Creating a Garden-scale Grassland: Part 3
Adding plugs for more design control.
Did you miss Parts 1 or 2 of our series? View them here:
Part 1: Designing for function
Part 2: Soil prep and sowing seed
Have you wondered about having a different kind of landscape? An alternative to the traditional lawn and foundation shrubs? A landscape that welcomes wildlife, boosts ecological function, and reduces the need to mow? That’s what landscape architect Preston Montague was aiming for with his client’s new home. She didn’t want to mow—but was willing to string trim occasionally—and she wanted to preserve the view to the street from inside the house.
With a lawn out of the question, and the site ravaged by construction, Preston needed a cost-effective, efficient way to create a large planting that was low enough to see over to the street. His solution: a garden-scale grassland.
For this project, Preston adapted an approach he uses with mass plantings on ecological restoration projects. A seed mix of native plants jumpstarts erosion control and weed suppression, while reducing the need for mowing. Plugs planted directly into the seed mix give more design control, creating patterns and aesthetic cues that show this planting is cultivated and intentional.
Join Preston for a three-part video series where he shares the process and shows us this garden-scale grassland project for a homeowner in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Part 1: Designing for function
Part 2: Soil prep and sowing seed
Part 3: Adding plugs for more design control
Species and cultivars in order of appearance:
- Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed)
Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem)
Panicum virgatum (switchgrass)
Phlox subulata (moss phlox)
Achillea millefolium (common yarrow)
Coreopsis lanceolata (lanceleaf tickseed)
Rudbeckia fulgida 'Little Goldstar' ('Little Goldstar' orange coneflower)
Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot)
Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks' ('Fireworks' wrinkleleaf goldenrod)
Symphyotrichum dumosum 'Wood's Pink' ('Wood's Pink' rice button aster)
Eurybia divaricata (white wood aster)
Preston Montague is a landscape architect and artist who developed a passion for the natural world while growing up in the rural foothills of Virginia. Currently, he lives in Durham, North Carolina working on projects that encourage stronger relationships between people and the natural world for the purpose of improving public and environmental health. Preston is a recipient of the Perennial Plant Association’s 2022 Landscape Design Awards.
