Low Maintenance Plants for Your NJ Garden

I grew up in a family of green thumbs. My mom loves gardening and for years, I helped her plant and lay mulch when I was younger. It was natural for me to take on gardening when I bought my own home. I started with simple plants and have now moved on to some things that require more attention.

                My friends often aske me for advice about gardening. Mostly, they are interested in plants that are easy to care for. I decided to write a helpful guide on some of my favorite low maintenance plants, that will still keep your garden looking beautiful! All these plants are perennials, which means they will continue to come back every year on their own.

• Tiger Lilies: These are native to NJ. They have a beautiful orange flower and can grow in almost any soil. Their flower is rather tall, so keep that in mind when considering their location in your garden. They only maintenance they require is being sprayed for deer. Deer enjoy the fresh buds on this plant. If they’re in a fenced in yard they should be safe.
• Stella D’oro Lilies: These lilies grow in large clumps and have yellow flowers that stay closer to the greenery of the plant. Once they have established themselves, after 1-2 years, they may begin to bloom twice, usually with less blooms the second time around in later summer. Again, these should be sprayed for deer as well, if they are accessible to them.
• Hostas: By far, my favorite. Hostas come in a large variety of hues and sizes. Some have 2 shades of green, green with white striping and sometimes a solid bluish green leaf. They typically have purple bell like flowers that grow on tall stems. Hostas do well in shade or sun and fill in very nicely. They make a great boarder if planted in rows or around the bottom of a tree. They don’t require much water as long as there has been rain. They grow pretty naturally around NJ and will continue to get bigger each year. Sometimes rabbits will nibble on the foliage, so you may want to consider spraying these with animal repellent as well.
• Cat Mint: This bee friendly flower almost mimics the look of lavender. It has small green leaves with purple flowers and has an amazing herbal scent! This is deer resistant because they find the smell to be “stinky”. This should be given plenty of room to grow and spread. It usually blooms around June. If you choose to, it can be cut back once the flowers begin to turn grey. If you cut it back, it will rebloom again by the end of the summer. This plant is very hearty. If you choose not to cut it back, that’s completely fine too.
• Lavender: There’s nothing not to love about this amazing purple plant. Another pollinator friendly flower. This plant lasts most of the year. Personally, I let this plant grow wild. No trimming, and it just keeps coming back and stretching out a little further each year! The scent also makes it deer resistant and its even lovely if you take few clippings and place them indoors in a vase.
• Bee Balm: I think the name is a giveaway that bees love this flower. Not only bees, but it also attracts butterflies and hummingbirds! This flower rows fairly tall, about 3 ½ feet or more and has a pink flower that resembles a pom-pom. This flower loves the sun and also has a very herbal scent to its leaves.
• Butterfly Bush: this bush is great if you’d really like to take up a bigger space. It typically has dark purple, light purple or sometimes pink flowers. Each year it will grow larger, both in height and width, so give it plenty of room. This is another great pollinator friendly plant that will also attract hummingbirds. Plus, if you pay close attention towards the end of summer, when the monarchs migrate south, you may notice an abundance of them for a brief time. In 2018, at one time, I had 10 monarch butterflies visiting mine! If you give the branches a trim, once the plant dies off in the fall, that will help it grow a little bigger the next year. If you choose not to, it will still do just fine.
• Bugleweed: This is a low growing ground cover with purple flowers. It’s also an evergreen, which bodes well if you are looking for something low maintenance. It literally requires no maintenance at all, as it even survives the winter. It will grow just fine in the shade, but I have found it does even better in the sun. just be careful where you plant this because it’s hard to get rid of.

As with any garden, there is some standard maintenance such as watering and weeding. All the plants on this list only require a minimal amount of watering and will easily thrive in your NJ garden. As with most plants, if they begin to get too big or too crowded you may want to consider dividing them. I also recommend getting the shake and feed miracle grow. Each spring I shake some on all my plants before laying new mulch to help keep everyone looking happy and healthy.