Tips for Creating an Ageless Garden

How can we create an “ageless” garden to stand the test of time through our entire gardening lifetime? Here are a few quick ideas to consider incorporating into your garden’s overall design.

• Choose wide paths (4-6 feet wide).
• Choose smooth or compact permeable path materials such as flagstone, permeable concrete, and small crushed rock called fines.
• Choose raised bed construction (wood, rock, cobbles).
• Choose low maintenance plants — easy-care perennials rather than annuals, small to diminutive varieties of favorite shrubs rather than full-scale varieties needing annual pruning, and low-growing plants.

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  Locate water sources close to plantings or install drip irrigation where possible.
• Avoid steep slopes.
• Think compact, easy access and easy maintenance.
• Use mulches for weed reduction, easy weed removal and moisture retention.
• Think container plantings made with lightweight materials or more permanent ceramic or stoneware container plantings that can be accessed from all sides.
• Locate benches or seating areas throughout the garden for resting spots.
• Allow for an easily accessed garden or patio area to continue growing your favorite plants, whether it’s a miniature fruit tree, an array of vegetables or maybe even containers full of your favorite annuals like geraniums, petunias or tender summer-blooming bulbs.
• Remember to allow for a variety of sensory stimulation — scented plants, textural plants, colorful plants, striking plants.
• Include easy-care herbs: rosemary, lemon balm, chives, lavender, mint (in containers).
• Locate a soothing water feature close by, even if it’s only a small bubbling fountain.