Native plants offer minimum maintenance, maximum benefits | Gardening

Is there such a thing as a low-maintenance garden?

Some landscapers and horticulturists will tell you no every garden needs maintenance of some kind.

For the most part, they are right.

From personal experience, I can tell you there are high-maintenance and lower-maintenance gardens. It's all about plant choice right plant for right space and giving plants room to grow without crowding.

It's also about the plant types you select. Plants that need constant pruning to keep them sized and shaped and plants that dislike temperature and soil changes have no place in a low-maintenance garden.

For me, native plants especially in my bees, butterflies and birds garden are the way to go.

Landscape designer Denise Greene agrees, and shows and tells you how to best to create a minimum-care garden that attracts and feeds feed bees, butterflies and birds at 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Freedom Park Interpretive Center, Centerville Road, James City County. The program is free and open to the public. A $5 donation is suggested for each person.

"Low maintenance means a minimum amount of input is required to keep the plants in the garden healthy and growing," says Greene. She grows 130-140 plants native to the Mid-Atlantic region at Sassafras Farm, a nursery she started in 1997 at her home in Gloucester County. She sells plants at the Williamsburg Farmers Market many weekends.

"The reason natives can be low maintenance is because they are adapted to the specific growing conditions of the site. Of course, you have to know what the site conditions are and which plants are adapted to those conditions. Just because a plant is native doesn't mean it will do well in any conditions, but it will thrive if you plant it in the right place."

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Native plants offer minimum maintenance, maximum benefits | Gardening