Can a garden be beautiful and easy to care for?
Wouldn’t you love to have a garden where you can relax in the beauty of nature without feeling like you’re staring at another list of chores? You can actually create a low-maintenance garden like that, and winter is an ideal time to design it. Settling in during the cold months and dreaming about what you’ll create in the spring can sometimes pull you through a drab, gray day. Gardens are life-giving. As we give life to them, they return it in abundance. But giving life to your garden shouldn't feel like you're actually giving your life to it.
In today’s busy world, gardening can sound like work. It can be hard to think about creating something that could demand even more of our time. If you’re like most of us, you’re trudging through a high-maintenance life already. The last thing you need is a high-maintenance garden. Now, more than ever, we can all use a place where we can simply rest and recover.
It’s true that all gardens require some effort, but you can create a low-maintenance garden that doesn’t push you to care for it. For example, the garden beds near our office are filled with plants that can handle neglect. We did that by design. With all the time we spend attending to our crop plants and our customers, we have very little time to maintain our garden beds. The plants in our landscape need to tend themselves.
That may surprise you because we have some plants in our garden beds that are often considered difficult to grow. But we’ve planted them in areas where they will thrive without us. The microclimates do all the work.
You can do the same by taking advantage of microclimates in your yard and by using plants in your landscape that don’t require a babysitter. Since microclimates in each yard are different, we’ll focus this article on durable plants. We can’t begin to provide a full list of our favorite sturdy plants in a single article, but we’ll point you toward a few tried and true jewels today.
Plants for a Garden You Can (Almost) Plant and Forget
Trees
Zelkova Trees
These beautiful trees offer clean, dark green summer foliage, symmetrical branching and a dense canopy, giving you a striking focal point in your fall landscape. The Zelkova pictured here is Musashino. Smaller versions of this tree would be Zileration or City Sprite. Larger options include Burgundy Vase, Green Vase, or Village Green. Depending on the cultivar, Zelkova will give you fall colors that range from yellow to orange and even deep burgundy! Since we can no longer plant Ash trees in Utah, Zelkovas are an ideal substitute. And because they have few pests, thrive in our soil, and tolerate water from Utah Lake, they will fit perfectly in your low-maintenance garden.
Cedar Trees
Cedars are some of the most impressive, eye-catching trees in our nursery, and we believe they’re underutilized in Utah landscapes. Over the past several years, we’ve noticed that cedars do very well here with very little damage from pests or our environment. Blue Atlas Cedar is among the most popular with landscapers, but you’ll find several other stunning options here at the nursery. If you’d like to add a conifer to your grow beds next year, we hope you’ll at least consider a cedar.
Crabapple Trees
Crabapple trees thrive in Utah soil. They are an ideal size for today’s smaller yards, and they offer beautiful spring blossoms and fall foliage. If you’re concerned about messy apples to clean up, most of today’s crabapples grow persistent fruit that stays on the trees throughout the winter offering food for hungry birds. That means far less work for you. Some of our favorites are Indian Magic, Gladiator, Show Time, Royal Raindrops, Red Barron, Ivory spear, and the popular fruitless, Spring Snow, but with so many wonderful varieties, you probably have a favorite that we haven’t mentioned. Chances are, we have your favorite crabapple here at the nursery growing alongside all the rest.
Eastern Redbud
In terms of year-round interest, Redbuds are some of the most impressive trees you’ll find. Their spring blooms are second to none, with blossoms running the length of each branch and even along the trunk! Their summer foliage varies from yellow to green, burgundy to nearly black, and even multi-colored. In the fall, their leaves turn a beautiful yellow and their bare, often twisted branches, with dangling seed pods, are eye-catching in winter—attracting birds into your yard. The redbuds shown here are Forest Pansy, Flame Thrower, and Lavender Twist.
Trees give your garden height, shape, structure, and visual weight. We believe every garden needs one—or several. Other amazing trees that we love for their hardiness include: Honeylocust, Hawthorne, Hackberry, Serviceberry, and of course, Upright Junipers in all their varieties.
