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Tips for the Inattentive Gardener

• Avoid geometric designs and topiaries. Any mistake, weed or dying plant will show up. 
   
• Use an electric drill with an auger attachment to drill bulb holes. You can do hundreds in a couple of hours.
   
• Naturalize. Plant crocuses randomly in your lawn, and daffodils at the edge of your yard. They will return year after year with little extra work. 
   
• Plant things that are native to your area. Nature intended them to be there, and nature will help you keep them alive. Now your garden is full of "native plants" not weeds.
   
• Consider irises, daylilies and hellebores. Some forms of irises and daylilies will repeatedly bloom throughout the season.  These plants can often tolerate extended neglect.
   
• Plant flowers more randomly instead of grouping them. Yes, this violates standard gardening principles. However, if you do this, and put your plants close together, no one can tell if a few weeds are present.
   
• Some weeds have nice flowers too.
   
• Planting from seed can be tricky. It is easy to forget what you have planted. Sunflowers are an exception. They are large, dramatic and easy to grow. They are great to plant over things that have died or have just finished blooming for the season. 
   
• Make the garden a family task. If you have the type of garden that requires less weeding and fussing, the kids are more likely to be enthusiastic. 
   
• If the kids are to help, avoid some of the more toxic sprays and herbicides. Using corn gluten on your garden as a pre-emergent weed killer may avoid the use of more toxic sprays. Horticultural/castor oil can help control moles and several varieties of insects. Pepper Wax, capsaicin, found in hot peppers, repels insects.
   
• Consider the use of landscape fabric and mulch when you plant your garden this will cut down on the need for weeding.
   
• Spraying plants with Miracle Grow, diluted with water, can bring many plants back from the brink of death.
   
• Benches and all-weather sculptures can beautify your garden and they will not ever die.
   
• Use your periodic bursts of energy to do the regular maintenance tasks such as fertilizing and mulching. These tasks don't always have to be done when everybody else does them.