The most popular believe is that the more plants you have, the more work you have looking after them. If you have a few shrubs and hardy perennials scattered around a border with a sea of soil in between, it is just as apparent that you are going to expend a good deal of time in keeping the area clear of weeds. While, on the other hand, if you make your gardening scheme in the manner we intimated, with a top storey of trees, a shrubby central layer and then a carpet of low-growing ground-covering plants, then maintenance can be cut to a very low level. Certain features need more upkeep than others. A rockery or series of well-positioned rock outcrops tend to demand a relatively high level of maintenance as those pockets of soil can be rapidly colonized by weeds rather than alpines. On the other side of the coin, an area given over to rougher grass, naturalized with bulbs and wild flowers can be a delight throughout the year with very little to do except three or four cuts with a rotary mower. It would be inappropriate, all the same, to think that a complete carpet of plants eliminates maintenance altogether. You may well have to cut back invasive ground cover from time to time, as well as thinning out a border if it becomes overcrowded. These chores, notwithstanding, deplete relatively short time and in my own garden, which is of a reasonable size, I expend a maximum of half-an-hour a week on maintenance - and I relish it! In The End, give a thought to automated irrigation. A hot summer can impart home just how significant regular watering really is, specially if you go away on holiday. There are a number of cheap irrigation systems available that are tailor-made for the domestic garden and it could be well-worth looking into these. Incidentally, they also use far less water than a sprinkler and are positioned so that planting gets the maximal benefit. Do take a look at house plants and best houseplants for cleaning air.