Monarch Gardens
  • Home
  • About
    • What We Believe
    • Benjamin Vogt
    • Our Dream
    • Press
  • Design
    • Designing
    • Portfolio
    • Reviews
  • Classes
  • Speaking
  • Books
    • Articles
    • Books
  • Garden Guides
  • Workshop
  • Blog
  • community
  • Shirts
  • News
  • Contact

The Deep Middle


Gardening & writing in the prairie echo

Work Less, Plant Smarter -- Garden Prep Myths

3/21/2018

7 Comments

 
Traditional landscapers, some nurseries, and plenty of ads for big box stores and petrochemical companies want you to be spending as much time outside as possible -- and not counting butterflies or playing with your kids. Your landscape requires lots of constant upkeep and inputs, like soil conditioners, wood mulch, and fertilizer. That's just the price of home ownership. Grab a drink and let's bust these maintenance myths.

1) Amending Soil
There is no perfect garden soil. Repeat. There is no perfect garden soil. There is no ideal to strive for -- and that ideal certainly is not rich-smelling, loamy, dark black soil that crumbles in your hand like cake. The typical thinking goes that if you have clay, sandy loam, or gravelly sand, then you MUST bring in lots of topsoil and compost  to make it good, otherwise nothing will grow and you'll fail. You'll need to till that in, too, destroying soil structure and harming soil life. Sounds like a lot of work and money to me. Now, sure, there are situations when soil needs to be remediated (someone dumped gallons of oil, drainage issues need to be fixed), but buying bags of topsoil at big store x or y is not the answer to successful gardening. Researching what plants will do well in the conditions you have is the answer. Right plant, right place. Let's say you "amend" the soil one foot down, what happens when the plant's roots reach the native soil? It freaks out. It might decide to stay in the babied soil, never fully establishing, and never becoming drought tolerant or resilient because it's constantly in a state of being pampered.  Which brings us to....

2) Mulch Mulch Mulch
Wood mulch also keeps plants in a state of perpetual establishment. Commonly we'll place a flower here, than 2 feet away another flower, etc until what we have are large gaps between plants -- gaps that don't exist in nature. Those gaps will need to be mulched every year or two because, as we all know, bare soil invites erosion, weed seedlings, etc. Or you could simply use more plants, and layer those plants, letting them do the work of not only amending soil for free over time as their roots move into the soil, but also out competing weed seedlings and shading the soil, thus conserving soil moisture. Mulch does help new trees establish, but maybe you could also just plant a thick, layered garden under the tree's drip line. No more mulch. No more spreading mulch. No more carrying mulch. No more buying mulch.  Use your mulch allowance on more plants and make the long term investment for beauty, resilience, and wildlife habitat.
Picture
3) Fertilizer
Before planting it's smart to get a soil test done -- in the very least it will tell you pH, organic matter percentage, and other nutrient levels. Now, contrary to conventional wisdom, these numbers aren't necessarily here to tell you what to add to "improve" the soil. No, for you mavericks these numbers are here to tell you what plants to match to the site. Doing this will greatly improve your chances of long term success. Why keep adding fertilizers year after year to maintain a plant's life support when clearly it doesn't like where it is? Yank it out and find something that doesn't tug at your purse strings. Besides, that fertilizer is produced with intensive industrial processes that contribute to climate change and pollution, and when they run off our landscapes they cause real problems for waterways (looking at you, commercials that insist on 4 lawn fertilizer applications a year -- two is plenty, unless the company needs to move more product).

Do gardens require work? You bet. They always will, like replacing and adding plants, because we're putting in something that wasn't here on its own. But there's gardening nature's way -- matching plants with the site, creating self-supporting plant communities, fostering biodiversity -- and there's the other way which keeps us from getting in tune with our local environment by forcing in costly management.

If you want to learn more about how to research the right plants for your landscape, and to design a more sustainable / low maintenance space, try this handy online class on starting your native plant garden. You'll discover the most informative websites and books, strategies for research and plant lists, and be walked through a sample design for a small pollinator garden.
7 Comments
Luke
3/31/2018 11:28:39 am

Hello,

I am removing all the rock from the landscaping in front and on the side of my house. Would you recommend amending the soil with compost or topsoil when I have finished this to improve the soil under the rock? Also, I have a landscaped area in my backyard that had a weed liner put down over the clay and then mulch out on top with holes cut through the weed liner to plant the plants. The soil below the weed liner is very heavy and appears to be low in organic matter. I plan on taking the weed liner off and starting over. Would you recommend amending the soil under the weed liner? Thanks for any help you could provide.

Reply
Benjamin Vogt
3/31/2018 12:27:06 pm

I'd strongly recommend doing a soil test just as a reference point. Don't assume clay soil isn't fertile, as it often is indeed rich in nutrients. I would not amend unless you have drainage issues around the house (water infiltration) you need to address. Choose plants adapted to clay soil and the light conditions. Over time the plants will amend the soil naturally and for free. And don't till -- it destroys soil structure and soil life. If after planting you want to put a thin topdressing of compost on go for it, but I don't think it's necessary if you've chosen plants correctly.

Reply
Luke
3/31/2018 01:31:58 pm

Thank you. Would you recommend removing the weed liner though or do you think it will be ok if I left it? It has been there for many years from the previous home owner and it seems to be blocking any organic matter from getting to the soil beneath.

Andrew
9/6/2022 03:19:13 pm

You don't recommend putting compost down before planting? Compost should be put down after? I solarized an area and was going to dress with 1/4 to half inch of compost and was going to put it down before hand to reestablish soil organisms.

Benjamin Vogt
3/31/2018 02:20:08 pm

Get rid of that junk! :) It is terrible for creating a sustainable space. Air, water, and various gasses need to move freely between soil and air, and soil needs to be built by organic matter from above. You are doing everything right by ditching it and the rock mulch.

Reply
James McGee
1/6/2019 04:52:02 am

I think mulch has its place. This is especially true when planting a new garden. Even if perennials are spaced one foot apart, it takes them a few years to fill in the gaps. The mulch decomposes over the course of these few years improving the soil as the plants get established. Frankly, it can also look nice for gardens in front of homes until plants have filled the voids. If spread thinly the cost is small.

I’ve seen professional restoration companies remove groves of reforestation to plant prairie/savanna that would have been original to the site. Once all the trees were removed, the bare ground was eroding soil into quality wetlands damaging them. The outfit created wattle fences to slow the erosion. If some of the wood from the trees was chipped and used as a light covering of mulch much of the erosion could have been prevented without inhibiting establishment of the seeding.

Reply
Mia Wells link
1/15/2021 04:46:11 am

First time reading this blog thanks for sharing

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    About

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

    Picture
    Online Classes  |  200 Articles

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017


    Original Archives

    1,257 posts from

    July 2007 - May 2017


    Garden Timelapse


    Subscribe

    RSS Feed


    Picture
    In a time of climate change and mass extinction how & for whom we garden matters more than ever.

    "This book is about so much more than gardening."
Picture
M O N A R C H   G A R D E N S   LLC

prairie inspired  design

Lincoln & Omaha, Nebraska

Monarch Gardens is a prairie-inspired design firm. We specialize in lawn to meadow conversions as well as urban shade gardens.

Employing 95% native plants, our designs are climate resilient, adaptable, and provide numerous ecological benefits while artistically reflecting wilder landscapes.
Sign up for our newsletter!
Join Now