Landscape Design
Native Plants
Native Gardens Outgrow Their ‘Messy’ Reputation
Whether in formal or modern gardens, native plants can thrive in a variety of regions and landscape styles
A garden composed of native plants doesn’t have to be wild-looking. It can be linear and formal, or modern and Asian-inspired. Simply put, native plants can be used in all garden design styles in most any location — it just requires understanding how the plants grow over time. We’re still learning how to use natives, both on their own and in mutually supporting plant communities in urban areas, but here is some inspiration to get you started.
To begin, the reason native plants are so important is because of their value to wildlife. An untold number of pollinators use natives as host plants; others, like many of our native bees, collect pollen only from a few specific plant species. Birds, mammals and even soil microorganisms also have co-evolved relationships with native plants and the communities they build over time. These plants also tend to weather climatic swings well, something that will be important in a changing climate. Creating a garden with a nod to what native plants bring means supporting a resilient and biodiverse world.
Designed wildness. Gardens like this one are probably how we most often see native plants used in a landscape. The plants have been carefully placed in masses and drifts, and there’s a somewhat easy pattern to see — a place for the eye to rest and follow. The plants move around a bit on their own but also experience careful human editing. Such editing might include removing self-sown seedlings, or pruning to reduce heights and encourage more flowering.
This is different from a landscape grown from scattered seed, where a cacophony of unordered flowers might overwhelm with their seemingly chaotic color and number. The advantage of a planned and designed wilder garden is that it bridges the truly wild and the more formal or manicured appearance we expect gardens to have.
Want a More Colorful, Natural Garden? Try a Perennial Meadow
This is different from a landscape grown from scattered seed, where a cacophony of unordered flowers might overwhelm with their seemingly chaotic color and number. The advantage of a planned and designed wilder garden is that it bridges the truly wild and the more formal or manicured appearance we expect gardens to have.
Want a More Colorful, Natural Garden? Try a Perennial Meadow
The High Line in New York is an example of designed wildness, where the surrounding city architecture provides the formal frame to contrast the natural form of many native plants. Such a formal frame is a technique commonly used in garden design, no matter the style or plant origin. A frame or structure (like art or benches) helps guide our eye and create excitement by juxtaposing the free form of plants and the linear form of man-made structures.
Even a rooftop garden can appeal to our wilder senses, all while filtering rainwater and cooling structures. This one is in Lincoln, Nebraska. When we use plants adapted to site conditions — from sun to soil — we can almost eliminate the need for fertilizers, which require intense amounts of energy and water to produce.
Modern. Planting grasses and sedges is a simple and clean way to echo the modern architecture of a structure or landscape, tying together the man-made and natural environments. A straight line of grasses like prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) or little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) both softens architectural edges and repeats the aesthetic of geometric lines we see in the modern style.
Lay of the Landscape: Modern Garden Style
Lay of the Landscape: Modern Garden Style
Japanese. I was recently talking to the curator of the Japanese garden at Denver Botanic Gardens, and he told me how thankful he was that his predecessors had used so many Colorado natives. When I asked why, he said it was because they were both adapted to the place environmentally and helped celebrate that place stylistically. That’s what a Japanese garden does — it celebrates a place, condensing the larger natural environment beyond into a smaller, more accessible one out the door.
A Japanese garden is a native plant garden, the curator said, which totally blew me away. A Japanese garden celebrates the spirit of the native landscape. Ideally native plants are used, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
A Japanese garden is a native plant garden, the curator said, which totally blew me away. A Japanese garden celebrates the spirit of the native landscape. Ideally native plants are used, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Sometimes, a seemingly simple palette of grasses can evoke multiple garden styles at once — wild with a little modern and Zen, even in winter.
Formal. Many years ago, I toured the Palace of Versailles and the major castles in the Loire Valley in France. There I saw short-hedged gardens at Château de Villandry and equidistant plant sculptures lining the wide avenues at Versailles, among other garden features. We could use a plethora of natives if we wanted to emulate these formal designs in our yards.
Here’s an example from the recently redesigned formal garden at the Mount Cuba Center in Delaware, which uses all native plants from the region. Notice the straight lines and the exact placement of the plants, as well as somewhat uniform heights. The brick wall is also an element of more old-world formalism that recalls the cloistered monastic gardens in medieval Europe and the English walled gardens.
Here’s an example from the recently redesigned formal garden at the Mount Cuba Center in Delaware, which uses all native plants from the region. Notice the straight lines and the exact placement of the plants, as well as somewhat uniform heights. The brick wall is also an element of more old-world formalism that recalls the cloistered monastic gardens in medieval Europe and the English walled gardens.
Later in the summer, the same formal garden sports increased growth.
Tell us: Have you incorporated native plants into different garden styles at home? Show us in the Comments.
Learn the basics about native plants
Browse more garden styles
Tell us: Have you incorporated native plants into different garden styles at home? Show us in the Comments.
Learn the basics about native plants
Browse more garden styles