Free Native Garden Designs Just in Time for Spring

| Uncategorized

It’s one thing to put plants in the ground, quite another to create a beautiful landscape. Wild Ones Natural Landscapers is making it easy by providing several free, professionally designed, native garden plans for the public.

The designs were created based on the premise that native gardens can be beautiful, promote wildlife and be achievable for gardeners of all skill levels and budgets. Anyone can access the plans at nativegardendesigns.wildones.org. Some of the designs include plants well suited to the Upper Peninsula, including plans for Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee gardens.

Each garden design includes a list of beautiful, region-specific native plants you can refer to while selecting plants at a local nursery or ordering online. “Then, as your plants mature, you’ll be able to enjoy all the birds, butterflies and other wildlife that come to visit,” said Marcia Goodrich, president of the Wild Ones Keeweenaw chapter, keweenaw.wildones.org.

Wild Ones Honorary Director Doug Tallamy, author of the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope,” shares that one of the big mistakes in our approach to conservation is the idea that nature is something set aside in preserves and parks, something separate from our daily lives that we go to visit. He stresses that “we can no longer leave conservation to the conservationists.” Native plant gardens in our own backyards are our best hope for saving our environment.

In addition to the native garden designs, Wild Ones also recently published a “Native Garden Design Guide” both in print and in digital format full of useful planting information to help first-time native gardeners get started.

The garden designs, website and the “Native Garden Design Guide” were supported by a grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust.

For more information or to get involved, contact Goodrich at [email protected], visit the Wild Ones website at wildones.org or keweenaw.wildones.org, or find us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter at @wildonesnative and @wildonesnativeplants.