Low maintenance plants
Maintaining a smart garden is not easy. You will require a hefty sum just to hire a gardener to do it for you. However, if you would like to keep costs down by doing it yourself, you will have to choose plants that are easy to maintain, but can still look good.
Below, Hakim Babara, a compound designer located on Mukwano Road in Nsambya, shares some tips:
Cacti
‘Rock garden plants like Cacti are easy to maintain. Plant them in sand, whether in pots or in the ground. You will not need manure for them. If you don’t have sand, mix charcoal in loam soil and plant them.
You can then leave them for a month. But you need to water them the day you plant them. After that, you may not water them at all. However, if you have mixed them with some flowers that need to be watered regularly, then you can water them. They do not need any spraying or mulching.
Succulents
Succulents are also easy to maintain. These are plants that have thick water-laden leaves. Plant most succulents in pots.
Plant them in sand. If you use loam soil, most of them will rot. Water them when you have planted them, then you can leave them for three weeks without watering them. That means you can water them once every three weeks. They will not need any manure, mulching or spraying.
Air Orchids
Air Orchids are also easy to maintain. They use air to grow, which means you can water them, but it is not necessary. Hang them on tree trunks, especially trunks of dead trees. Use a rope or thread to tie them to the trunks. You need to consult someone who knows about them. Hang them there the way you would, hanging baskets.
They have roots that should rotate around the trunks where you have hung them. They feed on moss, so you have to provide moss for them. Plaster the moss on the trunks where you have put them.
Look around for the moss. You can find it in forests. It is also available in most villages, especially on mango trees. Water Air Orchids once a month. They do not need any spraying or mulching.
Costus
Flowering plants with succulent leaves, like Costus, also don’t need a lot of maintenance. Plant them in loam soil. They will need some manure, not a lot of it. Water them once a week.
You may need to spray them, but not regularly, because they are resistant to pests. You can also mulch them if you wish, but it is not necessary.
Night Queen and the Gardenia
The other two plants that do not need a lot of maintenance are the Night Queen and the Gardenia, both shrubs. Plant them mostly in the ground. Dig big holes and plant them with good loam soil. Cover them with more good loam soil and apply manure on top of that soil.
Water them twice a day for a month and that will be it. They will need spraying, but not regularly. Spraying once a month will do. Mulch them if you wish, but it is not necessary. Remove dry leaves, flowers and dead branches from them.
Those are the plants that need little maintenance, but most plants need a lot of maintenance.’
If you want plants that need little maintenance and feel these are too few, use each species in groups and keep repeating them until your garden looks full.
