Ideas for a low maintenance drought tolerant garden in the north east

[lemoncurdcupcake]

I'll start with saying I'm not a natural gardener, or a fan of anything high maintenance. I will soon have 3 small children, and the garden is very much at the bottom of the priority list. However we've recently moved to a nice neighborhood full of retirees and I'd like to not have the eyesore garden.

I live in the north east, so colder than the south but prone to drought. I'd like to plant some drought resistant, low maintenance plants and then wondering about woodchip or something to make it look neat without needing regular maintenance and weeding. Does that work? I do love a pop of colour, so flowers would be lovely, but the main aim is low maintenance including watering as we're expecting regular hosepipe bans.

It's south facing, mostly lawn, with beds around the edge. There are some established evergreen bushes and a few lovely lavender and verbena plants which are flourishing, plus a climbing I think clematis on a trellis. The rest is currently rather wild weeds.

Anyone have any ideas? Also is now the best time for planting or should I be planning now and planting later? Getting a free pass this summer I think as we only recently moved and I'm very waddly pregnant, but want to be ready to make some effort when I'm more mobile.

Not sure about planting times but salvia hot lips, verbena boniarensis and crocosmia are all pretty much zero maintenance and would add colour amongst your evergreens. Geranium magnificum too.

@hirsuteonHRT oooo I see crocosmia in hedgerows and have always wondered what it was called! Thank you 😍

I love it. I have red crocosmia and purple verbena boniarensis floating above lavender, salvia hot lips and geranium magnificum. And then some random interest from annuals like nemesis and cosmos and cornflowers which seem to reseed quite a lot. An evergreen I didn’t look after well but will replace is sambuca negra “black lace”. Beautiful and smells so nice.

Japanese anemone does well in my garden, for autumn colour. The most robust plant we have is photinia red robin - a shrub with beautiful shiny red leaves. We had heuchera which were amazing until they rotted.

We tend to escape the hosepipe bans up here but just use a can, anyhow.

Google 'new wave' planting. It tends towards drought tolerant perennials, lots of grasses and hardy, frothy planting.

Any sages work as pp say. Salvia especially hot lips are very good value, mine flower for 8 months a year and just need a good hack back at the end of winter.

Nepeta, lavender, sedum matrona, brunnera, fuchsia are all good options.

Shrubs and small trees are really low maintainence. Cottinus coggieia, hydrangea, japanese flowering quince, acers, small flowering cherries, cerecis candensis forest pansy or eternal flame. Go to a garden centre once a month a choose one shrub or small tree that you love each month and you will wnd up with a years worth of intersting things to look at.

Clover for lawn. That thing survives absolutely anything. I was always accused of secretly watering during hose pipe bans. 😂

Do you really need more plants, or would the money be better spent on paying someone to come and tidy up every so often?

If you do need space fillers then you want stuff that covers the ground to suppress the weeds. Hardy geraniums are brilliant for this and there are a zillion different ones. Also catmint, phlomis, hebes.

If you have grass then fairly regular mowing will always give the garden an instant tidy up.

Thyme and chives would grow cheerfully in your garden. I have variable success with nasturtiums but I keep trying because I love them

wondering about woodchip or something to make it look neat without needing regular maintenance and weeding. Does that work?
Nope. There is no such thing as no-maintenance gardening.
As others have said, get ground-covering plants that will out-compete the weeds. Don't have bare earth for the wild seeds to settle into.
For the drought problem, choose deep-rooted plants. Here's the RHS's list of drought resistant plants.
You could try for a herb garden with mediterranean herbs: they are used to dry conditions and will be useful in the kitchen.
Have some bulbs because they are fairly effort-free once they are planted. There are lots of lovely Spring bulbs (e.g. daffs) but there are also other bulbs throughout the year.

Also is now the best time for planting or should I be planning now and planting later?
The latter although you could plant up some pots / containers with colour to cheer the place up.
You could also buy some smaller (i.e. cheaper) perennials now, and grow them on in pots, for planting out later in the year when it's cooler and wetter.