In our work as garden designers and landscapers in London we deal with many clients who have busy lives for whom low maintenance is a high priority. No garden is zero-maintenance. But with thoughtful design and plant selection and expert landscaping you can have an attractive and low maintenance garden. You can have a garden that takes no more than an hour a week to look after, and no, it doesn’t have to be 95% paved:

	Large areas of lawn – mowing once a week in the growing season, watering, feeding, aerating.
	A stepping stone path in the lawn – makes mowing difficult.
	Privet hedges – need fairly frequent trimming in spring and summer.
	Ponds with aquatic plants – pond weed to get rid of, clearing fallen leaves, plants need lifting and dividing every 2/3 years.
	Rockeries – need weeding and access may be difficult.
	Herbaceous borders – labour intensive – lots of plants need staking, deadheading, feeding, disease and pest control.
	Vegetable patch – again labour intensive – watering, pest control, frost protection .
	Large numbers of planted containers – daily watering in summer and weekly application of fertiliser.
	Roses, especially hybrid tea and floribunda types – annual pruning (and you have to know what you’re doing), deadheading, application of feed, disease control.
	Annual bedding plants – planting is time consuming, deadheading, and you have to dig them up at the end of the season.
	Hostas – a favourite of slugs and snails – a constant battle against the enemy.