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The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

Native Plants to Avoid in a Small Space

1/26/2020

16 Comments

 
It's easy to get excited about a new plant when you're gardening for wildlife in your local ecoregion, and that's especially so when the plant is small or just one or three of a kind. But often plants perform differently in home landscapes compared to the wild where there's more competition; even so, some plants just like to be the boss of others, especially when there's open space filled with wood mulch.

There are a few general habitat and design rules for small spaces that are pretty much universal (but can absolutely be broken in the right circumstances):
  • Choose shorter plants so they both won't flop or visually overwhelm the space
  • Avoid aggressive runners and self sowers
  • Keep the plant palette lean because too much can easily become unmanageable
  • Limit trees and shrubs to short or narrow species, and use only a very few or none
  • Keep a consistent average plant height with only a few taller species

Following are some popular native forbs and grasses whose use might be reconsidered if your garden bed is a few hundred square feet, along with some alternatives. Keep in mind that these plants are commonly native east of the continental divide, but can otherwise serve as proxies or examples for other areas.
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Indian grass in early autumn
Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans)
The foliage is lovely in early summer, as are the autumn seed heads and fall leaf color, but it will self sow heartedly and flop in autumn. A good alternative is a shorter bunchgrass like sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula). Both grasses are clumpers that cover the ground plain, which is great for green mulch aficionados.

Common Milkweed  (Asclepias syriaca)

Monarchs lay a lot of eggs on this host plant, but it will get tall and it will most certainly spread via underground runners until you have a milkweed stand and not much else.  Try purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens), Sullivant's milkweed (Asclepais sullivantii) or butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa) depending on if it's a part sun (A. purp), full sun and moist (A. sull) or full sun and dry (A. tub) site in your landscape.

Blue Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
Tons of insects come for the masses and masses of late summer blooms, and the fall color is a nice yellow. In ideal soil -- moist and loamy -- it will colonize fully. With drier conditions and clay soil, alongside other plant competition, it will mass and drift more modestly. I don't have an alternative, but can say that with plant density and root competition it's worth a try to contain.

Maximilian Sunflower  (Helianthus maximiliani)

It'll get tall but more importantly it'll run. In its native tallgrass that's a good thing because it's a very beneficial plant for insects and bugs. A Coreopsis might be a good alternative.

New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)
It's going to get leggy and then it's going to get too tall and flop in almost every garden.  The former is solved with dense underplanting, but you can't do much for the rest unless all your plants are tall to buttress one another. Maybe consider aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) or smooth aster (Symphyotrichum laeve); the former prefers it drier while the latter is more adaptable.

Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)
I think it was Sting who sang about fields of goldenrod. Maybe not. I've never had to plant canadian goldenrod because it blows in, and once it gets going it runs all over the place. Both showy goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) and zigzag goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis) clump fairly well in tight-knit plant communities, but they will spread moderately if in beds filled with mulch. Zigzag is considered a shade plant, but I've found success in sunnier spots where it spreads less, even though I would not call it aggressive even in ideal conditions or moist shade.

Gray-Headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)

This one is a common issue. Evolved to thrive in the tallgrass prairie where it has other tall plants to lean on, as a specimen it grows quite tall then bows down in a most penitent fashion. Better to stick with pale purple coneflower (Echinacea pallida) or even Mexican hat (Ratidiba columnifera), but the latter acts more like an biennial unless it's allowed to self sow as it prefers.

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Gray-headed / gray-head / grayhead coneflower
16 Comments
splendorfish
2/1/2020 05:22:41 am

You just listed practically every plant in my very insect and Monarch happy garden in my suburban yard. The advice about milkweed is just plain bad. I’ve had a monarch way station for 15 years and I can tell you that if you want to save the Monarch you should ONLY plant common milkweed, not avoid it. Monarchs just flat out won’t lay anywhere near as much, or often at all, on anything else, at least here in Michigan. I think this leaning towards aesthetic instead of what wildlife needs is the wrong tact. Let’s all start breaking the rules about what looks OK in the yard. Floppinh and spreading and the like are what nature does. Let’s embrace the mess and save the world.

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Butterflyer
2/1/2020 07:43:13 am

Totally agree with you, Splendorfish. Here in the New England, Common Milkweed is preferred as a Monarch host; next Swamp Milkweed which is an excellent garden plant. The leaves of orange butterfly weed are kind of tough, and I've read that Purple Milkweed leaves are even less preferred (though rabbits in my yard seem to love the 2 plants I have managed to grow:(. Stores here are now selling Showy Milkweed but that is not native to this area; nor is Sullivant's Milkweed.

If one is worried about what the neighbors think, surrounding the floppy/sloppy with edging or rock wall etc, putting up habitat signs etc signals this was intentional.

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Sleekart
2/3/2020 08:53:29 am

Well said and agree completely!

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Diana
2/1/2020 05:39:49 am

Good advice, Benjamin. I have also had issues with plants from this list becoming way too aggressive in small areas, and taking them over. I leave them in my wilder field areas away from the house. I favor butterfly weed and swamp milkweed over common milkweed (which is in abundance in the field). Common milkweed is way too aggressive for a small space - if you want anything else to grow there. Monarchs don't just need host plants, but they need a season of bloom for nectar! And, we want diverse plantings that support diverse insects and other wildlife.

