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There is a native plant for every space — and the garden at the Holland Lake Trailhead in Lebanon Hills Regional Park is a showcase of just that! In a small footprint, this garden manages to showcase spring-blooming showstoppers, prairie plants for drier areas of full sun, shade-loving plants happy to thrive under a large tree, and native shrubs planted to stabilize a slope.
A key to success for any new garden is to know your site conditions. This site already had two existing trees, as well as a significant slope prone to erosion. Designer Jen Ehlert, from Metro Blooms Design+Build, created a diverse design for these conditions. Native shrubs on the slope add strong root structures to hold soil in place. Spring-blooming plants under new pollinator-friendly trees provide flowering food sources before the leaves unfurl in the trees. And choosing sun and shade species will, over time, fill in the entire garden area, reducing the need for mulch.
This garden also shows how native plants can have their place in more formal gardens. This garden is “highly-designed,” with each plant in its designated place. But native plants will move where conditions are best for them. So while this garden may not look the same over time, know that it will be beautiful and well-loved by pollinators for years to come!
