Gardens Au Naturale

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Elizabeth Navas Finley

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Just because a garden looks natural, it doesn’t mean it isn’t carefully landscaped!

The term “natural garden” has come to mean three different things. A garden can be natural in style, natural in plant selection or natural in how it’s maintained. Here’s a look at the differences:

Natural style: Informal and rustic gardens are designed to resemble a naturally occurring site –often a nearby meadow, prairie, desert or marsh. Natural gardens are casual and asymmetrical; plants are set out in seemingly random masses without apparent order and form. Many perennials, especially grasses, have an informal look appropriate for natural-style gardens. Structures and accents are casual, often also using materials found in the surrounding area. While it sounds ideal for country gardens, this design style can fit perfectly in the city and suburbs, too!

Native plant gardening: Gardens featuring only regionally indigenous plants are beautiful, usually easy-to-maintain, typically require less care and are great for attracting birds and butterflies. Some natural gardens have strict parameters of native-only plants, while others include plants that are native to other regions but are well-adapted to the local climate and soil.

Warnings

Never collect native plants in the wild. Not only is it often illegal, you may deplete a rare species’ numbers, preventing reproduction between plants.

Facts

Casual gardens take their theme from nature. They feature odd-numbered, intermingled plant groupings in planting beds with irregular edges and curved pathways.
Native plants are steeped in controversy. It’s based partly on the definition of what makes a native plant “native” and whether you’re talking about using a particular species in a home garden or protected habitat.

Tips

If you want to create a natural garden, try to make it blend effortlessly into its environment. (This often means throwing out preconceptions about design, arrangement and form.)

Resources

Want to learn more about the plants you’d like to use in your natural garden? Check out our Plant Database.
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Native Landscaping: Rules to Grow By
Gardening with native plants can get confusing – but once you get growing, it can be an amazing adventure! Before you start, consider how far you’re willing to take this gardening theme, as well as how you’d like to use these gorgeous plants in your yard.
What is Sustainable Gardening?
Let’s love our environment! Sustainable gardening can be practiced at home and in the community. Determine your yard’s sustainability quotient using these tips.
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Plants, like humans, have their likes and dislikes when it comes to their neighbors. “Companion planting” encompasses a variety of practices that, while often not well understood, seem to encourage growth and discourage pests.

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