Native Plants & Native Plant Gardens Grow Beautiful Natives

Table Of Content

• Demolition & Soil
• Things to Consider When Planning Your Native Garden
• Choose Native Plants Based On Bloom Time
• Plant list for shady conditions
• What is the best soil for native plants?
• Colorado Xeriscaping Guide: Drought-Resistant Native Plants & Front Yard Design Tips
• Maintenance Tips for Native Plant Health

Where the old house meets the brick barn structure, opposite, forget-me-nots, lady’s mantle, lungwort, daffodils, and tulips take the edge off a stone path. For cohesion, George has limited his colors to yellow with a splash of white and blue. This reduces waste and ensures your garden isn’t thirstier than it needs to be. Colorado’s soil can be prone to erosion due to its sandy nature and our occasional but intense rainfalls. Xeriscaping helps combat this by using plants that have deep root systems, which hold the soil together and reduce runoff. Groundcovers and native grasses are excellent for this purpose, keeping your soil where it should be and your landscape intact.

Demolition & Soil

Consider using local stones for a natural look, or recycled materials for an eco-friendly touch. Gravel paths, for example, allow water to seep through and don’t require any H2O to stay looking sharp. When selecting plants for your xeriscape, think about the Blue Grama Grass, which sways beautifully in the breeze and needs very little water. Or the Rocky Mountain Penstemon, with its vibrant flowers that attract hummingbirds.

Things to Consider When Planning Your Native Garden

And remember, a well-planned xeriscape means less time with the hose and more time enjoying your beautiful, sustainable yard. We experience a wide range of temperatures and precipitation levels, often within the same day. Because of this, it’s crucial to choose plants that are not just beautiful but tough enough to withstand sudden changes. This is where the concept of xeriscaping comes into play—it’s all about working with our climate, not against it. Back yard – Plantings in low-lying area could be planted next. Many like a manicured look, and that is quite possible with native plants.

Choose Native Plants Based On Bloom Time

Waist-high hedging or fencing along the front sidewalk will prevent people from wandering into your front yard, yet at the same time allow light and views onto the street. If your house needs or will adapt to your desire for a special theme garden like colonial, cottage, Asian, or Mediterranean, the look must begin in the front yard. Themes are successful only if you unify all the garden aspects carefully. Evaluate your yard and keep these things in mind before laying down any concrete, pea gravel, or sand. Although Hollister House is a private residence, the garden is open to visitors several days a week during spring.

Flower nectar provides food for pollinating insects, hummingbirds, and butterflies. Seed heads are a food source for birds in fall and winter. The flowers and aromatic leaves have medicinal and herbal qualities. When we first moved in, our landscaping was certainly wild. At the time, I didn’t know much at all about the plants that were there.

He replaced his lawn with inspiring garden using LA rebates - Los Angeles Times

He replaced his lawn with inspiring garden using LA rebates.

Posted: Tue, 17 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Several plants of the same color and kind have a more significant impact on a landscape than one of several types. Use only enough variety to sustain blooming and add visual interest. Achieving a pleasant scale—or keeping elements in proportion to each other—may take time since plants need to grow before you can be sure. Choose plants that will complement your home's size at maturity and some that will grow quickly. Borders of flowers, bulbs, or ground covers can be used with, or instead of, other edgings. Use the plants with the proper ultimate spread and an attractive year-round appearance.

Combating Soil Erosion with Xeriscaping

Also, avoid underestimating the size of mature plants, which can lead to overcrowding and increased maintenance. The front yard evokes the atmosphere of Colorado’s arid and rocky places. It is designed to be unwatered or irrigated optionally, employing passive rainwater-trapping. The featured plants are given space in line with native vegetation coverage based on rainfall and are appropriate for a hotter streetside microclimate. Nonflammable foundation plants are a nod to Coloradans who live in danger of increasingly prevalent wildfires. The front yard design provides space for an optional crevice garden.

The denser, cooler back yard calls to mind our state’s forests, thickets, meadows, and shortgrass prairie with a native Buffalo Grass lawn. It is watered infrequently and deeply, and provides a buffet of pollinator and larval host plants as well as a refuge, restaurant, and water-stop for birds. Optionally, additional flowers can be planted in the low traffic parts of the lawn. This sturdy shrub provides four-season interest, with attractive foliage, flowers, berries, and bark. Ninebark provides food and shelter for wildlife and is adaptable to a wide range of soils and growing conditions.

Maintenance Tips for Native Plant Health

Use in a mixed border or allow to naturalize in a meadow setting. The “rule” when planting is to always plant in odd numbers using groupings of three, five or more plants at a time. I thought it would be nice to have a shade garden there.

Wild Ones depends on membership fees, donations and gifts from individuals like you to carry out our mission of healing the Earth, one landscape at a time. Turf replacement – Remaining turfgrass areas may be replaced with buffalograss or other native turf alternative to reduce watering, fertilizing, and mowing for a more sustainable lawn. Milkweed leaves are the sole food source for Monarch butterfly caterpillars. This common prairie native supports butterflies and other insect pollinators.

If you want to establish a formal native shade garden for your front yard or other area, this  plan can help you. Learn more about plants featured in this plan from this audio file from Scott, and learn more about the plants’ growth habits from this audio file from Scott. The following practices apply to plantings where some degree of control is desired. Each challenge that native plant landscape design presents an opportunity to grow as a gardener and to evolve your garden landscape ideas. By applying these solutions, you can maintain the health and beauty of your native plant garden, ensuring it remains a thriving part of the local environment.

Can become somewhat aggressive when grown in moist, rich soil. The flower nectar of this common prairie native is an important source of nutrients for butterflies and insect pollinators. Seedheads provide food for songbirds during fall and winter.

Many of the groundcovers in this plan will spread and fill in any gaps, reducing the need for yearly mulch. When placing large shrubs and trees, attention should be paid to the views from windows and privacy. For maintenance, it is possible to simply clean the walkways, pull the weeds and let the leaves lie for insects and birds. Mulch using course compost, bark mulch or ¼ ten gravel (screened and clean), which creates a different look.

Or you can design a prairie garden, mimicking what nature does, or did, here. Or you can have a “chaos garden,” where you plant as you go with no master plan whatsoever. You can do a combination of the three and see which suits you best. Adding even just a few native plants to your landscape can go a long way towards supporting wildlife.

Water duration is dependent on what type of irrigation device used. Individual plants need 5-10 seconds with an open hose; whole landscapes need 60 minutes with an impact sprinkler or 15 minutes with popup sprayers. The best way to sense if the duration is appropriate is to check the soil moisture before and after its watered; the soil should be soaked at least 4” deep immediately after watering.

I became really interested in rain catchment ideas after being introduced to the fusion gardening concept at Canada Blooms a few years ago. There were some really clever ideas, like downspout diversion into sub-irrigated planters, as well as cool rain barrels and rain chains. These are plants that have survived your region’s conditions for years and years. There are a few plant databases that might help you with your search. What may seem like more work actually prevents a chain-reaction of onerous tasks including bagging trash, and the fossil-fueled transport and disposal of that trash.