Shrubs heathers and conifers are great for reducing the amount of maintenance needed in your garden. Big shrubs can cover larger areas with height and spread and need very little care and maintenance.

Small Conifer for Low Maintenance

• The prostrate forms of Juniper are good looking all year round and available in greenish blue needles as well as the more traditional greens.
• Rockery sized Pinus and slow growing conifers are useful for filling gaps and do not become thugs in the garden for at least 10 years. With no need to prune and 10 years untroubled growth you can see why I class them as low maintenance and I do not even bother to feed them.
• When a conifer starts to out grow its position and reach for the sky I turf it out and start again. It is not worth the time pruning and trimming although some topiarists would strongly disagree.

Berberis can be low maintenance as the spines keep me away from the bush.

Weigelia Varigata

This shrub grows over six feet high and covers a four foot circumference. When in full flower it is very striking and the variegated leaves have interest through summer. It is easy to propagate from 12 inch long cuttings of semi ripe wood and it is a rapid grower reaching good proportions in two years. Other varieties like Bristol Ruby forsake variegated leaves for very strong coloured flowers in June and July with a late show if you cut off the old flowers but for low maintenance don’t bother.

Photinia Red Robin

This is a shrub that can be left to develop or trained up a single stem. It is part of a family of Photinias that include small trees. For this variety of Photinia fraseri five feet is a reasonable size but it will continue to grow to a hight and spread to 10 feet. The shiny evergreen leaves are bright red in spring and apart from the danger of a bit of frost to the new leaves the shrubs are hardy. Again I don’t prune my photinia but when it gets to large i will cut it back which will encourage more red leaves at the expense of flowers

Heather can be very effective ground cover with low maintenance needs. They do benefit from having a trim after flowering.

I find Osmanthus is slow growing and needs no pruning and little maintenance.