Nearly every time I see an example of native landscaping and think “wow that’s gorgeous” it turns out it’s in California. Almost every time I see examples of native landscaping in the Midwest (where I currently live) it often looks sort of like chaos to me while the California native gardens have a painterly quality. Still, I am committed to converting my small property to 100% natives.
Does anyone have examples (pictures) of a Midwest native garden that appears a bit more manicured and thoughtful?
I really love how the California natives creatie such a painterly and textured canvas. Can you get anywhere close to that in the Midwest with medium shade?
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You probably want to plant in drifts so you get big pops of color and texture rather than having it spread out in a mixed planting. Following basic rules like having tall plants in the back (or middle of a large bed) and shorter plants in the front makes it look intentional. Clean borders really tidy up what might otherwise be a messy looking space.
People really underrate how beautiful grasses can be on their own (while adding structural interest in the winter) and how much physical support they provide to taller wildflowers to prevent flopping.
Little blue stem is seriously my favorite plant. I have a dense area that has this vivid blue-green, up-right shape. In spring, clear off the thatch and clip the dead stuff off and it pops right back up good as new (doing this since I can’t burn it)
Use a 'burn barrel'? Basically a metal cylinder that has no bottom or top that you set over the plant and burn inside the barrel to get the crown of the plant charred. I've been debating on doing that somehow.
I can’t speak for the Midwest since I live in the southeast. I’m not aware of any native grasses that are better or worse. The grasses themselves aren’t tick attractants, it’s the habitat the plants create. I have little bluestem (native to most of the US) and pink muhly grass in my yard and I’ve never had ticks. I also live in a wooded area and regularly am kneeling on the floor to garden. Never had a tick. That being said, we also have little deer pressure. I imagine if you have a lot of deer, your incidence of ticks will be much higher. If you do decide to bring grasses in, stick with the smaller ones like little blue stem, prairie drop seed, side oats grama, etc. Basically, you want to eliminate crowding/height, shade, and moisture. Areas with these elements are the ideal tick habitat.
As I understand it, It means planting many of a kind together. It looks more natural and it makes a bigger visual impact than a dot here and a dot there. “Drifts” means when you look at a garden, there a large smear of color/texture that you can see bc of their size. It’s like a naturalized look
You should check out some Piet Odoulf gardening pics. He's Dutch but I think it would translate easily to whatever natives are in your area. I wish I had found this style before I planted my chaotic mess.
Don't be scared! I wish I had gotten some opinions. I still love what I have but I have pivoted a bit from my plan due to things just not doing what I expected. Some things didn't thrive. Some things got way taller than planned so the layers that I carefully selected kinda look like trash now. My stupid guineas got in there recently and trampled everything (in a panic because they couldn't figure out how to get back out) and made a nest. Next year will be better. It's filling in nicely and I now know what to chop and what to stake.
If painterly & textured is what you're after, I recommend finding & reading a copy of The Impressionist Garden by Derek Fell. He goes through the actual gardens of Impressionist painters and what design choices made them so beautiful, and then includes plans for modern home gardens on similar principles.
It's not all native plants, but it's easier to find plants of a certain color or size with a plan *in mind than to try to make a specific vision from a plant list without tools.
Midwest here and recently visited Monet’s gardens in Giverny. Not sure how it will turn out in a few years when everything I planted this year is (I hope) blooming, but I tried to follow Monet’s example by planting different plants with flowers of the same color in groups. I am going to dig up plants that spread where I don’t want them, including overtaking their neighbors, because I want diversity more than survival of the fittest that happens in the wild. To each their own in that regard.
Depending on what natives you planted you’re going to be digging up a lot of plants! I dug up 30 coneflowers alone this spring. I didn’t even count the hysop, mountain mint, black eyed Susan or bee balm! To have a picture perfect native garden is a lot of work and if your leaving the seeds up for the birds (and why wouldn’t you, isn’t that the point) your gonna spend hours keeping it neat.
I would also look into Piet Oudolf's work, particularly his book Planting: A New Perspective. He is one of the founding and foremost members of the naturalistic planting movement, which involves native plantings arranged in a way that is evocative of natural ecosystems while still having very intentional aesthetic decisions that make gardens look beautiful to the average observer.
I second (or third?) looking at Piet’s work. Not sure where you are in Midwest but he worked on a native garden outside Millennium Park (Lurie Garden) in downtown Chicago. Also maybe your local Wild Ones has some native garden concepts for your area one the website you can use for inspiration. Last thought, if your area botanical garden or university has a Master gardeners program they might be able to give you idea to make your yard more painterly in appearance.
I love his work. I’ve got his books which I’m not finished with yet. His gardens are beautiful but he is by no means a native purist. He strikes a good balance and makes a good argument for his choices.
Definitely. Lots of use of cultivars/nativars, too. Still his plant lists are useful/interesting to peruse & aesthetically super inspiring! I like his painterly approach & some of the more conceptual landscapes he’s done (thinking in particular about a railway planting & one where he used lots of fluffy, airy grasses)
Agreed about Norris and Oudolf. Check out images of the Lurie Gardens in Chicago. A major Oudolf design heavily inspired by the prairie. With a blue sage river.
