Three easy-to-grow, low-maintenance plants that look after themselves

Australia Broadcast Center

09-06-2025

At 96, Patricia Bate still enjoys the garden she grew with her late husband Noel, but at her age she needs plants that look after themselves.
Her lush oasis at Ulladulla on the New South Wales south coast is the result of decades of labour.
In 1991 the garden consisted of a grass patch but is now anything but bare.
A Spanish moss, which has been growing for the past two decades, hangs gracefully in abundance, with soft, trailing stems.
The blanket of Spanish moss, a plant native to South and Central America, grows on a trellis Noel planted for beans.
"My granddaughter Nicole noticed the birds were moving it, and they made a nest in the camellia," Patricia said.
"Then some appeared on the elk horn, and the tree fern, and she just watched, and gradually she worked out she would use Noel's trellis, the back of it, thread it through, which she has done.
"And we now call it Nicole's wall."
For 30 years horticulturist John Gabriele has been advising listeners on local radio program the Compost Heap.
He often makes recommendations for people who enjoy gardening but are aging, short on time or lack space.
"I had the pleasure of meeting Patricia a few years back at an event for Garden Clubs Australia, she's in her 90s and an inspiration to us all," John said.
Over the years Patricia has sought advice about her garden features, including a ponytail palm, strelitzias and the Spanish moss, which grows with vigour, draped and dappled among the tree ferns.
Spanish moss, a bromeliad in the Tillandsia genus, is an epiphyte, a plant that grows on other plants.
From subtropical regions, the plant grows well in the Illawarra climate.
"Some people refer to it as old man's beard, which has got this beautiful glaucous or grey-blue colour to the stems or the foliage, which are the stems," John said.
Hanging from boughs and branches it propagates easily and doesn't damage the plant it's growing on.
"Spanish moss draws nutrients from the atmosphere, so you'll get nitrogen fixation with thunderstorms and when it rains, it draws nitrogen from the moisture in the air," John said.
"If you've got one growing in a dry environment, sprinkle it with water every two weeks in summer, maybe a little bit more if it's dry and in winter you'd water it once a month.
Like most grey leaved plants, Spanish moss tolerates salty conditions growing in areas with salt-laden winds.
But like many introduced species, under the right conditions it can become an environmental weed, although John said it was not something that had been declared.
John said for older gardeners, softwood perennials provided colour and ease of maintenance as well as being drought-tolerant.
"Most softwood perennials don't require a great deal of maintenance, and you can get the cut-and-come-again types, which are relatively easy to grow."
Strelitzia is a plant native to South Africa that is very hardy and drought-tolerant, with an excellent picked flower.
"Strelitzia can get up to 10 metres tall, but the one that most people know of, the bird of paradise, is a fantastic plant to have in a garden," John said.
"It produces beautiful flowers that can be cut and brought indoors for arrangements or just left in the garden to enjoy.
"As the name implies, they don't produce woody tissues so pruning or cutting flowers from strelitzia, for example, is relatively easy on the wrist opposed to a woody tree or a shrub."
John said using softwood perennials and annual plants would provide colour and ease of maintenance.
Another feature of Patricia's garden is a slow-growing architectural plant known as a ponytail palm, a worldwide ornamental plant originating from Mexico.
"It was in a tiny pot, then went to a larger pot and that pot cracked, so it was put in the garden and hasn't stopped growing," she said.
John said it was a lovely, low-maintenance plant to have in any garden.
"It's basically a succulent for want of a better description," he said.
"Those types of plants, succulents and cacti, you'll find that older people tend to use a lot of them because of the low-maintenance requirements."