Landscape Design
Native Plants
Before and Afters
See 3 Gardens Beautifully Transformed by Native Plants
Wildflowers, native perennials and grasses dazzle in gardens that celebrate their diverse ecosystems
Native and regionally adapted plants can greatly enhance our gardens, both aesthetically and environmentally, as the following three landscape makeovers show. The landscape designers worked in different regions with distinct needs, collectively transforming a water-loving lawn into a vibrant native meadow, manicured annual beds into an exuberant bee- and butterfly-attracting garden and an eroding sand dune into a flourishing sustainable garden. Read on to discover how they did it, and see if you find an idea you’d like to try in your own garden.
Before: Erosion control was a major concern for this newly built home and garden in a natural sandy dune area just inland from Lake Michigan. “Due to the construction process, [it] was reverting back to an active, moving blowout,” Brooks says. Although the property falls outside of Michigan’s critical dune area (and is not subject to state regulations), stabilizing and preserving the natural landscape of the dune were top priorities for Brooks and the homeowners.
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After: Now, sandstone paths wind down among plantings of native trees, flowering perennials like coneflower (Echinacea spp.) and rudbeckia and a mix of native dune grass and ornamental grasses like ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’).
Brooks worked to preserve what little vegetation was left on-site after the home’s construction, planting in drifts and swaths outward from the building and planting islands. “Considering the fragile nature of the site, existing pockets of vegetation were to remain and be preserved,” she says.
Brooks worked to preserve what little vegetation was left on-site after the home’s construction, planting in drifts and swaths outward from the building and planting islands. “Considering the fragile nature of the site, existing pockets of vegetation were to remain and be preserved,” she says.
The sandstone patio, stabilized by a Cor-Ten steel retaining wall, overlooks the pond and is backed by a native meadow. Many of the plants, even ones that are not native to the upper Midwest, were chosen for their pollinator and wildlife-supporting qualities. Brooks selected spreading rhizomatous and deep-rooting plants to help stabilize the dune and prevent erosion.
Learn more about growing native plants
Learn more about growing native plants
Here, from across the pond, one can see how the new dune landscape integrates into the natural site.
See more of this dune garden
See more of this dune garden
2. Lakeside Garden in Washington
Location: Kirkland, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle
Size: About 1 acre
Designer: Paul Broadhurst of Broadhurst and Associates
Landscape designer Paul Broadhurst completely reimagined this lakeside garden to foster a closer connection with nature and the natural site. Here, boulders, a negative-edge pool and native and nonnative plants create the feeling of a coastal design that has always been there.
Location: Kirkland, Washington, a suburb east of Seattle
Size: About 1 acre
Designer: Paul Broadhurst of Broadhurst and Associates
Landscape designer Paul Broadhurst completely reimagined this lakeside garden to foster a closer connection with nature and the natural site. Here, boulders, a negative-edge pool and native and nonnative plants create the feeling of a coastal design that has always been there.
Before: An expanse of lawn and concrete bulkhead once separated this lakefront property from the water, providing little habitat for native plants and animals. “A bulkhead creates turbulence underneath as waves ricochet off it. The waves have no way to dissipate energy. No plant life can exist in those conditions,” Broadhurst says.
After: Broadhurst and his team removed the bulkhead and worked to restore the shoreline to a more natural mix of sand, pebbles, driftwood and native plants. Life has returned to the shoreline. Aquatic plants have rooted in the pebbles, freshwater crayfish visit and occasionally an otter stops by.
A swath of Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri) and meadow flowers surround a bluestone terrace.
Plantings were inspired by the Nature Conservancy’s Yellow Island Preserve in Puget Sound, which Broadhust proposed his clients visit — with their grandchildren and Broadhurst along as well — as a way of communicating his native-plant design vision. “Referencing Yellow Island grounds the project in the region,” Broadhurst says. “And for the owners, it gives the whole thing a deeper meaning.”
Plantings were inspired by the Nature Conservancy’s Yellow Island Preserve in Puget Sound, which Broadhust proposed his clients visit — with their grandchildren and Broadhurst along as well — as a way of communicating his native-plant design vision. “Referencing Yellow Island grounds the project in the region,” Broadhurst says. “And for the owners, it gives the whole thing a deeper meaning.”
The meadow planting surrounding this bluestone terrace includes native species such as Menzies’ larkspur (Delphinium menziesii), Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri), Oregon iris (Iris tenax), wild stonecrops (Sedum oreganum and S. spathulifollum) and several varieties of Camassia.
See more of this waterfront garden
See more of this waterfront garden
3. Urban Meadow in Colorado
Location: Denver, Colorado
Size: 875 square feet (81 square meters)
Designer: Dustin Farmer, owner of Stems Garden Design + Maintenance, which also maintains the garden
In this Denver front yard renovation, garden designer Dustin Farmer transformed a bland front yard into a dynamic meadow planting of native and low-water ornamentals.
Location: Denver, Colorado
Size: 875 square feet (81 square meters)
Designer: Dustin Farmer, owner of Stems Garden Design + Maintenance, which also maintains the garden
In this Denver front yard renovation, garden designer Dustin Farmer transformed a bland front yard into a dynamic meadow planting of native and low-water ornamentals.
Before: The front yard before the renovation featured a rectangle of turf grass that sloped down to the sidewalk and gave little reason — besides the chore of mowing the grass — to get outside. “We almost never used the front yard before,” says homeowner Clayton Kenney. “We wanted to get rid of the lawn and use as many native, low-water plants as we could.”
After: Now, a series of board-formed concrete retaining walls and a Cor-Ten steel planter bridge the grade change from the front door to the street and serve as a home to a mix of native and low-water ornamental plants that are appropriate to the Denver climate.
In the topmost planter, Farmer planted an ‘Autumn Brilliance’ serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’) with a mix of native low-growing grasses, gray sages and dwarf shrubs beneath it. Other plants in the front yard include low-water red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) along the sidewalk and blue fescue (Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’) and golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’) softening the concrete beds.
In the topmost planter, Farmer planted an ‘Autumn Brilliance’ serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’) with a mix of native low-growing grasses, gray sages and dwarf shrubs beneath it. Other plants in the front yard include low-water red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) along the sidewalk and blue fescue (Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’) and golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’) softening the concrete beds.
Farmer planted a meadow of ‘Blonde Ambition’ blue grama grass (Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’) next to the new pathway (seen here on the right). On the other side of the path he planted a row of native quaking aspen trees (Populus tremuloides), underplanted with bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). “The idea here was to bring a bit of the Colorado mountains to the city. Once you’ve hiked through a grove of aspens, it’s hard to not want that in your own garden,” Farmer says.
Two chairs on a new cedar deck by the front door overlook the native meadow and give the homeowners a place to pause and chat with neighbors.
See more of this urban garden
Tell us: Have you incorporated native plants into your landscape design? Show us your best photos in the Comments.
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See more of this urban garden
Tell us: Have you incorporated native plants into your landscape design? Show us your best photos in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Browse other landscape design guides
Find a landscape designer in your area
Shop for outdoor products
Location: Coloma, Michigan (St. Joseph-Benton Harbor metro area)
Size: 80 acres (32 hectares); about 5 acres are landscaped
Designer: Anna Brooks, whose company, Arcadia Gardens, also installed the project
Landscape designer Anna Brooks mixed native and introduced plants to transform a blank-slate landscape and eroding natural sand dune into a flourishing garden. The entry to the home, shown here, features two Unilock Turfstone tracks along the permeable driveway. Softly planted edges will fill in as the garden matures.