Archived on 6/5/2022

Easy gardening tips and colourful flowers for hands-off gardeners

ForestHull

24 May '21

The Evening Standard had a piece in the Homes & Property section on Friday about low maintenance gardening with suggestions for plants that can be grown with little care or attention.

Down towards the bottom of the article is a small section about Julie McMurtrie, also known as @365daysgarden on Inatagram:

Tips from a ‘handsoff’ gardening pro

In Forest Hill, south London, Julie McMurtrie is a dab hand at finding “hands-off” plants. The keen community gardener, who shares her images on Instagram @365daysgarden not only looks after her own garden but also the nextdoor plot and a community space at the end of the road. “I tried to make the planting really low-maintenance so I didn’t have to keep going down there and watering,” she says.

Outside the community cafe, Julie pulled up the paving and planted rock roses and lamb’s ears and has never had to water them. Next door she combined a “huge and gorgeous” cardoon with a tree mallow, while hers is a colourful self-supporting mass of geraniums, lady’s mantle and sisyrinchium that people stop to take pictures of. All need little attention and no additional watering.

Her top tip for a hands-off plant? “Perennial wallflower Bowles’s Mauve — it flowers in my garden year-round. And don’t forget geums, they flower all summer without deadheading.”

Check out her Instagram for lots of pretty flower pics, and the odd cake and fox: https://www.instagram.com/365daysgarden/