A Lazy Garden for Lazy Gardeners

Lots of people want a nice yard, but many people don’t have the time to put into endless gardening. However, if you use tough Florida native and Florida Friendly plants, you will mostly need to water them until they are established. A few plants might require cutting back once a year but beyond that you can have a nearly zero effort garden by selecting the right plants for your space. These plants will not only require less care than most but will also require less water.

By request, this post will highlight six species of plants that work best for an effortless Florida garden. Should this prove to be a popular topic, I will follow it up with more recommendations for a lazy garden.

Muhley Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris): You really can’t go wrong with this Florida native grass. Muhley grass can be found from Massachusetts south to Florida and west to Texas and parts of Mexico. In the fall this grass blooms with a mist of pinkish-purple seed heads and is incredibly beautiful.

Muhley grass is tolerant of rocky and sandy soils and is fairly salt tolerant. Growing to a height of about three feet, muhley grass makes a great mass planting for alongside a road or just a corner of the yard. As a benefit to wildlife, grasses provide great cover for butterflies, beneficial insects and other wildlife in the garden.

Pros: Effortless, attractive, wildlife cover

Coontie (Zamia floridana) is one of about 200 remaining species of cycads. Cycads are primitive palm-like plants that were a dominant plant species some 200 million years ago. Able to survive harsh conditions, yearly freezes, poor soil and even high salinity it is no wonder that some of these tough species managed to survive to modern day.

Coontie provides especially tough year round greenery for your garden. Read more about coontie here. These plants are very slow growing and can be a bit pricey to pick up, however once you plant and establish a coontie, it will be with you for a very long time.

Pros: Attractive greenery, effortless, provides wildlife cover

Climbing Carolina Aster (Symphotrichum carolinianum): Climbing Aster, as the name implies, is more of a vine than a shrub. It does not have tendrils that wrap around support structures, rather it clambers up over shrubs or through low trees to spread. Fence lines or a few wooden supports can provide great structure for this plant and will become mostly hidden.

This aster is deciduous but will keep blooming until the coldest part of the winter. After a freeze, expect climbing aster to be dormant. In the fall this aster will bloom with lovely pale purple flowers that are fragrant and are attractive to bees and butterflies alike. The plant will go dormant in the winter but does not require cutting back unless you want to keep the size under control.

Pros: Nearly effortless, attractive flowers, good for pollinators like bees and butterflies

Scarlet Sage (Salvia coccinea): Salvia is a beautiful flowering annual. Cultivated as an ornamental, salvia is actually a Florida native. Drought tolerant salvias wilt a bit in the hottest and driest part of the year but just one good rain and the start blooming like crazy. Although these flowers won't make it through a frost they do reseed readily and in the Spring will come back not only from root but also from scattered seeds.

Older plants can start to get leggy, so give the old flower tops a trim once they have bloomed to help control height and also to keep the plants dense with flowers. Other than trimming once or twice a year and just cutting them back after a frost, these colorful flowers require almost no effort.

Pros: Nearly effortless, reseeds itself, provides great garden color, butterfly nectar plant

Firebush (Hamelia patens): Firebush is a showy Florida shrub much beloved of butterflies. The trumpet shaped bright orange flowers are great attractors for larger butterflies like Monarch, Sulphurs, Zebra Longwing and even some Swallowtails. Also a favorite of hummingbirds, placing this shrub in your garden almost guarantees you some visits from your local wildlife.

Firebush can quickly grow into a tall shrub and can be pruned into a small tree. If you don't have enough room for such a large plant look for the dwarf variety often known as 'Compacta' which stays around the 5 to 6 foot range. If hit with too much frost, Firebush may appear to die back completely, but will often surprise you flushing back out in the spring with gorgeous reddish foliage.

Pros: Nearly effortless, provides great garden color, butterfly nectar plant

Scorpion’s Tail (Heliotropium angiospermum) : The unfortunately named Scorpion’s Tail really has nothing to do with scorpions or stinging. The common name of this native Florida wildflower derives from the arching shape of the flower stalks that bear a twisting row of diminutive 1/8th inch white flowers. Scorpion’s Tail is a small shrub with dark green foliage. After blooming, seedpods form that each contain two small nuts. The species epithet angiospermum means enclosed seeds.

As a shrub Scorpion’s Tail can reach about three feet in height and is fairly drought tolerant. Planted in partial to mostly shade, this species can thrive in poor soil conditions and is said to reseed and spread quite rapidly. To keep Scorpion’s Tail contained, you can deadhead the flower stalks before they go to seed. If you don’t mind it spreading, just leave it alone.

Pros: Nearly effortless, provides great garden color, butterfly nectar plant