The Deep Middle

Designing a Natural Garden with Plant Communities

12/9/2022

What is a plant community? How does it form the basis of a healthy natural garden that is in sync with the local climate and wildlife, making it resilient and dynamic to changing weather and other environmental pressures? These are critical questions to ask that you won't see answers to at a nursery, on a plant tag, or in most garden design books, so let's dive in.

Plant Community
A plant community is a community of plants. Oh, did you want more clarification as it applies to garden design and management? Ok then. A plant community is a community of plants where each plant is able to fulfill its natural abilities and characteristics, within its garden niche, without being marginalized or marginalizing other plant species within the garden. What this boils down to is that no plant is so aggressive it takes over, but also that no plant is so behaved it fades out of the landscape due to other plants taking over.

A plant community is both mutually supportive and mutually combative. In the wild plants jockey and tussle for resources -- what we see in a meadow, for example, isn't balance so much as it is a blood-thirsty fight for water, sunlight, and soil nutrients. The plants in that wild community are all filling their roles: some are early colonizers, some take years to bloom, some are aggressive, some are behaved clumps, some are groundcovers, some like to have part shade of taller plants around them, et cetera.

So a plant community in a garden setting is an assemblage of plants that "work together" to foster a variety of ecosystem services, from habitat to erosion control to whatever goals we have that plants can help fulfill. The plants we've selected work together because we've researched their behaviors, from reproduction methods to bloom time and color and mature size, while also managing the space to curate the continuity of the community as it evolves and ages.

Plant Community Components
We'll have groundcover plants, seasonal theme plants at various layers, and taller architectural plants (learn about these in the online class on layers). There will be plants that spread easily by seed or runners and some that tend to clump in tight masses only. Some will emerge early in the season, fade, and then later season plants will take over the show. There will be plants that thrive in the early years, called early-succession species, to stabilize the site and reduce weed competition, then they will give way to perennials that have finally rooted out and are ready to take over. There will be grasses and sedges and forbs, but also woody plants like shrubs and trees of various sizes -- all which together increase ecosystem services and provide dynamic habitat edges where wildlife thrive.

Most importantly, the plants in this community will have evolved and be adapted to the site conditions -- sun, soil, drainage, etc. They all come from the same wild conditions, and so we know they should work well together here in a replicated natural garden bed, even if the garden bed can never be as dynamic or lush or complex as the wild plant community. Remember, in a prairie or meadow there can be dozens of plant species in a square foot or square yard. In a garden, that's often impractical and -- from an aesthetic standpoint -- often undesirable (it would lead to a messier looking garden). However, the one place you can pack in plants that are critical to the health of the site, from weed control to habitat to increased soil moisture through soil shading, is the groundcover layer; and this is especially true if the ground layer becomes shaded to a good degree by taller plants. There are a plethora of species 12 inches tall or less that love shade or part shade, from sedge to geranium.

Plant Community Management
There are always additions you can make, and again, certainly in the ground layer. The showier seasonal theme layer -- forb species that take over the aesthetic flower show in various weeks of the growing season -- may require more careful intention. This intention is where massing and drifting come into play, if those species grow like that in the wild. For example, Asclepias tuberosa is more of a loner than a big drifter of 7 plants, however, Allium cernuum loves a long sweep or drag of 15-30 plant together (especially evident because it spreads primarily by creating new bulbs underground, whereas the Asclepias sets seed aloft in the wind to scatter all over the place). This is the kind of knowledge we need to have when selecting plants for a site and when matching them to one another. Plants aren't art to place on a shelf -- they are dynamic and responsive, which is a benefit to the gardener who doesn't want to be a helicopter parent to plants.

Over time, management will be primarily addition and subtraction once the initial garden bed has established and filled in. You'll notice plant succession, and which species may have adapted too well to the site. Often, a late winter or early spring cut down will be the biggest action to take. If the garden has a significant warm-season bunchgrass component, you may need to rake out fluff every 2 years or so to encourage forb seed germination (they need light hitting the soil surface) or, if you can, the occasional burn.

A dense plant community thrives on disturbance and shifting weather patterns and climate. The community shifts from year to year, with new surprises, just as in a wilder landscape. This dynamism is a benefit, as gardens are not static statues. The dynamic nature of living organisms means the garden -- if planted densely enough with good diversity -- can adapt more easily than a mow and blow bed with just a few species, dominated by wood mulch, with lots of open gaps susceptible to stress (weeds, drought, erosion, flooding, etc).

If you want to learn much more on how to create a natural garden based on dynamic plant communities, the book Prairie Up will help a lot -- as will the even more in-depth online video classes.

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Are We Rewilding?

11/24/2022

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Someone asked me about the term "rewilding" and if I thought that's actually what we're doing when we replace traditional urban landscapes with gardens that use plants and plant communities endemic to the region.

This might get to be a long post, because the conversation isn't just about academic semantics. A recent thread on Twitter explored how the term "rewilding" echoes a lot of violent and privileged colonialism -- this idea that it takes people (often white) with privilege (money) to create an ideal landscape. You see this a lot with naturalistic garden design today, which is still embedded in a tradition of privilege. Even I struggle with helping folks get an echo of what they see in books and magazines -- least of which is learning a whole new way to garden with nature and not against it. But gardens are still, in so many ways, unnatural. And they always will be.

For me what we're doing is not rewildling. I know that the gardens my firm creates will never be as dynamic or rich or stable or beneficial as the prairie we eradicated not that long ago. There's just no way. The best we an hope for is an evocative echo that provides some key resources for more mobile species finding an island of refuge -- weather that refuge is among a sea of lawn or a sea of corn. The goal of our gardens is to wake us up in a time of mass extinction, to reconnect us to the world and other species, and to heal our bodies and minds (because that's what plants do, literally and figuratively). We need to experience more nature where we live and work -- that's in the urban environment for 80% of us.

Native plant gardens are not really about restoring ecological function in the ways a prairie restoration is -- there's an issue of scale here. Plus, urban gardens have to be more concerned with a balance of ecology and aesthetics. These are GARDENS after all, highly managed and curated spaces. So is a prairie restoration, alas.

So no, our gardens are not rewilding -- they are reconciliation ecology, the definition if which is: "the science of inventing, establishing and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity in places where people live, work, and play." That was coined by Michael J. Rosenzweig, and for our purposes here we can say that reconciliation ecology is about mending the rift between humans and other species through intentional design and management choices in the places we live. That intention includes using native plants, using local plant communities in designs that mimic wilder plant communities, reducing or erasing the use of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides and even watering, and observing nature as it comes with an eye toward letting said nature guide the evolution of a site.

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Natural Garden Design Advice Smorgasbord

11/4/2022

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There Are No Shortcuts to Natural Garden Design

So much of it has to do with learning the plants, learning from plants, and embracing the hard truths they teach you. Sure, every garden echoes life lessons, but perhaps the natural garden does so even more.

Lessons in letting go of your control, lessons in stepping back and listening or observing, lessons in trying again, and lessons in giving up the thing you labored over (seeing it not as a place solely or mostly for you, but for other species).

Natural gardens can take longer to establish than a traditional landscape because in the latter the plants are kept in a perpetual state of establishment from the get go via pre-emergent herbicides and annual wood mulch applications. In the latter, plants are spaced far apart like statues or mile markers on the highway, with any self sowing or spread seen as weediness.

