Print or other primers on native plant gardening in the Mid-Atlantic?
April 29, 2022 11:11 AM Subscribe
I'll soon be in possession of a yard for the 1st time ever, and have some questions about native plant gardening.
Sometime over the summer, we will be taking over my father-in-law's house in DC. It has a large yard with a decent amount of potential (OK quality soil, mix of full sun and shade), but has been neglected for 30+ years and is full of unhelpful weeds, crab grass, and rubble. I would love to clear this out and start getting some vigorous, spreading native plants in that will attract some life to the yard, help keep the weeds at bay, and make it look a little less desolate.
I'm looking for suggestions of related books and other resources aimed at the Mid-Atlantic / Zone 7ish helpful for IDing useful plants, garden planning, and long-term maintenance. I'm interested mainly in hearing from MeFites with direct personal experience with this kind of project.
This is going to be happening on a fairly tight budget, so will have to be done in stages over time, and is all going to have to be done by me. Further suggestions for doing this cheaply and well will also be greatly appreciated.
Sometime over the summer, we will be taking over my father-in-law's house in DC. It has a large yard with a decent amount of potential (OK quality soil, mix of full sun and shade), but has been neglected for 30+ years and is full of unhelpful weeds, crab grass, and rubble. I would love to clear this out and start getting some vigorous, spreading native plants in that will attract some life to the yard, help keep the weeds at bay, and make it look a little less desolate.
I'm looking for suggestions of related books and other resources aimed at the Mid-Atlantic / Zone 7ish helpful for IDing useful plants, garden planning, and long-term maintenance. I'm interested mainly in hearing from MeFites with direct personal experience with this kind of project.
This is going to be happening on a fairly tight budget, so will have to be done in stages over time, and is all going to have to be done by me. Further suggestions for doing this cheaply and well will also be greatly appreciated.
Best answer: XtineHutch's advice is sound:
* Recommended Native Plants for Maryland
* Sustainable Landscape Designs: Foundation Plants for Townhomes
* Ornamental and Native Grasses for the Landscape
Take some time to explore the extension's online offerings. Your local/area extension office may also offer help via email or through a Master Gardener hotline. Good luck!
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:58 AM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
* Recommended Native Plants for Maryland
* Sustainable Landscape Designs: Foundation Plants for Townhomes
* Ornamental and Native Grasses for the Landscape
Take some time to explore the extension's online offerings. Your local/area extension office may also offer help via email or through a Master Gardener hotline. Good luck!
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:58 AM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: You can also look for a local Wild Ones chapter in your area - they’ll have some hard core native plant people to learn and acquire plants from.
posted by Maarika at 12:38 PM on April 29, 2022
posted by Maarika at 12:38 PM on April 29, 2022
Hello I am lazy and my answer to this has been to wait for local botanical gardens to have native plant sales, and then choose from what looks good. It's worked pretty well for me!
posted by missrachael at 1:04 PM on April 29, 2022
posted by missrachael at 1:04 PM on April 29, 2022
Welcome to DC! We bought a converted carriage house in Bloomingdale last year and have been working on converting the yard into a native no-mow lawn type of situation with lots of phlox and sedges and things like that. So far everything is thriving even though our "yard" is basically just a thin layer of topsoil on top of 100 years of alley bricks and carriage house debris We ended up hiring a landscape designer because we also needed to design some hardscaping and a new deck. She specializes in native plants and pollinator friendly design and has lots of great inspiration and info on her website for free.
And if you're looking for a local plant sale, you're in luck because the Franciscan Monastery Garden in Brookland is holding their annual sale this weekend!
posted by fancypants at 1:26 PM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
And if you're looking for a local plant sale, you're in luck because the Franciscan Monastery Garden in Brookland is holding their annual sale this weekend!
posted by fancypants at 1:26 PM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: What is the approximate area in square yards/metres? I ask as some techniques/approaches are scale-dependent.
You say 'shade'. Does that mean you have existing trees? If so, when you clear out please do so you don't damage tree roots - your trees may become of real value with some care as tree can suppress undergrowth via shading.
