A Simple Formula For Designing Your Native Plant Garden
Many gardeners find the prospect of designing a native plant garden to be too complicated and overwhelming, but here is a simple formula to get you started:
Right Plant + Right Place + Layering + Density = Low-Maintenance Native Garden
Right Plant:
Choose plants that are native to your region because they are adapted to your climate, moisture levels, and soil- this is a large part of creating a low-maintenance, low-stress garden! Find out what plants are native to your area here: https://realisticgardening.com/native-plant-lists/
Right Place:
Sun:
Take some time to observe the conditions in your garden. How much sunlight does the area get on a random day at say, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, etc? Does the area look sunny most of the day or shaded most of the day? Maybe it’s shady in the morning and sunny in the afternoon, or vice versa? Then you have part shade (2-4 hours of sun per day) or part sun (4-6 hours of sun per day)*. Some plants love the sun and thrive in it but others will be fried in too much sunlight. Likewise, the shade can cause sun loving plants to grow poorly or contort as the plants try to reach the sun.
Water:
Find out how wet or dry the soil is most of the time. Have you noticed puddling in the area when it rains? Because if water accumulates, then you need plants that love moist conditions. If you notice that the rain is absorbed into the soil and the soil dries out after a few days, then you probably have soil with an average moisture level. If the soil always seems very dry, then you know you need plants that survive on less water. The goal is not to amend the soil to adapt it to your plants, but rather to match the plants to the soil type you already have.
Space:
Measure the space to get an idea of how many plants can fit. Most plant labels provide information about plant height and spread (how wide it gets), and plant spacing. If you don’t have access to a plant label, you can look up virtually any plant online and find this information. Take the spacing recommendations seriously! It’s very easy to plant small pint sized plants too close together but don’t do it! If the large spaces between plants stresses you out, add some annuals of any type to fill those in or add low growing plants between larger plants as mentioned in the Density section below.
Layering:
- Mimic nature by stacking groundcovers (low), mid size perennials (mid), and large perennials (tall). The common order is taller plants in the back, medium height plants in the center, and low growing plants and groundcovers in the front.
- Plant low and mid size plants in groups of 3 or 5 if possible to create large clumps of the same plant. This creates resilience and visual interest. Do the same with larger plants if you have the space.
- Aim to plant at least 3 different plant species that bloom in spring, summer, and fall (and winter if you live in a mild climate). This provides food and habitat for wildlife all year round.
Density:
Plant labels usually provide plant spacing recommendations and those should be followed for the most part, but for low and mid-sized plants, especially groundcovers, it’s a good idea to plant things a little closer together (by a few inches). This creates a kind of living mulch as the plants grow that reduces the amount of weeds over time.
Another way to create a living mulch is by planting groundcover plugs or small plants, like sedges and creeping phlox, between larger plants- just check the size recommendations to make sure the plants don’t overlap too much.
Worth mentioning again: Don’t be tempted to put small plants or plugs too close to one another because everything will pile up and need to be dug up and separated, which means adding work not reducing it!
I hope you found this guide useful. Happy Gardening!
Sources
* Planting in Sun or Shade: https://extension.psu.edu/planting-in-sun-or-shade