Perennials and Evergreens for a stress free garden

ukonlineshopping

Hi,

My garden causes me lots of stress with weeds, couch grass etc.

Looking for some nice Perennials and Evergreens that I can just put in, enjoy looking and that won't need much looking after.

Any suggestions of your favourites or ideas please?

rubytuesday

I read today that peonies don't take much looking after once they are established some live for a hundred years or so!

lou37

I would recommend hardy geraniums. Most varieties flower for several weeks (some in spring, some through the summer and into autumn) and are very good (sometimes too good!) at covering ground and smothering weeds. Once established, they don't need any looking after except occasional dividing up if the clumps get too big.

lily117

Aquilegia (Granny's bonnet) are pretty and they are self-seeding. Agree with Ruby, a peony is a good investment. Hardy fuschias are good too.

schmouse

Try red hot poker (Kniphofia), lots of lovely evergreen leaves that last right through winter and lovely poker shaped flowers in summer. Periwinkle (Vinca) is another great evergreen - low growing and useful as ground cover, with very nice pale blue flowers. Another plant which does well, is crocosomia - not an evergreen but very easy to grow. Lovely flowers and leaves, and also has a spreading habit. Very easy to propagate as well. Also try aquilegia, again another one that is easy to grow. It produces fabulous flowers and also casts its seeds everywhere so you'll end up with several plants!

lily117

Long term, bulbs are the way to go in my opinion, spent many back-breaking hours planting daffodils, tulips, grape hyacinths, snowdrops etc, but the rewards far outweighed the spadework

Davesnave

Have you actually removed the"weeds, couch grass etc"?

Unless you do that first, planting almost anything will be in vain.

I inherited a 1 acre garden from an organic, 'plantsman' who clearly thought that he could conquer the knotty problem of weeding with bits of old carpet, lashings of comfrey and loads of geranium phaeum. :rotfl:

It didn't work. Almost three years on, and I'm still sorting it. Come back in another 3 years and I might have finished with the perennial weeds.

If I only had all the plants he put in, as shown by literally hundreds of labels from a score of well-known nurseries countrywide, my garden would be well-stocked. It isn't.

I can confirm, though, that geranium phaeum is a real survivor!

shegar

I have a good size perennial bed I planted it up 3 yrs ago and each year everything keeps coming back ive got, heathers, shaista daisies,verbena boneriensis(wildlife love it.):Dalliums,lillies,yarrow,ox eye daisies,red hot poker,osteospermums...........All these plants have made good root system and have spread quite alot, so theres no room for weeds..........

I dont waste money on buying summer bedding each year , plus when perennials get well rooted in they dont need watering much........For evergreen shrubs Ive got speckled laurel which ive shaped nicely and couple miniture buddleias , rose bushes ,and couple hebes, which the bees love..........:D

balletshoes

I am a rubbish gardener, I just like plonking stuff in the ground and watering it occasionally.

Good indestructible growers for me so far have been -

heather,
ground-cover lilac (I planted it when it was a stick and now its a big spreading bush)
hydrangeas
peony bushes and trees
and periwinkles

Isis_Black

Plenty of choices out there for perennials
Go to poundland and fill up on bulbs from there :-)

Some tesco stores ATM have got some plants reduced :-) including geraniums and fuschias

mary-op

Ditto what everyone else has said.

I've got the usual spring bulbs -daffs, crocus, wood anemones,primroses etc. They sort of take care of themselves as do the cranesbill geraniums, hawkweed (though it can get a bit rampant), campanula, aquilegea-the list can be endless.
Since being disabled last year I've been trying to simplyfy the garden and ordered a mixture of small evergreen shrubs and some heucheras -mixed colours. They have a little flower in the summer but the leaves keep their colour all year.
Good luck