Rewilding your lawn or garden? First, get to know it

Gardening is a place-based conversation with many voices, an opportunity to engage in a reciprocal exchange between ourselves, the lands under our care and the broader ecosystem of which we’re a part. The deeper we listen, the more rewarding the experience will be.

What this means on the ground, in practical terms, is that the more we understand the conditions of our garden space, the better chance we’ll have of creating a garden that thrives.

The technical term for this is “site assessment,” but I find the phrase too detached and potentially intimidating. Instead, I think of this process as a kind of intimacy with a place – learning about all the features that combine to express its unique ecology. At the risk of sounding anthropomorphic, I’d say that the process is about discovering what a site wants to be.

Soil conditions

Although we tend to focus on the aboveground beauty of plants, what’s going on in the ground is crucial to plant health, as is matching plants to your soil conditions. A soil texture test is a great place to start your investigation, and that involves getting up close and personal – even a bit dirty.

Dig into the soil and hold it in your hands, run it through your fingers. (This is a close contact endeavour!) How does the soil feel? Is it sandy, filtering through your fingers without clumps, with little organic matter holding it together? Or does it form into clumps, almost sticky, like clay? Is it somewhere in between sand and clay, holding loosely together when you squeeze it, but breaking up easily when you turn your hand over? This is a sign of loamy soil.

Whatever type of soil you have, it’s much easier in the long run to work with it – for example, by planting sand-lovers in sandy soil – than to try to change it. That said, if you have access to compost (and if you don’t, consider starting to compost!), it’s a good idea to add this wonderful amendment to your plot. Whatever your soil, compost contributes valuable nutrients, organic matter and the rich microbial life essential to soil health.

Moisture conditions

Your soil type, along with the rainfall in your area, will determine how much moisture is naturally available to your plants. Sandy soil tends to drain quickly, whereas clay-based soils tend to hold water. Loamy soils are somewhere between these extremes.

An easy way to determine your soil’s moisture-holding capacity is to dig a hole, pour a bucketful of water into it and watch what happens. Water drains quickly in sandy soil, percolates steadily into loamy soil and tends to pool in clay soil. Additions of compost will help improve drainage, whatever your soil’s condition.

Sunlight conditions

Along with soil type and moisture, the amount of sunlight that reaches your planting plot will guide your plant selections. Of course, this might vary across the space depending on the shade cast by trees and buildings, just as it will vary as the angle of the sun moves throughout the growing season. Time spent paying close attention to where sunlight falls and for how long is crucial to matching plants to the space.

In general, if the area is predominantly shady – with three hours or fewer of sunlight per day – you’ll want to focus on woodland plants, which are adapted to lower sunlight levels. Meadow and prairie plants, on the other hand, thrive in full sun. For areas that are in-between, with three to six hours of sunlight, you’ll want to choose versatile woodland and meadow edge plants, which are adapted to a range of light conditions.

Once you know these basics, you’re ready to dig deeper – metaphorically, that is. (Too much actual digging breaks down soil structure, disrupts microorganisms and creates disturbance, which will encourage all those dormant weed seeds in the soil to burst into growth. Resist the urge and, instead, cultivate the soil only as necessary – holes for new plants, for example, or for compost additions.) But now that you have a general sense of the site’s soil, moisture and sunlight conditions, you have the basic information you need to get into ecological gardening’s dreamiest task: envisioning your habitat goals and poring over plant lists.

Guidance for this mission is all around you! Look to nearby natural areas – forests, meadows, prairies and wetlands – for inspiration. These places are full of instructive information about the plants and plant communities that thrive in your region.

Woodlands

In general terms, woodlands consist of three main “layers”: the tallest layer of canopy trees, the mid-level layer of shrubs and the ground layer of herbaceous perennials. Although woodlands are shady habitats, the quality of the light varies depending on the types of trees. Coniferous trees cast the deepest shade while deciduous forests, with trees that lose their leaves in autumn and grow them back throughout spring, allow more sunlight into the shrub and ground layer. The soils of woodlands tend to be full of organic matter and, thus, rich and aromatic.

In shady garden areas, mimicking the structure and plant composition of regional woodland habitats is the best route for ensuring a flourishing ecological garden. You’ll want to plant trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials that are adapted to shade, and you’ll need to provide them with rich woodland soil, full of organic matter, mulched and replenished with a layer of dead leaves – basically, a woodland garden based on nature’s model.

Meadows and prairies

These habitats are sunny, with plants adapted to open conditions. As such, meadow and prairie plants tend to be tough, able to withstand drying winds and sunlight. They’re also, in general, adapted to nutrient-poor soils, including very sandy soils. Sun-loving meadow and prairie plants include tall, swaying grasses and colourful perennials with boisterous blooms that put on an exuberant show in summer – unlike woodland plants, which tend to be spring bloomers. If your yard is sunny, your ecological garden will flourish when planted with a diversity of your region’s meadow and prairie plants.

Wetlands

As the name makes clear, wetland habitats have varying degrees of moisture. They can be seasonally inundated with water or wet throughout the year. Some wetlands – swamps, for example – are treed, and some, like wet meadows, are open and sunny.

If your planting area includes places where water pools, such as a low-lying area with poor drainage, consider creating a rain garden. Rather than treating such areas as places that need to be “fixed,” involving endless fighting against their natural tendencies, you can work in partnership with what they want to be: a moist place where regionally adapted moisture-loving plants will thrive.

Inspired and informed by these principles of place, you’re ready for the creative pleasures of choosing plants matched to your conditions and habitat goals. Numerous resources exist to help you with this task, wherever you live. Reach out to native plant societies in your region. Almost every state and province has one. Contact nature clubs, master gardening groups and state extension offices. Many of these organizations have compiled locally or regionally specific plant lists.

And keep in mind that gardening is a process. You don’t need to figure everything out right from the beginning. In your conversation with plants and place you’ll continue to learn, you’ll continue to be surprised and you’ll forever be rewarded with discoveries – a fascinating new insect to greet, or an unexpected plant that shows up to say hello to the habitat home you’ve created.

This article is part of a series on reimagining lawns as habitat as part of the David Suzuki Foundation's LawnShare program. LawnShare participants will receive simple guidance on how to take care of lawns with fewer impacts on local water, air and soil, and on how to transform these spaces into habitat that supports native plants and other wildlife while saving time and money.