By JIMMY ROGERS
Courtesy of Jimmy Rogers
Gardens grow and mature in cycles, and each year a garden becomes more mature and more predictable. Time is the biggest factor for all gardening, as many activities must be done in their season — we often need to wait for frost, day length or other natural phenomena to reach certain points before we can take action. Similarly, we usually must wait years for our gardening visions to become reality.
Gardeners also grow and mature in cycles; it takes time for new gardeners to learn the craft and take on more ambitious projects. The Maryland native gardening community offers reliable resources and mentors new gardeners, helping them avoid some common pitfalls. Even so, nothing can substitute for years of patient planting and waiting and learning.
One or Two Plants
My own garden is an example of how time can work wonders. In 2021, I first realized how much we had damaged our ecosystem and how my own garden contained no nourishment for native wildlife. I felt a call to act. I did some frantic googling and took a trip to a nearby garden center, searching for plants advertised as native. I added a few new plants to my existing garden beds, mixing them in with nonnative shrubs and perennials. That season I saw birds, bees and butterflies acting out their million-year relationships with our native plants. I had created a native garden, and it only took me a few afternoons of diligent work.
Some gardeners first use pots and other containers to start introducing natives to their gardens. This works well for a wide variety of native plants, as long as you’re committed to a little more watering in summer’s heat. Regardless of how you plant, when you cut into the soil because you believe you can grow something new, you’re making a first step on your own path as a gardener.
Filling Existing Garden Beds
About a month after my first planting, I read Bringing Nature Home, by Doug Tallamy, and realized I could do more than plant a few purple coneflowers next to my front porch. Tallamy recommends aiming for 70% native plants across your entire property to provide sufficient insect prey to feed a nest of hungry songbird hatchlings. I decided my existing garden beds could support many more natives, with low groundcovers and taller flowers in a dense matrix. I also learned that those coneflowers weren’t native to Maryland, so for every new plant I added, I first confirmed that it was found in our local ecosystem before European settlers arrived.
I sought out more new plants, this time visiting community plant shares, shopping at spring plant sales and digging plants from generous neighbors’ gardens. After a few more weekends of planting, I had created a native garden far more cohesive than my first haphazard attempt. I accomplished all of this by the end of spring.
If you have a number of garden beds you’d like to fill with natives, consider working on one or two each season so your gardening skills can grow as you replant your beds.
Lawn Reduction and Water Management
When you have densely filled your garden beds with natives, you may be tempted to convert some or all of your lawn to new garden space as well. However, garden projects get significantly more complicated when you need to prepare ground for planting ahead of time. The same applies to rain gardens and conservation landscapes, as they focus on making the ground more absorbent.
To begin shrinking my lawn, I had to learn not only how to kill grass efficiently, but also how to design garden beds from a blank canvas. The time between inspiration and planting suddenly extended from one weekend to approximately six months. In general, I focus on easy planting projects in the spring, smothering grass with arborist wood chips in the heat of summer, and planting newly-prepared ground in the fall.
Because I am a crazy person, I smothered my entire front yard at once, and after one of the most interesting years of my life, hundreds of new square feet of native garden emerged in the spring.
Garden Maturation
Most of my garden projects have turned out differently, and often better, than I expected. Some plants excelled their first summer, only to vanish the following year. Others started in one part of the garden, then chose different places for long-term residence. Last year, our hottest year on record, several large populations of golden ragwort (Packera aurea) and black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) all but disappeared from areas they had dominated.
This is the third spring for the gardens where my lawn used to be. Every square foot is packed with species that compete for space, water and light. My focus has shifted from planting to curation, as I now know a lot more about my plants — and which I need to transplant or give away, lest they create a chaotic tangle.
A Durable Garden
Many gardeners hope that their gardens will endure under new stewardship. In reality, few home gardens pass to a new owner with similar skills or aesthetics, but a thoughtful gardener can give their creation a fighting chance. As your garden matures, I recommend adding shrubs and trees. Perennial gardens require more work, especially if they’re in full sun, so blocking out spaces with structural, woody plants will add a durable, appealing silhouette year round — and will provide food and shelter for wildlife, too.
No matter where you are on your gardening journey, I hope that you and your garden age gracefully together.
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Jimmy Rogers is an avid native gardener in the city of Laurel.