A natural garden will never be complete. It is rambunctious and it is determined to find its own way, like a preschooler, changing by the week, the day, even the hour. As gardeners we are forced to learn the true nature of plants, their preferences over ours, and discover the joys of constant and responsive management vs. scheduled and intensive maintenance.

But none of this easy. Not because of physical labor -- perhaps there's just as much in natural design as a cookie-cutter industrialized bed. No, this is not easy precisely because it asks us to cultivate that which we don't fully understand or may never fully understand. Plants don't come with install guides like a new fridge or bike that lead to specific and universal results. It's a leap of faith, setting things in motion and then allowing the plants to be our guide, not the other way around. In the 21st century gardens will achieve greater balance between all species, even as we struggle to navigate and survive climate disruption. I can't think of a better place to cultivate defiant compassion.

The Problem With Plant Lists

[I posted this over at Milk the Weed -- it's important to consider when getting and giving advice via online forums and social media pages. However, please note that when you work with me via an online consult, I can provide everything below as we collaborate on your landscape.]

I cannot provide you with a native plant list to try at home. I cannot do this because I am not familiar with your site conditions, which have a litany of variables including soil type, drainage, sun exposure, nearby plant communities, aesthetic and practical considerations, and of course ecoregion. And cost. Be wary of anyone who provides a native plant list and treats it as a universal prescription (this is rampant on FB). To me, this is unethical.

Now, in my articles and classes I may discuss specific native plants for specific situations, but those are just guiding examples based on my experience in my ecoregion, and in that way can serve as a launching pad for you. But they are not apples to apples. Some species might be, and that's great. In order to set yourself up for the best chance at success you need to do the research yourself. That starts with learning about your ecoregion, studying up on what's native to you (university extensions, guidebooks, even basic lists from Xerces and Pollinator Partnership), researching each plant and how they grow and where (guidebooks, reputable nurseries and botanic gardens and websites -- the more local / regional the better). And yeah, the forthcoming book Prairie Up is loaded with this information and resource tips, but they are also in the online class Starting Your Native Plant Garden.

You gotta do your homework. You really do. Winter is great for this process. And yes, it's worth it on so many levels, least of which is overall empowerment and confidence. No, all of this research is not a magic bullet -- plants are plants, weather is weather, deer are deer, etc. The plants will eventually teach you and show you the way as the landscape evolves and you with it, especially if you design with plant communities vs. plants as lone specimens. Gardens are not cookie recipes. There are no precise measurements that lead to a specific outcome -- not unless you have a full time staff and sizable management budget.

Choose the plants that work for the site and with one another (think habit and sociability aka rate of spread), and you're way ahead of the game. Let plants move about. Let them self organize. Let go of helicopter gardening. This all takes years.

P.S. -- You should probably do most of the above for exotic plants, too.

Seeds $ vs Plugs $$$

This is a good time of year to discuss seeds vs plants, especially since the concern on so many social media forums is showing design purpose.
While seeds are less expensive, it takes years for them (perennials) to develop into a sizable plant. 2-4 years. If you get rain at the right times. Dependent on soil type and ecoregion. It can then take a few more years for the plants to self select and organize into discernible patterns, like sweeps and drifts, that a passerby would interpret as intentional or "pretty."

The design of a seeding is much less controlled for the average gardener. "A sown garden is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." If there's any way to get potted plants, even plugs, and curate the species used so they match one another and the site, that might solve some long term management issues. Even simple massing of forb plugs among a grassy matrix can help when it comes to design and layout.

You can also put a thin 1" layer of wood mulch in the planted / plugged bed to show it's a "garden" -- you don't need a border or barrier per se to highlight the space as intentional (although you could trench a border). Remember though, you can't seed into wood mulch. If you're 100% seeding species then diversity is super critical. And on bare soil rates are 50 seeds per foot, if into killed grass 100-150 seeds per foot or more. It's starting to get expensive to the point where you might be thinking why not just buy plugs instead -- especially to get a garden much sooner AND control the design to appease neighbors.

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Fall Color Isn't Just for the Trees -- Celebrate Herbaceous Perennials

10/19/2022

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It's the time of year when breathtaking photos show autumn foliage color, primarily from northern and eastern deciduous ecoregions, as well as riparian areas on the Plains and southwest. Well folks, trees and shrubs are just one layer. Maybe they are the most obvious, but we're here to highlight just a tiny glimpse into the awesome diversity and color of the ground plain. We're looking at you, forbs and grasses and even sedges (hover over images for the scientific names). Enjoy the pictorial, which comes mostly from the online class on fall and winter garden design.

Diverse fall color comes from a diverse species palate, and hints at the beauty winter seed heads will bring.

Amonsia hubrichtii is an obvious choice, but you should also look at A. illustris for bright yellow.

Backyards were meant for seasonal meadows with a thousand ecosystem services year round.

Shcizachyrium scoparium, Bouteloua curtipendula, and Sporobolus heterolepis matrix takes over the show even through winter.

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How Plant Choice Leads to Good Design and Good Neighbors

9/16/2022

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Don't just dig a ten dollar hole for a one dollar plant, but also spend ten minutes researching that plant before you ever buy it. Successful, natural garden design starts at plant selection. If you end up choosing plants that will get too tall or spread too aggressively (creating a monoculture you hoped to get rid of in the first place), it's likely that as a gardener you'll feel more discouraged than you need to be.

While natural garden design is always about learning from the plants and letting them show you what they want, it's also about trying our best to select species that will work well in the site conditions, in the ecoregion, and in that chosen plant community. This invariably means plants that won't lend to the "weedy" look neighbors and weed inspectors will abhor. Of course, there are also elements of design that are critical -- like placing taller plants in the middle or back of beds, repeating groupings / patterns, and have cues to care like wide paths, benches, art, signs, etc.

In this piece we'll briefly explore several landscapes by looking at the plants, why they were chosen, and what we expect management to be.

First, it's important to note that species discussed here may not be native to you. In fact, these plant communities may not even be applicable to your ecoregion. So as you take some of this with a grain of salt, know it's always your job to learn your place and plant with local nature in mind.

The above photo shows a roughly 350 square foot bed in front of a typical suburban home. There is a matrix of grasses -- Bouteloua gracilis and Bouteloua curtipendula -- planted about 15-18" apart on center. These species become the living green mulch from which forbs emerge. All of these species can be seen growing in the wild together, and / or are from the same ecoregion and thrive in similar site conditions. This is step one to making sure your garden is off to a good start when using native species.

Second, this plant community is using each species' natural tendencies for a purpose -- to build layers and fill the ground plane, which means less weeding and erosion, and increased soil moisture and soil building. This bed was not amended. The sod was spray killed with a one-time treatment, a thin 1-2" wood mulch layer applied, and then the plugs (younger, more affordable plants) were drilled in place.

And one more aside -- notice that no plant is over 3 feet tall. This is on purpose, and part of meeting the neighborhood in the middle. There's no floppy Ratibida pinnata or Helianthus, and no aggressively rhizomatous Asclepias syriaca (which also gets quite tall). Using those species would absolutely create a weedy look to most folks.