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Judy Pfister
2/1/2020 06:48:51 am

Great advice, particularly like the alternatives mentioned. I am always advising people to plant natives and in a more populated area or one with small gardens and HOA restrictions we need to have these gardens looking landscaped and not like a meadow or else we will be told to remove them. It's all about the right plant in the right place.

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Lori Curry
2/1/2020 07:35:25 am

Love your articles! I'm taking your classes too. My butterfly garden has catnip (I'm pretty sure) coming up in it. Should I pull it, cut it or leave it?

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Toni link
2/1/2020 08:31:10 am

I agree with Mr. Vogt regarding the common milkweed. While I grow this very best monarch host plant and manage it by popping out the new shoots that appear many feet from the colony, the average homeowner will not want the maintenance. I've heard of people using roundup to get rid of it because it's so difficult to remove once planted. Swamp milkweed would be the next best Asclepias species to plant if you have a consistently moist and sunny area for it to thrive. No out-of-control spreading. Happy low maintenance gardening!

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Quail4dog
2/1/2020 09:20:23 am

I have put some of the aggressives in their own flowerbed away from the eyes of neighbors because I love how the bees and butterflies flock to New England Aster, especially the large number of monarchs. I don’t even plant Maxmillian in field plantings anymore because of its aggressiveness.

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laurie minardi
2/1/2020 09:38:48 am

The only plant I have seen in my yard and my neighbors yard, with Monarch eggs and baby caterpillars is Common Milkweed. Last fall we created a 150 square foot garden just for that milkweed. Other garden areas in my yard have other milkweed plants and nectar plants.

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ELMER M DENGLER
2/1/2020 11:48:50 am

I was one of Dr Uquharts teen age research associates and have always seen common milkweed as the primary food source for monarchs. Once a stand is over 2 years old you can cut some of a stand to the ground in say late June and it will reward you with young small plants that look good and are egg layer magnets.

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Benjamin Vogt
2/1/2020 02:01:13 pm

Ok all -- let's talk about milkweed since everyone zeroed in on that plant (there is far more to a garden than milkweed and monarchs, but I digress). There are a plethora of reasons monarchs may use different milkweed species. One is that they self medicate, choosing more toxic plants to lay eggs on if they are sick or have a parasite. Of course, studies have shown a milkweed's toxicity increases over the first 24 hours after leaf damage. And yes, monarchs in different regions prefer different species -- and part of that mix is habitat availability and population pressure of other insects feeding on milkweed. You can do an internet search on these studies and find them readily (Xerces, Monarch Watch, etc).

As for design -- as anyone who's followed me over the years knows, my mantra is "rethink pretty." Pretty for us, as I say in my book, is not enough in a time of mass extinction. The reason for this post is that 99% of the time people ask me how to make a garden look more put together to avoid weed control and bossy neighbors. Well, here you go. I've written on the topic before (search the blog and Houzz). If you have a small space it's in your best interest to choose plants that aren't aggressive and don't get too tall. It can still be on the wilder side, or it can be more formal (masses, tiers, etc). Native plants are very forgiving and dynamic.

Here's a post on how to prairie a small bed: https://www.monarchgard.com/thedeepmiddle/how-to-tastefully-prairie-a-small-garden-bed

Never, ever throw out traditional garden design principles when you are trying to win over others. That does not mean you have to use boxwood and wood mulch (I don't), but there are fundamental design strategies to employ that can give the garden structure and appeal to humans and wildlife. We must do a better job negotiating the space between us and other species.

So I hope this discussion helps! Thanks for writing and reading!

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James McGee
2/2/2020 07:56:53 pm

Here is an article I read recently that complements the theme of your above comment.

https://www.segrasslands.org/blog/2019/6/18/cues-of-care-helping-people-see-plants-in-georgia

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Nathan Lamb
2/3/2020 10:43:32 am

Well said!

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Allison
2/10/2020 04:30:41 am

I want to thank you for your post.

First of all, I would like to point out to the naysayers that last year I had monarchs all over my asclepias tuberosa, and this is the norm. I had some common milkweed, but the monarch caterpillars mostly ignored it until ithe tuberosa was eaten down to the stems.

I do have blue mistflower in my garden, but I got it to crowd out an invasive (houttuynia cordata). It's done the trick pretty handily for the bed I planted it in. This does mean that anything else in the bed would have a terrible time competing with the colonized mistflower.

Now I'm going to take the time to read your article on the small prairie bed. I'm slowly converting my yard to a more pollinator-friendly space, and am trying to bring my neighbors along with me where I can.

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Heidi Swanson
2/7/2020 09:38:32 am

I learned about Common Milkweed the hard way. Lots of use by monarchs and other insects, but now they are popping up in the lawn. Since I'm away from home for seasonal work in the summer, hubby is stuck dealing with it. Whoops

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Jerre
2/7/2020 08:54:59 pm

You can cut back the aster several times over the summer. That increases branching and reduces height. Don’t cut after July or you will cut off the new buds.

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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