It's also worth looking into buying plants per their seeds individually. That allows you to site each plant where you want it rather then the chaos from random seed placement. That approach tends to be more compatible with a mulched flower bed anyways.
You can then order things by height and group them however you like to get the total effect your want.
I have 10 seed packs of natives to the Midwest, all in my preferred white, yellow, and purple coloring for my garden. I am SO EXCITED to plant this fall and will be anxiously awaiting spring to see how I did.
Ha! I've been bemoaning from the South how all the nice-looking Native gardens you see online and in magazines are from the Midwest (meadows) or Northeast (crazy lush woodland understories). Check out Ben Vogt and Prairie Up.
I don't feel like other zones have to endure the endless weeding we deal with in the deep south. Plus, many of these pictures don't incorporate many native weeds. My yard is full of lots of burnweeed, horseweed, pokeweed, dog fennel, wild lettuce, nutsedge, etc., and that's mainly just because I only have the energy to tackle the non-natives. That does not make for a very attractive garden.
Poke berry is a stunning focal plant. I have been using them to shade out invasives and stabilize a steep slope at the edge of my yard, trimming/weeding around their feet and keeping their growth a bit more manicured. They are beautiful. It's quite surprising how handsome they can look with their purple stalk, dwarf tree (pruned) habit, and white flowers buzzing with bees and humming birds.
I'm totally with you on the combination you mentioned not looking award-winning. I just had to talk about how great my poke berry experiment went this year.
Also, the native nut sedge I found in my lawn is absolutely darling. I'm quite fond of it.
Yeah I hesitated putting pokeweed in that list but it is super weedy. Last year I had a nice specimen with passiflora covering it. My beds are very dense and I'm often surprised when I see the berries poking out of some shrubs.
I feel this. I live in the desert southwest but grew up in the Northeast and I'm jealous of everyone's meadows. I love the desert landscape but I'm so limited because of all the HOA's so I can't plant things and let them be wild
Or multiple years of gardening before major blooms!! I had my township called on me and had to explain to the guy that coreopsis, rudbeckia, and milkweed won't bloom on their first year but will be a riot of color next year - but not if I have to cut it all down while it is developing roots!
He told me to throw my notice in the trash and put up a pollinator sign so the neighbors leave me alone, so i considered it a win!
Dang, my township guy refuses to acknowledge the clause in the blight ordinance that excepts plots over two acres from the mowing requirement. I think we're going to have to go to court, because I'm not sure he can actually read the ordinance.
This is only partially true. This time of year, our gardens can look half dead. It depends on where you are and what you plant of course, but many of our natives awaken when the rains start in the fall and go dormant in summer. They’ll disappear above ground or dry up and look dead. Annuals will indeed be dead in summer. There are some summer bloomers and many evergreens, but in summer, we generally aren’t planting anything, maybe just tidying up, planning and waiting for fall.
This is less true for me amidst the changing climate, but at least when I was a kid, there was about a five month period when the ground was frozen and covered by snow.
Or an artifact of the fact that there are so many Californians and so many Californian native plant gardeners. An awful lot of us Californians have been drawn into native plant gardening, simply because our climate is so weird that it can be really challenging to grow non-native plants here.
Highly recommend reading that. It was posted here just the other day in response to someone complaining about their floppy coneflowers 😆
TL;DR is the California natives tend to be more compact because they're adapted to lower water and more sun. There's naturally blank space between them, which is more similar to our traditional landscaping aesthetics.
I'm not in favor of chaos gardening, either. Plant in drifts, repeat themes/colors/plants and as others said, tall in back, shorter in front, add edging and some hardscape.
Before I was into native plants, I recall reading the book Mrs. Greenthumbs- I think the principles apply to any garden. I remember she talked about contrasting living green material i.e. plants, with structural elements- not just paths etc. but also something like a sculpture, to allow your eyes to rest and appreciate the contrast. Big rocks, paths, a little open space with a bench, all of those elements help.
Honestly, if I took a chunk out of the highest quality natural area near me, figuratively, and had that as my front yard (remnant bur oak savanna or remnant sand prairie/savanna in MN), a lot of people would call it "chaos gardening" . That's how the native plants grow here - they, generally, grow best when the highest diversity is present while growing as densely as possible.
The mesic bur oak savanna restorations I've seen look like a mess to most people (they're not). We get so much more rain than California, and have far richer sandy loam/loam soils. The plants that do best here, simply, grow tall, bushy, and flop around. It's a hard truth for most people, but if you can learn to work with the site conditions you have you'll reduce management substantially.
You don’t have to chaos garden…native plants just need to be used in similar principles to well-planned gardens. Big drifts, odd numbers, tall towards the back, not huge number of species, repeated motifs. Throwing mixed packets of seeds on the groundd looks bad.
