How wild do you want your garden to look like?
Thankfully, native plant pollinators have become the current trend. Garden Centers carry wonderful selections of showy flowering native plant cultivars and a wide choice of many native grasses. We need our native plants to provide pollinators for plants and food for young birds.
Natural Garden Type 1: Flower Garden Mix of native plants and non-native plants.
This style shown below uses native and non-native pollinators in a classic Flower Garden design style. The plants are grouped to look good together–flower, foliage and form. They are also planned to bloom from spring till frost. Winter appeal is created by using planned clusters of broad-leafed evergreens, conifers, and deciduous shrubs and trees.
Natural Garden Type 2: Ornamental Meadow Garden mix of native plants
This wilder looking garden type uses a more natural lay-out of plants in larger drifts and usually larger spaces. It’s a great style to replace a large section of lawn. Native grasses play a large role in this design. Plant combinations and bloom sequences are designed to high effect of contrasting foliage. Color palette pairing is planned as in the Flower Garden Style. But different heights from front to back are combined in a looser and more dynamic composition. Native shrubs and trees border the garden and create a winter garden and spring blooming shrubs that flower before the Native Plant Meadow Garden awakens. This kind of garden still needs human help to maintain the style.
Natural Garden Type 3: Totally wild
This wild place is a mix of native and non-native plants that have “drifted in” from birds or wind. Maintenance is minimal. Mowing once a year. Patterns of different plants created by large drifts can be seen–often it’s a subtle color variation. There is a flowering but subtler, less showy than a planned and planted flower garden.
Small Gardens can be “wilder”, too.
This very small garden has a mix of native and nonnative plants. Many pollinators and plants chosen that bunnies and hedgehogs don’t like to eat. It’s planned to bloom from spring till frost. It’s color palette and form/foliage combinations are planned as well. Also, the shrubs provide a contrasting and garden defining background and create a winter garden.
What look do you want?
The decision is personal and also affected by your garden size. Have fun thinking about it. I can help with Garden Consultations to create Garden Plans or to Coach the Home Gardener DYI.
Leave a Reply