Caring for low-maintenance areas of the garden

The area by my bedroom window, which I have now renamed "The Outback" is a low-maintenance area. In fact, this morning I realized that I hadn't done much to this area for several years now. It needed a good cleanup after the frost!

A technique that I have resisted for years is using a tarp. I think it's because I've associated it with overly-agressive trimming which creates those sad-looking landscapes at schools and most office buildings. It is, however, a brilliant technique when you have a lot of stuff to haul away!

My "tarp" is just the frost cloth that I was using in January. It's extremely light, which is a benefit here, as a heavy tarp would just be, well, heavy. The trick is to lay it out on the ground next to where you are cleaning up, dump the stuff on it, roll it up, and take it to the trash.

This area looks very bare now as many of the plants have been cut down to the ground, including the cannas and the purple plants (formerly known as "wandering jews"). They grow well here and come back strongly. In fact, it's not a bad idea to do a big cleanup like this every couple of years to encourage that strong, fresh growth. The big freeze of January forced me to do this, but now I'm kind'a glad it did.

Low-maintenance areas of the garden often turn into ugly neglected areas of the garden. So it's good to take a look at these areas, and do something. One of the things I've just noticed is that the fountain grass looks terrible. Time to mow the lawn! The tarp will come in handy for that, too.