LANDSCAPE NATIVE

Native Plants in Urban Settings

Mindful, Restorative Ideas & Actions to Better Urban Ecology

London, ON
ph: 519 495.6289
landscapenative@ymail.com

Garden Creation Menu

Landscape Native Gardens Include:

1. Wetland Plant Meditation Pool

2. The Complete Backyard Biosphere

3. Escarpment Waterfall Garden

4. Medicinal Native Plant Garden

5. The Dragonfly Pond (great for kids)

6. ‘Magnetus’ Butterfly

7. Garden Carbon Sequester

8. Edible Wild Plant Paradise

9. Bog Flower ‘Waterette’

Descriptions of Gardens (Scroll Down for All 9)

1. Wetland Plant Meditation Pool

Sitting on a small island, you are sounded by the sound of water falling, birds calling, ancient rocks, and wetland plants in full bloom. A dragonfly dips its abdomen repeatedly into the water; a life cycle continues. This water oasis is in your very sacred space, as you shed the day’s worries down into the pool, they cycle up into a small waterfall and tumble back into the depths, fully renewed, as are you. Feel the power of the water, see and smell the beauty of nature as it used to be for millennia in this sacred region.

Plants used in this creation include Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), Red Oiser Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera), Red-disked Yellow Waterlily (Nuphar rubrodiscum), Spatterdock (Nuphar lutea - see at right), Duckweed (Lemna minor), Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) and many others.

Site Requirements: min. 40 m2 (just about 1.5 parking spaces)

Inclusive Package Includes: excavation, rocks, liner, soil, pump, solar panels, 36 plants of 14 species, 12 fish, natural chair.

2. Complete Backyard Biosphere
We are excited to unveil a complete system that is an ecosystem onto its own. This design features a deep pond (1.3 m) suitable for fish, a picturesque near 2 metre waterfall, a rocky rapid water chute, a shallow 40 cm deep dragonfly pond and a cattail wetland. All of these features are connected, as the water flows in two cycles to a beautiful rhythm of sound and in a manner that naturally filters and purifies the water.

This complete system provides breeding habitat for salamanders, toads, and frogs, as well as dragonflies, damselflies, and dozens of other species of invertebrates. Birds, such as the American Goldfinch, Yellow Warbler, and Grey Catbird frequent the water's edge and occasionally bathe in the smaller pools.

This setting provides a series of blooms from early spring through late fall including, Jack-In-the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea), Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), Pickerel Weed (Pontederia cordata), Blueflag Iris (Iris versicolor), Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Swamp Rose Mallow (Rosa palustris) and Short's Aster (Aster shortii) among many others.

Site Requirements: min. 90 m2 (approx. 3 parking spaces)

Inclusive Package Includes: excavation for three pond cells, including main pond, dragonfly cell, cattail marsh, lots and lots of rocks, 4 liners, pump, solar panels, 125 plants of 18 species, 16 fish, natural chair.

3. Escarpment Waterfall Garden

Ancient seas, coral reefs, salt water, time and pressure. All these elements combined over the past 380 million years or so to make the soft and weathered, yet enduring limestone rock. In a breathtaking design, modern day fresh water glides, flows and slips over this ancient rock, accenting its grey-brown stippled texture, as it descends in a multi-teir waterfall. Sentinel plants such as Nodding Trillium, Meadow Rue (Thalictrum aquilegifolium), Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and Great Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) mark conveniently rare pockets in the rock that hold just enough time accumulated soil to permit life. A clear pool, amplified by the trickle of water in early spring is all that is required as the beacon for a Yellow Warbler that darts quickly into the water to refresh its feather. You're still; it doesn't notice you, as it nervously hops from rock edge to edge. It flits up to the branch of an overhanging Elderberry (Sambucus americana). A quick blink, and the bird is headed back with the thousands of others on its northward migration. Your morning, has just begun.

