Updated on February 20th, 2026 Posted In: Gardening Know How
Author: Alexandra Campbell

How to Make Your Garden Easier to Manage This Year

You can make your garden easier to manage and beautiful to look at.

As gardening jobs are re-evaluated, we’re discovering what is really worth doing and what isn’t.

And changing your approach to gardening can also take the pressure off the ‘gardening to-do’ lists.

Of course, all gardens do need some care. Anyone who tells you, for example, that you can have a ‘no work garden’ is not telling the truth.

So here are the strategies I’ve used that genuinely reduce effort while keeping the garden looking good.

How to create a beautiful garden that doesn’t need constant attention. This is my wildflower border, which replaced the higher-maintenance vegetable border.

Start with one principle: “chunk it down”

Feeling overwhelmed usually comes from seeing the garden as one huge task.

Instead, break it into small, manageable pieces and deal with only one at a time.

This idea comes from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: when a job feels too big, do it in small, workable chunks. Gardening is easy – or at least much easier – if you take the same approach.

You can “chunk it down” in several practical ways.

Simple, realistic ways to make your garden easier to manage, without lowering your standards or doing more work. Small changes now can make the whole year feel calmer and more enjoyable.

Chunk it down by task

Choose one small, specific job and stop when it’s done.

For example:

• clear one awkward corner
• cut back one shrub
• tidy one section of border

Finishing a single task creates momentum and makes the garden feel more under control. You don’t need to solve everything in one go. In fact, it can be better to do it slowly, especially in winter when very little is growing.

If your garden feels like too much, start small. Focusing on just one simple task at a time can make gardening feel manageable again and help you regain a sense of control.

Chunk it down by time (the 15-minute rule)

This is one of the most effective ways to make gardening feel manageable. It’s almost the only way I manage to do a large job I’m really dreading, such as clearing out the shed.

Set a goal, such as ‘tidy the shed’ or ‘weed the main border.’

Sheds can look so pretty on the outside. But my shed gets very untidy inside and the 15 minute rule is the easiest way to manage the tidying.

Then set a timer on your watch for 15 minutes and start tidying.

Stop when the timer ends. We can all manage 15 minutes, can’t we? No more excuses like ‘I’ll do that when I’ve got time.’

Do another 15 minute session later or on another day until the job is finished. Even large, daunting tasks often turn out to be just three or four short sessions.

It’s an effective use of time because it fills those small slots when you might otherwise be scrolling on your phone.

It also concentrates the actual work without time-wasting. When you put aside a whole morning, it’s easy to take a phone call, have a coffee break and so on. Three 15 minute slots of tidying is a solid 45 minutes of work without any interruptions. You’ll be amazed at how much difference you’ve made.

A second advantage is that this approach is recommended by physiotherapists to help protect your back and knees. Alternate jobs — for example, 15 minutes of weeding, then 15 minutes of tidying and you won’t put your joints under such continuous stress.

See How to Protect Back or Knee Pain from Gardening.

Chunk it down by garden area

One of the best long-term ways to make a garden easier is to accept that not every area needs the same level of attention.

When we redesigned our garden, we deliberately created:

• low-maintenance areas with shrubs and trees that need little intervention
• higher-maintenance areas more colour, more sun, more work!

Shady borders with shrubs, trees and bulbs, for example, often need little more than an annual prune.

By contrast, borders with dahlias, roses or annuals need dead-heading, supporting and other care. So if you want to spend less time looking after them, limit how much space you give them. Annual bedding plants are the most work, shrubs are the least work.

Designing in this way keeps effort focused rather than spread thinly everywhere.

Allow some areas to be lower maintenance or “wilder”

If you have a bigger garden, then letting parts of it ‘go wild’ can make a big difference. But this doesn’t mean complete neglect.

In the video Garden Design Tips You’ll Actually Use, designer James Alexander Sinclair says that you can ‘draw the countryside into your garden’ by creating a wilder area that reflects the countryside around you.

Not every part of a garden needs constant attention. Allowing some areas to be a little wilder can reduce work, support wildlife and still look beautiful.

You could plant a few native trees for a mini woodland or allow lawn grass to grow longer.

But if you don’t like wilder-looking lawns, both James and his fellow designer Joe Swift use robot mowers for their lawns. These won’t give you smart stripes but they mow little and often, dropping the grass clippings to return their nutrition to the soil. So it’s not only less mowing but also less fertilising!

See Do You Need a Perfect Lawn for ways of minimising lawn care while getting the effect you like.

I decided to stop growing vegetables because they were too much work. So I simply filled each of the four vegetable beds with a packet of mixed wildflower seeds. This has been super-easy and requires very little effort.

However, I would strongly advise against the ‘chaos gardening’ method of mixing all your old seeds together and scattering them on a border. This will give you a very patchy effect as some plants will thrive and others won’t grow.  A packet of wildflower seeds will have been chosen to grow well together. See How to Grow Wildflowers.

And note that even a completely re-wilded garden needs some maintenance. See Discover the Magic of a Re-Wilded Garden.

