For non-gardeners, or those who like to garden - so long as it can be done within TV ad breaks, designing your garden for low-maintenance doesn't have be a chore. In fact, if you design your garden well then most of your gardening activities can be spent on enjoying the things you like to do - like planting, cutting flowers and trimming your plants to shape.

To achieve this there are certain gardening jobs that you may want to avoid in the planning process. These chores are usually quite time-consuming, take a heap of effort and in some cases be quite banal. So which jobs can be avoided? Check these out;

1. Lawn Edging - this is by far the most time consuming task one could perform in their garden, especially in the warmer months. Design your lawns to butt against a wall or a fence rather than run into garden beds. This will allow you to use a brush cutter or line trimmer to keep the lawn under control. Exposed edges will always require edging to keep them from extending their boundaries and looking neat.

Time saved each week: For a small lawn at least 20 minutes in spring and summer.

2. Hedge Trimming - if you would rather watch football or clean the oven than get out in the garden, plan your landscape design without hedges. Depending on what plant you are trying to hedge will determine how much effort is needed to maintain its look. You can still grow a hedge but choose plant varieties that look good without the formal trim.

Time saved each month: Obviously it depends on the hedging plant and how many hedges you have but conceivably it could save you an hour or more each month by not trimming them.

3. Lawn Mowing - no prizes for guessing that this would be a job to avoid. Rather than spend time mowing and manicuring a lawn opt for ground covering substitutes. These could be plants that don't require as much mowing such as dichondra and chamomile or it could be non-organic coverings such as paving, concrete or gravel.

If you really want lawn, design your areas in such a way that it cuts down the time needed to manicure them. Round your edges rather than allowing them to butt into a 90° corner and try to keep obstacles at a minimum. You could always contract someone else to mow your lawn for you.

Time saved each week: Easily 20-30 minutes.

4. Weeding believe it or not this is one job that can easily be avoided. Design your gardens so that plants grow closely to each other thereby inhibiting weed growth. Use semi-permeable weed-control mats to lay under your mulch or just mulch heavily enough to restrict their growth.

Time saved each week: 10-20 minutes.

5. Digging if you plan to grow vegetables plan not to dig. Create raised beds that don't require any tilling of the soil but are grown on top of last season's compost or layers of straw. Buy yourself a compost tumbler rather than using the bin method.

Time saved each week: 5-10 minutes.

6. Watering this is one job that I'm not a big fan of as it can be incredibly time consuming. Install some garden reticulation and set it up with an automatic controller to come on when the plants need it the most. Then, it's merely maintaining the system for leaks and breakages which in comparison is little time at all. You can even put your hanging baskets and container plants on the same system.

Time saved each week: Upwards of 2 hours or more.

7. Pruning and deadheading this job comes down solely to plant choice. If you opt for plants that are high maintenance in the flowering department you will spend forever keeping the plant in shape and free of dead blooms. This is why many people select foliage plants that don't require this much effort.

Time saved each week: 10 minutes or more.

So, as you can see, with a little design forethought you can easily save yourself a couple hours each week in garden maintenance. Which will give you more time for...gazing.