Wild or Weedy? Naturalistic Design Strategies for Wildscaping
Contributor
- Topics: Inspired Gardens and Design
Fall 2024
Our definition and image of gardens is shifting. Whether we call them “wild,” “matrix,” or “meadow” gardens, there’s no question naturalistic planting is on the rise. When well-planted and maintained, such plantings can support the local ecosystem, helping amend issues of pollinator decline while boosting green space and tree canopy in our built environments. In dynamic wild gardens, nature plays a bigger design role than in traditional gardens. Yet some see these gardens as unruly, creating resistance from local weed inspectors and homeowners’ association (HOA) regulations. Thoughtful strategies in design and maintenance can help visually blend wild plantings into conventional spaces, highlighting their natural beauty.
What does “wild” mean in a landscape context?
“To me, ‘wild’ landscaping is about leaving the hedge trimmers and other ‘traditional’ controls of a tamed landscape behind,” said landscape architect Joni Janecki of Joni L. Janecki and Associates, based in Santa Cruz, California.
“It is about living in harmony with the local ecosystem and microclimate—living in balance with nature. Whether in an urban or residential context, a wild landscape is about hearing bird songs, leaves fluttering in the trees, wildlife scurrying about in the underbrush and seeing the light change throughout the day as it reflects off the textures and colors of the plants and surrounding materials. It is about blurring the edges between natural open space and contained wild spaces. It is about sharing the space with birds, butterflies, insects, and wildlife.”
Wild gardens typically employ native plants or those adapted to the local ecosystem to best support not just pollinators, but organisms from soil bacteria to insects and wildlife. Contrary to conventional gardening, fall cleanup is largely skipped, leaves left, and plants are often allowed to self-sow, rearranging themselves. Meadows may be mown annually or every few years.
If you yearn to improve your garden’s connection to nature, you don’t need acres to plant a wilder garden. Ecologists like Doug Tallamy say planting as small as a raised bed or a parking strip can make a strong impact and allow the space to hum with life.
Designer Andrea Doonan, based in San Diego, California, sees interest in natives as a hopeful step. “Some are thinking, ‘Why not throw a few natives in?’ I like to think of that as gateway to ecological gardening.”
A hunger for nature—and surprise
Naturalistic gardens have been quietly gaining ground for two decades, thanks largely to the popularity of Piet Oudolf’s landscape designs. Witness the success of spaces like the High Line in New York City, and Chicago’s Lurie Garden at Millenium Park, attracting millions of visitors each year.
“Some spaces by very artistic people like Piet Outdolf have become very visible to the public, and people see you can work with these plants in an artistic way,” said Shannon Nichol, whose firm GGN (of Seattle, Washington, and Washington, DC) worked on the Lurie Garden. “They see you can make something that’s conventionally beautiful in a reliable way with plants that aren’t as static, predictable, and ‘neat’ looking year-round.”
Nichol also explained this new appreciation of wildness may be a course correction from the overly controlled sculptural design in the ‘90s and early 2000s. But perhaps most pressing, she said, is a “hunger for naturalistic landscapes that feel wild and undesigned.” Convenience has never been so built-in to our lives. “We are immersed 24/7 in user interfaces that are customized to us and even anticipate what we’re going to want.”
“If you can step outside into a landscape that’s not designed around you … you find yourself having to navigate an entirely different form of landscape,” she said. “I think that’s healthy, and that people are craving that inconvenience and surprise.”
Our hunger for nature is centuries old. Anthropologists and designers talk about “prospect and refuge” as core concepts that help us feel safe— which translates as a cozy shelter with a wide view over the low grasses of the savanna.
“There does seems to be a primal instinct that transcends all cultures and landscapes for people to be nestled into texture and looking out over space,” Nichol said.
Janecki said the experiences of seeing the climate change firsthand may be bringing nature into our conversations about gardens. “The awareness of the term Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) may have people looking at their gardens and landscapes with an eye toward fire-resistant plantings and using plants that have reduced fuel loads,” she said. The pandemic may have “helped people focus on the small things that they could see out their windows or in their neighborhoods, yards, or parks and open space.” She hopes it’s a trend that’s here to stay.
Avoiding the weed police
With a look far removed from your everyday foundation planting, some may not be ready to go wild—or for their neighbors to do so. Native plants may be mistaken for weeds, potentially earning a citation from the local weed supervisor.
“I am often contacted to consult on renewing a native garden,” said Janecki. “The reason for the call can range from a disgruntled neighbor concerned that the adjacent landscape looks ‘weedy,’ and the owner of the ‘wild’ landscape wants to help turn the neighbor into a supporter of the ‘wild,’ to wanting to understand how to make a ‘wild’ landscape look attractive throughout the year. I would say, the ‘wild’ landscape is still a bit fringe for many people. Many are stuck on the idea that the native and ‘wild’ plants aren’t tidy and don’t flower year-round.”
With stems left high, grasses gone brown, and leaves unraked to support overwintering wildlife, fall can be a time of contention for “wild” gardeners. Ecological garden designer Jenny Harris, noted for her naturalistic streetside and community plantings in Washington’s San Juan Islands, posted on her Instagram page in mid-September, “the season of frowns is upon us. Still not easy to deflect the negative comments.”
