The Bizarro World of Native Plant Gardening

​Seinfeld fans may remember the "Bizarro Jerry" episode, where Elaine meets counterparts of Jerry, George and Kramer who are kind, caring, and considerate – the opposite of the show’s main characters. 

​Native plant gardening is the Bizarro counterpart to Turf World -- the traditional lawn-plus-shrubs landscape. Let’s take a look at the topsy-turvy world of native plants.    

Native gardening is the opposite of Turf World – the hard parts are front-loaded, but there's less maintenance work and greater rewards in the decades that follow.  

Your first obstacle is choosing from among all these strange new species.  See a juniper is a one-gallon pot and you know what it will look like in your yard:  you’ve seen them in front yards your whole life. But you probably have no clue how that Island Buckwheat will fit in your yard unless you’ve done your homework.  And there are hundreds, not dozens, of native species to choose from!
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Bizarro installation is a lot more than just rolling out the sod.  First of all, you’ll need to kill that sodded lawn. Planting is trickier, since you'll want to place it at the right depth to avoid crown rot.  Then you’ll need to bring in the mulch.  After all that, instead of a sparkling emerald mat you’ve got spots of green in a sea of brown.

The landscaping industry has perfected the insta-yard: just roll out some sod, stick in a few shrubs and a tree, and you’re done! Developers love this: throw in a few 15-gallon containers and yesterday’s bare ground is a lot ready to sell.

​Never mind that their customers will be sentenced to a lifetime of servitude to their yard – watering and fertilizing, mowing and weeding, year after year – it’s all about making that first impression of comfortable, middle-class conventionality.  
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​​Instead of the lush growth from day one you get in Turf World, the first couple years of native plant growth is mostly invisible (roots first). 

​Instead of a comfortable, unchanging green carpet, native landscapes can change from week to week as the different species flower and fruit, attracting wave after wave of insects and birds.

​Instead of an unchanging cycle of watering and mowing, as your native garden matures, the need for weeding and watering declines.  ​

Seinfeld’s Elaine rejected her new Bizarro friends to go back to her flawed but familiar companions. You don't need to settle for the status quo, however.  If you're ready to make the leap into the upside-down world of landscaping with natives, I’m here to help if you need it.   ​