If you love plants but don’t have the time, space or green thumbs to keep a large garden alive, here are five ideas to create your own easy-to-maintain haven…
Composta Worm Farm Planter Pot
Plants thrive on compost, and with this clever pot you can reap all the benefits without having to get your hands dirty. Pop your live worms in the middle section, top it up with kitchen vegetable scraps once a week or so and the worms will do the rest, turning the soil into nutrient rich environment where plants of your choice will grow faster than a regular garden. Successful gardening doesn’t get easier than this!
Go up with a vertical garden
If you’re short on space or want to create a green oasis that provides privacy and cooling, and a place to grow your own fruits, vegetables and herbs, vertical gardening is the way to go, whether indoors or out. Once set up, they are easy to maintain. Green walls have also been proven to bring mental and physical health benefits to those living and working in otherwise plant-less areas.
Companion planting
Make your gardening easier by knowing which plants to put together – done correctly, it will naturally boost growth, deter pests, attract beneficial insects, regulate shade, and suppress weeds. Examples are planning mint with broccoli, cauliflower and kale to repel ants, aphids and mice, or pairing basil with asparagus, beans, chives and tomatoes to repel aphids, flies, and fruit flies.
Choose bulbs
If you want to maximise your viewing pleasure and minimise the work, you can’t go past perennial bulbs like daffodils, tulips and irises. Simply leave them in the ground and for the next four or five years they’ll multiply and produce an annual display of new flowers that gets better each year.
Native plants
Australia’s unique range of native plants are resilient and require minimal care. The options are many and varied – check out classics like acacias (drought-tolerant and fast-growing wattle), bottlebrush and grevilleas (shrubs that produce strikingly vivid flowers) and pigface (an easy to grow succulent with colourful flowers that thrives in all kinds of soil).
by Sarah Halfpenny
