Simple-pleasure gardening losing ground

Careers, children, Internet create demand for low-maintenance landscaping

Joe Lamp'L, Scripps Howard News Service

Published April 28, 2006 at midnight

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Once upon a time, people worked in their gardens and yards not only to create a beautiful setting, but for the simple enjoyment provided by the process. Somewhere between then and now, we've lost sight of the pleasure of piddling. I believe it's one of the greatest emotional liberators the human spirit has ever known.

Unfortunately, the act of garden piddling is losing ground, so to speak, to our busier lifestyles. Current trends indicate that these increasing demands on our time are competing and winning out over the more leisurely activity of gardening. Specifically, careers, children, the Internet and a new generation spending less time outdoors than ever before are cited as the main reasons.

But it's not as though people are less interested in having a beautiful garden or landscape. Simply put, busy affluent homeowners are moving away from do-it-yourself and more toward purchased gardens and the labor to take care of them. The results are immediate and personal maintenance is eliminated.

Outdoor rooms, equipped with kitchens, fire pits, seating areas and water features, are becoming common. With less available time, homeowners are demanding more from their outdoor environments and the plants that go into them. Today, backyards are becoming more an extension of our indoor living space. The biggest difference with these outdoor rooms is the sky is our ceiling and our walls are lush plants and trees.

However, as we are investing more time and money into these backyard rooms, we don't want to live in a fishbowl, either. Homeowners are so anxious for privacy and a mature looking landscape, they often are directing their builders and landscapers to install plants that are either too big for the location or positioned too closely together.

Unfortunately, some homeowners don't take into consideration that once newly installed plants get established, many will become much larger in a relatively short time. The consequences are plants that look totally out of place, or become diseased and die due to overcrowding.

Many growers have noted this movement toward instant gratification. Along with products designed for outdoor living and entertaining, mature, low-maintenance, goof-proof plants seem to be leading the way.

This trend toward high-impact and low-maintenance landscapes even has had an influence on seasonal bedding plants. Colorful, yet short-lived annuals have given way to more hardy perennials, which are now being replaced by tough evergreen shrubs with interesting foliage, flowers and color. The days of replacing annual beds or even cutting back perennials at the end of the growing season are no longer necessary.

Even passionate lifelong gardeners are appreciating the innovations and choices in plant material that offers lower maintenance and sustainability.

Additional benefits include improvements in foliage and flower color, pest and disease resistance. All said, the drive for more bulletproof plants with a specific purpose benefits all of us, no matter what type of gardener.

Joe Lamp'l, a Master Gardener, hosts "Fresh from the Garden" on the DIY Network as well as a gardening radio show. For more information, visit www.DIYnetwork.com and www.joegardener.com.

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