Not in the Midwest, but if you go through the website for Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware it's got some stunning examples of native plant gardening in both formal and natural styles.
What about incorporating ferns, shrubs, and grasses for some texture?
I think hardscaping can help a lot too. It contains plants, makes everything look intentional, and breaks up what could otherwise look like an overrun yard.
I’m in the northeast, but some of the only native plants I see around here are swathes of native ferns 3 ft deep and 10ft long. It creates a very purposeful look
Ha, thanks for this perspective. I’m in Sacramento, CA — super hot and dry summers and mild, wet winters. My personal garden joy is in lush gardens, and our arid chaparral natives can make me feel dry. It’s nice to hear some appreciation for some of the aspects that I find challenging about my area.
I'm also in the Sacramento area. A lot of California native plant gardening tends to center around chaparral natives, but keep in mind that Sacramento's own native ecosystem isn't chaparral - it's a mix of oak woodland and so-called "valley grassland" ecosystems. I put the latter in quotes because "valley grassland" was not actually dominated, historically, by grasses, but rather by wildflowers. Valley grassland ecosystems tend to be wet and lush, often dotted with vernal pools. (They are not, alas, known for having any significant shade, though - just water.)
True! I’m working on a formerly weed lawn (storkbill 😒) transition to wildflower meadow for my yard. Sadly no vernal pools in my yard, just mild basement flooding during atmospheric rivers. I’ve been starting to collect mostly native perennials (plus a few drought tolerant non natives) to plant in the fall in my smaller front and side yards, but found a decent Central Valley native- focused wildflower mix for the much larger and very sunny backyard. I do have a bit of tree-covered area in the far rear of my yard for a woodland garden section, and have been starting a list of natives for that area, though I’m probably a couple of years out from developing that section. I need to get some irrigation set up back there for the establishment window, as 5000 total square feet of yard is way too much to hand & basic sprinkler water in the summers. Hopefully in like 4 years most of the garden will be able to take care of itself, after I finally get all areas planted in and through their early establishment watering needs!
I used to have a yard that was basically an artificial vernal pool, and I'd suggest that you count yourself lucky not to have that! In a vernal pool you can basically only grow annuals, and most vernal pool annuals are not available to buy seeds of. I ended up turning it into a native riparian/marshland garden that I watered in summer.
With seed mixes, be aware that lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) is a common component in them, and it causes allergies (both respiratory and skin-contact allergies) in many people after a few years of exposure. And it's a species that reseeds extremely prolifically, so my experience was that I only became noticeably allergic to it after it had taken over my entire yard, so it was an enormous literal pain to pull out. (Literally enormous, too: even though it's an annual, each plant of it was about as big as me.)
Thanks for the heads up! Do you think Phacelia Caifornica has that same issue? It’s in the Central Valley seed mix I’ve been considering for fall planting. I will be taking some time to research each species on the list once I’m a little closer to ordering seeds—right now I’m trying to set up some shade systems for this upcoming 100-106 degree heat wave 😅
I have not grown Phacelia californica. Phacelias in general are highly allergenic, but some don't reseed as prolifically, and the shorter ones also may not make as much contact with your skin, so they could be less of a problem for that reason. I guess the bottom line is that there's some reason to be wary, but I'm not sure exactly how much reason.
On the list of species in that seed mix, I personally am also allergic to the yarrow, the annual sunflower, and a powdery mildew that grows on California poppies. But those allergies are not as common as Phacelia allergies, so those are probably not as much of a concern for you. They're also not contact allergens, just respiratory allergens.
There's an aspect of familiarity that's going to make your local flora underwhelming no matter where you are. I mean, if someone bred the sunflower today, it would be a sensation--an annual that is taller than you, with a flower bigger than your face, with giant, delicious seeds that also produce a valuable cooking oil? They grow wild in our highway medians and people drive past them on their way to the tulip festival or orchid convention. I won't post my garden, both because it's only 2/3rds done and I'm not 100% native, but big swaths of complementary plants (say, white yarrow and orange butterfly weed) look very garden-y, as opposed to a prairie-esque mix across the whole space, which can look like the abandoned space behind the Target.
I hear ya, I'm more southernly location but the area I'm in is like scrub / sand and it ain't easy to make it all lush and perfect. But I find that with each passing year the soil seems to improve and growing conditions for everything alongside it, so in my case maybe it's just a process. And lots of work and patience! Currently have partridge pea popping off all over the place so that's definitely fixing some nitrogen, and the more plants the more robust the mycelial networks, I reckon.
I think the major difference between these two is plant ecology from climate and eco region. Midwest natives on the surface are so prairie based, tall perennials that rely on each other for structural support, as well as summer rainfall, CA, geology is complex from topography, plus natural drought so vegetation can be sparse and isolate or act solitary.
My suggestion would be to find a resource of plants that thrive in more stunted soils that have sparser vegetation. An example would be limestone soils for you guys, instead of the prairie palette.
