BESIDES THEIR native-heavier plant palette and looser style, ecologically designed landscapes have another difference: The way we maintain them is not the same as with more traditional, ornamentally-focused gardens. I’m asked again and again by gardeners who have planted a meadow-like area or some other habitat-inspired, naturalistic feature about how to handle its aftercare: about what to do when the picture changes a couple of years down the road and thereafter—when the balance of the plants in their design starts to shift, and there’s too much or too little of something for their liking, or when some unwanted weedy elements find their way in. I sought some hands-on advice from Dan Wilder, who manages native plantings professionally on thousands of acres of conserved natural lands, and also on his own home-garden scale. Dan Wilder is a longtime native plant expert, and the director of Applied Ecology for the nonprofit Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Massachusetts, an 8,000-acre sanctuary. He is also a board member of the Ecological Landscape Alliance, a leader in promoting sustainable approaches to the landscape to professionals and gardeners alike.  With Mark Richardson, Dan co-authored the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.” Note: I inserted some subheadings below so you can zero in […]

The post editing an ecologically-focused landscape, with dan wilder appeared first on A Way To Garden.