You Can Make Space for Native Plants in Any Landscape
Using native species brings ‘terroir,’ or local flavor, to your garden and contributes to healthy wildlife relationships
Susan Tweit
September 26, 2016
Houzz Contributor. Plant biologist, award-winning writer and speaker, and landscape/garden consultant focusing on restoring nature and habitat for songbirds and pollinators where we live, work, and play. At home in the Rockies, especially where sagebrush grows. Passionate about Climate Victory Gardening! Columnist for Rocky Mountain Gardening, co-founder of the Habitat Hero program.
Houzz Contributor. Plant biologist, award-winning writer and speaker, and landscape/garden... More
There’s essentially no role a native plant can’t fill in your garden, given the proper site. Do you need plants for a formal hedge? There’s likely a native shrub for that. And you’ll get the benefit of the shrub’s built-in adaptability to your climate and site, along with the relationships with pollinators and songbirds that come with that plant. Looking for a wildly floral cottage garden? Pick native species to mix in with your garden favorites, and enjoy the bonus of attracting even more butterflies and hummingbirds drawn to natives by long familiarity.
You can integrate native species into an existing garden design, or take designing with natives a step further and use them to echo wild landscapes. Pick a site in your yard for a forest vignette or a rock garden, for instance, and then choose those native species that grow together in the wild to bring terroir — local flavor — to your landscape. Pick the plants that appeal to you; learn about their soil, water and light needs; and plant accordingly.
You can integrate native species into an existing garden design, or take designing with natives a step further and use them to echo wild landscapes. Pick a site in your yard for a forest vignette or a rock garden, for instance, and then choose those native species that grow together in the wild to bring terroir — local flavor — to your landscape. Pick the plants that appeal to you; learn about their soil, water and light needs; and plant accordingly.
Showcase wildflowers in meadow borders or beds. One way to find design ideas for incorporating native species into your landscapes is to visit botanical gardens, especially those featuring native plants. This colorful bed of bluebonnet, yellow Fremont’s evening primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa ssp. fremontii), Texas Indian paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa) and other native wildflowers is at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas.
A planting like this could be a border in a larger garden area or a small entrance bed, or be expanded into a meadow-style garden.
A planting like this could be a border in a larger garden area or a small entrance bed, or be expanded into a meadow-style garden.
Use bunch grasses to create color blocks. Native bunch grasses make an elegant border along a sidewalk in Detroit. Notice the alternating blocks formed by large swaths of two grass species, blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), that emphasize their contrasting colors and shapes.
The precise alternation of the plantings lends both a formal look and a natural prairie feel, another kind of contrast.
The precise alternation of the plantings lends both a formal look and a natural prairie feel, another kind of contrast.
Add personality and pollinator habitat to foundation plantings. Native plants — including black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and white sagebrush (Artemisia ludoviciana) — create doorstep gardens in front of a row of townhomes. Each garden contains just a few species that thrive in that site and reflect the homeowner’s aesthetic preferences.
The new landscaping was designed to be attractive, save water, and provide habitat for pollinators and songbirds. These plantings replace overgrown Pfitzer junipers and lava rock landscaping.
The new landscaping was designed to be attractive, save water, and provide habitat for pollinators and songbirds. These plantings replace overgrown Pfitzer junipers and lava rock landscaping.
Contrast with formal plantings to give a sense of place. Native species and garden favorites can easily coexist. In this courtyard in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a bed of the owner’s favorite varieties of tea roses gets light afternoon shade from a native desert willow (Chilopsis linearis). The roses were planted against the courtyard’s east-facing wall to get morning sun and be sheltered from the hot sun later in the day. Directly across the courtyard is a formal planting of Southwest native plants designed to echo the colors of the roses but thrive in afternoon heat.
Design a colorful and water-saving cottage garden with perennial wildflowers. This cottage garden-style perennial bed features drought-tolerant and heat-resistant Southwest native species, including lyreleaf greeneyes (Berlandiera lyrata), also called chocolate flower for its intoxicating chocolaty fragrance; autumn sage (Salvia greggii); and, in the background, Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani), a tall native perennial sunflower that softens the angular courtyard wall. Plants were chosen to thrive in the site, give the feel of the surrounding high-desert landscape, and attract hummingbirds and pollinators.
