NW Gardens: Cut the busy work, trim the hassles

IF TIME IS a limiting factor in your life, you don't have to give up the garden. There are shortcuts you can take and still have an enjoyable garden, whether your time limitations are for a season or longer.

Minimize your steps

Weed on your way to the car, the garbage or the mailbox.

Go to Goodwill or Value Village and find some attractive, inexpensive baskets to place in strategic spots around the garden. When you have a handful of weeds, you can drop your bounty into the baskets, instead of wondering why you decided to pull a handful of chickweed when the yard waste bin was so far away.

Baskets are a great disguise and also can be used to stash hand tools during periods of dry weather.

Plant aggressive ground covers

When you have little time, aggressive ground covers can be a good thing. Unwary gardeners who have given bishop's weed (Aegopodium podagraria 'Variegata'), Lamium maculatum and -- I freely admit my mistake here -- Euphorbia cyparissius free rein have learned that these plants smother indiscriminately. And they aren't easy to weed out.

But the gardener with little time can turn that to an advantage, and so can anyone with a confined space. Plant an aggressive ground cover in a bed that has borders -- such as sidewalks, the house or a retaining wall. That will stop their underground movement and give you a quick bed full of plants.

Be creative about screens

Gardeners with little time often need a quick screen to block out the view of the neighbor's patio or the alley. They want a fast-growing hedge, an evergreen plant that will quickly grow to 10 feet and stop abruptly. And they want it now.

If that's the sort of screen you are looking for, then you'd be better off to plant a fence. Any plant that grows quickly to 10 feet isn't going to stop there. So instead of saving time, you'll be creating another job for yourself -- hedge maintenance.

But you may not have the time to wait for tiny plants to grow into a screen. (We planted what we are still calling the stick hedge -- Phillyrea angustifolia, a lovely soft-looking evergreen plant that is still a shadow of its future self.)

Instead, you may want to invest in larger plants, or -- in a pinch -- throw the proverbial sheet over the compost bin in the form of a quick lattice or bamboo screen.

Don't make work for yourself

Do you love Epimedium but wonder why this evergreen ground cover needs to be cut to the ground every winter? It doesn't, so put away those Felcos (or that weed trimmer, depending on how much Epimedium you have) and wait until next year.

And the hardy fuchsia shrub -- you don't really have to cut it down every spring when it sprouts. Especially if you have room for its widely arching branches, and want to see the hummingbirds from May through October. When you don't cut the fuchsia back, it blooms early, in a glorious show that lasts for months and months.

A lawn -- is it too much bother? It is if you require the monoculture of grass-only lawns. But if you are comfortable with a mix of grass and broadleaf evergreens, including English daisy and strawberry clover, then you'll find your lawn takes much less time.

You can mow less frequently, water less and get busy doing whatever is taking up your time these days. More information on this lawn mix, often known as ecoturf, is available from: www.seattle.gov/util/Services/Yard/Natural _Lawn_&_Garden_Care/ Natural_Lawn_Care/ABOUT ECOT_200311261654594.asp or call Seattle Public Utilities' Natural Lawn & Garden Care hot line at 206-633-0224.

Buy a garden to go

You can buy a well-established container garden from Pots2Go, a local business that takes the time to create great-looking combinations so that you have an instant container garden.

Buy the pots in a degradable container, and you can plant the whole thing at the end of the season. Pots2Go can be found at the Redmond Saturday Market and the Kirkland Wednesday Market or online at www.pots2go.com and start at $40.

Marty Wingate, a Seattle-based Master Gardener, has a master's degree in urban horticulture and is the author of two garden books. She can be contacted at: martywin@earthlink.net.

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