Creating a native wildflower garden

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Creating a native wildflower garden

There is a lot to be said for creating your own native wildflower garden. Native plants are naturally adapted to your region and because they are not hybrids, the plants will provide nectar, pollen, and seeds for your native birds, insects, mammals, and will reseed themselves or spread on their own. A young girl in a field of blue and white wildflowers gathers blooms into a bouquet. There are other advantages too that could save you money, time, and work. Native plants require less artificial help such as fertilizers and pesticides and many native plants require less water. Some, particularly Mediterranean plants, with their long root systems, lessen erosion and help to store water in the soil. You will also find that native plants rarely or never require mowing. It's less work for you, less money on gas for the garden machinery, and no air pollution. Indeed, native plants remove carbon from the atmosphere. Adding the fact that you are preserving and adding to your area’s natural biodiversity, while making it look pretty good too, native wild flower gardening is a win-win pastime.

Before you start

It never pays to jump right into something, native wildflower gardening is no exception. You need to know what plants are native to your area and that means research. Get outdoors and look at and identify what is growing naturally. However, apply buyer beware here. Not everything that is growing wild is actually native. It may be an invasive species that, while looking good, you really do not want. Check your plants with the United States Department of Agriculture database (http://plants.usda.gov) where there are around 30,000 images and many search options. Once you know what a plant is, check to see if it is natural to your area. Talk to the nursery staff at your local Southern States dealer and check invasive plant databases. (http://www.invasive.org/), (www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/invasives.html) For further help and information, you may want to consider consulting with or joining your local native plant society and checking out your state’s public land survey if it has one. Before you start removing your existing plants, check what you have growing in your garden. You may already have native plants that you want to encourage.

Establishing a native wildflower garden is going to take some time. Depending on where you live, there may be local government regulations concerning landscaping activities and also local weed and fire regulations that you may need to get acquainted with. Furthermore, other basic research into your prospective garden will pay dividends later. Check:

The amount of time that your prospective wildflower garden is subjected to sun and shade
Your soil type (your county soil atlas could help here) and obtain the soil’s acidity (ph) and organic content via a soil test.
The drainage of you soil. For instance, is it wet? Does it hold moisture? Or, is it dry and allows the moisture to soak in?
What is growing nearby in neighboring gardens, particularly invasive species that could cause your wildflowers a problem; harmonize as much as you can

Wildflower planting

Depending on your budget and time constraints you could plant your whole garden at once with many species, plant the whole area with a few species and diversify later, or plant a small area with a lot of different species and use the resultant seeds to plant your entire garden. If you decide to buy seeds, try to get cleaned, “local origin seed,” with as high a percentage as possible of, “pure live seed.” If you are going for a flying start and want to buy plants make sure that these plants are not taken from the wild, otherwise you become part of the problem instead of the solution; commonly, wild plants dug from the wild will not thrive. Before planting or seeding check to see if your garden has noxious competing weeds. If so, they will need to be controlled before planting with native plants. Seek advice about suitable control methods which could include hand pulling, using a weed wrencher, a selective and careful application of herbicides, or cultivation and mowing.

Major ground preparation is largely unnecessary because large areas of cleared ground will easily become infested with weeds. When it comes to planting seeds you could consider using a hand operated seeder or simply broadcast the seeds by hand. If you are starting with plants and your existing vegetation is pretty free of weeds you could reduce the chances of weeds, without tilling, by plugging your plants where desired into your garden vegetation or into thinning lawn spots. Depending on the plant variety you may even be able to mix wildflower seeds with grass seed.

Maintenance

While native wildflower gardens are certainly low maintenance a good deal of that work will need to be done during the first few growing seasons of your garden. However, once your wildflower garden is established maintenance should be minimal. Depending on your garden and your expectations you may need to:

Reseed from time to time to fill in bald spots
Control weeds at least on a monthly basis, by hand, spot spraying, or selective cutting
Water occasionally, especially during very dry conditions, up to an extra half an inch of water per week during dry conditions should be adequate to keep your garden looking its best
Fertilize if your soil’s fertility is very low. Test your soil first and/or get plant tissue analysis. Apply organic material or low nitrogen fertilizer
Mow during the fall if you want your garden to look neat and tidy; mow the flowers down (after they have gone to seed) to around a height of between four to six inches

The longer your garden is established the better it will look and the more it will become virtually self-sustaining. However, never assume that all will always be well and be watchful for the need to give the garden a helping hand if and when it needs it.

Do you have a wildflower garden? We'd love to know how you got it started and what you have growing there. Tell us how you spend your time enjoying it in the comments section below. If you're just getting started and have questions, feel free to ask away!