"When you return home from a two-week holiday, you've instantly got a job to do," says Jake Sutcliffe, award-winning garden designer, as he gently encourages clients to let go of their lawns.
"Swap the grass for a mixed perennial border and get back the time you'd spend cutting edges, mowing, and scarifying!"
Jake Sutcliffe designs award-winning gardens across the UK – particularly for London homes – and in Lisbon, Portugal, where he now lives. He strives to reconnect a space with the local environment and work alongside it, rather than pushing against it. He's developed the vision for Armadillo Sun's stand at Chelsea Flower Show 2025, and here he generously shares his expertise on creating an abundant, low-maintenance garden.
Create a low-maintenance garden with expert advice from Jake Sutcliffe
Low-maintenance - or even no-maintenance - is at the top of the request list for time-poor individuals who love to relax and entertain in their outdoor space. Whilst the request can (occasionally!) make garden designers sigh inwardly, Jake embraces the challenge of creating affordable, no-fuss, beautiful spaces.
Bonus tip: if you are throwing an impromptu garden party and need to get your outdoor space looking fabulous fast, discover our three quick fixes to transform your garden in an afternoon.
An attractive, low-maintenance garden in Brixton, designed by Jake Sutcliffe and created by Farm Lane Landscaping.
8 top tips for designing a beautiful, easy outdoor space:
1. Start with the soil
Knowing your soil type and aspect (where the sun hits your garden and for how long) is the foundation of an easy-care garden.
Perhaps you love the classic low-maintenance example of a Mediterranean garden, but you're planting into heavy clay soil?
Over summer, it'll likely look fine, but the plants will hate a wet, claggy winter. They’ll start to die; there’ll be gaps; weeds will flourish. The low-maintenance, Mediterranean design becomes the absolute opposite: if your plants are dying and the aesthetic is falling apart, it’s not low maintenance!
"When you try to fit the wrong plant in the wrong soil, that's when gardening feels like an uphill struggle."
Focusing on the soil from the beginning – and considering what thrives in that environment – saves time, money, and frustration down the line.
2. Ditch the lawn
Grass is not the low-maintenance option it masquerades as.
‘Garden’ and ‘lawn’ are often synonymous – especially in the UK – but a neat, lush lawn is a time-hungry, thirsty feature.
An urban garden designed by Jake Sutcliffe Studio. Outdoor space does not need a high-maintenance lawn to look verdant and lush!
In Lisbon, Jake has seen gardens spending $4,000-5,000 euros a year on the watering regimen for their grass! In a recent design – for which he won an award from the Society of Garden Designers) – he swapped the lawn for native planting and a more natural sandy base. It thrives, connects with the surrounding landscape, and doesn’t require an unsustainable volume of water.
“A lawn can feel like the bottom line for a garden,” describes Jake, but gently challenging that perspective opens up a myriad of lower maintenance – and fun – alternatives.
For example, replacing grass with a simple planting scheme – like a mixed perennial shrub border – creates a beautiful, wildlife-friendly space that only needs a tidy in spring and cut back in winter. No need for mowing, cutting of edges, feeding, or scarifying!
3. Invest in materials
Thicker hardscaping materials equal less labour to install and maintain.
Jake enjoys finding clever ways to create budget-friendly hardscaping in his designs. An effective way to achieve this is to remove cement from the building process, thus minimising the labour costs of installation. He prefers instead to invest in long-lasting materials, like thick stone slabs.
A new garden in Fulham, designed by Jake and created by Farm Lane Landscaping, with chunky Yorkstone laid over compacted subbase and surrounded by Cotswold pebbles. No cement bags in sight!
For example, put reclaimed Yorkstone flags – which are about 8cm thick compared to 2cm Indian Sandstone – direct onto a compacted surface with some sharp sand, and there’s no need for cement. Whilst thicker materials are more expensive, the considerable reduction in labour costs sees the overall budget tumble.
"Materials like Indian sandstone and porcelain are so so thin and, whilst they cost a lot less initially, the labour required to make them long-lasting and survive multiple winters is huge."
Invest in materials, and not only is installation less expensive, but ongoing maintenance is much reduced.
Building a gravel patio: to create a low-maintenance gravel patio that your furniture won't sink into make sure to look through our 7 tips to stop garden furniture sinking into gravel.
4. Design-in water management
Planning smart rainfall management makes for a resilient, low-maintenance garden – and takes the pressure off the local water systems.
With an increase in the cycle of flooding and drought in the UK, Jake encourages us to manage rainwater within our gardens.
Permeable surfaces, like gravel or planted borders, allow the rain to soak into the soil (rather than running off into storm drains). Soakaways – essentially a pit filled with rubble or specially designed plastic crates – are especially important in front gardens to absorb storm, or grey, water and reduce the pressure on road drains.
Thinking about water from the beginning creates a better, drought-resilient, outdoor space. It needs less input from you, in terms of watering for example, and helps the local environment too.
5. Avoid awkward angles
A garden designed with sharp angles looks stylish on paper, but it's harder to maintain in practice.
For a successful, low-maintenance space, Jake advises against creating seriously acute angles at the junction of hard and soft landscaping. Tiny corners and tight wedges become spots where nothing can grow as the soil becomes thin and dry.
Jake describes it as “designing in an impossible situation from day one.”
Simplicity is almost always the best option, with generous, sweeping shapes – especially if you do keep a lawn as mowing is easier too.
6. Group plants that want to be together
Let nature lead your planting combinations.
Once you’ve identified your soil type, look to natural habitats for inspiration, whether that’s coastal cliffs in Portugal or wet meadows in the UK.
“In planting design, the best inspiration is these beautifully wild areas,” emphasises Jake.
If plants thrive together in the wild, they’re likely to get along just as well in your garden: a shortcut to a low-maintenance planting plan.
7. Let nature have 60% of the garden
The more garden you hand to nature, the less time spent scrubbing, sweeping, and maintaining.
In small or city gardens, Jake suggests a 60:40 split: 60% of the space for the plants, bugs, and birds, and 40% for you – your outdoor dining, BBQs, and seating.
The two will intermingle, but keeping this balance helps to put a cap on costs (planting is often less expensive than hardscape) and supports your local environment, too.
Plus, embracing a little wildness requires less upkeep and maintenance!
8. Accept plant failures and move on
If it keeps dying, let it go!
Plants die, sometimes for no apparent reason. Even the illustrious Gardener’s Question Time panel have a plant nemesis that they just can’t keep alive.
If you’ve given it a good(ish) chance of survival and it’s still shrivelled and thrown its roots in the air, then take it as your message that that plant really doesn’t want to be in your garden!
A lot of time, money, and heartache can be spent on repeatedly planting the same thing, for it only to die again (and again).
Jake highlighted his dad’s (unfruitful) perseverance with lavender as I lamented my annual battle with particular salvias.
Jake’s advice: “don’t take it personally” – save time and money by accepting it and choosing something different.
Finally, in a low-maintenance garden, no-fuss furniture is a must!
The Armadillo Sun outdoor furniture range is easy-to-clean, stain-free, weatherproof, and looks inviting year after year.
About Jake Sutcliffe
Jake Sutcliffe is an award-winning garden designer based between the UK and Lisbon, Portugal. Enjoy more of Jake’s work at Jake Sutcliffe Studio or, for London-based landscaping and maintenance, visit Farm Lane Landscaping.