In the spirit of beginning with the end in mind – the first question you must answer is:
What am I trying to achieve? For example – do you live in an urban environment and desire more shade to provide respite from the heat and lower your energy bills? If that is the case, your project will be comprised of a number of canopy and understory trees. Are you most interested in supporting pollinators? Then you will likely be populating your garden with a lot of native perennials. Is stormwater management your priority? A mix of shrubs and perennials might be in order. Want to feed the birds? Be sure to select some berry producing shrubs and seed producing perennials to bring the flocks to your backyard. Dreaming of converting a large space to a natural meadow? You will likely want to include some sedges and native grasses in your mix. Is your goal to replace the turf in your front yard with a bio-diverse, but neighborhood friendly, visually tidy wildlife oasis? Then low growing clumping plants will likely be key to achieving your goal.
When driving or walking, keep your eyes open for spaces similar to the project you are envisioning and take note of the general composition of these sites. Check out some books from your local library and start developing a vision for your garden. Your choices going forward will be governed by the sense of place you develop during this phase of your plant selection. Make a list of the types of plants you are seeking, which likely include a mix of the following:
- Overstory trees
- Understory trees
- Shrubs
- Sedges and grasses
- Perennials
- Ferns
- Groundcovers
Consider layers…
Ideally, your space will include layers from all the elements of a food forest, which is a habitat that supports the needs of the diverse community of wildlife that calls your geographic region home. In nature, the various types of vegetation support different kinds of critters – owls live in the canopies of trees, songbirds make frequent use of the understory and shrubs, pollinators gravitate to shrubs, herbs and groundcovers and mammals of all sorts rely on lower growth vegetation and root layers.
And Create Soft Landings…
In addition, low growing shrubs and groundcovers serve as “soft landings” for insects and caterpillars that spend part of their life cycles in trees and another part on the ground. By planting a diverse community of native plants under the canopy of a keystone species or other native tree, gardeners can provide habitat that supports the entire life cycle of insects and other wildlife.
In the image on the right, Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea), Eastern Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) and Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) are planted under the canopy of a Southern Red Oak tree (Quercus falcata) to create a soft landings ecosystem.
