Create a seamless garden for prairie or foothills

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

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One landscape that draws a lot of attention--mostly raised eyebrows-- is a sea of bright green bluegrass in the middle of a gray-brown prairie.

Compare that view with a garden that blends in with the surrounding landscape, and most prefer the latter. There's no sharp line between garden and prairie, and the garden creates a sense of belonging to its natural environment.

People in rural areas may be especially interested in creating this type of garden. Not only does it blend with nature, but it also requires less water than a typical lawn.

The concept of a seamless landscape may sound simple, but the practice is not so easy. For people who love to garden, however, it can be an exciting and rewarding adventure.

Two local gardening experts, Lauren Springer Ogden and her husband, Scott Ogden, have been creating natural gardens for years, and they recently offered to share some of their secrets. When she lived in the foothills near Masonville, Lauren created a garden that blended beautifully with the surrounding foothills. The Fort Collins home the couple now share has an expanse of garden that is in harmony with the distant view of the foothills.

Grasses create bridge

One strategy in creating this look, Lauren said, is to use lots of drought-tolerant bunch grasses in the garden. They echo the natural grasses of the prairie and "make your garden look like it belongs," she noted. She recommends using grasses in about one-third of the garden space, with the rest devoted to wildflowers and shrubs. The Ogdens also favor low conifers, such as dwarf pine and spruce, since they mimic the larger, native conifers in the distance.

In terms of design, the Ogdens recommend matrix planting, meaning the repetition of the same plants throughout the garden in an informal pattern. With this type of design, several different plant varieties are mixed together in the garden, but there are no straight lines or consistent patterns.

Having plenty of plant diversity is a good idea, since in any year some plants will do better than others.

In addition, it's good to avoid overly leafy or hybridized plants. These are great in pots but tend to stand out too much in a natural-style garden. "You want back-up singers, not soloists," Scott pointed out. Look for plants that are wild-looking and scruffy, and they will meld with the surrounding landscape better. Twiggy shrubs and fine-textured grasses work well in this setting.

To illustrate another idea, Lauren pointed to a yellow-flowered plant in her garden that looks very much like Coreopsis. "You can take a favorite garden flower and find something similar that's more wild-looking," she explained. The plant she used is greenthread, a native plant that requires less water than its domesticated look-alike.

As to rocks: they're great to use in the garden if there are rocks in the surrounding landscape; otherwise, according to Lauren, they're not a good design idea.

Gardening still required

There are a few common misconceptions when it comes to natural landscaping, according to the Ogdens. "Even though you want a garden that looks natural, you still have to garden it," declared Lauren. "You have to do all the traditional gardening things--like getting rid of weeds." So, if a person is thinking about creating a natural-looking garden to cut down on work, a second thought is probably in order.

In fact, it can be even more challenging to keep a natural garden looking good and growing well. "You have to be better at spotting weeds within a wild setting," Lauren said, since plants are not laid out in orderly rows or beds.

The idea that xeriscape gardens do not require water is another mistaken notion, Lauren noted. It takes water to establish any kind of garden, and when a drought occurs, even native plants will die if they're not watered. While low conifers in the garden help to create a bridge to natural surroundings, they almost invariably require some watering.

"There is a happy medium" when it comes to using water, Lauren said. She and Scott advocate sensible gardening, using water carefully.

There are, however, many plants--both native and exotic--that don't require watering once they are established except in drought years. Shrubs that fall into this category include sages, rabbitbrush, Apache plume and fernbush. The list of flowers includes penstemon, buckwheat, blue flax, poppy mallow, evening primrose, Gaillardia and anise-hyssop.

Gardeners can find these xeric perennials at most good nurseries. Another resource is Lauren's book, "The Undaunted Garden," which devotes an entire section to plants suitable for dry climates. The Ogdens don't limit their plant list to native varieties. Nonnative plants from similar climates can look like they belong here, they point out.

The Ogdens, both nationally known horticulturists, have each authored several books about gardening and are presently collaborating on a new book about landscape design. They also run a business together, plantdrivendesign, which offers garden design and consulting services.