Shrubs
Gro-low Sumac
This is a popular plant among landscapers designing gardens near stores, shopping centers, or hospitals because they just grow here without any effort. Since they are often used in a utilitarian manner near office buildings, it’s easy to assume that Gro-Low just isn’t interesting enough for our home landscapes. But we absolutely love it!
It grows in a low, wide, spreading habit that is easy to maintain. Even though it will spread over time, it’s a slower spreader and it won’t overtake your grow bed—at least not without years of advance warning. It grows small, yellow flowers in the spring that attract pollinators. But its greatest feature is its leaves. They grow thick and green in the spring and summer and create a bright red and orange show in the fall. This cultivar is non-poisonous and deer resistant, so it’s a great option in any landscape and perfect for your low-maintenance garden.
Ninebark
Another favorite shrub that we have growing in our entry garden is Tiny Wine® Ninebark. This beauty is extra bushy with small, refined leaves. Its dark bronze-maroon foliage contrasts beautifully with the small pink-white button flowers that appear in late spring. It offers a very showy flower display all up and down its branches. But even if it didn’t bloom, this shrub is still a fantastic ornamental specimen with its dark foliage.
That’s the power of Ninebark. Its foliage is colorful enough! If you want to add lasting color without a lot of effort, you don’t have to use this exact cultivar. Any ninebark would give you something special to appreciate. And you can find them with foliage color that ranges from light green, to yellow, red, copper, burgundy, and nearly black!
Barberry
Speaking of shrubs with amazing foliage color, we can’t ignore barberry bushes. These stunning shrubs come in so many colors and sizes, you could almost landscape an entire garden bed with them. Their colors range from bright yellow, to orange, red, burgundy, and even green. They are appropriately named, however. Be sure to wear long sleeves and gloves when you plant and prune them. Their barbs are sharp but not terrible, and they keep the deer from foraging on them. If you plant a barberry that is ideally sized for your space, they will require little to no pruning, making them an ideal option for your low-maintenance garden bed. The Barberries shown here are Tiny Gold, Orange Torch, and Orange Rocket.
Roses
If you want a beautiful flowering shrub that’s easy to grow and tolerates drought conditions, you should really consider roses. You’ve probably heard that roses are particular and require special care to thrive here. We aren’t going to stop anyone from giving extra love to any plant, but we’ve found that roses are a lot tougher than most people think. Almost any variety will thrive in your yard with very little attention.
We love the KnockOut roses scattered throughout our grow beds here at the nursery. With almost zero effort from us, other than one annual pruning, they add a fun pop of color throughout much of the growing season.
Hydrangeas
We can’t talk about flowering shrubs without mentioning hydrangeas. Many people believe that hydrangeas can’t grow here in Utah, but they absolutely can! The secret is to plant the right varieties. Hydrangeas that bloom blue will struggle here, but those that start white and mature to pink and red do very well in our region. You’ll find dozens of stunning hydrangea varieties here at the nursery that will thrive in your yard: Panicle hydrangeas, smooth hydrangeas, oak leaf hydrangeas, and more.
Hydrangeas are wonderful flowering shrubs because they bloom practically all season long. They start in late spring with panicles of greenish white blooms. Those panicles continue to grow larger throughout the summer as they turn white. Then, as the temperatures drop, the flowers change to pink or even dark red, depending on the variety. The best part is that these shrubs offer flowers all summer and fall, but they don’t drop pedals and you don’t have to deadhead them until late winter. They’re a fascinating plant!
Snowberries
Do you want to add a super fun plant to your garden? Snowberries are available in a variety of sizes from 6 feet tall and wide to 3 feet tall by 2 feet wide. They have small flowers in spring that attract pollinators, but their most stunning feature is the bunches of berries those blossoms produce! From August until early winter, they will grace your garden with clusters of beautiful pearly white or bubble gum pink balls that will hold interest in your garden well after the snow falls.
Derived from native plants, Snowberries grow easily here. They’re deer resistant, tolerant of our soil, and can even handle water from Utah Lake. They truly belong in any Utah landscape as a focal point plant, small hedge, or small border planting. They're an easy way to add interest to your low-maintenance garden.
