I would imagine the walkway to be a path through a natural area, with a woodland/savanna on the right, and a meadow on the left -- a nice combination and not at all uncommon in the wild. As for the flower beds, I'd have the one on the left match the meadow and the one on the right match the woodland/savanna.

As for plants, I recommend getting field guides for your area, finding wild meadows, woodlands and savannas (or woodland edges) and identifying the native plants that thrive there naturally. Then find nurseries that sell those plants. I can't help with specifics, since I don't know Wisconsin flora.

Some advice I heard early on that helped: there's no reason to do it all at once -- piece by piece, section by section will be less frustrating and less expensive.

- wd

I really like that idea!! Thanks!

The only question I have is what types of woodland savanna plants are there for Wisconsin? Does anyone have some favorites?

By the way, I get the prairie plants today and will post a real picture once they are planted.

my suggestion is continue to work on your prairie area and not disturb the rest of the yard until your prairie gets established and starts to look filled in and nice. which could take a year or two. one thing that is often reccommended when landscaping with natives is to start small and build from there.

you didnt mention many grasses in your prairie mix. if you dont have more than the fox sedge, you might want to consider adding a few more grasses. native flowers without native grasses tend to fall over - the flowers need the grasses to compete with to grow straight up and tall etc. etc.

i really dont know what would be good for your planting beds by the house - maybe some native annuals like poppies or a couple native shrubs like pasture rose.

there are tons of woodland plants you could try under your maple. but what is the soil type? you can get on www.prairienursery.com they have a select plants by habitat option - you can pick your soil type, light condition, moisture condition and other parameters and they will give you list of plants for those conditions. i could list tons of shade tolerant natives but they may not be right for your soil.

i would consider the area in front of the sidewalk as a transition between the prairie behind the sidewalk to the woodland plants... perhaps line the front of the sidewalk with a big patch of prairie dropseed then transition that into the woodland / shade tolerant plants...

you might want to check out www.for-wild.org for lots of information. their handbook is free on-line and there are several very active chapters in Wisconsin...

I just checked out a book from the local library that has some ideas for plants for suburban prairie settings. There's a listing for plants with different soil types, too. And lots of great photos. Here's the info: The Natural Habitat Garden by Ken Druse.
Good Luck!
Pam

I wanted to pass on a clever landscaping idea I read somewhere in gardenweb. When creating a pathway through an area consider planting the same plant(s) on both sides of the path, so the people walking the path feel they are going through a bed of flowers. I thought that was very clever. In other words consider putting a bit of the prairie mix on some part of the opposite side of the path, or vica versa put a bit of what you plant on the right over across on the left side of the path.

the Ken Druse books have great photos and offer inspirition and ideas. do be careful with some of the plant lists, not all of the plants on the lists or in the photos are native and some can actually be aggressive depending upon the area where you live. Its a great book, but check the plant selection carefully.

I think the best native landscaping book from a stricly landsaping perspective is the Diekelman book.

We had a thread ahwile back where the group listed some of their favorite books for native landscapes... you may want to check it out - i agree with many of the suggestions listed.

Here is a link that might be useful: book thread

Agh! Thanks for the heads up, joepyeweed. I did raise my eyebrows on some of the plants mentioned in the Ken Druse book, but I didn't realize about the aggressive nature of some.