Getting Started with Natural Landscaping | Accent on Natural Landscaping

Getting started with natural landscaping can be as simple as introducing native plants into your garden(s) or as dramatic as redesigning your entire green space. The point is that you start gardening with native plants.

Compared to the roots of the non-native Kentucky bluegrass (far right), prairie plants and grasses have an extensive root system which helps absorb moisture and prevent erosion. Prairie plants can withstand prolonged periods of dry weather so require little or no watering. (Graphic by Janet Wissink)

If you’re not sure how big you want to go, I suggest you start by just introducing native plants into your already existing plantings. If you’re like me and most of the people I have come to know through Wild Ones, you’ll find soon you’ll start ignoring your non-native plants and spending more time watching your native plants. It’s addictive!

The satisfaction you will derive from watching all the wildlife activity around your native plants will most certainly outweigh all the tending you must do to maintain your non-native plants. Once a native plant is established, it doesn’t require the potable water, the fertilizer, the insecticide or the replacement that most non-native plants need to be sustained and to look pretty. The long roots of the native plants provide all the nourishment needed. And, because the wildlife evolved with the native plant, they certainly aren’t going to use it to its destruction — that would be wholly counter-productive.

SO WHAT PLANTS SHOULD YOU INTRODUCE INTO YOUR PLANTINGS?