My approach

My goal is to have a set of fairly low-maintenance, informal, native New England gardens, a healthy natural forest, and a lush but not necessarily perfect lawn. The more birds and butterflies the better.

New plants:  I intend to add only "native" plants. I started out defining "native" loosely; thus I planted a couple of western flowers not native to Massachusetts. For example, blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella or aristata), though this did not seem to survive the winter of 2013-14. Now I am leaning toward a stricter approach: local natives only (and not including naturalized plants), and species versions instead of cultivars and other varieties. I reserve the right to be more or less dogmatic about this. Appalachia is OK for now, but not the Rockies.

Existing plants:  If it's non-native but non-invasive and I like it, I will leave it alone, or maybe transplant it to one of the gardens that already has non-natives. If it's invasive, I will eventually get rid of it. For now, my authority on invasiveness is the USDA [plants.usda.gov].

Chemicals:  My preference is to use only organic stuff, and as little of that as possible. My wife has other ideas, and she controls much of the space close to the house. Our compromise is that she uses mostly organic fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, etc. on the lawn and on her gardens, with a little Roundup in certain spots. In my gardens and the forest I intend to use no herbicides or insecticides, maybe some organic fungicide (such as for powdery mildew), and only organic fertilizer (in which category I include Hollytone and other Espoma products). So not dogmatically natural, but the best I can do.

General:  The property is big enough that low maintenance is important. I realize I will not be able to just "set it and forget it", but for each of the garden areas, I would like to limit my chores as follows:

• weed once a year
• fertilize or enhance soil once a year
• mulch once a year (plus maybe some shredded leaves before winter)
• keep required pruning to a minimum (e.g., dead branches, minor shaping only)
• water, in the summer only, and only when it hasn't rained for a couple of days
• relax the above rules as needed for new plantings or for the first year.