Site Requirements: min. 60 m2 (size of two parking spaces)

Inclusive Package: extensive site preparation: grading, excavation, and berm stabilization, soil, cedar chips, large limestone rocks and their transportation, 45 plants of 11 species, pond liner and underlay, aquatic invertebrate starter biomass, custom stepping stones, pump, custom natural filter, lighting.

4. Medicinal Native Plant Garden
This natural garden imbues a magical sense of protection and preventative wisdom. The ages have seen many practitioners of balance, health and healing experiment and employ the raw beauty of the power of the wild plant. Thick books now exist on the topic of healing by means of medicinal plants in addition to many knowledgeable Native Elders, herbalists and others specialized in the healing power of plants.

Arranged for you in a configuration that we would find these plants in nature, medicinal plants such as Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), Jack-In-The-Pulpit, Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis) and many others are planted with a special 'humus-rich' soil concoction that enhances plant growth and thus potency while preventing erosion, moisture loss and prolonging seasonal growth and reproduction.

It has been said that some currently among us can detect the energetic auras of plants. By the care we put into plant selection, cultivation, and layout configuration we feel we can strongly amplify potency and the cumulative healing power of these proven medicinal plants.

Site Requirements: min. 30 m2 (size of one parking space)

Inclusive Package Includes: soil, cedar chips, 65 plants of 12 species, stepping stones, rocks, native plant guide and reference booklet.

5. The Dragonfly Pond

Few insects capture the imagination more than dragonflies - this is especially true for children who often lose themselves in bewilderment and free play trying to catch these ancient aerial acrobats. Our design is specialized for open sunny locations and an area as small as two picnic tables will do. The depth is shallow, at less than two feet with some sections even shallower. Plants that are used in this installation include Narrow Leaved Cattail, Red-disked Yellow Water-lily (Nuphar rubrodiscum), Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Blueflag Iris (Iris versicolor), and Duckweed, but most of the pond will be plant free to allow sunlight to warm the water for the developing dragonfly and damselfly larva. A full colour 25 page wetland plant and dragonfly colouring guide is included in this kit, as well as two dragonfly nets, viewing glasses and a set of four buckets.

Site Requirements: min. 30 m2 (size of one parking space)

Inclusive Package: excavation, soil, cedar chips, rocks, 75 plants of 10 species, pond liner and underlay, aquatic invertebrate starter biome, custom stepping stones, native plant and dragonfly guide book, discovery package including nets, viewing glass and colouring book.

6. 'Magnetus' Butterfly

The hallmark of the insect world for lightness, gorgeous colouration, and pure wonder are butterflies. These animals could be so much more a part of our day to day lives; the key is to use native plants not just for the sweet nectar the butterflies 'drink' but for providing these delicate creatures with key 'host plants' for their developing caterpillars. Thus, by design, 'Magnetis Butterfly' will attract butterflies and keep them around; it's is all about plant selection. Our mixture of native shrubs, wildflowers and grasses is designed in a multi-layered, variable sloped and flat landscape; an appeal that adds tremendous aesthetic appeal to any property. Included plants are Butterfly Milkweed (Asclapias tuberosa), Ironweed (Vernonia altissima), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia serotina) and many others.

Site Requirements: min. 15 m2 (size of half of one parking space)

Inclusive Package: excavation, soil, cedar chips, rocks, 45 plants of 14 species, stepping stones, native plant guide booklet.

7. Garden Carbon Sequester

It's remarkable how much one can accomplish by sitting in a comfortable chair watching the tallgrass and wildflowers sway while simultaneously counting the butterflies that nectar on the various colourful plant 'offerings'. In one respect, what you gaze upon when you look at a prairie is akin to the tip of an iceberg; beneath the surface the featherlike network of intricate roots go deep down into the ground for several metres. So while a steady stream of interesting and beautiful insects, and hungry songbirds join you, the roots of the tallgrass system are hard at work storing carbon they take from the air in the extensive underground root systems. In an era when we are in desperate need to curtail climate change, a little carbon sequestering in each of our yards will go a long way. Dense Blazing Star (Liatris spicata), Grey-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), Butterfly, Purple (Asclapias purpurascens) and Common Milkweeds (Asclapias syriaca), Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), Ironweed (Vernonia altissima), Virginia Wild Rye (Elymus virginicus) and several other gorgeous species accompany this garden creation.