There are several dozen more shrubs that will thrive here without a lot of effort. We love Buddleia or Butterfly Bushes because of the variety they provide. We especially like Pugsters for their small shrub size and large flower panicles that seem almost too large for the plant.
Aronia or Chokeberry shrubs come in a wide range of sizes with fruit you can eat if you’d like. We especially love their amazing fall color. And because they require so little effort, they work perfectly in your low-maintenance garden.
Elderberry bushes are great as well because you can find one to fit almost anywhere in your garden. They offer foliage in bold colors from nearly black to green and even lemony yellow. If you’d like a Japanese Maple in your landscape but don’t have the right microclimate for one, an elderberry bush will grow to a comparable size and give you a similar leaf shape and color.
Of course, the list of winning shrubs is incredibly long! We’re just giving you a taste of the options available to you.
Perennials
We’ve already mentioned that the list of easy-to-grow shrubs is quite long, but it’s nothing compared to the list of perennial plants that can grace your landscape! There are hundreds of plants that will thrive in your yard with or without your help. Again, being present as a gardener from time to time always helps, but some of these beauties are tough enough to hold their own for a while.
Hardy Geranium
Another wonderful plant in our entry garden here at Progressive Plants is a Hardy Geranium called Geranium 'Biokovo'. This geranium was selected specifically for its white flowers in spring and its outstanding red foliage in fall, but each variety has its own special features. These thick-growing, low-maintenance plants are ideal for lining pathways, creating a stunning patch of color, and crowding out weeds. You can find hardy geraniums in various sizes from 6 inches to 36 inches tall. Their flower colors can be white, pink, or blue. Regardless of the garden you design, you’re sure to find a hardy geranium that fits your style. The Hardy Geraniums shown here are 'Azure Rush,' 'Karmina,' and 'Ballerina.'
Iberis or Candytuft
Candytuft is one of the earliest bloomers in the spring and its white flowers last for several weeks. After the blooms have gone, it maintains its nice green foliage throughout summer and fall. This low-growing plant is also ideal for lining walkways or creating a bright pop in your garden bed in early spring. They will eventually grow thick enough to crowd out weeds, making your low-maintenance garden even easier to manage.
Bellflower
If you want blooms that seem to never stop, campanula or bellflower should be somewhere on your list. Bellflowers don’t spread much. They maintain their compact size. So you’ll want to plant several in mass to truly enjoy the color they offer. But once they begin blooming, they will keep at it for most of the summer and into fall. If you choose to deadhead them, you may even get them to bloom longer.
Catmint
Nepeta, or Catmint, is a big favorite among the gardeners here at Progressive Plants. Most of us have one or two varieties in our own gardens. They begin blooming in early summer and continue well into fall. During the hottest time of the year, many varieties will reduce their blooms and their blossoms will turn tan, but they maintain their beautiful green foliage and will start blooming again as soon as the temperatures drop. If you deadhead the spent flowers during the hottest few weeks of summer, you can encourage them to rebloom just a little sooner. They offer nice spikes of purple-blue flowers that feel right at home in our dry Utah gardens. It'll be hard to find a plant that requires as little effort as Nepeta, and it's very waterwise.
Veronica
Another stunning low-maintenance plant that gives you beautiful spikes of color is Veronica, or Speedwell. We love it because it tends to maintain a bold, upright growth habit with flowers that persist for most of the summer. We have some varieties in our landscapes that are still holding onto some of their color all the way into mid-November! Veronica is available in blue, purple, pink, and white, so you can add it to a variety of color pallets.
Not all speedwell grows in an upright habit. We also have some fun, low-growing, creeping varieties that will add a colorful ground cover to your garden bed.
Gaura
Gaura, or Whirling Butterflies, has recently caught the attention of gardeners and landscapers throughout Utah. You’ll find it popping up in parks, gardens, and landscapes all over the Salt Lake Valley. There’s a good reason for that. It requires very little water once it’s established, and it grows beautifully, producing small white or pink flowers that seem to dance on the end of long narrow spikes. Those flowers begin in late spring and continue until they freeze. They’re completely mesmerizing! Even better, they produce more blooms in sunny locations, so you can practically plant them and forget them, but you can't ignore them because they will capture your attention daily! They're ideal for a low-maintenance garden bed.