Offering a new perspective through experience and education can help. “For me, to overcome the fear and resistance to a ‘wild’ landscape by a neighbor, HOA, family members, or weed inspector, you need to build their awareness of the subtleties of a ‘wild’ landscape,” Janecki said.
Janecki suggested highlighting the sights and sounds of a natural landscape to naysayers, if possible, on a personal tour of your space or a local park. During the design phase, “Show inspirational photographs of what it could be and talk about what makes the plants and composition important to the space and place.”
Artful wildscaping
To ease your wildscape into the neighbors’ hearts, employ these strategies. Many fall under “cues to care,” or signals of human presence, from design and planting to maintenance. These show the hand of a human attending to the space. In a swath of grasses, a bench, sculpture, or a mown pathway can be cues to care.
Have full but tidy edges: contain the wild with a low evergreen border, fence, wall, or paving, or keep the edges clean and neat.
“On a larger scale in the Lurie Garden there’s a sheared hedge around the edge of it to tell you that what’s inside is valuable. On a smaller level we usually do some kind of bed edging that makes a boundary between plants and pavement,” Nicol said. Retaining curbs can also corral untamed plants.
Nichol also said during installation, she’ll often move plants to the corners and edges, because leaving edges open—as contractors are often trained to do—looks like the plants have died off.
Doonan’s home highlights native plants for her Morro Bay, California, neighbors using local trails for inspiration. “When I go on a hike most of the time you have keystone species in drifts,” she said, “and once in a while there’ll be an area of real biodiversity. In landscapes the best design can mimic that so there’s order and legibility, it feels calming.”
Her design employs edges and repetition. “For my home I put a low fence bordering the front yard and in front have mass of native seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus ‘Wayne Roderick’) and every few plants I throw in something else as an anchor.”
Plant densely
Covering the soil is paramount for the health and look of a full garden, Nichol said, recommending planting from 6–10 inches on center. “We don’t want sad exposed dirt between sad plants. We can have that healthy look on day one if we incorporate native annuals.”
Note that many advocate leaving some unplanted soil for bees to nest in and birds to forage. If you don’t like that look, or want to protect the soil, consider topping with leaf litter.
Keep heights lower and uniform
For a scale that fits in small spaces like city settings, Nichol suggests low plantings to create a “shag carpet” of fine-textured plants like Roemer’s fescue (Festuca roemeri), showy fleabane (Erigeron speciosus), and wavy hairgrass (Deschampsia flexuosa). “Getting those fine textures packed into a small space will make any planning look full and rich and full of life,” she said.
Random height changes look like disturbed landscapes, Nichol said, so create distinct layers of uniform height. “We want to mix and layer plants of different heights for a complex installation, but there should be a massing layer with an even horizon line.”
Name it: Signs proclaiming, “Native Plant Garden,” “Pollinator Garden,” or “Feeding the Bees,” explain the method to your wildness to reduce complaints.
Play on Repeat: As with most design, repeating plants, colors, and groupings signals intention and reads clearly.
“I have learned that landscapes are like paintings, with some of the most successful ‘wild’ gardens made of a simple palette of plants and composed in a way that is visually legible,” said Janecki.
“By grouping like plants in drifts, providing layering, inserting the occasional contrast/pop of interest, and allowing for pause or open space between groupings (allow birds to bathe in the open soil and insects to rest as well as the viewers eyes) the garden becomes visually harmonious,” she said.
Doonan noted that echoing other landscape and built elements will help make the design more “digestible to all aesthetics.”
Plan for maintenance
While there are many seed mixes marketed for “pollinator gardens,” it’s important to check that their plants are local your area, are not invasive, and what maintenance they require. Many new gardeners don’t understand that annual wildflowers need replanting, or that meadows need significant preparation as well as mowing or reseeding.
Sometimes civic native gardens, planted with the best intentions, unravel without a maintenance plan, fueling the image of wild gardens as “messy.”
Watch your garden’s dynamics and be ready to intervene if a plant succeeds to the detriment of others.
Resources
Find plants
To discover plants that work in your eco-region, consult native plant lists from specialty nurseries in your region, county and municipal websites, water conservation districts, extension offices, the National Wildlife Federation’s Native Plant Finder, and the Xerces Society’s regional lists of favorite plants for pollinators and other beneficial insects.
Start with local resources, from south to north
California gardeners can check out Calscape.
Oregon Department of Forestry provides a guide to the state’s native plants [pdf].
Washington Native Plant Society built an expansive plant database for local gardeners.
In British Columbia, gardeners can reference a native plant guide [pdf] by the Fraser Valley Conservancy.
Alaska gardeners can check out this native plant guide [pdf], a collaboration between the Alaska Native Plant Society, Georgeson Botanical Garden, and Alaska Botanical Garden.
Learn from experts
GGN with Shannon Nichol
Catkin Horticulture Design with Jenny Harris, on Instagram as @wild.catkin
See Shannon Nichols’ Design Futurist award-winning garden 2023
Explore Joni Janecki’s Honors- winner 2023
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