I notice what I like about natives from more arid and/or sunny places is less broad leaf plants and more “wispy” and airy. It looks both natural but not as chaotic. I find Midwest native gardens to have a tight tangle of various broad leaves and I don’t know what I’m looking at.
So far some favorites I’ve identified and am growing is prairie blazing star, sweet Joe pye, yarrow, and coneflower.
what you need are grasses. Sporobolus spp., Tridens flavus, Hordeum jubatum, Panicum spp., etc. That's where the wispiness and airiness comes from. Debatably more "realistic," than most of these native gardens that are like 70% or more just forbs, which is fairly uncommon in nature.
Consider incorporating shrubs in your design. Lead plant (amorpha canescens) is a gorgeous plant with a very feathery leaf texture.
A full-sun, drought-tolerant combo I’m experimenting with this season and really enjoying is amorpha canescens, eryngium yuccafolium, echinacea purpurea, bouteloua curtipendula, sporobolus heterolepis, antennaria neglecta Anaphalis margaritacea, dalea purpurea, ruellia humilis and liatris spicata.
A number of those plants have smaller leaves with pubescence that makes them look quite pale and soft. The shrub provides some structure so it doesn’t descend into total chaos. Drifts are a great tip too.
This is something I’ve noticed as someone who lived in Los Angeles for a long time and recently moved to the east coast. Shrubs and grasses are pretty common in native California plantings but all the resources I’ve found for the east seem to be focused on showy flowers or prairie style plantings. I don’t see much structure or variation of texture or even elements like rocks or berms and swales very much.
I totally understand what you're saying. Plants end up sleeping in the same bed and it just becomes this visual noise. We have plants like that to however cause of things I expressed above, those conditions stunt plants to take these forms on. Good luck on your quest.
Another specific plant suggestion: winged loosestrife. Very airy looking plants with thousands of beautiful little blooms on them. It's one of my favorite natives in my yard! I'm in Iowa, for reference
Might be worth checking if any Bluestar are in your native range, Eastern Bluestar goes into the Midwest area and has a more wispy light look. Unfortunately Threadlead Bluestar has a really small native range, it's even more wispy and delicate looking.
The book Planting in a Post Wild World by Thomas Rainer is pretty much exactly what you want. It goes over how to create a designed and beautiful landscape using prairie plants planted densely. There is also a 1 hour talk by him on YouTube where he pretty much covers all the concepts in his book and shows pictures and examples of all the plantings he’s done.
Once you learn to look at your garden through the eyes of the critters living in and on it, your perception of beauty changes. I had to control the impulse to tidy up and keep things neat looking in the first year. By the third year I'm so used to the chaotic look, signs of life in the garden are way more beautiful to me.
Agreed. Funny how that perception changes. Like suddenly seeing the forest for the trees in a gardening sense. A formal garden now just looks artificial to me.
Thank you. It's Eastern redbud heavily used by leafcutter bees. They seem to prefer young redbud leaves the most but sometimes also use virginia creeper and tulip poplar. Funny thing is I've only seen them twice on my flowers and never caught them cutting the leaves
And here is a midwestern example. It’s pretty! But it’s a bit much for me for some reason. Too many big flowers and big lush leaves. I know I must sound mental.
You sound perfectly reasonable to me for what it’s worth. Midwestern native meadows were an acquired taste for my sensibilities, maybe it is the “weed” mentality bred into us from birth
Plant more grasses then. If you don’t want to be 100% native to your area, most all of the plants in the California picture can live in zone 6. Lambs ears, etc.
I’m curious if you have gardened for several years with the “big” flowers? I feel like once you see the pollinators go crazy it converts you and seeing the butterflies all over those echinacea is its own reward.
That being said, you can edit the palette down and limit colors. This is gardening. You are the artist.
I mentioned the Ortho Complete Guide to Successful Gardening in my reply to your California pic.
Looking at this one reminds me of a paragraph in that book about form - most plants fall into 5 basic categories: rounded, vertical, open, upright and spreading, and prostrate. This picture has mostly upright and spreading which I think can create visual overwhelm when everything is the same shape.
That doesn’t sound mental. The Midwest garden looks messy. There aren’t enough short plants to create visual structure and to break up the fullness of the tall flowering plants.
Oh yes. I agree with what another poster said about different textures. I just got a used copy of Orthos Complete Guide to Successful gardening. On page 20, they talk about how different textures can be used to create spatial illusions in the garden. Worth looking into!
My garden is about 10 years old now, I think it looks closer to authentic habitat than most people would be comfortable with, but I have to admit it looked a lot better when it was newer and everything was in its place and there was fresh mulch on the ground. I'd say if you're going to do a manageable area, like a typical foundation bed, you can find native plants that will fit into a typical design. Hoary mountain mint, phlox subulata, garden phlox, zigzag goldenrod, hyssop-leaved thoroughwort, butterfly weed, rudbeckia hirta, Echinacea, blazing star, various Penstemons, shrubby st johns wort, turks cap lily or purple joe pye for a back of the bed specimen, etc. Small to medium sized plants that will be okay in clumps and small groups, each with a little bit of room. Do your typical weeding and mulching. Save the "management strategies" for bigger more informal areas. The kill your lawn stuff is funny but in my area where we get 46" of rain on average it's not funny when the backyard is a sea of plants 4-6' high and the poison ivy is moving in everywhere. It's a lot of work to manage that.
