Planting Tips

Welcome to Native Gardening!

To get the best results you’re going to have to unlearn some of the things you’ve been taught about how to garden and about what your yard should look like. Bringing nature back requires a different approach than the cookie cutter gardening that everyone else is doing. Let’s dig in..

Plant Small

Pick small plants of whichever species you want instead of wasting your money on the largest containers at the nursery. Baby trees grow faster, survive better and are more hurricane resistant because they can establish strong root systems more quickly, unlike older trees that have been container-bound for years. You can get way more for the same budget by using small plants and before long they’ll have caught up to the larger ones. You know those lollipop trees they plant on the roadside (see image) that are so big they require three other dead trees to stake them from falling over? There’s a better way..

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Maximize Variety

A “purist” native habitat restoration will restrict you to plants that were originally on your property. However since we’re trying to maximize biodiversity we encourage you to use a variety of plants native to South Florida that are compatible with your site. But do plant several of each kind as that will provide more food in one place and increase foraging efficiency for the wildlife. And you can group your plants into ecosystems like they’d be found in the wild, based on elevation changes in your yard. Check out how we did that with our prototype home forest.

Plant Close Together

Trees grow tall much faster in a forest environment where they have to compete with each other than when they stand alone in your yard. Botanist Akira Miyawaki pioneered a method of high density planting that can yield growth rates up to 10x higher than conventional planting. Remember we suggested to spend your money on lots of baby trees instead of a few ones? That’s so you can increase your planting density and maximize your biomass growth rate. Check out this video for an overview, this pdf for more details on the method and here’s more data on the results.

Mimic Nature

We encourage you to rethink some of the ideas from formal gardening like lawns and straight lines and instead try to mimic nature as much as possible. In the wild, seeds will sprout wherever they can and tree locations are the result of many generations of succession. There are few things as serene as a cabin in the woods with minimal disturbance to the natural forest and you can have that at home.

One Step at a Time

Consider doing your yard in sections instead of all at once. We hate to tell you to hold back but there will be a lot of weeds the first season after you disturb the soil and we want to set expectations appropriately. Going in waves also allows you to find out what you like and develop your skills as a native gardener.

Create Plant Beds

We suggest creating plant beds for your new native planting areas. When you just punch a hole in the grass it attract the weed eater which will inevitably damage your plants. And use ground covers to manage weeds instead of mulching indefinitely or worse, roundup.

80% Native

A few non-invasive indulgences are fine and can add extra beauty to your yard (I have a beloved poinciana). But you should aim to use at least 80% native plants in your yard and eliminate all invasives.

Limit Fertilizer Use

If you’re planting pine rockland species, they’re actually adapted to low nutrient environments. They don’t need fertilizer and by using it you actually encourage weed growth. In the wild they rely on fire to remove excess organic matter and non-fire-adapted plants.

Water New Plants

Make sure to water your new plants regularly for the first couple of months until they are established, especially if it is hot, or during the winter dry season. You need a good soaking in the beginning, sprinklers may not be enough. After that, your native plants should not need regular watering if they were put in the right place.

Keep Water on Site

Many people try to get storm water off their site as quickly as possible by directing it to the road or storm drain. However that just makes flooding worse for the whole neighborhood. As long as rainfall accumulation on your site drains within a few hours it’s working great. Consider adding some wetland plants to your low areas to make the most of it. Filtering rainfall through the soil on your site is an important part of reducing runoff and feeding the underground aquifer that we all rely on.

No Pesticide!

The whole point of your native garden is to feed the food web. Chewed up leaves are a sign that it is working! Your plants are feeding the bugs which are feeding the birds and animals. Keep up the good work!

Other Goodies

Method and Goals

Our goal is to maximize biodiversity conservation so our method is native reforestation, not native habitat restoration, which would force us to only install plants that would have originally been on the site. Since we're starting small we feel we can't afford to be purists and want to offer as broad of an array of regionally appropriate native species as possible. Admittedly this has some issues, for example hammock trees like mahogany can be invasive to a pine rockland habitat without a regular fire cycle. However we need to deal with "weeds" anyway so we feel that's a fair tradeoff.

Check out our prototype home forest to see how we reforested our home.