Looking to enjoy a low-maintenance garden that doesn’t require hours of effort each week?
Let’s be honest, you love your garden. But it’s nice to relax outside knowing your plants are resilient enough to survive (and thrive) even on those days when you’d rather put your feet up.
Thankfully, not every plant requires the world’s greenest thumb or hours of your spare time to apply the right amount of water, fertiliser or attention.
A well crafted landscaping design is one that grows with you throughout the seasons and in spite of Melbourne’s ever-changing climate. And this type of low-maintenance garden all starts by choosing the right plants.
If you’re looking to spend more time in your garden (and less time working on it), read on for our top 10 favourite low-maintenance plants.
1. Lomandra Lime Tuff (Lomandra longifolia)
Native Australia-wide, this hardy plant is perfect for mass planting to suppress weeds and slash hours from your regular gardening duties.
Compact with fine tufty bright green foliage and cream flower spikes during spring, this is a hybrid of three lomandra types, and like all mongrels, very healthy and hardy. This plant also helps knit eroding soils together, giving you a garden workhorse that’s happy to tolerate dryness on those weeks where you’d rather hit the beach than grab the hose.
HEIGHT: 0.2 - 0.4 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Very adaptable as to soil type and planting site. Mulch and water regularly until the plant is established, usually around 12 weeks.
BEST USED FOR: Mass planting, weed suppressing, contrasting native gardens.
2. Blue Bugle (Ajuga reptans)
With a striking variety of colours, Ajuga reptans is an ideal groundcover substitute with green-purple foliage and soft violet flower spikes that shoot up in spring.
A low maintenance plant with a small stature, you won’t need to find time to cut this hardy flower back each spring or undertake any deadheading. Even better, this plant’s ability to suppress weed growth will unlock a few extra hours that you would have spent in the yard.
Able to handle anything from full sun to total shade, Ajuga’s dense spreading growth habits and ability to regenerate dead foliage in spring is like having a garden on autopilot.
HEIGHT: 0.2 - 0.3 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Plant in a partly shaded area of your garden, with regular mulch and water until the plant is established (approx. 12 weeks).
BEST USED FOR: Mass planting, underplanting in shade, weed suppressing.
3. Blue Chalk (Senecio serpens)
Exotic and elegant, Senecio serpens deliver a unique and distinctive shade of frosted blue that makes for a perfect groundcover or garden border.
If you find it tough to find time to get out the hose, this is a low-maintenance plant that won’t hold it against you, offering drought tolerance once established and seldom needing water during the growing season.
As a low-growing succulent, you get vibrant colour from a plant perfectly suited in rock gardens or any dry environment. Win-win.
HEIGHT: 0.3 - 0.5 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Although new plants need more frequent water (once a week during the first spring and summer), established plants can be soaked deeply every three or four weeks, although you’ll need to let the soil dry out completely between watering sessions.
BEST USED FOR: Groundcover, border planting, pot planting.
4. Coral Bells (Heuchera)
Is your Mornington Peninsula garden bathed in constant sunlight? Or, predominantly shady?
Well Heuchera doesn’t care either way, so don’t worry about it. Heuchera make for neat clumps with attractive foliage while providing an ongoing display of flowers.
Evergreen in all but the coldest environments, Heuchera is well suited to a wide range of climates and positions (even chilly Victorian mornings). An easy-care plant and with a variety of colours (deep purple to elegant burgundy and chocolate brown) you’ll have year-round foliage to enjoy.
HEIGHT: 0.3 - 0.4 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Deadhead after flowering to promote a second flush of flowering. You can cut spent flowers to encourage another bloom, but there’s no further maintenance required on your end.
BEST USED FOR: Mass planting, garden edging, pot planting.
5. Chinese Fringe Flower (Loropetalum)
If pruning was never your favourite garden pastime then this is a durable, low-maintenance planet for you.
Although pruning your Loropetalum isn’t generally required, you can give it a light trim after flowering to help keep your preferred shape.
A tall-growing and dense shrub with oval leaves, you’ll enjoy rich pinky-brown colours year-round without panicking every time you forget to pull out the garden hose.
A delightful addition to your garden, expect vibrant pink tassel flowers during spring and summer, with ideal positioning in a sunny or partly shaded position with morning or afternoon sun.