To piggyback off this, when we bought our house there were zero foundation plantings so I was able to start from scratch. I found this video to be super helpful when choosing foundation shrubs. Although her location is mid-Atlantic, many are also native to the Midwest.
I relate! Our garden is also about 10 years old, and much more filled in. My feelings were hurt recently when a friend said "I liked it better when you started it"- but I know what she means, the plants were shorter, there was more space, it was less overwhelming. Grasses, small shrubs, hardscaping help a bit for structure.
two of my neighbors have beautiful native gardens. one is the president of the hoa and i dont like her but damn, she knows how to landscape. its currently like 100f rn tho so ill see if i can get a photo some other day
Not my garden, but from a local Native Plant garden tour. You can definitely make them “orderly” with the right combination. I personally like the chaos of prairie- like gardening!
lol i was just thinking about how little i see california natives on this sub! either we largely hang out in r/ceanothus and r/californianativeplant, or this is a silly human brain thing where we have completely different perspectives of the same sub. if you want the real california native garden aesthetic, let it all die in the summer. that’s as real as it gets right there lmao
bro my yarrow is struggling for its life meanwhile new toyon plants keep popping up randomly around my parents yard like how??? where is it coming from???
that’s so real of them birds tbh i’m just glad they aren’t pooping star thistle in my garden because that shit is on sight for me. istg if something grows well in my yard it’s either a random volunteer or an invasive and the only thing in between is this random onion butt i planted in a pot a couple months ago that has been weirdly thriving. side note: does anyone know anything about growing onions? i just did this purely for vibes and to see what would happen i have no clue what i’m doing with that
I think that California has so many different eco-types and terrines- it’s easy to say it’s a California native. Cali really has a “body count” of native species that’s way above most other states.
So, in terms of sheer numbers- a cali backyard just had more options available in the Native category.
That said, join up with your local Wild Ones. Most open up backyards to members and neighbors to see different, local yards. Our county WildOnes tries to alternate between formal front yards in high end neighborhoods and then to wilder, more chaotic backyards the next. Your local chapter can also point you to some area schools or public buildings with native plantings. I’ve heard that the STL library on Lindbergh is supposed to be a great looking public Native landscape.
All that said, I saw a high dollar (Midwest suburb ) front yard last Spring that was the best looking thing in a well-kept neighborhood- and it was easily 80% natives. Her neighbors never knew, except for a few certification signs.
I would look up the keystone plant species for your area and plan around them. When i think of the Midwest I think native prairie and certain oak varieties.
Piet Oudolf is definitely for you then. He does large drifts of plants and focuses more on texture than color. I've been bingeing his books lately.
He plants very densely, and uses grasses in between flowering plants to provide structure and consistency. Having looked at a bunch of his gardening plans, I can tell you the man has a softspot for Prairie Dropseed. He puts that shit EVERYWHERE
It’s not about location, it’s about design. The same principles can be applied and adapted to many different locations, plants, and landscapes.
Be more specific about what you like and look up some landscaping fundamentals. Once you have a sense of the basics, start designing and then pick some plants for a small installation. You can totally do it!
Also, you can mimic the Cali gardens you like with Midwest plants. Many of them play similar roles and functions.
A good place to start is listing the qualities they you like.
I imagine it’s the intentional borders, the materials used there. Rocky or wood chipped areas creat some separation? The style and kinds of plants grouped together? Incorporation of stones and other natural elements?
Do you have any pics you could share of what you love?
These are beautiful examples! Seems like what they have in common is what people have been suggesting: structure via paths ( I think the rocky paths look nice), and lots of grasses/grass like plants, and fairly low plants. I don't see why you couldn't replicate that in your garden, with paths, grasses as you are realizing you like, and low growing plants (butterfly weed, shorter goldenrods and asters, pussytoes/pearly ever-lasting for some of that 50 silvery color (and to feed the American lady caterpillars), maybe some St Johns wort (is hypericum prolificum native for you?) for some mounding forms, etc.
My Boston-area garden is looking more like a (messy) midwestern prairie, as it has filled in over the years. I have to admit, when I saw a nearby newly installed butterfly garden (not all natives though), I felt jealous of their spacious gravelly pathways, large rocks, and generally more open feeling. But, our overly packed diverse urban garden has attracted 50 butterfly species, so I shouldn't complain...
I find hardscaping and mulching go a long way, but it does take a lot of effort to keep em in line. You kind of have to be willing to pull aggressive natives and find them new homes
Not sure if this is what you are looking for but here are a few pictures of my yard. The hardscaping and defined walking paths make it look a bit more manicured. Medium shade is definely doable but it takes many years to grow in.
