Rooted Naturally

Design vs. Reality: Part Two!

Designed by Rooted Naturally, installed by the wonderful Florascape | Windsor-Essex Expert Landscaping.

This is the backyard of the same property from part one. Our secret garden from last time is a walkway into this yard.

The goal is the same; to use mostly native plants for maximum benefit to wildlife.
I wanted any visitor to this garden to feel instantly surrounded by life. Varying bloom times, fall colours, multiple food sources for all sorts of creatures… I just can’t wait to see how this space grows over the next few years.

Thank you again to Karla Florascape | Windsor-Essex Expert Landscaping for bringing my crazy visions to life! Also a big thank you to the homeowner for being so passionate about bringing so much life into her home. Still more to come in part three!

It’s the time of year everyone is over-seeding their lawns. Annoyance with lawns is rising. The constant watering in our increasingly hot and dry summers, fungal issues, grub issues… My solution: scrap it entirely!! But for those not quite ready for that, here are some simple solutions to the difficulties of growing turf in shade under trees.

Design vs. Reality, Part One!

Designed by Rooted Naturally, installed by Florascape | Windsor-Essex Expert Landscaping. Karla and her team are the best at bringing visions to life!
Using new and existing plants, the vision for this space is a “secret garden” with small trees arching overhead and ground covers with various bloom times underfoot.

This area is meant to be walked through to connect separate spaces so not much time will be spent here. I chose native plants that will be very low maintenance and drought tolerant over time, spread on their own, and have various seasons of interest (blooms, berries, fall colour).

The goal is that walking through this garden to the backyard will feel like you’re being transported to a different place. One that is private, quiet, peaceful, and full of life.

Stay tuned next for the back garden which is designed to blend cottage-style gardens with native plants!

I re-cylcled an old stock tank into a planter! A quick little DIY at the end of the summer. Check out how quickly it transformed into a lush little oasis!

Took a day trip to Pelee Island for the grand opening of the Atwood-Gibson Bird Centre Pelee Island Bird Observatory! Got to grab lunch with science-loving pals old and new, and toured the island with Chris Solcz. I designed the landscaping for the new facility which is slowly taking shape. It will be full of native plants attracting tons of pollinators, migratory monarchs, and of course, birds! 🐦

I built a native garden in 200sqft and this is how much it cost 🪏

The most expensive part was definitely the plants. A more cost effective way to do it would be sourcing plants sold on Facebook marketplace from people’s gardens or the Ontario Native Plants website. These plants were mostly all sourced from my other workplace Orchard Farm Nursery Ltd.. I liked the idea of knowing where the plants were coming from, how they were grown, and that they were large, well established plants.

Once the bulk of my plants from my original design were installed, I mixed in a few seedlings from my other gardens and random sources throughout the summer.

Plant List:
- Big bluestem
- Pearly everlasting
- Butterfly milkweed
- Pale coneflower
- Purple coneflower
- Liatris
- Anise hyssop
- Purple prairie clover
- Scarlet bee balm
- Wild bergamot
- Virginia mountain mint
- Heliopsis
- Buttonbush
- Cup plant
Other
- Gaura
- Sunflowers
- Cosmos
- Squash
- Parsley & Dill

Some before & after’s of my newest garden 🪏

Some of you may have followed along with the progress of my newest garden out by the creek. My plan this spring was to create a little sanctuary for myself and nature.

I created my pathway out of recycled pallets, and build cedar planters (Cedar Planters , Canadian made!) for herbs and flowers.

Along one side of the pathway I planted entirely native meadow plants. These species can tolerate 6+ hours of sun and poor soil, although I did amend the soil with compost and potting soil.

Along the opposite side, I planted sunflowers, cosmos, and some native seeds like butterfly milkweed.

I then expanded the garden adding a short path with cheap pavers towards the firepit. Here I added tall and wide native plants like Mountain Mint, Scarlet Bee Balm, Heliopsis, Buttonbush and Cup Plant.

This year, my garden raised handfuls of Swallowtail, Monarch, and American Lady Butterflies, fed birds and pollinators, and supported a new underground ecosystem full of micro and macro invertebrates, microbes and fungi.

I may have lost my favourite sunflower in the storm but hey, c’est la vie. Try again next year with something new! The joy of gardening.

This season I grew an ecosystem! You can too!

✨An exciting design project ✨

The ask: a complete landscape overhaul using as many native plants as possible for two side-by-side cottages.

The answer: heck yeah 🤘

Each garden flows into the next. Follow the coloured arrows through the slides to see where each one leads. The plants at the bottom of each slide are a small selection of the natives used in each garden

I was able to include a huge diversity of native plants as per client request (maybe I’ll post a deep dive into each garden here soon?).

This project is a design/install collaboration between myself and Karla Florascape. It will be completed in stages starting this fall! I am so excited to see these gardens taking shape!!