HEIGHT: Ground cover 0.5 metres | Shrub 1.2m - 2m
PLANTING TIPS: Plant any time in full sun to part shade. Water well while growing, then don’t stress if you miss a watering once mature (but be careful not to dry out).
BEST USED FOR: Feature planting, hedges, garden edging.
6. Creeping Boobialla (Myoporum parvifolium)
An easy-care native ground cover, this hardy plant is dense with soft broad green foliage and masses of white flowers from late spring to early autumn.
This plant also helps to control weeds so you spend less time in the dirt and more time enjoying the view of your yard, with creeping boobialla ideal as ground-cover, or trailing down embankments and helping to control weeds in hard to reach places.
As a bonus, this low-maintenance landscaping plant attracts birds, so you’ll be enjoying Australia’s flora and fauna, too.
HEIGHT: 0.2 - 0.3 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Prefers a full sun position. Plant in free-draining soil rich in organic matter. Mulch and water well until established.
BEST USED FOR: Feature planting, hedges, garden edging.
7. Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica)
Looking for a bullet-proof addition to your Mornington Peninsula garden?
The Rhaphiolepis indica is made of tough stuff.
This robust and resilient plant offers soothing dark green leaves to add richness to your outdoor space, as well as flowers that bloom in the spring and add striking colour to your space. And with no specific pests or diseases, you can rest easy knowing your yard is as pretty as it is hardy.
Although the featured varieties are naturally compact, plants can be lightly pruned after flowering to maintain a rounded shape or in a hedge.
HEIGHT: 1.2 - 1.8 metres
PLANTING TIPS: This shrub needs no special attention, happily growing in both sunny and partially shaded spots. Water new plants and those in pots regularly especially when it is dry. Once shrubs are established in the garden they are drought tolerant but still appreciate occasional watering in dry summers.
BEST USED FOR: Feature planting, hedges, garden edging.
8. Limonium perezii blue (Perennial statice)
Finding it hard to keep plants alive in a coastal setting?
While certain plants wilt along the Mornington Peninsula’s pristine coastline, Perennial statice thrives as a frost tender plant that’s tolerant of salt.
An evergreen perennial plant that produces clusters of tiny, deep mauve papery flowers in long sprays, this is an adaptable plant that forms a low-growing mound of foliage, which can slash your backyard duties as ornamental foliage.
HEIGHT: 0.2 - 0.6 metres
PLANTING TIPS: This low-maintenance landscape design plant grows best in a sheltered, sunny location, and in well drained moist soil. Remove spent flowers to encourage prolonged flowering
BEST USED FOR: Coastal gardens, border planting, poolside planting.
9. Native Violet (Viola hederacea)
Does your garden fall in regular shade?
Viola hederacea offers lovely ground cover in challenging conditions, thriving in part sun right through full shade.
This robust native plant doesn’t require any maintenance and can even tolerate light foot traffic with kidney-shaped leaves and white viola shaped flowers with mauve centres as your carpet.
Plant in a sunny to shaded location in loose-free draining soil with very little intervention needed apart from a little watering.
HEIGHT: 0.1 - 0.2 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Provide plenty of water during the first 12 weeks or until the plant is established and regularly in dry periods. Feed with liquid fertiliser monthly during spring and summer for lush coverage.
BEST USED FOR: Groundcover, lawn alternative.
10. Birthday Candles (Banksia spinulosa)
There’s no blowing these birthday candles out as Banksia spinulosa is perfectly suited for small gardens and rockeries that can go without watering from time to time.
This evergreen native shrub has dense green foliage and spectacular golden-yellow flowers in autumn and winter that resemble upright candles (hence the name).
Hardy and frost tolerant with striking flowers, expect to enjoy an abundance of native wildlife, bees, nectar-eating birds and butterflies in your garden.
HEIGHT: 0.4 - 0.5 metres
PLANTING TIPS: Water regularly, once or twice a week, until established and then water as required. Feed banksias each spring and autumn with Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser. It’s suitable for feeding Australian native plants and will provide slow release organic nutrients to promote healthy leaf growth.
BEST USED FOR: Border planting, poolside planting, miniature hedge, mass planting.
Looking for help with your next landscape design project? Call us for expert advice today.