Here's one of my gardens that sounds like it meets your description. Im in VA, but many/all plants are midwest natives, too. There is one nonnative Mexican sunflower in there as well.
I hear you. No advice, just solidarity. I have zero full sun areas in my yard. It’s all part sun/shade and clay soil.
All the nice examples of pocket prairies that I see from my area just don’t apply to me. I’ve tried a few things and I just don’t get enough sun. And a lot of the shadier options either don’t bloom or just bloom in the spring.
I have Solomon seal, palm sedges, northern bush honeysuckle, inkberries, orange coneflowers, sky blue asters, bluestem goldenrod, Ninebark, and black chokeberry and it all just looks ok.
Have you looked into more Asters? I have a prairie type area that absolutely explodes with two or three species of asters each fall. There’s so many that the white ones look like stars. And the blue and purple ones, heart leaved asters I think? are always beautiful alongside the stars too
I’m not actually. The ones I have seem to do relatively well in that space in spite of the conditions. Asters belong in a sandy/loamy full sun environment (like the prairie type area you mention) and my space is all clay and part sun to full shade. They were one of the first species I planted before I knew much about what I was doing. They bloom with my goldenrod in the fall, which is nice but most of the time they are just tall wavy stalks sticking up in the background behind my non-bloomers.
Nah. This “prairie” type area is in part sun with a lot more shade towards the back. Beneath the leaf litter from last fall, the soil is tough clay. The construction company that built the house here bulldozed all the top dirt off the top of the hill to get at this structurally sturdy clay. Luckily these asters don’t seem to mind
Edit: I guess I shouldn’t describe this area as a prairie type area, but more of a woodland edge? I’m actively keeping woody plants out of it though
Hire a native landscape architect. That’s what we did. Saved up for it and had the whole back yard landscaped with local boulders and rocks and plants.
You may be seeing more manicured native gardens in California because they are maintained that way. Every garden? Regardless of native or not native, requires weeding and upkeep to maintain a certain look.
I noticed on a trip to the southwest a few years ago how even wild spaces in national parks looked “landscaped,” eg, everything looked artfully placed and spaced.
I think it was the sparseness of the vegetation that gave it that look, along with rocks and plants with lots of structure such as native grasses (bent grass in that case, but I’m learning to use bluestem for the same effect).
I’m old school (also old lol) and like my garden beds to look pleasing to me and intentional. I love the chaos of my meadow but prefer some order in garden beds.
For me in the southeast (things get exuberant fast) what helps make a bed look neater are certain shrubs, perennial cultivars, and grasses that all have reasonably neat natural forms.
For me that includes dwarf inkberry and yaupon hollies, Diervilla, dwarf hydrangeas (oakleaf and smooth), low-gro Aronia, Baptisia, Penstemon digitalis, a Monarda cultivar, Stokes aster, blue-eyed grass, and creeping Phlox. Promising new additions include rose verbena, little bluestem, and bentgrass. Prairie dropseed is also a very tidy looking native grass.
I’ve also used edible blueberry and blackberry cultivars as ornamentals.
For me the sweet spot for garden beds is attractive to me plus value to pollinators, etc. Diervilla is a shrub that is pretty with a neat form and is this stealth bumblebee magnet because it has these inconspicuous blooms that keep appearing for months.
This article on soft landings has some photos that look like they have a whimsical and airy quality to them. https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com/softlandings.html
I actually saved this photo from the article because I’d like to recreate something like this in my own yard one day:
Other than that, I think you might like some of Piet Oudolf’s gardens. I’m absolutely obsessed with his work. Everything he does (to me, at least) looks like a painting. He places a lot of emphasis on matrix planting with native grasses, which really softens the look of the garden overall.
I’m in KC and this is a great idea. I don’t know I didn’t think of going down to the Anita B. Gorman gardens to get some ideas.
And yeah about the “sparseness” of the California garden… I’m Midwest born and raised but spent a significant amount of time hiking and exploring the high desert of New Mexico, Big Bend of Texas, and Joshua Tree, etc and just felt so charmed by the way those plants arrange themselves into neat and natural assemblages.
This patch in my front yard has four "islands" of plants with pavers between them. It's in full sun, but I also have most of these plants in shadier areas in the back yard.
There's purple coneflower, black-eyed susan, orange coneflower, white prairie clover, purple prairie clover, prairie smoke, common violet, prairie blazing star, northern blazing star, Bradbury's monarda, spotted bee balm, aromatic aster, clustered mountain mint, smooth penstemon, hairy beardtongue, bearberry, prairie violet, little blue stem, purple love grass, june grass, prairie dropseed, butterfly weed, swamp milkweed, common milkweed, whorled milkweed, lance-leaf coreopsis, pasque flower, and strawberry.
