Sowing a 'Lazy Garden'

My mother is a Master Gardener and it shows. Her backyard looks almost prehistoric, with leaves as big as elephant ears and flowering vines blanketing her walls. Looking at all of that lush greenery, I have to wonder if we are really related or she found me as a baby under one of those leaves. 

I consider gardening to be a huge chore. I can’t help but wince every time my mom gives me a plant she’s lovingly nurtured from a seed. Doesn’t she know she’s signing its death sentence? I can barely summon the energy to pull out weeds. And if they flower, forget it, I just leave them.

That said, I’ve somehow managed to find plants that can withstand both the heavy Cranford soil and my laissez-faire attitude. Perennials are my mainstay, because I’m trying to avoid getting my hands dirty more than once.

• Hosta are amazing. They do well in shade and have lush green leaves, even if you rarely water. 
• Black-eyed Susans can practically withstand a locus swarm. They also increase in number every year they come back. I have so many I spend half of September unloading them on my friends.
• Stella D’Oro daylilies have cheery orange flowers and spiky green leaves. Again, you’d really have to go out of your way to kill them.

If I am going to spend the time to plant annuals, I want something off the beaten track. Geraniums are lovely but enough already! My mom suggests Supertunias, which are petunia hybrids. You don’t need to deadhead the plants, so you get flowers without fuss. Other recommendations include:

• Heliotrope has a wonderful vanilla smell and gorgeous purple flowers.
• Lantana blooms bright orange and gold and makes a great groundcover.
• Double impatience, which, like all impatience, bloom well in the shade. However, the flowers on this variety are full, almost like mini carnations.

Once I’ve invested time and money into plants, it would be shame just to let them wither away. Two products that are insanely easy to use are Osmocote Continous Release Plant Food ($5.18 at Lowes) and soaker hoses, which can be found any garden supply store. You put the Osmocote granules in the dirt when you are planting and they fertilize for the whole summer. And soaker hoses are made for lazy gardeners like me--just turn on the water, wait thirty minutes, and turn it off. That, I can do.

When not juggling family life and work as a nonfiction book editor and author, Dinah Dunn posts any scrap of useful information she can find on her blog, burbbasics.com. If you have a question or a good idea, please email it to Dinah@burbbasics.com.