I really wish the Natural Garden Inc., in St. Charles, IL, had a better website. As it stands, I’m looking at tables of their plant lists, trying to figure out what to plant this fall to restore my lawn to prairie. It’s a long, arduous process. On the plus side, Natural Garden is only about twenty-five miles away from me, and claim their native plant nursery stock is from seed collected within a 90 mile radius sometime in the seventies. We’re talking local genome here folks.

Prairie Nursery has always had an informative and well-organized website. I’ve ordered from them before when I was establishing my woodland garden a couple of years ago, and was happy with the result. The only drawbacks were that the plants reeked of smoke when they arrived and the Virginia Wild Rye (Elymus virginicus) was a bit more invasive and weedy than I would have liked.

Prairie Moon Nursery used to have a somewhat dis-functional site, but they recently re-vamped it and it’s now much better and more user friendly. So far, this is the only place I have found that sells native plants bare root (I haven’t been looking very hard…). This Spring I took advantage of their bare-root clearance sale and, though it was a bit late in the season for it, the unpromising looking twigs they sent me all took off quite impressively. This is the way to establish some really impressive stands of Prairie Blazing Star, Prairie Larkspur, and Sweet Joe Pye Weed. I will definitely be making a larger order this Fall and spend a good weekend in October planting. Spring 2010 should be spectacular.

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These bare areas may offend some lawn purists, and they may be difficult to care for if approached the wrong way. But to the open-minded, sparse turf in a shaded yard present an opportunity to reduce the amount of lawn to be mowed, and to create an eco-friendly, wildlife-attracting woodland garden.

If the trees are Black Walnut (Juglans nigra), one needs to choose plants resistant to the Juglone substance produced in the tree roots. If not, there are many American native forbs and grasses that will grow very well beneath your trees. And, once established, they will require very little maintenance.

In any case, it’s prettier than a mulch ring.

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Read the rest of Preparing To Plant A Woodland Garden at Suburban Ecology

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