So let's look at the species and what each is contributing to the community and design:

GRASSES
Bouteloua gracilis -- 12-18" green mulch / matrix / groundcover
Bouteloua curtipendula -- 12-18" green mulch / matrix / groundcover

FORBS
Callirhoe involucrata -- 12" vining groundcover weaving its way among other plants filling in gaps, long bloom season
Monarda bradburiana -- 18-24" clumping perennial that blooms in early summer and provides ornamental winter seed heads
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium -- 24" slowly rhizomatous (in clay soil) perennial that provides summer blooms and winter seed heads
Heuchera richardsonii -- 12" (24-30" when in spring bloom) with dense basal foliage for groundcover and contrast to thinner grass leaves
Echinacea pallida -- 24-36" bloom that provides superb winter interest and structure
Coreopsis verticillata -- 18" summer bloom, slowly rhizomatous.
Anemone virginiana -- 24-30" bloom with poofy fall seed heads
Liatris ligulistylis -- 24-36" thin spire of late summer blooms, uses a very small footprint
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium -- 18-24" mounding, shrub-like perennial with late autumn bloom, provides some formal shape

Now, there's FAR more to consider about this plant selection and arrangement, considerations such as root structure, reproductive behavior and senescence -- all topics I explore in far more detail in the online classes and my forthcoming book (December 2022 / January 2023). But all that we need to really consider for now -- from an introductory standpoint -- is that these plants fill niches, provide continuous bloom succession for human aesthetic concerns and adult pollinator needs, are host plants to lots of insects, have decent winter interest, and stay at a manageable height and spread. They are all matched to one another and the site (soil, light, drainage).

Here's a wider view and different angle of the same bed. You can see a few gaps up front that need more grass additions, which is par for the course on any garden. Even natural gardens require gardening, it's just that the management is more responsive to what's going on any given week, requires less contact time per engagement, etc. Maintenance is on a calendar, and it often require intense and long periods of physical activity (mulching, weeding, etc).

I won't go into too much detail on this site, as it's principles are almost the same as the first example -- and many of the same species were used, even though the species are starting to self organize themselves in a different way. And that's great. The Bouteloua curtipendula matrix serves as a living green mulch from which clumps of Pycnanthemum tenuifoloum emerge, from which sporadic clumps of Echinacea pallida emerge, and among which Callirhoe involucrata creeps around and fills in gaps.

Annual maintenance for this and all spaces is a spring mow on the highest setting -- about mid to late March every year. In the first year weeding is the biggest challenge, usually deadheading annual species like foxtail, crabgrass, horsetail, and ragweed (pulling brings more weed seeds to the surface). Sometimes in year 2 or 3 we'll need to touch up with additional plugs. No big deal.

Here's a mid range shot of two beds -- the first is in the foreground. But I'm using this angle on purpose to show how natural wildscaping can blend well with more traditional strategies of garden design without losing any habitat value. It's all about making solid plant choices -- and even, over time, editing out choices that turn out to be incorrect. Sometimes you have to kill your darlings for the good of the whole.

These two front yard beds are split by a 6' wide lawn path. That's one cue to care. But as you can see in that far bed, some of the plants are presenting a more formal shape. Nearest the lawn path is a Baptisia minor, which tends to look like this for me in full sun situations. Behind it are two Smyphyotrichum oblongifolium specimens (one popped up on its own -- works for me as it creates a nice triptych).

As for the rest? See how the taller Eryngium yuccifolium and Echinacea puprurea are in the middle of the bed. And the same for taller and yet-to-bloom Oligoneuron rigidum. There's a matrix or what's become a border of Bouteloua curtipendula and Schizachyrium scoparium. Then in back further still are some Cornus sericea which I coppice almost every year to keep at a lower 4 feet tall or so (coppice means cut down almost all the way to the ground -- which I do in February or March most years). So there are traditional tiers, and none of the plants is super aggressive by seed or root runners -- certainly not so in dry clay soil with good plant competition (aka plant density and layers, aka thick plant communities, aka, plants need stress to thrive).

So I know that was a lot to take in over a relatively quick post, but that's honestly why I wrote a book and created online garden 101 classes -- so anyone could dive in deeper over and over as their gardens evolved. I think the ultimate lesson is this -- try your best to research plants. And while from a design and ecosystem perspective there can certainly be a lot of variables to consider, start by focusing on plants with more compact habitat and slower reproductive methods. Once you get that base working in your garden, you can expand, experiment, and challenge yourself and neighbors more through different plant species.

In summary: avoid the weedy look by selecting plant species with shorter heights and less ability to self sow or run a lot. And make sure you mass flower species and repeat those masses. Think 3-5 plants in a clump, with those clumps repeated evenly 3-5 times in a small urban front yard.

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No, We Don't Just Need to Plant More Milkweed

7/23/2022

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The call to plant milkweed -- while easily sharable and actionable -- is greatly reductionist and oversimplified. Maybe even harmful in some ways. I don't see it as a baby step or gateway, I see it as a sleight of hand.

Telling folks to go get some milkweed for their small foundation bed is like telling folks to get some wheat bread crust for dinner. Monarchs need an entire native plant community -- host plants AND nectar plants. And they need other interactions that occur in a dense, layered native plant community; interactions involving other species, interactions in the soil, interactions among the plants. Health and life is more than one genus of plants. And besides, there are many insect species at greater risk than monarchs, but we aren't planting for them.

My concern is folks will rush to plant milkweed and, like so many other of their garden plants, maroon them in a sea of wood mulch with plants spaced far apart. Milkweed, like most plants, did not evolve to grow by itself. Monarchs and milkweed need a plant community to thrive -- especially over vast stretches of a landscape, well more than a city can provide.

Monarchs also, most importantly above all else, need an end to burning fossil fuels as well as big agriculture as it's implemented now. Monarchs need MASSIVE systemic change to our society and culture at breakneck speed, not a "plant more milkweed" panacea that makes us feel better for a moment, but doesn't really practically address issues that will make a lasting difference for monarchs and so much more. Climate change is increasing occurrences of drought along the Mississippi flyway that stretches from Mexico to Canada, and it’s decimating fir trees in the overwintering grounds of the oyamel forest of central Mexico while also creating a risk of exposure to freak storms that bring cold rains and snows. And then there's the illegal logging.

I recently drove from the arrowhead of Minnesota to Des Moines, along the so-called I-35 Monarch Highway. There was a lot of mowing going on. In mid summer. About peak larvae action time. If we can't manage those small strips for wildlife rearing, what hope do we have in the monoculture fields beyond them?

Speaking of Iowa, it's at the center of monarch reproduction in summer (estimates are that around 38% of eastern U.S. monarchs come from the northern Midwest, the so-called corn belt and the largest slice of the pie). For those who don't know, over 99% of the tallgrass prairie is gone in Iowa and it's nearly as dire in neighboring states. Without those plant communities -- and the milkweed found within them -- what hope should we have?

This post is not to douse the flames of people rushing to spread the good news about milkweed -- most of us here already know the benefits of milkweed and native plants. But it is the idolatry over one charismatic butterfly species, and the subsequent narrow perspective on what the "solution" to "helping" them is, that becomes highly problematic if we're not willing or able to address the underlying or fundamental issues at play here. (And don't get me started on folks killing tussock moth larvae or milkweed beetles so there's more milkweed for monarchs to eat.)

No, you by yourself can't go convert 25% of Iowa from corn to prairie or get the U.S. to transition away from oil and coal. Yes, putting in more milkweed and a native plant garden in your suburban landscape is much more actionable and will get people talking / thinking (even though that can already feel like a mountain to climb for many -- what's native, what will work, what about the HOA, etc, all stuff we try to cover here and at the website as best we can).

What monarchs need is a revolution of compassion that draws a line against human privilege and supremacy, that says no more to this culture of waste and greed and violent colonization that's as suicidal as it is genocidal. And make no mistake, monarchs won’t vanish even if the two great migrations in North and Central America do (migration distances that many other butterfly species make around the world).

