas on books, web sites would be very, very helpful. Or give me your own experience! Thanks!!
I've found that a slightly raised border with ground cover and bark works well. I can tend the plants and not bother about the weeds, because they are not there. I remove turf, weed and roots, fill the beds up with nice, weed-free soil or compost, cover everything with a cloth made for ground covering, and cut holes in the cloth where I want my plants to go. Then I plant and cover the cloth with bark. Fine gravel will also work. If I have crab grass in the ground, I first cover everything with soaked newspapers. I lay them down like roof tiles, each covering a bit of the other, to make sure no weed will poke its way up. On top of the newspapers I put at least 20 cm of soil, sometimes more. The paper will rot in a couple of years, but hopefully all nasty weed roots are strangled and dead by then. If I move plants with big, deep roots, I also make a hole in the papers to allow the plants more root room. Take care to plant things you will not have to divide every other year. I like small shrubs, hostas, heathers and lilies. The soil here is perfect for plants with little or no need for lime. If I feel the need to put more color in, I plant annuals in containers and move them about as I see fit.
Thanks for your reply. The idea about raised beds is pretty good, however, my experience with weeds is that they will come back, my vegetable garden is in raised beds. Putting gravel would maybe work however, I was thinking more along the line of placing a small evergreen in a container and then during the summer just a few annuals. No more. Really, it's a drag having to do all this yard work when I want to spend time with my daughter and husband. I don't even want him to do this daily and on weekends. Other ideas are welcome!
Ground covers are usually pretty low maintenance. I'm putting together a list of ground covers. Perhaps you'll find plants the grow in your area.
You mentioned preferring veggies to landscape-tending. Yeeeears ago when I started into a landscape architecture course one of our textbooks was called Edible Landscaping, and was all about using edibles that looked good too. I still use it every spring. Here's alink if you want to take a look: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Edi ... 368&sr=8-1 ps- I have both thyme and marjoram as ground covers and in my intensely-rocky ground they thrive!
