It is a sad fact that the result of every new garden project is the dreaded double "m" - more maintenance. Even innocent-sounding projects will require it. Building an arbor will mean training and pruning vines to reach over the arch; a paving job will cry out to be enlivened with pots needing near-constant upkeep. And so it goes in the garden.

If we don't want to take all the fun out of gardening - and nothing is more fun than new projects - we need to maximize our creative time and minimize the drudgery of maintenance. And just in case any of you Dads do more than mow and edge the lawn (sorry, I'm just looking at the model around my house), I hope these ideas for cutting down on routine tasks are among the more useful Father's Day gifts you get this year:

Now In Bloom Crambe cordifolia shows a startling discrepancy between foliage and flower: It's hard to believe that the branching heads of dainty white flowers rise up from such bold, cabbagelike leaves. Provide sun, rich soil and plenty of space, and the fragrant flowers will form a haze of delicate scrim reaching 8 feet high in early summer. The huge, heart-shaped leaves spread into a clump of crimped green 5 feet across.

Weeding. It's always with us, and you'll save yourself a lot of time if you practice weed birth control, pulling those suckers before they go to seed. Once seed is dispersed, you and your neighbors will be fighting the second generation, and then the third .... It pays to pull 'em as you see 'em.

Mulching. If you use a dark, rich mixture of well-composted manure and bark, the whole garden looks good. Called a feeding mulch, it's available in bags or bulk at garden centers and nurseries. Once you lay it down, it multitasks all by itself. In case you haven't had time to rake the soil smooth and pick up every bit of debris, it won't matter anymore. The mulch will cover up all that, show off fresh green leaves to perfection, feed the plants and preserve soil moisture. You'll earn a surprising amount of freedom from routine tasks just by faithfully pulling out baby weeds and mulching.

It works for me to think of my garden as composed of different maintenance zones. I concentrate my efforts at tidiness around the terraces and entryway, and the areas clearly seen from the house windows. The back bank gets weeded only once or twice a year - maybe.

Choosing plants thoughtfully. Especially as a garden matures, selecting the right plants cuts way down on time-consuming gardening tasks. Shrubs and the smaller ornamental grasses are a lot less work than perennials. It is as easy to love a tough, tenacious plant as a tender, high-maintenance beauty. And in the long run you'll be far happier with plants whose nature it is to become mostly self-reliant once established.

Using what you choose. Even more important than the kind of plant is how you use it. Planting sweeps and swathes (in smaller gardens this just might be three to five) of each kind of plant makes for a garden that is easier to care for and less fragmented visually (a lesson I have yet to learn myself, but I'm working on it). Key to success is the old "right plant, right place" mantra, which means siting plants according to their unique needs for water, sun and drainage. Why continually struggle to keep plants healthy? Clever gardeners learn what plants need and give it to them, making both plant and gardener look good. If a plant languishes, for whatever reason, go ahead and get rid of it - why spend time fussing about with failures when dozens of other possibilities are clamoring for garden space?

Getting down to basics. Lawn requires the most intensive infusion of time and water, so it's wise to use pavers, gravel, ponds and pathways rather than lawn wherever possible. If you pay attention to a plant's eventual size and give it adequate space to mature, you'll save yourself future pruning and removal chores. And it really does pay to spend time researching a plant's potential for invasiveness. Nothing is more irritating than realizing you've introduced obnoxious weeds into your own garden.

Valerie Easton is a horticultural librarian and writes about plants and gardens for Pacific Northwest magazine. She is the co-author of "Artists in Their Gardens" from Sasquatch Books. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com.