Don't just plant more milkweed. Call us all out on why we need more milkweed, more goldenrod, more aster, more bluestem, more coneflower, more prairie clover, more sedge. Call out our lawns. Call out our parking lots. Call out our farm fields. Call out our coal trains. Call out special interests that have taken over our system of government. Do what you can where you can -- a pot on an apartment deck, a front yard lawn, a YouTube channel, a farmer's market, a city council meeting, your close personal friend Bill Gates.

And don't just talk milkweed -- folks can handle the complexities, we're a highly-evolved species with immense hearts and immense brains. None of this is easy. It takes as much physical action as it does some complex personal, emotional reflection (and book reading) as we work for a healthier future. What are you going to risk in your life today to rewild your community?

[This post will surely evolve over time -- it's full of raw thoughts and emotions that will probably become a larger essay some day. Please keep comments civil and constructive without hyperbole.]

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Most Garden Problems Can Be Solved With More Plants

7/22/2022

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Many issues in a landscape bed can be addressed by increasing the number of plants in that bed. I see it time and again -- a native plant garden filled with wood mulch and plants spaced far apart, like in a bed that mow and blow landscapers install. Or like sculptures in a museum.
I think we treat our plants with too much reverence. We need to let them get tangled up, struggle, and compete. And even fade away. This is how nature works, and we do the plants -- and our goals of creating a sustainable ecosystem -- a disservice when we space plants far apart and without layers. This is something I hammer home in several of my lectures, especially "Fundamentals of Garden Layers."

So what are the benefits of greater plant density and layering? Here is a highlight list:

1) Mimizing herbivore damage. When we use bodyguard plants (grasses, sedges) around plants we know herbivores think are candy (Dalea purpurea, asters, etc), we can reduce our frustrations. One method of design, called matrix planting, is totally suited to bodyguard plants. Employing a matrix or base layer or ground cover of sedge or bunchgrasses placed every 12 inches provides a host of benefits synonymous with every bullet point on this list.

2) Increased habitat. Shelter, food sources, nesting sources, etc.

3) Reduced erosion. More plants intercept more rainfall which they hold on their leaves and stems (big trees are good at this, especially). More plants means more roots, which are also good at holding soil in place.

4) Increased soil moisture. As plants shade the soil surface they help slow evaporation. As plant roots amend soil naturally they help the soil hold more water.

5) Dense plantings compete much better against weeds. Nature abhors a vaccum and wants to fill in the space -- will you let it fill in with crabgrass or would you rather have some pretty flowers with foliage butterfly larvae eat? How much weeding do you want to do year after year after year?

So stop thinking about plants as little sculptures, even in a native plant garden created for wildlife. Wildlife don't want big gaps of wood mulch -- they want plants. Plants want plants. You want more plants. Your plant addiction wants more plants. Choose plants that self sow or run around a little to fill in gaps for free (but choose wisely based on research of the plant in your region, and matching it to your soil and other plants in your bed).

If you need help thinking this all through, there are 13 hours of video content to guide you step by step -- and fall is the BEST time to get planting.

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Making Natural Garden Design Simpler Through Wild Plant Communities

6/19/2022

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One of the hardest aspects of nature-inspired gardening is the fact that we need to know the plants -- which I suppose is true for most gardening. Still, this can be a significant hurdle, especially in regards a natural garden's need to reproduce and fill in and move about; we don't like to give up control, or let plants teach us.

So how can we select plants that work on site and with one another? Instead of taking the traditional gardening approach -- going to the nursery, reading plant tags, hoping -- it's time to look to wild plant communities, in person and in good books and websites. Research the plants. Put that time in, as it's like digging a good hole.

What grows together in the wild? How? If you want to make things a bit easier, use plants that grow side by side in the prairie or forest or desert. Or at the very least, grow in the same sort of environment (soil, light, drainage, competition, ecoregion) while matching their growth and reproductive habits. And of course, think about the niches plants will grow in and how to let them do their thing. Don't force it. Don't re-invent the wheel, especially at first.

Yesterday we planted a small front yard with these principles in mind. Of course, I'm a designer and I know a lot of plants at least moderately well, so I brought more things to the table -- plant and bloom succession, plant behavior, senescence and winter structure, controlling height so sight lines near driveways are clear, et cetera. But ultimately, I was selecting plants to work in various ways with one another, short term and long term. This is what I try to show you in my forthcoming book, and what I'll briefly highlight below plant by plant.

The 500' garden was planted into spray-killed lawn with a thin 1" layer of non-dyed hardwood mulch for initial and partial weed control. It's in full sun on a busy road with moderate pedestrian activity.

Bouteloua curtipendula (blue grama grass) -- Serves as the matrix. Gets only about 18-24" tall (that's mostly late summer seed heads).
Aquilegia canadensis (wild columbine) -- Short-lived perennial that will sow around in gaps and finger through the grasses.
Heuchera richardsonii (prairie alumroot) -- Large leaves shade the ground and remain through winter. Works well in drifts. Clumper.
Monarda bradburiana (bradbury's monarda) -- An ecoregion cheat because of it's shoulder-season blooms, shorter habit, and ability to fill in gaps.
Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower) -- Airy stalks reach 3' tall. Basal foliage stays low. Deep tap root goes below roots of other plants. Superb winter seed heads.
Rudbeckia hirta (black-eyes susan) -- Biennial provides early color and coverage, gently self sows, eventually fades away as perennials take over.
Asclepias tuberosa (butterflyweed) -- Slow-to-develop perennial that prefers to grow singly dotting the landscape. Deep taproot.
Callirhoe involucrata (poppy malow) -- Creeping groundcover with long bloom time, helps fill in low gaps and shade out weeds.
Coreopsis palmata (prairie coreopsis) -- Light runner will move between gaps, prefers less competition.
Liatris ligulistylis (meadow blazingstar) -- Tall but open stalks that push up through lower plants. Corms won't compete with fibrous roots of grasses or taprooted perennials.
Liatris punctata (dotted blazingstar) -- Shoulder-season bloomer with shorter stalks than LL, so works well with a short bunchgrass.
Conoclinium coelestinum (blue mistflower) -- A little patch by the downspout will bring early fall blooms to the space. Slowly spreads.
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (aromatic aster) -- Dense, short, shrub-like perennial that provides late season pollen and nectar. Slowly spreads.

There are several things to notice from this list (which does not include the shade plants nearer the house):

1) There's decent bloom succession from April to October.
2) There are multiple plant species that share similar roles -- creepers, architectural, etc.
3) Root structure was considered to create the same sort of layers below ground as above ground.
4) There's a general uniformity of height at about 2 feet tall, which will help show intention and control.
5) While you can't see it in the image, plants were initially placed in masses and drifts IF the species grow this way in the wild. This also will help show intention. Over time, the plants will find their own way, and can be left to this exploration or lightly edited to help maintain some of the original layout.
6) There's an idea of plant succession. For example, Rudbeckia gives us early color and coverage (nice basal foliage in year one of new plants shades out weed seeds from germinating). Aquilegia will probably give way in time as other plants shade the ground (its seeds need light to germinate). And the Coreopsis might not last more than a few years as it doesn't like competition, but if it can find the gaps it will keep popping up in new spots, much like the Callirhoe and Monarda, and keep plugging holes for us.