Look to nearby wild areas for ideas on native plant siting and natural pairings. Another way to learn how to use native plants in the landscape is to observe where they grow naturally, paying attention to site conditions, plant size and form, and what other kinds of plants they grow with.
In this photo, California native plants soften the concrete that shapes a formal entry stairway in front of a house in Berkeley. The fleabane along the stairs seeded itself from plants in the container above in a case of serendipitous design.
In this photo, California native plants soften the concrete that shapes a formal entry stairway in front of a house in Berkeley. The fleabane along the stairs seeded itself from plants in the container above in a case of serendipitous design.
Turn to native plants to brighten harsh spots where other plants sulk. Native plants often thrive where nonnatives don’t. In a parking strip, or “hell strip,” between sidewalk and street, a cottage garden of mostly native plants — including common yarrow (Achillea millefolium), twolobe larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum), scarlet bugler penstemon (Penstemon barbatus), Rocky Mountain penstemon (P. strictus) and tall Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) — combine with Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale), ‘Moonshine’ yarrow (A. ‘Moonshine’) and other garden flowers to provide an abundance of seasonlong color as well as habitat for pollinators and hummingbirds.
See 8 design ideas for your parking strip
See 8 design ideas for your parking strip
Go native instead of planting lawn to save water and work, and attract songbirds and pollinators. This prairie-woodland yard was the first in its subdivision to be approved with no lawn at all. The homeowner requested a yard design that would both save water and nurture the hummingbirds and songbirds that delight her. Upright prairie coneflower (Ratibida columnifera), Rocky Mountain penstemon (Penstemon strictus), threadleaf giant hyssop (Agastache rupestris), and other native wildflowers and grasses form the nonlawn.
Trees and shrubs in the distance, characteristic of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, provide shade and nesting habitat for wildlife as well as splashes of color and interesting shapes year-round.
Trees and shrubs in the distance, characteristic of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, provide shade and nesting habitat for wildlife as well as splashes of color and interesting shapes year-round.
Create the look of a Zen garden with dwarf native conifers. There are native species to suit every garden style. In this photo, three native evergreens — blue spruce (Picea pungens), dwarf bristlecone pine (Pinus aristata) and creeping juniper (Juniperus horizontalis) — are planted together for a formal, minimalist entry bed on either side of the front gate of a multifamily development. The gravel serves as water-saving mulch and cools soil surrounded by heat-retaining concrete.
Showcase especially spectacular native wildflowers or grasses in mass plantings of one or two species. Native penstemon (Penstemon sp.) and pink ladies (Oenothera speciosa), also called Mexican evening primrose, spill out of metal stock tanks in this oversize formal entry bed at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center as an example of single-species beds of natives providing a formal entry with an exuberant burst of color.
Whatever your preferred style or design sense, have fun incorporating native plants in your landscape.
More
‘Terroir’ Brings a Sense of Place to Your Landscape
Native Plants 101
See more Houzz garden guides
Whatever your preferred style or design sense, have fun incorporating native plants in your landscape.
More
‘Terroir’ Brings a Sense of Place to Your Landscape
Native Plants 101
See more Houzz garden guides
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These articles advocating 'go native' and 'attract the pollinators' are quite wonderful and oh-so trendy... IF your garden area meets the criteria to do so. But, no... you cannot do this in 'any landscape,' as the title claims! My current situation: Little sun (max 1-1/2 hours) in the summer, shade from buildings east and west, tall oak trees, heavy compacted clay that remains wet from lack of sun, neighbors over-watering and storm water trickling through. These are not conditions amenable to natives of the Kansas prairie. Shade and wet being the prime culprits. If the parameters fit, the suggested practices are fine for those desiring the effect and results. But please don't advocate the 'all' and everyone attitude. I've studied horticulture for over 50 years, and have designed many gardens over my 70+ years, and the use of non-natives and so-called exotics may just be the gardeners best resources for the given conditions.
@kitykat, You do have challenging conditions indeed! I'd be interested in whether you've looked at woodland natives and riparian (stream and riverside) natives from your part of Kansas. Thanks for your comments.
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