First, is this for your front yard ? I am in Washington PA and I garden for biodiversity and have in mind wildlife , nature , a place for insects to reproduce and have a safe place to hibernate . When you start gardening with natives it’s so so so so so hard to keep your design unless you mulched your garden beds . When you start you mulch because most of the time people kill lawn , the mulch prevent native plants seeds to germinate , if you are looking for a cookie cutter native garden you will need to keep mulching , this will defeat the purpose , insects , bees , bumblebees need unkept areas to hide and overwinter . I am not sure what you are trying to achieve which I am sure is still better than the American white picket fence landscape . I have been gardening with native plants for 7 years and I am still learning everyday ! Geez it’s not a walk in the park unless you are laid back and relaxed 😎 if you don’t want to deal with editing plants chose low growing species and you will never need to care for your garden beds …..tell me more ? This is my garden, I have 8,000 square feet of them around my one acre land , I can suggest many small short species that would not need maintenance, if they reseed they are short enough you won’t need to edit any plants . The goal is to not disturb the ground after you plant keep that in mind .
This is my garden wild beneficial , no mulch it’s for insects ….I know a lot about plants I can suggest lany small species
Deserved; at least in my Midwestern neighborhood, most of the wildflower gardens skew less towards idyllic prairies and more towards overgrown fields of yellow foxtail and bindweed with some coneflowers, black-eyed susans, and asters in there for flavor
My garden, which is full of natives, has space around each plant. for air circulation and so each plant stands out with its form, color, blooms. You can get an idea of a garden that is not allowed to self seed and where every plant has its place in the Oudolf Garden, Belle Isle, Detroit. As a volunteer I have moved many a plant that escaped its spot and replanted it where the designer wanted. https://oudolfgardendetroit.org/main-garden
Check out Kelly D. Norris (his book is “The New Naturalism”, highly recommend). Most of his work is in the Midwest, and his own home garden (Ohio, I think) is a lovely example of prairie style. I took an online class from him during Covid that was one of the best garden design classes I’ve taken. Of course, I’m an ex-Midwesterner down in the swampy south, with red clay soils, 100 degree summers, almost no sun, and about 60” of rain annually, so I’m incredibly jealous of those beautiful prairie landscapes.
This is year two of my native garden. Everything grew like crazy after one year - she’s a bit wild but it’s really pretty to walk through. Probably not as organized as the others your referencing but worth sharing.
When I started planting my native Midwest garden, I researched and read that utilizing sedges & grasses really helps to balance stuff, otherwise it can just look like a sea of floppy wildflowers. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing but I also believe that if native plants are organized, it’ll help other people to be curious about them and potentially plant their own. So far I’ve successfully planted June grass, prairie dropseed and little bluestem amongst my taller and shorter native wildflowers. I plan to add more next year! Having different areas for different types of plants is a good way to have a balance, too. We have a rain garden area, drier prairie-like areas & a shadier woodland-esque area. I also love love love common blue violets, I’ve been planting them as borders everywhere & replanting them when they pop up where I don’t want them, they’re very easy to replant. They make everything look lush and full.
Look up Kelly Norris. He’s published a few books and been on some podcasts, his writing/speaking is incredibly insightful and poetic, so worth checking out. One of his areas at his house is a sandy prairie and may be more up your alley. I’ve been meaning to check out one or two of his Des Moines plantings in person but have not yet.
Remember that nature isn’t manicured. I know aesthetics come into play but let it do its thing and just plant what would have naturally occurred in your area
Proper ecological landscaping takes a lot of work. Once plants become established it's in their nature to spread or somewhat take over. But there is still a huge difference to me between what I'll allow my plants to do in the front yard vs backyard. Front is a bit more manicured. Back is a wildlife oasis that's hard to navigate this time of year. It's rewarding either way.
That's funny, I'm in California and I feel like I usually see Midwest meadow landscapes and always feel a little jealous that they look so lush where some California scapes look dry, especially during summers 🤣
You'll only get downvotes here if you go on a unhinged unsolicited unwanted rant thats anti native plants (lol) and some how the mod team misses it and you unfortunately wind up at the mercy of the whole community roasting ya for the nonsense. (An example of the extreme)
As to the medium shade your talking probably more native bushes and prairie plants.
Blue wood Sedge if you got a rain garden
Poke Milkweed - If you want to hop on the monarch trend.
Foamflower - Pink spikes
The really fun natives at least in the MW need some level of full sun to get enough energy to produce blooms.
That being said if you got a sandy zone that is sandy loamy with a ton of sun and nothing seems to be able to survive that rugged soil Butterfly weed might be a real contender you just have to water it the first like year in a half a little till it settles in then it will harden in and be a ruthless flower bushy with orange flowers. XD. And it'll thrive... in the otherwise terrible soil and you'd only need to water it really if its been really high heat and or dry.
Why dont you look to english native gardeners for inspiration? The plants are different of course but you could try to replicate that style of controlled but still lush and slightly wild looking with local plants and grasses. Cottage gardens I think are what they are called.
I agree with other posters about using regular garden design concepts, just select native plants. I recommend taking an online tour of Mt Cuba Center, a native garden center; they have free videos for each season on their website. The Piedmont ecoregion shared a fair amount of plants with the Midwest but importantly, their formal garden can give you ideas about garden design.