There's not really an aggressive self sower in the bunch for these site conditions -- you likely wouldn't want that in a smaller area. And there are only a very species that might get aggressive with us on this dry, sunny spot: Coreopsis, Monarda, Callirhoe; if they get a bit too exuberant they ear easily edited. Most species here are clumpers, and the density of the site -- everything on about 12" centers -- will keep plants more honest and more in tune with how they may grow in the wild where competition is an asset (which is why a matrix of grass is so useful, plus it gives us a nice uniform base layer people love to see, hence lawns).

So there you go, a deeper dive into one of our many installs this spring season. I hope it's helped you think about gardening in some new ways. If you want to keep the ball rolling with more instruction and nuance, try the suite of 15 online classes.

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Plants We Used in This Large Shade Garden

6/16/2022

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What native plants work in shady sites, from moist to dry soils? Last week our team installed a 2,500' backyard meadow, which replaced a hosta monoculture. Our dense planting of layered plants will help improve runoff issues while increasing pollinator habitat and helping out the overstory trees.

Keep in mine that not all of these plants will be suited to your site conditions, and their respective behaviors might not automatically mesh with any other plant on the list (think clumper vs spreader). We place plants intentionally in the landscape, to match the site and even microclimates as well as the nearby plant community. So having a list of "shade plants" is simply just a starting point -- do your research.

For example, Carex pensylvanica pairs well with a more aggressive runner (and runners run more in looser / richer soil) like the Conoclinium or Solidago, while Aquilegia goes semi dormant by mid summer so it works well among a more behaved clumper like Carex albicans.

What plants did we use?

Packera aurea -- golden groundsel

Aquilegia canadensis -- wild columbine

Polygonatum biflorum -- solomon's seal

Mertensia virginica (ephemeral) -- Virignia bluebells

Geranium maculatum -- wild geranium

Thalictrum dioicum -- early meadow rue

Heuchera richardsonii (in part sun spots) -- prairie alumroot

Amsonia illustris (in a spot that gets some late afternoon sun that will be hedge like) -- ozark bluestar

Blephilia hirsuta -- hairy wood mint

Rudbeckia laciniata -- cutleaf coneflower

Campanula americana (biennial) -- tall bellflower

Eutrochium purpureum (again, in a part sun spot) -- sweet joe pye weed

Eurybia macrophylla -- bigleaf aster

Conoclinium coelestinum (hoping the site isn't too shady, but it's not dense, deep, dark shade) -- blue mistflower

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum -- calico aster

Solidago flexicaulis -- zigzag goldenrod

Carex albicans (main matrix) -- white-tinged sedge

Carex pensylvanica (main matrix -- primarily used on slopes or erosion-prone spots) -- penn sedge

Carex sprengelii (drifts) -- sprengel's sedge

Carex blanda (scattered masses to create visual interest / texture) -- common woodland sedge

A few of these plants aren't strictly native to eastern Nebraska, but they are close enough -- their habitat value, garden aesthetic, and site benefits are well suited to the larger community. What else could we have used, though? Certainly more spring ephemerals like Uvularia grandiflora. One could always use more sedge species -- Carex radiata, Carex rosea, Carex eburnea just for starters. As for perennials: Asarum canadense would look nice for contrast, and there are other goldenrods and asters like Symphyotrichum cordiflium. Oh, and there's goat's beard, Aruncus dioicus. Phlox divaricata (to feed the bunnies, alas). Mitella diphylla (underused). Hepatica acutiloba. Frankly, there are just too many to list!

Shade gardens aren't difficult. Really. There are many, many options for a variety of site conditions -- especially for the eastern U.S. (what we know best here). Maybe we give up too easy and settle for what's available at thebig box -- like wildlife-snoozing Astilbe and Hosta. If you have a shady or part-shade space that's giving you fits, we can help you design the space, but if you're DIY check out the online classes on how to create layered landscapes for various sites.

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Horticulture as Colonizer, Horticulture as Liberator

6/7/2022

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Using exotic plants is not rewilding -- that's just the same old colonialism and privilege rebranded.

I know we have this unfortunate line in the sand between native and exotic plants; we humans are great at dividing ourselves and relying on black / white thinking (memes feed off this and I'm as guilty as anyone). But it gets far more complicated when we have to also consider other fauna in the landscape, not just ourselves. Who are we gardening for? What's left for them? And in what ways will we greenwash our privilege to convince ourselves that what we want is actually what local wildlife want?

Over the years I've been eviscerated for being a native plant proponent because it comes off as moralistic finger wagging akin to puritanical religious ferocity. It's a fair critique, especially in the first years of my devotion to native plants as a cause. But as I explore in A New Garden Ethic, folks who feel like they've been guilted are also folks who've been asked or forced to look inward more authentically and unnervingly, to confront their privilege and supremacy, and be asked to rewire their point of view -- no easy task as humans love to find a groove and stay in it (it's comforting and stabilizing amid the chaos of existence).

Every garden, no matter what plant we are using, seeks respite, joy, peace, harmony, connection, and celebrates most wildlife that partake of our creation. But again, "our creation" rings with a hubris reserved for an apex species. No garden is ever truly natural.

The native plant debate is the tip of a much larger iceberg. The real conversation is about climate change and mass extinction, about one dominate species being out of balance, and about our culture openly and directly confronting our preconceptions of self worth.

Asking gardeners who use plants from any point of the globe to "restrict" themselves to mostly species endemic to their local ecoregion is limiting purely from an aesthetic point of view. Any critique of a native plant gardener (didactic, myopic) could easily be used on someone who believes plant origin is irrelevant, however.

The dominant system in horticulture now is to use any plant from any locale as long as the plants work together on that site -- even if the landscape appears more "natural" (dense and layered vs plants marooned in oceans of wood mulch). Any advocate of native plants will be seen as a destabilization of the status quo, a fringe voice, a radical voice, and a voice that needs to be silenced. The same goes for those advocating for a reduction in urban lawns.

And the voice needs to be silenced because, again, native plant advocates are asking us to confront a much larger, much deeper, much more complex topic -- who we garden for, how gardens effect various ecological functions, and how gardening is an extension of human colonization, privilege, and supremacy.

Let me say that again: native plant gardening asks us to confront human colonization, privilege, and supremacy. It's a profoundly uncomfortable act, and few of us will embrace the journey because humans are resistant to anything that asks us to reconsider our perception of self, our perception of self in the world, and our perception of the world in general that we've carefully curated to stabilize our emotional responses to being alive. A garden is, inherently, a place of refuge, personal freedom, solace, and artful expression. When we complicate this reality in any way, we erode or entirely remove our ability to cope with our animal brain that needs to create predictability from chaos in order not to feel threatened or afraid. This is gardening 101. And this is why looking at a garden from the perspective of indigenous fauna will always feel like a threat -- and if anything, it's a direct link to our colonization of indigenous human cultures. Horticulture is rife with colonization and erasure and appropriation and renaming. You don't have to look far.

Until we address horticulture as part of a larger system of violent colonization, we'll be stuck in the surface-level discussion of native vs. exotic plant and seldom enact more constructive change to our role within the local, regional, and global environment as agents of social justice for other species. And perhaps what's also at issue is that we are all trying to work through and process our environmental grief, each of the five stages a hurdle that trips us up (anger, denial, despair, bargaining, acceptance).

Gardening is powerful. It is an act of liberation and compassion and empathy. Gardening also carries great responsibility and power as it bridges cultures (human and animal) -- or burns those bridges knowingly and unknowingly. In the end, every gardener wants and works toward the same goal -- coming home to the natural world and finding our way through the practice of touching the soil. In that way we will always be fundamentally united as we struggle to find our way forward.

