Nobody can do the work for you, unless you’re ok paying them for their expertise (which we hope you are — sometimes that’s the best way to get a solid start). Begin by noodling around at the following links, learn, explore, follow the trail, get empowered through knowledge. When you DIY it takes time – perhaps even up to 75% of your total time planning and installing a new natural garden bed. That’s actually awesome! You’re going to be able to make an even bigger impact for your community. And no matter what, you should always be gardening locally — that not only means your ecoregion but your site, as well as including a majority of native plants while choosing species based on sociability (as well as suited to the site and ecoregion).
Zipcode searches at Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership, PP Region Guides, Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation.
Prairie Moon Nursery —- species lists by site condition and seed germination codes
MOBOT —- Missouri Botanical Gardens plant profiles
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center —- plant profiles
BONAP —- Biota of North America Program for deeper plant and region research
Illinois Wildflowers —- in-depth plant profiles and insect + bug visitation lists
USDA Plants Database —- more maps, just like BONAP, with plant profiles and deeper information
EPA Ecoregion Maps —- stop gardening by hardiness zone
In Canada? — ecoregion and plant lists
Bplant —- plant profiles and discussion of ecoregions
Flickr —- type in Latin plant names to see images of plants at various stages)
iNaturalist —- post pics for flora and fauna i.d.
Izel Native Plants — purveyor of plugs from regional wholesale growers east of the Rockies.
Native plant society sales, local university extension sales, farmer’s markets, some big box and local retail nurseries, and hundreds of mom & pop native plant nurseries around the country.
Wild Ones — regional sample plans
Our online classes and planners — try the organizer to help you research plants for your landscape
Design and management books we recommend:
There’s seasonal management you might perform like clockwork, and there’s management you do at varying times based on specific goals — such as encouraging more flowers, reducing grass competition, getting after a weed species, improving habitat, etc.
In general, you’ll mow or cut down in spring after soil temperatures are firmly in the 50s or a week or two past the time you’d do a first lawn mow (but you don’t have any lawn, right?).
Luckily, many of the above links and books and classes offer management advice that’s responsive to the site needs and not like traditional mow-and-blow landscaping where the same acts are performed at the same times on every site everywhere in the city. But ultimately, management, like planting, is highly local — which is as it should be if we’re gardening in sync with nature, sustainably, and for wildlife.
There are several methods based on time, cost, physical ability, and site variables (such as weeds) — all have their pros and cons. Luckily, we wrote a post on how to eradicate lawn.
The five main methods are:
For many folks the best tools to use are the ones you find most comfortable. And there’s always a different tool for a different job, from trenching to digging trees to planting plugs. But here are our most commonly-used tools (many of which you can find at our affiliate link):
Prairie. Meadow. Savanna. These are interchangeable terms we all make synonymous in our heads. But there are two main reasons why prairie / meadow gardening is right for you and your lawn:
First, keep the average height of all plants right around 18-24 inches.
Second, use a matrix design with grass or sedge appropriate for the site and region.
Third, have no more than 1-3 species blooming at one time, and make sure to have a continuous bloom succession from spring through fall.
Fourth, plant flower species in repeating masses and drifts of 3, 5, 7, 21 — whatever scale you need to suit the space and the species sociability and habits.
Employ cues to care to show further intention and be welcoming to humans: benches, arbors, fountains, sculptures, wide paths, signs, stone walls, etc.
Since riding on elevators started to make me nervous I’ve taken steps to avoid them.
Elevator jokes work on so many levels.
And yet elevator puns really push my buttons.