Site Requirements: min. 15 m2 (size of half of one parking space)

Inclusive Package: excavation, soil, some small edging rocks, 400 plants of 14 species, stepping stones, custom native plant guide booklet.

8. Edible Wildplant Paradise

All of our vegetables came initially from some wild plant that proved safe, nutritious and tasty to our early ancestors. In fact, some of these ancient plants exist in the exact forms that were harvested by our ancestors. By most accounts, the vitamins, nutrients and fibre found in these edible wild plants are much more potent and healthful to our systems. Perhaps wild plants are healthier for us because of the native soils that are teeming with biological diversity, leaf litter, small sticks and other organic matter. It may be the higher energetic vibration of a complete ecosystem, that includes singing birds, fluttering butterflies, and long-lived trees.

Some of the plants you now tend are just to delicate and young to consider cooking with at this early stage. Each year, as the plants in your WildPlant Paradise mature and multiply you can 'take' a little more for your unique culinary creations and your seasonal dishes. Wild Yam (Dioscorea villosa), Wild Leek (Dioscorea villosa), Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum), Elderberry, Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca), Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense), and dozens of other species can be added in small amounts to any appropriate culinary creation.

The rhythm you have observed in the plants ability to grow, reproduce and give have imparted on you a deep connection to the cycles of nature that you never knew existed.

Site Requirements: min. 30 m2 (size of one parking space)

Inclusive Package: site preparation, rich woodland soil concoction, 125 plants of 12 species, stepping stones, custom native plant guide booklet.

9. Bog Flower Waterette

Bogs are ancient depressions in the ground that hold on to their water for thousands of years, only being replenished by seasonal rains and spring snow melt. A variety of spongy mosses are the kings of bogs, providing soft beds for delicate plants to grow, flower and serve as the basis for the rest of life in an acidic environment. You observe in awe as the tiny carnivorous plants, such as Sundew, go to work catching small flies and other insects with their sticky, and seemingly attractive outer water droplets. Yellow Lady's Slipper, Wild Cotton Grass (Eriophorum angustifolium), and Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia purpurea) create a great landing spot for Constrictor Darner Dragonfly and many species of their smaller relatives, the Damselflies. Small trees, such as Tamarack (Larix laricina) and Black Spruce (Picea mariana), stunted like Bonsais, adorn the slightly drier margins of the wetlands. Their branches are regularly visited by Black-capped Chickadees, Cardinals and many migrants during spring and fall.

Site Requirements: min. 45 m2 (size of about one and a half parking spaces)

Inclusive Package: excavation, soil, peat moss, rocks, 45 plants of 11 species, pond liner and underlay, aquatic invertebrate starter biome, liner rocks, custom stepping stones, native plant and dragonfly guide book.

Above photo is the example of how Sample Garden 2, 'The Complete Backyard Biosphere' could be designed.

Above: depiction of Sample Garden 6, "The Escarpment Waterfall Garden" featuring Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum) and limestone rocks.

Above: example of Sample Garden 1, 'Wetland Plant Meditation Pool'.

Above: Spatterdock Pond Lily (Nuphar lutea) - can be used in 'Wetland Plant Meditation Pool'.

Above: Native Wetland Plant - Monkey Flower (Mimulus ringens).

A Yellow Warbler (Above) takes a break to 'clean up' in a garden pool.

Below: A Swamp Darner that visited the 'Complete Backyard Ecosystem (#2 at left).'

Below: Spicebush Swallowtail - attracted to the Spicebush shrub (Lindera benzoin) upon which it lays its eggs.

Below: Giant Swallowtail Butterfly on Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) with Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida) in the background. Below: Black Swallowtail on Wild Bergamot (Mondara fistulosa) . Below: Smaller Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium calceolus parviflorum). Below: Bog TurleBelow: Wild Leek (Allium tricoccum)