Internet Resources
- Design A Pollinator Garden Tool – Blazing Star Gardens A great design tool for beginners & experts. Note: You can ONLY use this program on a computer, not a smartphone or tablet.
- Designing Natural Landscapes: Garden Design with Native Prairie Plants – Prairie Nursery
- Easy Landscape Plans – Grow Native! / Missouri Prairie Foundation: Design ideas for smaller scale plantings using native plants. Not all plants will work in Wisconsin, be sure to check the hardiness zone information.
- Native Plants for the Small Yard: Easy, Beautiful Home Gardens that Support the Local Ecology – Free ebook by Kate Brandes: Information on the best native plants for small spaces, including nine different design templates that can be used as is or modified
- Michigan Native Garden Design – Michigan Audubon Association
- Wild Ones Garden Designs – Includes designs for Milwaukee, Chicago, Toledo and Grand Rapids.
Books
The links are to Amazon just for convenience. All the titles are available through the Cafe Library System or through local book sellers.
- Landscaping with Native Plants of Wisconsin Aimed at beginners and veteran gardeners alike, this book is designed to help Wisconsin gardeners find, plant, and maintain the best native species for their specific sites, however modest or lavish.
- Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design Benjamin Vogt shares his expertise with prairie plants in a richly photographed guide aimed at gardeners and homeowners, making big ideas about design approachable and actionable.
- The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to Nonnative Flowers and Plants The authors provide a comprehensive selection of native alternatives that look similar or even identical to a range of nonnative ornamentals.
- Gardening with Native Plants in the Upper Midwest: Bringing the Tallgrass Prairie Home Judy Nauseef provides specific regional information. Working against the backdrop of habitat and species losses in the tallgrass prairie states, she brings years of experience to creating landscapes that recall the now-vanished grasslands of the Midwest.
- Birdscaping in the Midwest: A Guide to Gardening with Native Plants to Attract Birds The book features nine different habitat gardens for hummingbirds, bluebirds, wintering birds, migrant birds, and birds that frequent prairies, wetlands, lakes, shrublands, and woodlands, along with advice about maintaining your plantings and augmenting them with nest boxes, birdbaths, misters, and perches.