Are there opportunities for; enhancing views and access to/from house? Are there things outside the lot you want to see less of/more of? Are there utility services crossing the space? - you don't want to do all this and then have to replace a sewer, or have the power company come in and replace a pole etc. What is drainage like? - is this an opportunity to take stormwater from another part of the lot and use the space as a raingarden?
Something I often do, especially where cost is an issue, is to find one to three groundcover plants I can establish across the whole area to smother the weeds, and then I can plant the final plants I want at leisure / as funds and time allow. More or less along the lines of what fancypants is doing
I've had a lot of value from David Culp's book The Layered Garden (garden is at Downingtown PA), the book is about planting a garden in layers: Tree, shrubs, and ground shrubs and perennials, there's a strong focus on plant selections that will maximise groundcover, and reduce maintenance, altho' the book is not about reduced maintenance.
I dislike using herbicides but for established evergreen weeds I do it once and then plan to cover the site in useful plants to suppress weeds - many of my sites are herbicide-free for various reasons, and in those cases I remove* as much weed cover as possible and then sow a vigorous plant into it but it can take some work to establish cover.
* I usually sow some seed before I start then works result in some seed germinating very early.
And yes, use your local U extension - an amazing service most of the world does not do.
I'm an NZ landscape architect and ecologist and specialise in difficult sites, most of them far, far worse than yours
posted by unearthed at 3:17 PM on April 29, 2022
You say 'shade'. Does that mean you have existing trees? If so, when you clear out please do so you don't damage tree roots - your trees may become of real value with some care as tree can suppress undergrowth via shading.
Are there opportunities for; enhancing views and access to/from house? Are there things outside the lot you want to see less of/more of? Are there utility services crossing the space? - you don't want to do all this and then have to replace a sewer, or have the power company come in and replace a pole etc. What is drainage like? - is this an opportunity to take stormwater from another part of the lot and use the space as a raingarden?
Something I often do, especially where cost is an issue, is to find one to three groundcover plants I can establish across the whole area to smother the weeds, and then I can plant the final plants I want at leisure / as funds and time allow. More or less along the lines of what fancypants is doing
I've had a lot of value from David Culp's book The Layered Garden (garden is at Downingtown PA), the book is about planting a garden in layers: Tree, shrubs, and ground shrubs and perennials, there's a strong focus on plant selections that will maximise groundcover, and reduce maintenance, altho' the book is not about reduced maintenance.
I dislike using herbicides but for established evergreen weeds I do it once and then plan to cover the site in useful plants to suppress weeds - many of my sites are herbicide-free for various reasons, and in those cases I remove* as much weed cover as possible and then sow a vigorous plant into it but it can take some work to establish cover.
* I usually sow some seed before I start then works result in some seed germinating very early.
And yes, use your local U extension - an amazing service most of the world does not do.
I'm an NZ landscape architect and ecologist and specialise in difficult sites, most of them far, far worse than yours
posted by unearthed at 3:17 PM on April 29, 2022
Response by poster: What is the approximate area in square yards/meters? I ask as some techniques/approaches are scale-dependent.
Not sure - it's an oddly-shaped double lot tacked onto the end of a block, fairly large by DC standards. Maybe 5500 square feet altogether?
You say 'shade'. Does that mean you have existing trees?
Yes, several of them. I'll be doing the weeding mostly by hand, and all by hand adjacent to the trees, most of which we want to keep (one is dying and close to the house and needs to come down).
Are there opportunities for; enhancing views and access to/from house? Are there things outside the lot you want to see less of/more of? Are there utility services crossing the space?
Yes, yes and no. It has a badly cracked driveway that I want to pull up part of (we only need a portion of it) to use for planting space, and it's adjacent to a busy street that I'd like to screen us off from some (that's likely going to take a fence at some point).
posted by ryanshepard at 3:37 PM on April 29, 2022
Not sure - it's an oddly-shaped double lot tacked onto the end of a block, fairly large by DC standards. Maybe 5500 square feet altogether?