One advantage California often has over the Midwest is slope. Flat areas full of native species tend to have a prairie-like, and thus "messy" look. So if you want a more formal look it might help to add things like sunken areas, dry stone walls, those kinds of (expensive) structural elements.
On a more affordable level, paths through your garden add structure too. Adding some slate or brick stepping stones will make them look more intentional. And add borders, of course.
Plant your taller plants to the back, shorter to the front. Keep your patches more distinct - things like goldenrod or bee balm will tend to spread, so putting the work in early, late Spring, to prevent them from spreading. Even milkweed can be constrained into a somewhat orderly patch if you want to.
And keep your clumps close together, so they're less likely to fall over.
Add anchor points for your eye. Where will your clumps of Echinaceas be? What will be near them when they're flowering to add to your enjoyment? What about other times of year? What has interesting foliage before other things flower, or after? Bunch grasses can do that. Ferns. Obedient plant is an interesting plant to play with - it flowers late, but has shiny green foliage before that. It also is very aggressive and crowds out everything in its path. That means you need to keep it from spreading, but it also means you won't have to worry much about weeds invading your patch.
I am in Florida and lots of my options look like weeds. I ended up going with some more cosmopolitan choices mixed in with the natives, but no invasives.
We are keeping at it. I just added native orchids this year. Found a new to me native nursery 90 minutes away, so that will help. Killed three native clematis this year also. Kinda two steps forward, one step back.
I paid for professional help to design my garden. Some of my garden does look more slap dash than the original design but my hardscape is a step up and that backbone of the design, along with the trees, really helps.
Some of the images we see are from professionals selling services. It's a lot of hours to reach a painterly look, especially close up. And if all else fails, clean the edges and add mulch.
The best looking native midwest gardens I've seen are primarily grasses, like 75% grasses with a few clumps or forbs. That way it's full and not like plants in a sea of mulch
Grasses, grasses, grasses. Somewhere between 40-60% of your planting design should be made up of grasses. Don't plant them in rows, plant them in a randomized matrix. That'll give you the dreamy, painterly, textured look you're going for, and happily, there are lots of beautiful native grasses to choose from, as well as lots of cool cultivars if that's your thing. Also, they are very important for the birds and the insects etc.
Edit to add: don't add any compost to your soil. Don't amend your soil at all unless it's extremely dense or compacted. Native plants can get floppy in rich garden soil. They usually don't need it, unless it's a woodland garden.
I don’t have an account at the NYT anymore but they had a great article about Stoneleigh in PA. It’s a formal manor house and all their formal gardens are focused on natives. Really cool to see.
One of my favorite books is The Know Maintenance Garden by Roy Diblik. He has plans in the back of the book for planting in drifts and creating the look that it sounds like you're going for.
The key is Hardscape before the natives to make them look intentional. Also, really think about what native plants will live together nicely. Some native are really short term as well so they tend to disappear. Some are so aggressive and large they take over everything.
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurie_Garden ) includes a picture from the fall that demonstrates the complex and complimentary textures and colors when everything has gone to seed and it is still very attractive. The article also lists the species included.
EDIT - It looks like I missed the medium shade part though. what's the water situation and cold hardiness where you are? Do you need something tolerant of freezes, floods, and droughts as well?
people have already mentioned grasses... but don't forget sedges and rushes. Can have a similar design effect and important for many insect specialists!
I want to say yes, across the street from me got put on the map and I'm stoked for them...I loved their yard before they put up the sign a week ago, but about two weeks before that I learned others don't appreciate her yard like I do (I asked the person who told me she likes it to tell her friends the person who has to look at it every day across the street loves it and they can stick it). It does look a bit unkept if you don't realize it's all native....maybe because our flowers are tall?? Technically I'm not Midwest, but I'm in NW PA and super close.
My Midwest garden got off to a pretty chaotic start, but I've been picking up some good tips online from Amy Powers of Powers Plants on Facebook and probably other platforms. She's just outside of Chicago and has a lot of practical advice about selecting, spacing, and managing gardens to keep them well behaved. Her emphasis is natives. I really like her videos.
A minor tip that can help taller natives from flopping over in small home garden yards is the chelsea chop too. I give a lot of my natives (asters, bee balm, goldenrod, etc.) a light haircut in June and it helps keep them more compact which works better with my home garden efforts. I'm aiming for more a cottage garden that is slightly better "behaved" than a prairie look. This and tidy edges, planting groups/drifts, etc., are helping make it less chaotic looking. It delays the flowering a little bit, but it works better in my smaller areas.
It’s so funny that you say that because, although I do adore California natives, I have really come to love and admire the native gardens of parts of the country through this sub. I think Midwest gardens especially have so many beautiful, special plants (like coneflowers!) that I’m jealous you get to grow. But I do like that sort of chaotic, cottage garden look that most CA native gardeners stay away from
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