Choose plants that reduce work

Plant choice has a huge impact on how manageable your garden feels. Choosing plants that are easy to take care of will reduce your work.

Shrubs, trees and long-lived perennials are generally need far less attention than short-lived bedding plants. Topiary is another surprisingly low-effort option: one careful trim a year gives structure and impact for months.

The plants you choose affect how much work your garden needs. These hydrangeas like shade and only need pruning or dead-heading once a year. Shrubs like these make your garden easier to look after. And they can be so pretty!

In 6 Easy Planting Tips for Beginners, Jamie Butterworth says that the only basic rule you really need to follow is to plant plants that like shade in the shade and plants that like sun in the sun!  It’s so much less work than trying to make a plant grow where it doesn’t want to grow.

Even one tiny job can make your garden easier to manage

If you see a weed while walking past, pull it out then and there. Don’t wait until you have time to “do the whole border”.

Tiny actions, done regularly, stop jobs building up into something overwhelming. This habit alone can transform how manageable a garden feels.

I remember talking to the owner of a very grand garden. She had a team of gardeners but as she was talking to me, she spotted a weed. She bent over and pulled it out, barely noticing that she was doing it. That’s gardening on automatic.

There’s more about how to weed your garden here.

Make your garden easier to manage by re-evaluating everyday jobs

Anything that makes routine tasks easier will pay you back all year.

If possible, install outdoor taps where you actually need them. It’s an investment, but it saves time, effort and frustration every week. The same applies to sensible hose layouts or irrigation systems.

Discover no dig gardening methods. No dig used to be a fringe way of gardening, but now big organisations such as the RHS are telling gardeners to dig less because digging isn’t good for the soil. Generally the idea is that you should only dig if you are planting a plant or digging one up.  See No Dig For Flower Borders.

Mulching is another time-saving tip. Yes, you’ll need to put a layer of mulch on your soil once or twice a year. But that’s all. The soil will hold water better and you’ll need to use less fertilizer. So fewer regular jobs to do! See Soil Improvement: Why 2026 Could Be The Year Gardeners Finally Put Soil First.

And reducing your use of pesticides will also save you work. In How to Grow Roses, head gardener Neil Miller says that the roses at Hever Castle are covered with aphids in June. But they don’t use pesticides. Two or three weeks later, the birds have eaten the aphids.

I’ve found that the same goes for dahlias and aphids. See Keep Dahlias Free of Earwigs, Slugs and Snails Without Using Chemicals.

Re-think your pots. Lots of small pots need frequent watering and feeding. A few larger containers planted with robust shrubs are far easier to look after. Large pots also look better.

Evergreen pots are less work than containers with annual flowers. See 10 Easy Care Evergreen Pots For Year Round Impact.

Adding slow-release fertiliser to pots in spring means you won’t have to feed them on a weekly basis throughout the summer.

And leave the autumn clear-up until spring. See why I leave seedheads and how to leave the leaves.

Reducing friction like this is one of the most overlooked ways to make a garden easier to manage.

Do a simple daily walk-round

Top gardeners make a habit of walking their garden every day, simply observing what’s happening.

You can use a notebook to keep a record. Or just notice what looks good, what’s changing, and what might need attention soon. This quiet habit prevents problems building up and helps you stay connected to the garden without pressure.

You don’t have to do everything yourself – how to get help

Sometimes you’ll need to pay for expert help, especially for skilled jobs like tree work or hedge cutting. Horticulture is a skilled career, so don’t make the mistake of looking for the cheapest.

A good tree surgeon will make your whole garden look so much better than someone who hacks at your trees with a chainsaw. See What You Really Need to Know Before You Prune Your Trees and Tree Surgeon, Arborist or Chain Saw Man? Why You Need to Know the Difference.

Regular paid help can be valuable too, but it’s worth remembering that professional gardeners are trained, self-employed and need fair, reliable work. It’s not a low-cost solution, and expectations need to be realistic.

I think it’s important to say that I now do have a gardener for a few hours a week here on the Middlesized Garden. That’s because I’m so busy writing and filming for the Middlesized Garden, as well as being co-chair of the Garden Media Guild. I have very little time to garden! Here’s How to Find a Gardener Who’s Perfect for Your Garden.

However, I gardened using these ways of making your garden easier to manage for many years.

You will sometimes see advice to get help from friends, but that rarely works long term. Most people already have their own gardens — and their own overwhelm.

So the most sustainable solution is redesigning or simplifying the garden so it fits your life now.

Let go of perfection

Even the best gardens are never finished. They’re always changing, sometimes messy, sometimes glorious.

If your garden feels overwhelming, it doesn’t mean you’re failing. It usually means it’s alive and growing.

As top garden designer James Alexander-Sinclair says, ‘no-one is going to judge you on your garden. It’s not the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – it’s your garden. ‘

A New Year reset isn’t about doing everything — it’s about choosing what matters, letting go of the rest, and making your garden easier to live with.

See a range of different low maintenance gardens and tips on video

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