You say 'shade'. Does that mean you have existing trees?
Yes, several of them. I'll be doing the weeding mostly by hand, and all by hand adjacent to the trees, most of which we want to keep (one is dying and close to the house and needs to come down).
Are there opportunities for; enhancing views and access to/from house? Are there things outside the lot you want to see less of/more of? Are there utility services crossing the space?
Yes, yes and no. It has a badly cracked driveway that I want to pull up part of (we only need a portion of it) to use for planting space, and it's adjacent to a busy street that I'd like to screen us off from some (that's likely going to take a fence at some point).
posted by ryanshepard at 3:37 PM on April 29, 2022
Okay so that's ~510m² - as an example a tiny 180m² garden where clients wanted lawn replaced with low native plants, access very difficult, everything has to be carried so bark/mulch is a lot of work, also the site is organic/no herbicides and there are serious perennial weeds.
Once I got earthworks done, we covered whole site in a waste wool mulch mat (but I have used wool underfelt which lasts long enough for plants to form a weed-suppressing cover, 2-3 years). Your garden supplier should know of a suitable product unless you can get old carpet underfelt - make sure there no nylon in it as fibres become unsightly mess. It does need care planting into to keep old soil (with seeds in it) off the mat surface.
I'm about to do same for a 1700m² lawn which will change to a sub-alpine garden. This will cut down planting cost as the weed cover means we can plant smaller shrubs, further apart and have much better weed control while they grow. I'm also doing the same for a 300m² industrial site. I don't use plastic is it makes situation worse over long-term -I'm also trying to eliminate plastics from gardens for carbon reasons.
Something I do with old concrete is to break or saw gaps thru it (2-3 inches wide is enough) in-situ and then plant into the gaps - then you still have a hard surface that will support vehicle storage/caravan/temp office etc but it's a nice garden. I do this at scales from a hundred metres to thousands.
I almost never do residential now - but changing lawns to native shrubs is a growing area even in NZ.
posted by unearthed at 3:19 PM on April 30, 2022
Once I got earthworks done, we covered whole site in a waste wool mulch mat (but I have used wool underfelt which lasts long enough for plants to form a weed-suppressing cover, 2-3 years). Your garden supplier should know of a suitable product unless you can get old carpet underfelt - make sure there no nylon in it as fibres become unsightly mess. It does need care planting into to keep old soil (with seeds in it) off the mat surface.
I'm about to do same for a 1700m² lawn which will change to a sub-alpine garden. This will cut down planting cost as the weed cover means we can plant smaller shrubs, further apart and have much better weed control while they grow. I'm also doing the same for a 300m² industrial site. I don't use plastic is it makes situation worse over long-term -I'm also trying to eliminate plastics from gardens for carbon reasons.
Something I do with old concrete is to break or saw gaps thru it (2-3 inches wide is enough) in-situ and then plant into the gaps - then you still have a hard surface that will support vehicle storage/caravan/temp office etc but it's a nice garden. I do this at scales from a hundred metres to thousands.
I almost never do residential now - but changing lawns to native shrubs is a growing area even in NZ.
posted by unearthed at 3:19 PM on April 30, 2022
Before you get started, check out DC's Riversmart program. They will pay you cash money to break up the old concrete and will come install (or reimburse you for) adding rain barrels and a rain garden. A friend had a substantial portion of her yard landscaped this way and she was thrilled how it turned out.
posted by veery at 6:52 AM on May 2, 2022
posted by veery at 6:52 AM on May 2, 2022
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Montgomery County Native Plant People
It's people from the immediate region who want yards and gardens using native plants, need help identifying various plants or distinguishing them from invasive weeds, want guidance on landscaping and plant suggestions, and post pictures of their yards, plants, and plant sales info. It's fun and helpful and there are some real experts there.
You may also find lots of useful information on the University of Maryland Extension site.
Welcome to the area!
posted by XtineHutch at 11:44 AM on April 29, 2022 [1 favorite]