Sedum or Stonecrop
We can’t forget Sedum in all its varieties. This beautiful Autumn Joy Stonecrop is only one example of these waterwise marvels. It’s fun because it offers nice foliage color all year long and bursts out in stunning colors in late summer when many other plants are starting to fade. You’ll find several here at Progressive Plants that will fit your garden beautifully. Sedums are ideal for a low-maintenance garden because they require so little attention. They thrive on almost no water and add color and interest practically all year long.
That’s barely a start to the list of possibilities. We still haven’t mentioned Yarrow, Russian Sage, Salvia, Echinacea, Daylilies, daisies, Black Eyed Susan, leadplant, and more than a hundred others!
Grasses
Feather Reed Grass
Karl Foerster is the most popular Feather Reed Grass in Utah. It’s popular because of its ideal size and color, but there are others that are equally amazing. Avalanche is one of our favorites. Similar to Karl Foerster, it grows in a neat size and shape with a nice fall bloom, but Avalanche also offers a white stripe in its leaf. Another variety similar to Karl Foerster with a distinguished white stripe in its blade, is Eldorado. It's slightly smaller than Karl Foerster with a lighter-colored bloom so we often encourage people to use these varieties for a more unique look in their landscape. Either of these feather reed grasses will add a graceful touch to your low-maintenance garden without looking exactly like your neighbor’s yard. No matter which one you choose, you’ll love how they sway in the breeze and glow in morning and evening light.
Flame Grass
Another fantastic, low-maintenance option for an ornamental grass is Miscanthus sinensis 'Purpurascens'. It’s a Maiden grass better known as Flame Grass. Its fall color is unmatched! It will eventually grow to 5 feet tall and wide, so if you have the space, it will fill it and reward you immensely with light and color. It is absolutely outstanding!
Morning Light Maiden Grass
This maiden grass is perfectly named. When it’s in bloom, it catches the morning and evening light and glows almost as though you plugged it into an electrical outlet! Morning Light offers a neat clump of tall narrow blades that will eventually reach 6 feet tall by 4 feet wide, adding a substantial burst of color and light to your garden. This stunning, low-maintenance grass tolerates our soil, resists deer, and can even handle water from Utah Lake.
Blue Oat Grass
This simple, understated grass resembles a larger version of blue fescue. It grows in a neat mound with tall spikes that shoot up in late summer producing blooms that catch the light. Blue Oat Grass is a fairly simple plant to maintain. It tolerates our soil, isn’t bothered by deer, and does well with water from Utah Lake. Plus, it offers nice movement in your garden on breezy days.
Again, there are dozens of other outstanding grasses that will thrive here. This article hasn’t even touched on several genera of grasses that we absolutely love. In fact, a couple of years ago, we landscaped an entire yard with only shrubs and grasses—no flowers—and the result was incredibly colorful! If you’d like to create something fun and interesting in your yard, be sure to connect with us at Progressive Plants. We’re open all year long and love to answer any questions you may have.
Plant In Mass
We like to pack our grow beds whenever possible because a thick-growing garden helps crowd out weeds and reduce water loss in the summer. It’s also the simplest way to create instant impact. Mass plantings create large patches of color that command your attention.
Planting in mass also reduces the variety of plants you have to think about in a grow bed. You can attend to the needs of four or five varieties of plants, rather than trying to remember dozens of plants and their individual requirements. Variety is essential for a healthy landscape, but you can spread that variety throughout several grow beds.
So, there you have it. A small taste of the plants we have growing near our office that we simply don’t have the time to fuss over. If you want to create a low-maintenance garden in your own yard, this list of plants will get you started in a fun direction. Of course, you can always contact us with any questions, or meet with one of our designers for a personal consultation. But we wanted to remind you that gardening can be fun, and it doesn’t always include wearing yourself out with yard work. The right plants in the right location can make all the difference.
Good luck, and happy gardening!
