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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

How to Tastefully Prairie a Small Garden Bed

3/25/2019

16 Comments

 
If you don't have 40 acres, let alone 1/4 acre, but yearn to bring an echo of prairie home to a tiny space, all is not lost. There are a few key strategies to use when you have something like 100 square feet or less.

  1. Limit you species list. Trying to cram 15 or 20 varieties into a small space will make it look wild and messy in short order. Aim for around 5 species.
  2. Those species should be behaved clumpers -- they don't run rampant by roots or toss out tons of seed that germinates easily even asphalt shingles.
  3. Select a base layer or living green mulch; I suggest sedge since there is always a species for sun or shade or wet or dry or clay or sand. If you've got 100 feet to work with you might try 50 sedge to start.
  4. That leaves you with 4 plants of the 5 in your small garden, and these will be ornamental flowers most likely. Look for 1-2 that bloom in each season -- spring, summer, fall. With each flower place them in groups of 3-5 or so, assuming they don't get too big (it's ok to have one that gets wider, but only one in the whole bed). Grouping makes the garden seem more together and creates a brighter beacon for pollinators.
  5. Keep those plants short. A small garden that's super tall is just begging for a mower, but one that's 2-3 feet tall looks more approachable and intentional.

So let's say you have 100 feet in half sun to full sun with clay soil that's dry in summer but moist in spring and fall. What might your plant selection look like?

  • 50 plains oval sedge (Carex brevior) -- green mulch (plant on a grid 12 inches apart)
  • 15 nodding onion (Allium cernuum) -- bulb that slowly duplicates in drifts, blooms mid summer (three clumps of 5)
  • 9-15 prairie alumroot (Heuchera richardsonii) -- superb contrasting foliage, blooms in mid to late spring (groups of 3-5)
  • 9 pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) -- small footprint with fuzzy leaves and outstanding winter seed heads, blooms in early summer (groups of 3)
  • 3 meadow or rough blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis or aspera) -- architectural spikes with winter interest, blooms in late summer to early fall (group of three / two and one)
  • 1 aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) -- shrubby aster, blooms in mid to late fall
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Something else you may notice about this plant list are the bloom colors -- they are essentially different hues of one another. That will help tie the space together and not visually overwhelm while still providing a succession of blooms in the growing season, and yet each one will appeal to a different set of adult pollinators while most are also host plants for larvae.

So there you go, a designed pocket prairie that's better than daylily or lawn or wood mulch and will get you ready for that winning lotto ticket and a new 40 or 400.

16 Comments
Marsha McGuire
3/25/2019 07:53:16 pm

Wow, thank you for the article. You described my space and growing conditions in the low mountains of western North Carolina exactly. My goal for this year is to make it happen,

Reply
Mary Anne Sharpe
3/25/2019 09:29:29 pm

Sounds like a great recipe. Question: at 100 feet long, how wide would this be?

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Benjamin Vogt
3/26/2019 07:28:52 am

One foot. A 100 square foot garden is, in its simplest dimensions, 10 by 10 feet.

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sharon dubosh
3/26/2019 04:24:30 pm

i do have about a 1/4 acre to use! please help! thank you!

Reply
Benjamin Vogt
3/26/2019 04:27:53 pm

Are you looking for some design or install work? Contact me! :)

Reply
James McGee
3/27/2019 04:21:45 am

There are a few sedges that are even shorter than Carex bicknellii which make them great for the edge of a planting. Some of my favorites include Carex crawei, Carex granularis, and Carex meadii. I grow Carex crawei at the base of a downspout on the sunny side of my house. I have seen it growing in thin marl over tufa that is wet in spring and dries out like concrete in summer. Carex granularis is called limestone meadow sedge. In Illinois it will grow in habitats that are drier than a typical yard, but it forms a really impressive rosette of leaves in moist meadows. Carex meadii is most frequent in dry habitats like hill prairies. However, it is found with its hard to distinguish relative, Carex tetanica, in moist meadows on occasion. This last sedge would probably be the best choice for the edge of a planting in a dry location. The only problem is no one seems to grow or sell these plants.

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Benjamin Vogt
3/27/2019 10:05:26 am

I usually have good luck with most of these sedges, but they have sky-rocketed in popularity and I'm having a much harder time this year sourcing what I need and what I'm familiar with that works.

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James McGee
3/27/2019 05:46:09 pm

They all grow easily from seed. Carex granularis has even colonized the cracks in my driveway. Carex crawei, Carex meadii, and Carex tetanica all spread by runners. It would be easy to put pieces in a plug tray and grow them. In a year or two you would have plugs. If you can’t source them, then you should consider growing them. The only additional expense and labor is watering. These sedges are rock hardy and can be left outside under a pile of snow during the winter.

Laura Bartlett
4/4/2019 12:55:59 pm

I love this timely article, thank you! To keep taller plants short, do you just cut them back to 2-3 ft whenever they surpass that? Are there any nuances to this, such as where on the plant to make the cut?

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Caitlin Cunningham
4/7/2019 01:20:00 pm

I assume he means to choose species that max out in this height range, you wouldn't want to cut off any flower buds

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Laura Bartlett
4/11/2019 02:39:25 pm

That makes sense, thank you Caitlin!

Laura Tolbert
4/27/2019 06:14:07 am

Thanks for the suggestions which are sooo helpful for visualization! I'm taking new risks and meeting the challenges of clay, heat and humidity in North Carolina after gardening in the midwest all my life. At the same time I'm trying to incorporate the healthy practices of your prairie style along with feeding the birds and insects year-round. This post gives me a great start for an unused but highly visible area I have not been able to get a vision for. Plus it will be seen from the street to inspire my neighbors!

Reply
Linda Eastman
4/27/2019 06:21:41 am

Thanks to both Benjamin and to James McGee for the discussion on propagating Carex species. I live in South Florida and am not sure if any of the Carex mentioned would work here but there is a Florida native sedge that I adore and have been unable to find in our native plant nurseries—Rhynchospora colorata. Now it has practically fallen in my lap! The house next door went vacant and the back yard has been neglected for several months. A few days ago I glanced over our shared fence and beheld a veritable meadow of it in bloom! With confidence owed to James's propagation advice, and Benjamin's design strategy, I am now on my way to cultivating a pocket prairie in my own yard. Thanks to you both!

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David Cristiani link
6/11/2019 08:53:58 pm

This is a great strategy and template for a person to customize or adapt to their local species.

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Connie Cox
9/9/2021 10:14:22 pm

Working on my little Wild Patch...and natives in my yard...

Reply
Dirk Smit link
12/27/2022 02:15:51 pm

Another way of helping to create natural, green spaces in urban environments. Everybody needs to help! Bravo. Great article.

Reply



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    Benjamin Vogt's thoughts on prairie gardening in Nebraska. With a healthy dose of landscape ethics, ecophilosophy, climate change,  and social justice.

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