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Native Plants Are Not No Maintenance, And No Mow May is Unwise

5/29/2022

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1)
Seeing that meme of the deep roots of prairie plants? Chances are you're also hearing someone say something like "this is why you don't have to water native plants" or "native plants are drought tolerant."

Just. No. It's always about right plant, right place. You could place a deeply rooted blue grama grass in a moist site and it will die. And native plants aren't automatically drought tolerant -- they aren't full of magic juice. Right plant, right place. Also, it's very helpful to water native plants during the establishment period -- and if your soil is sandy, it's critical to do so for months.

There are plenty of exotics plants that also have deep roots or are very hardy or drought tolerant.

And about those deep roots and supposed drought tolerance....

2)
No mow May continues to frustrate the heck out of me. Just letting your lawn go will not result in a lovely meadow that neighbors or wildlife will admire. If you're on an urban lot, chances are you won't be getting aster and indigo and prairie clover and coneflowers -- they aren't in the seed bank because your house was not recently built on top of a remnant prairie.

What you WILL get are a host of plants with marginal to little benefit to wildlife, and several that will be terribly aggressive: crabgrass, creeping charlie, barnyard grass. And of course invasive species placed on most city's noxious weed list, like musk thistle or garlic mustard.

There's little chance a neighbor will look at your "let go" lawn and think wow, that's cool, I want that, I understand it. There's every chance they will rightfully report you to weed control -- especially if you're not actively managing the space or designing it in some way, particularly with cues to care or making some sort of significant plant additions. It's better to design the space, to choose the plant communities that will work together AND support wildlife. Well, read some perspectives by pollinator specialists.

Now, I'm all for reducing mowing. And certainly for doing so in larger expanses, like business parks and city parks and golf course edges. Also -- kill you lawn.

I know I'm going to get a lot of flak for this post, but there is a lot of nuance to the above topics and reducing them to cute little memes will, I fear, set folks up for more failure than success. Topics similar to these are what I tackle in my next book, busting some myths and exploring the important nuances so we all have more success and appeal to both neighbors and wildlife.

As for anyone who argues "baby steps," well adults should be taking adult steps -- similarly full of big dreams, big hopes, big risks, and big faith.

Our climate and ecological crisis needs adult steps asap.

Keep on rethinking pretty. And prairie up!

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The Great Dandelion Debate

4/30/2022

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I admit I'm a bit frustrated this morning regarding the topic of dandelions. This happened because I have fought back against the many social media memes on the benefits to pollinators of dandelions. Whenever I do this I hear from folks who assume I am then pushing for the use of herbicides or other active removal.

I have never and will never advocate removing the European species from our garden beds, lawns, or city parks. First, it's a futile gesture. Genie + bottle. And since that gesture most often means employing indiscriminate herbicide, it's a non starter.

Second, while dandelions just don't hold a candle to native plant communities when it comes to wildlife support (adult and larval insects), I find GREAT value in other ecosystem services they provide. Here's a partial list:

1) Solid groundcover plant. We want layers in habitat gardens, and this takes up a layer most folks ignore. It blends in nicely when in a tightly knit community.

2) The nature of its habit / form means broad leaves help shade the soil, conserving moisture and preventing some other weed seeds from germinating.

3) The taproot helps open up compacted clay soil -- especially after construction.
Now, some studies have shown dandelion may be mildly allelopathic, reducing the ability of other plants to establish around it (its pollen may also be allelopathic). I'll take my chances.

And of course, we DO have at least one native dandelion species to consider.

The "problem" of dandelions is twofold: first, they look weedy because they most often occur in monoculture lawns or park spaces devoid of other concurrently-flowering species. This means they stand out like a sore thumb, an obvious affront to a highly-managed space that's held back from its full, ecological potential as a meadow. Dandelions are nature screaming to be set free.

Second, and on a more philosophical note, dandelions are evidence of our human supremacy and confront our guilt or shame over creating so many environmental problems. It's complicated -- we can embrace what we've done and move on calling our actions part of nature, or we can be aware of our mistakes and learn a complex lesson about how to do better in the future and / or address other species that are even bigger problems than the humble dandelion.

What's in a weed? A story of adaptation to be admired and loathed. A reflection of ourselves. A testament to our complex existence as stewards of life and our own hearts.

6 Comments

Letting Your Lawn Go is Not the Answer

3/9/2022

14 Comments

You want to help the environment, pollute less, use less resources, and create resilient habitat that's pleasing to both wildlife and people -- and often that means rethinking the lawn. But what happens when you let your lawn go or stop mowing?

It's going to look weedy fast. Without design intention your neighbors will be less apt to get on board.
Invasive species may establish. What's in the weed seed bank? You don't know. Could be some native plants -- likely aggressive seeders -- definitely going to be aggressive exotics.
Woody plants will move in. Without constant management tree seedlings will start to grow. This could be an issue if you live on a small lot or in an area where forests aren't a habitat type.

The point of this post is not to push you to some hyperbole, like "well then what should we do, slather the lawn in chemicals?" It's to get you to think intentionally about your space -- from design to succession, to what you ideally want to happen and to the big leaps your neighbors will have to make when you break from the status quo.

Over the years much has been shared on this website about designing a landscape -- from plant selection (sociability and size) to plant succession over time. When you let your lawn go or stop mowing, there's seldom a plan that takes into consideration management or neighbors. So if you let your lawn go, think hard about a management plan that takes into consideration your ecoregion and lot size, as well as your environmental and community goals. And know your plants.

If we're not working smartly with a plan and a goal, then we're just being lazy and ideologically polarizing for no reason. That's not helpful or neighborly.

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Resilient Native Plant Combos

2/21/2022

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Lately folks have been asking for simple, DIY lists of plants for two specific site conditions. While I discuss these lists a lot in a wide variety of social media platforms and at conference presentations, it doesn't hurt to lay them down here, either. To know more about why these work and how to arrange them, you'll need to research the plants as well as natural design methodology. I will say that, in general, the communities tend to work well together and be decently balanced over time. As you gain knowledge and experience you can augment these lists with what works for the site and with the older plants.

Full Sun / Dry Clay to Clay Loam

Bouteloua gracilis (sideoats grama) -- matrix
Heuchera richardsonii (prairie alumroot) -- late spring clumper, use in drifts
Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower) -- early summer bloomer, use in masses / drifts
Amorpha canescens (leadplant) -- mid summer blooms on this woody perennial, use singly
Liatris punctata (dotted blazingstar) -- mid summer, mass or drift
Allium cernuum (nodding onion) -- mid summer, mass or drift
Liatris aspera (rough blazingstar) -- late summer, mass or drift
Symphyotrichum oblongifolium (aromatis aster) -- late autumn shrubby bloom, use singly

Full to Part Shade / Dry Clay to Loam

Carex albicans (white-tinged sedge) -- matrix
Carex sprengelii (sprengel's sedge) -- matrix or specimen massing for contrast
Aquilegia canadensis (wild columbine) -- early to mid spring bloom, mass or drift
Polygonatum biflorum (solomon's seal) -- late spring bloom, mass or use singly
Thalictrum dioicum (early meadow rue) -- late spring male and female plants, mass or drift
Solidago flexicaulis (zigzag goldenrod) -- later summer / early fall, mass or use singly

To learn more about these plant groupings, plant pairing for other sites, and how to design / install / manage a natural garden in layers, please try our online classes. "Fundamentals of Garden Layers" and "Planning Plant Communities" are solid places to begin.

