Too many plants, too little time? A lot of unnecessary effort can be weeded out with some time- and energy-saving shortcuts, from plant selection to better tools.
“I realized one day that I was becoming a slave to my plants,” says Kerry Ann Mendez of Kennebunk, Maine, author of “The Right-Size Flower Garden” (St. Lynn’s Press, 2015). “I was working harder for them than they were working for me. So I re-evaluated and started being more responsible about the plants I was putting into my garden.”
Mendez says she made some hard decisions.
A cluster of heuchera and their assortment of long-blooming flower spikes, provide color and texture against a birdbath, tree and split rail fence and make for easier, more efficient watering.“I had some hydrangeas that had been constant bloomers, but they were water hogs,” she says. “I’m using different hydrangeas now that require less than half the amount of water the old ones did.”
As for annuals, she found varieties that don’t need deadheading, consume less water and thrive in the shade.