If you create a natural garden yourself, the patience required is a far greater challenge than the work involved in designing and planting. It just takes time for your green kingdom to transform itself into a functioning ecosystem based on nature's example. This guide will take you by the hand and explain how to start the creation process with design ideas and tips for planting.

A natural garden offers space for birds and insects

Create a plan sketch - these elements belong in the natural garden

If you create a natural garden yourself, the central basic elements form a harmonious reflection of nature. The goal is an apparently natural paradise that only gets a touch of individuality through selective human intervention. Therefore, create a detailed plan sketch in advance, which contains the following components in addition to sober data such as light and wind conditions and soil quality:

  • Privacy hedge made of wild roses and wild bushes with autumnal berries as bird food
  • Instead of a lawn, a flower meadow with a mixture of wild flowers, clover and grasses
  • Wild corner, for example with compost heaps, piles of dead wood or leaves, beds of nettles and wild flowers
  • Dry stone wall made of natural stone as a room divider, eye-catcher or slope support
  • Kitchen garden based on the model of the medieval monastery and cottage garden

A small or large water world is obligatory if you want to design and plant an authentic natural garden. The multifaceted spectrum ranges from mini wet biotopes to rushing streams with waterfalls.

Native plants have priority - tips for planting

If the plan sketch visualizes the future natural garden to your complete satisfaction, the selection of the plants is on the agenda. Robust wild plants, which you might also encounter on a walk in the open air, have priority. The following selection lists typical species for the natural garden:

  • Hedge: hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), sloe (Hippophae rhamnoides), black elder (Sambucus nigra)
  • Pond plants: marsh marigold (Caltha palustris), swan flower (Butomus umbellatus)
  • Wild perennial bed: columbine (Aquilegia atrata), dyer's chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria), dog rose (Rosa canina)
  • Plant dry wall: bugle (Ajuga reptans), lady's mantle (Alchemilla glaucescens), centaury (Centaurium erythraea)

Very healthy vegetables should not be missing in the planting plan for the natural garden. Again, the focus is on local species and varieties, such as cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and kale as well as lamb's lettuce, wild garlic and French beans.

Double flowers are taboo in the natural garden

The shape of the flower is important to consider when choosing flowering plants for your natural garden. Please only use flowers, perennials and ornamental shrubs with simple blossoms. Double flowers are beautiful to look at. For bees, bumblebees and butterflies they are of course a sham. Because the stamens have regressed into petals, there is no pollen or nectar to get hold of.

tips

With rustic water features, you can give your natural garden an atmospheric color and at the same time create an important water source for birds and insects. A wooden tub from the flea market or grandmother's old zinc watering can can be transformed into a cheerfully bubbling decorative element with a solar pump in no time at all.

Category:

Garden design