2 Comments

Choosing Garden Plants Based on Sociability

1/28/2022

8 Comments

I've long preached that plant tags don't provide enough information to make informed decisions at the nursery. But maybe you also shouldn't be making spur-of-the-moment, impulsive plant decisions if you have high expectations for your garden -- as an aesthetic space, as a habitat space, as a resilient space. That's why we have the internet and books and online design consults.

There are two critical pieces of information we need to know about plants before we dig one hole:

1) Root structure -- is the root zone fibrous, is the plant taprooted, is it primarily coming from a corm or bulb

2) Sociability -- how does the plant primarily reproduce (rhizome, seed) and at what pace, in what site conditions

The former is a bit simpler perhaps but it's part of understanding the latter. Let's say you'd like to use two aggressive species -- they spread fast by rhizome. Planting them together so they collide and bump heads is a good idea as they may help check one another. A taprooted plant, or one with a corm or bulb, would likely do well among a planting of fibrous-rooted plants because the competition underground is occurring at different levels. As for seeding, some plants will primarily seed near the mother plant, and others will cast themselves around. Some will germinate easily and soon take over, others will just be happy little surprises here and there.

A commonly-used sociability rating or index may go something like this:

1 -- the plant is primarily a behaved clumper that stays where it is, only growing in stature over time
2 -- the plant will creep or self sow lightly
3 -- creeping is moderate or self sowing is more liberal but it won't take over
4 -- give it 5 years and the plant will easily dominate the landscape

Granted, this index will morph a little bit based on ecoregion and site conditions. For example, Conoclinium, coelestinum spreads by rhizome easily in a rich, moist, loamy soil, but in clay and / or with dense competition (think fibrous-rooted sedge or bunchgrasses as a matrix) it's going to go from a 3 to 2 in most cases.

You can learn more about selecting plants at the nursery in the new online class Designing With Common Nursery Plants -- here's a video snippet from that lecture:

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Looking Back on 2021

1/15/2022

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It was our best year by far, not only from a business aspect but also outreach. We worked with over 30 clients in 2021 and saw much growth in garden installs and online classes, as well as the new online garden design community. It was exciting and humbling to be stretched in new ways and to come out on the other side of the gauntlet thriving, if not even more energized for what's possible in 2022. That's where theblong-distance, online consult came from, as well as the new online classes that keep appearing. Hopefully, webinars are next. And this fall Benjamin's new book will be released. Here are a few favorite pictures from the past year, both at HQ and some client gardens. Prairie up!

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The Not So Fine Art of Mixing Plugs With Seeds

11/18/2021

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Let's just dive right in. Why mix seed with plugs in your garden? Two of the biggest reasons are:

1) Cost. Doing 100% plugs will always be much more. That includes material and labor costs.
2) Maturity. Some plants will establish slower and those are the ones to plant.

I'm often mixing the too, specifically on sunny sites. What I'll do is design and plant the ornamental layer (forbs) using plugs -- think drifts and masses and tiers -- then sow in a warm-season bunchgrass. If the planting is in spring this is a simple 1-2 step process: plant plugs, sow seed. If it's in fall, the seeding must wait until spring when germination will be much better. When the grass seed goes down -- often using Bouteloua curtipendula, Bouteloua gracilis, or Schizachyrium scoparium -- I'll also toss in some annual forb seed, as well. The benefit there is to increase first year color as clients impatiently wait the requisite 2-4 years until the plugs establish fully and get going.

That grass seed can often grow quite fast, depending on site and climatic conditions that first growing season. I've had projects where sideoats grama shot up in 2 months to full size, and others where it took a year. This is important to keep in mind as you make your forb plug selections and ensure they don't get outcompeted by grasses the first year. In other words, research forbs that compete well with shortgrasses.

In shade I prefer to use 100% plugs. You're always going to get more guaranteed results when you plant plugs compared to seeding, and in shade, I just don't have the confidence with establishing a seed mix. By no means does that mean seeding in shade can't be successful -- I'd probably do it at a double rate and make sure to get a straw erosion control blanket on it.

If you are concerned about cost above all else, and also as anxious as everyone else to see the garden establish faster than a 100% seeding (which can take 4-6 years), then here's a trick -- create some nice 4 foot wide paths meandering through the area. Obviously, scale down the width based on total bed square footage (sometimes 2 feet is enough). Putting some of the space into paths will cut down on how many plugs you need, and have the benefit of creating access to the space which also shows design intention. You can also do this with a seating area or water feature.

If you're going to go 100% seeding for your forbs, sedge, and grasses, consider doubling or tripling your rates, keeping in mind touch up seedings will likely be in order. Do the perennials, cool season grasses, and sedge in late fall or winter, followed by annuals and warm season grasses in spring. You can find more on seeding guidelines right here.

The below garden was installed employing the forb plug and grass seed strategy in spring all at once. While we did have LOTS of crabgrass the first year, the sideoats grama totally outcompeted it in the second year. Right now it's weed tree seedlings that cause the most issues, which is to be expected. The space is mowed down each March and could stand to have some forbs added in a few spots.

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Flowers That Compete Well With Grasses

10/24/2021

7 Comments

I've been thinking a lot about this topic the whole year -- in part as I review installations from the past few years, and in part as I plan ahead for new ones.

In general, the benefit to warm-season bunchgrasses in a natural garden -- one based on plant communities and not specimens -- is that they suppress weeds, increase soil moisture, and hold soil in place. Not to mention habitat benefits for wildlife and winter interest for us. But over time grasses can out compete forbs, and this is especially true of taller species like big bluestem and indiangrass, both of which I'll never plant in a garden. But even little bluestem can self sow pretty well.

Recently, two clients with very small front yard lawn replacement meadows -- in which we used a short grass as a matrix or wood mulch replacement -- have been threatened by weed control authorities. That process starts with neighbors complaining of the unkempt look, aka nothing shorter than six inches. The additional issue here is that grasses tend to establish faster than most forbs, so the ornamental layer is lagging behind. There are ways to even the growth rate -- using grass seed and forb plugs, or planting into a loose soil medium, or using smaller grass plugs and larger forb containers (quarts or gallons). But in the end the same issues will arise -- the forbs need to have a fighting chance because grass is just as valuable to the various ecosystem services, whether the space is a regionally-appropriate meadow or an early succession space on the way to a shrubland or woodland.

What forbs have I noticed that tend to hold their own with bunchgrasses like little blustem, sideaots grama, and even blue grama? Let's start with a smaller, more manageable list with which you can experiment in a smaller space:

Baptisia spp (minor, australis, alba) -- I suspect these do well because of their deep central taproot that competes underground at a different level than fibrous-rooted bunchgrasses, and because the above ground form is branched and open. If a bunchgrass wants to finger up through it, no worries, as the Baptisia stems wire on up to sunlight and with bigger leaves to capture good amounts of sun.

Pycnanthemum tenuifolium -- I'm not sure why this species tends to do a bit better than P. virginianum, but I'm starting to notice a difference. Maybe it's that it is slightly more adapted to drier site conditions. In general I think P. virginianum is fuller and more vigorous, but not when grasses encroach in good density.

Dalea purpurea and candida -- Perhaps it's that these species find the gaps in bunchgrasses and exploit the heck out of those gaps. They also benefit from deep, central taproots and have foliage that's relatively open and airy.

Callirhoe involucrata -- It fingers nicely through and among grasses while taking heat and drought with aplomb. What else do we need to know?

