Spring came early this year to southern Minnesota. It was exciting to get out in the yard, see stuff greening up, checking on what might be poking up through the leaves (irises, daffodils and crocuses).
Then, like clockwork, we got hit with our annual mid-March high school tournament snowstorm. As I write this, it’s coming down hard, and I’ll be looking at moving 8+ inches of snow off my driveway. (Update: It turned out to be almost 12 inches.)
Honestly, though, I love a good snowstorm, and at this time of year, it’s not such a bad idea. It forces us garden enthusiasts to slow down a little and do some very important prep work for the upcoming season.
What’s your dream? Eliminating all the grass and filling your whole yard with native plants? Starting with a few containers, or just one?
With gardening, the key to success is patience. Patience with your plants and patience with yourself. Things will go more smoothly if we think ahead a little.
So here are four things to consider now, before you get really committed.
1. Start small
Unless you’re an experienced gardener, starting small is crucial! There’s nothing more depressing for a beginner gardener than to start out with grand dreams only to find yourself overwhelmed and worn out and hating your new hobby. The good news is that once your native plants are established, they won’t take much work at all. But in the first year, start small—I started with 28 square feet—and see how it goes. From there you’ll be able to decide how much you want to expand the next year—or if what you started with is just right.
2. Ask permission
If you live within city limits and especially if you live in a neighborhood managed by an HOA (home owners’ association), there may be ordinances and rules governing how you use your yard, and breaking those rules can lead to real problems, fines, and you having to undo all your hard work.
So, the first thing to do before you put anything in the ground is to ask. Especially if you want to put anything down by the street, call City Hall and ask for something like the environmental office or the street department. That first ten feet or so of your front yard is often in an easement, meaning you own it but the city controls it, including the right to dig it up (and your boulevard plantings along with it) to work on city services. My city planning office said I could put plantings on the boulevard (sometimes called the parking strip or the hellstrip) as long as they didn’t block any driver’s view either turning a corner or backing out of a driveway, and that I understood the city could dig it up if they needed to to get to city utilities. I’m fine with that and will take it into consideration.
HOAs, in turn, can be especially fussy about what you do with your property anywhere outside your home. If you live in a neighborhood or development governed by an HOA, check your covenant carefully. It should say what you can and can’t do with your yard and the exterior of you home. If it isn’t clear, ask. If it’s bad news—you can’t touch so much as a blade of grass—don’t despair! There are always containers!
But here’s an important point: with the rise of HOAs, we’re seeing more and more yards falling under the grass-and-approved-shrubs-only rule of yard maintenance that HOAs often adhere to, and that’s not good for our pollinators. In fact, I would venture to say that the spread of HOAs is one of the biggest threats to pollinators out there right now. If your HOA falls in this group, get out there and try to convince your neighbors to change it, that nature isn’t something to fear, it’s something to work with.
And speaking of containers, if you live in an apartment and are dreaming of big containers full of plants on your balcony, check with your building manager first to see if there’s a weight limit. Big containers full of soil can get very heavy. You may have to scale back a little.
3. Scout your yard
Once you have permission worked out or you’re at least waiting on the final word, you can start the next step, which is to survey your domain. What we’re watching for is where the sun falls and in which direction the water flows.
Sun: Ideally, you would be watching the different areas of your yard for up to twelve months before you plant your prairie, tracking how much sun each area gets in the spring when the sun is getting higher and the ground is warming up, during the summer when the trees are all leafed out and casting their deepest shade, and in the fall when the days get shorter and the leaves come down. Different plants need different amounts of sunlight, and you don’t want to plant something that likes full sun in shade and vice versa.
If you didn’t do this last year, that’s perfectly okay. Just notice now, keeping in mind that, if your trees haven’t leafed out yet, they will, casting additional shade in the summer. Also note where your neighbors’ trees or houses may cast shade.
Water: As you get to know your yard, also check out how and where it slopes. Water always flows down, so any slopes in your yard will determine where the water goes and whether a spot may be drier (water flows away from it) or wetter (water flows toward it or even pools there). Plants have definite preferences regarding water, too.
We’ll talk more in the coming weeks about getting to know your yard, but right now, this should be enough to get you ready for the fourth step.
4. Draw up a plan
When you have a good idea of what’s going on in your yard and you have chosen a spot, it’s time to draw up a plan. I mean a real plan, on paper, not just in your head. A rough drawing is just fine. You say you can’t draw? Can you draw a reasonably straight line? Sure you can 🙂 Just get something to write with and something to write on: a sheet of blank paper, a napkin (preferably clean), the back of an envelope, and make a rough sketch of the shape of your lot and the footprint of your house. Stand outside on the sidewalk and look at things and try to get them on paper at least close to how they are in real life. Go ahead and do several drafts. Each one will be better than the first.
Once you’ve done that, sketch in the shady and sunny spots. This will help you decide what plants to put where—plants that like sun in sunny areas and plants that prefer shade or partial shade in those spots. Then use arrows to show which direction the water flows, where potential dry spots are and where potential water-ponding spots are.
I think it’s important to draw up a plan, because it’s easy to get overambitious and start plunking in plants everywhere. But drawing out your space helps you understand how much room you have, which gives you a better idea of how many plants you can put in a given area. Just keep in mind, those little plants won’t stay little. They will need room to grow and space to breathe.
You might want to move your plan onto the computer eventually. There are several apps for basic drawing. I have a plan of my front yard that I did in Adobe Illustrator. The nice thing is that I can add things as the yard changes, plus I can print out as many copies as I want.
This year, I have two major projects I’m hoping to start on, plus some minor projects, like repairing a construction-damaged front yard. Project #1 is expanding the front yard microprairie I put in last year to add different kinds of milkweeds. I’m going to set up a buffet that monarchs and other butterflies will not be able resist.
Project #2 is to fix a small erosion problem in the back yard before it turns into a big one. I’ll be using native plants and maybe a little construction. I’ll bring you along step by step on each of these.
But right now, it’s time to get outside and shovel out the driveway. Under all that snow are plants ready to wake up and get growing. I can’t wait!
Has spring sprung in your area yet? What native plants are you considering?