The Modern Gardener's Dilemma
Turning Big Garden Plans into Small Actionable Projects
Episode Introduction
In today’s episode, The Modern Gardener's Dilemma, I chat with my friend and garden designer Christina Musgrave on how the average person can fight overwhelm and tackle their garden projects with a dose of reason.
Host Stephanie Barelman
Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.
Guest Christina Musgrave
Christina Musgrave has spent most of her life as an artist specializing in watercolor and printmaking. During COVID, Christina felt a strong desire to begin her garden journey and fell in love. After discovering the myriad benefits of native gardening, she changed her focus to converting her suburban lawn into pollinator habitat. As much as she enjoys gardening for herself, Christina felt a deep desire to assist others with their gardens as well as educate the necessity of pollinators to the environment. She has since returned to school to become a certified landscape designer and has started her own business, Kingsfoil Gardens.
Christina now uses her background in art and love of gardening to bring joy and appreciation for the native landscape.
Thanks so much for joining us Christina!
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Episode Content
TRIGGER WARNING: We occasionally discuss plants with a more eastern or western range. But we make a point to only discuss midwestern U.S. plants. Always check BONAP or other range maps to determine the best estimates of historical nativity.
Kingsfoil Gardens
Visit Christina's website and learn more about her work and business at www.kingsfoilgardens.com
What Most Gardeners Would Do Differently
Plan first, tackle projects in small steps, and remember creating excellence takes time.
Cool Gardeners
Monty Don, UK gardener: not US native-plant focused, but has solid gardening knowledge and techniques
Piet Oudolf, dutch designer that does favor quite a few native plants: very artistic naturalistic landscapes,
Kelly Norris, garden designer and author from Iowa: visually stunning native plant-forward landscapes
How to Start Planning Your Landscape
- Make a list of what kinds of spaces you want
- Look at your existing landscape
How A Designer Might Plan
- BASICS: Get an aerial view of the house via GIS system, Google Earth; check sun tracker apps; make a base map with measurements of everything possible; check window perspectives (from the house to the landscape;) check street or sidewalk perspectives; and GET UTILITIES MARKED!
- FLESHING IT OUT: consider hardscape, paths, seating areas, etc. first! After you have considered the locations of those in your design, a designer may start with trees and shrubs and then work down to perennials and even annuals to hold the space until bigger plants mature
GET YOUR SOIL TESTED!
https://midwestlabs.com/
Traditional Garden Design Touchstones
Consider:
- Scale: Go out and measure, take out some grid paper and play around with stencils, maybe invest in some clear rulers
- Balance: Taper plant sizes so that you don't have height discrepancies. There are always exceptions to every rule but it's good to put similar height plants together and back larger ones to the back of the border and place shorter plants up front
- Repetition (good for aesthetic cohesion)
- Visual Abundance: Mixing Different Plants (mixing different colors, textures, and bloom times)
- Shapes- Curvilinear or Rectilinear, which ideally is matched to existing landscaping
- Multi-Seasonal Interest (again, the different bloom times)
- Habitat Value
Native Annuals to Use as Fillers While Your Plants Mature
Plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)
Lemon bee balm (Monarda citriodora)
Rocky Mountain bee plant (Peritoma serrulata)
Clasping coneflower (Dracopis amplexicaulis)
Christina and Steph's Favorite Plants to Plant "En Masse"
- Wild Strawberry
- Switchgrass
- Prairie Smoke
- Penstemon sp.
- Asters
- Shrubby St. John's Wort
Visualize garden spaces as rooms
It helps! Trust us.
Christina's Favorite Plants for Texture
Christina's Favorite Plant Pairings
- Mt. Mint X Coreopsis
- Pussytoes X Plains Oval Sedge
- Smaller Liatris sp. X Sedges
Garden Transitions
Think gates, arbors, hedges, walls, doorways, negative space, etc.
Negative Space: What's That
A place for your eye to rest, negative space can be comprised of turfghass (could be native turf,) balancing smooth texture against rough texture, a color monoculture, hardscaping or fencing vs. plants.\
Christina's 7 Herbaceous Plants She Can't Live Without
- Wild Strawberry
- Prairie Smoke (Regional Native)
- Bradbury's Bee Balm
- Butterflyweed
- Rattlesnake Master
- Prairie Dropseed
- Plains Oval Sedge
If you've read to the end of this, thank you and I hope it has been informative!
Additional Content Related to This Episode
What Makes a Plant Native?
http://bonap.net/fieldmaps Biota of North America North American Plant Atlas database-select Nebraska
https://bellevuenativeplants.org Bellevue Native Plant Society
native (wild type) vs. nativar/native cultivar (native plant cultivated by humans for desirable characteristics)
Local Plant Suppliers
Midwest Natives Nursery
Great Plains Nursery
Nebraska Statewide Arboretum
Prairie Legacy Nursery
Mulhall's
Online Plant Suppliers
Prairie Moon Nursery
Prairie Nursery
Stock Seed
On the Web
BONAP aforementioned
Bellevue Native Plant Society on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/bellevuenativeplantsociety
Books & Authors
Rick Darke- The Living Landscape
Douglas Tallamy- Professor and Chair of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Entomology at the University of Delaware, author of The Living Landscape, Nature's Best Hope, naturalist, and curator of "Homegrown National Park".
Enrique Salmon- Iwigara
Daniel Moerman -Native American Ethnobotany
Heather Holm- https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com
Native Plants of the Midwest
Planting in a Post-Wild World
Jon Farrar's Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska
Additional Resources
Other Local Organizations
- Green Bellevue
- PATH
- Milkweed Matters
- Nebraska Native Plant Society
Listen, Rate, and Subscribe!
Get some merch! https://plant-native-nebraska.myspreadshop.com/
Find us on Facebook
Visit our homepage https://plant-native-nebraska.captivate.fm
Give us a review on Podchaser! www.podchaser.com/PlantNativeNebraska
Support My Work via Patreon
The Plant Native Nebraska podcast can be found on the podcast app of your choice.