Echinacea purpurea -- Although shorter-lived than E. pallida (which I prefer aesthetically), it does seem to hold its own. Maybe it's the larger leaves or the moderate self sowing, but it's the coneflower I'd use in a dense grass matrix even though it's over planted in the trade (don't use a cultivar, they tend to be weaker). One benefit to using it in a natural garden is that people recognize it, so it might help people read a non-traditional landscape and better accept it as purposeful. "Ah, I know that plant!"

Symphyotrichum oblongifolium -- After a few years this quasi-shrub, although it's a herbaceous perennial, will not allow much if anything to grow in its shade. Some of my specimens are even 3-4' in diameter but less than 2' tall. Their dense branching, even with small leaves, means little sunlight reaches the ground beneath them -- even Carex albicans vanishes. It's a lovely plant for wildlife cover in rain or snow, and it laughs at drought while being the last flower show of the growing season.

There are taller plants we could consider, too, that neither overwhelm or get overwhelmed by grasses: Liatris aspera, Oligoneuron rigidum, Coreopsis tripteris, Eupatorium altissiumum, and Symphyotrichum laeve. But tell us -- what works for you? And where are you located? Site conditions are also good information to know, as plant communities and their behavior differs.

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Why Lawn is Easier to Maintain Than a Natural Garden

9/27/2021

10 Comments

It isn't. But it also is. (This is going to get deep!)

I can't tell you how many clients come to me lamenting a spouse who loves their lawn because, in part, it is easy maintenance. I think, though, "easy" is getting confused with "simple and clear and familiar." Lawns are NOT easy to maintain -- it takes a lot of time every week, from mowing to weed eating, and requires making sure there's gas on hand (most mowers are gas powered), as well as maintaining equipment with lots of moving parts. That's not easy.

Perhaps "easy" means:

I have spent a lifetime mowing lawn and it's a known quantity.
Lawn maintenance is predictable -- when it gets X it's time to Y.
Fertilize, water, mow. Pretty simple, right?
Having a lawn dominate landscape means I fit in with those around me, and our animal brains have evolved for this survival technique.

Ok, that last one is a stretch for most, but it's there just beneath the surface. Perhaps the real difference rests in the contrast between the term "maintenance" and "management." The former implies specific actions performed at specific times on the calendar -- there's little second guessing as it's fairly cut and dry. The latter term implies being more actively responsive to what's occurring in the landscape and tweaking / pivoting at a moment's notice. For example, the landscape might be going great in May, but by June it's clear one plant is taking over or some gaps from winter kill have emerged. Now you have to figure out how many plants to remove or what kind to replace with, respectively. And the garden certainly won't look or act "as it should" immediately -- that could take years. A mowed lawn shows off hard work immediately; it's easily gratifying and uplifting.

Of course, gardeners know those last two sentences aren't entirely fair or true. A natural, native plant garden's show-off-ness is in rewarding patience and seeing failure (or hiccups) as exciting opportunities. Gardens change and shift over time, they are not static like lawns. It's that ebbing and flowing which, to many folks, can feel disorienting and destabilizing. In my book A New Garden Ethic I discuss a how at every turn in our lives, personal and cultural, we try to create a sense of order around us as we fight the seemingly chaotic nature of our precarious existence. That existence can be knocked out of whack easily by death or illness, loss of job or spouse -- any number of things positive and negative change our trajectory, and we're often slow to adapt. The more constants we surround ourselves with, the more anchored we may feel and able to adapt.

But similarly, being anchored can mean being stuck and implacable. I think one of the benefits of gardening with natural turbulence -- plants coming and going -- is that we may be better equipped to go with the flow, becoming more malleable and farsighted as we let nature guide us, or as we let the plants guide us. If you keep using a certain plant species and it keeps vanishing, what are you doing? Creating a destabilization willfully and fostering despair within you. For many, this is what gardening is -- opening yourself up to frustration and loss, something we work hard against every day in our lives. "I just don't have a green thumb, so I stick with lawn" could be an entire book bridging sociology, psychology, philosophy, history, culture....

So yes, this post has strayed a bit from the lawn conversation, but can you see why? At play in the great lawn debate isn't grass vs flowers, it's animal brain vs enlightenment brain, emotion vs culture. Ultimately, lawns also represent our victory over nature, a status of dominance that we will persevere over all threats looming in the shadows of trees and prairies. We emerged from forest into grasslands long ago, which allowed us to see predators and other threats coming from a greater distance. There is no greater threat in the suburban landscape, both practical and psychological, then a landscape dominated by unkempt flowers deciding their own trajectory free from our say. Wildness can lead us into unknown territory, even though we come from and were created by such wildness. The more distance we try to place between us and the planet, the more we set ourselves up for the fear, loss, and uncertainty we think a monoculture will alleviate. Just look at your local farm field.

Are lawns easier to maintain? Or are they simply a vain attempt at creating an illusion that, ultimately, causes more environmental, health, and psychological problems?

10 Comments

Simple Ways To Avoid Fines

8/16/2021

5 Comments

The #1 topic among native plant / natural / wildlife gardeners is what to do when weed authorities come knocking. The frustration, despair, and aggravation is palpable. I've been there.

I talk a lot about cues to care in wilder, native plant habitat gardens we all love. Cues to care are signals to other folks that the landscape is intentional and being cared for and is open to humans being in it (aka it's physically and aesthetically accessible). So think wide lawn or mulch paths free of weeds, a bench, an arbor, a tasteful sculpture, a water fountain, a fire pit, a lawn circle, etc.

But another cue to care is just keeping up with home maintenance, too -- nothing says dilapidated more than a mailbox hanging on by one screw or siding with paint peeling off. If we can create well-maintained hardscapes, then the wilder softscape or greenscape will be easier to interpret and understand.

I can't begin to tell you how many images I've seen of prized gardens where the landscape and structures look, well, uncared for. While some things are simple fixes -- mulching paths, cutting down tall weeds reaching over sidewalks -- many folks will look to railing, windows, sidewalks, and any number of issues on nearby structures to both read the intention of the land owner and make up their minds of what's going on in the landscape. If the house has problems, that's evidence that the garden is a problem, too. The owner just doesn't care.

We can and should go further, of course, looking to the garden specifically. Let's take out aggressive plants, design in masses and drifts (and manage to keep those masses and drifts by, yes, killing our darlings), adding plants when holes open up, making sure flower succession is continuous, not having tall (over 4' in front beds) or leaning plants or plants that touch people on the sidewalks, et cetera. Signs always help, too.

This isn't rocket science. These are small things that show to others -- like weed enforcement officers -- that this "something different" is on purpose, it is loved, and it is a place for humans and wildlife to meet safely. If we're going to change minds we have to meet people in the middle, even if we are anxious for everyone to quickly come on over to the wild side as we face unprecedented climate disruption. Humans are slow to change, slow to rethink, and slow to act, but we shouldn't be giving our neighbors easy reasons to dismiss natural gardens -- that's clearly our fault if we do. How many examples of wilder, natural landscapes do people see compared to manicured, simplified, lawn-dominate landscapes in the course of just one day? It's a 100-1 battle where our frame of reference of what's acceptable and professional is skewed. Your garden matters. Show that it does.

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The Deep Middle

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Why Lawn is Easier to Maintain Than a Natural Garden

Simple Ways To Avoid Fines

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July 2007 - May 2017

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The Deep Middle

About

Archives

Original Archives1,257 posts fromJuly 2007 - May 2017

Garden Timelapse

Original Archives

1,257 posts from

July 2007 - May 2017