25 Drought Tolerant Native Plants for the Prairies

July 2, 2019

Gardening in a drought is no fun. Sure, if you have access to city or well water, you can keep everything living. But nothing will really thrive. As gardeners, we like to be conscious of our footprint on the environment and save water where we can.

One of the best ways to do this is to plant native plants. Once established, these perennial flowers and bushes will help beautify your yard and be able to withstand a drought year. Plus, they are generally very low maintenance–win win!

Be Responsible, Don’t Remove Native Plants From Their Habitat

When I say native plants, I am going to be talking about mostly domesticated varieties that are available in garden centres. Please DO NOT scour country side ditches and transplant native plants to your home. It may seem like you’re helping an endangered species by giving it a controlled environment, but you’re actually hurting it.

Native plants need the specific ecosystem they are in to thrive. Your garden is not that ecosystem. Plus, you’ve just taken away a future source of seeds for that plant from the area.

Finally, removing native plants is illegal and there are steep fines. Ladyslippers and Prairie lilies are gorgeous, but are really best enjoyed in their native Prairie habitat.

Finally you can have a drought tolerant, low maintenance landscape in your yard...if you plant these native perennial flowers and shrubs. Help save water and have a beautiful yard at the same time. #nativeplants #zone3 #perennials #flowers

Where Do I Buy Native Plants?

The varieties I’m suggesting today should be available for purchase at most local greenhouses, or by mail order. However, if you’d like to go further into the world of native plants, your local Native Plant Society will likely have a list of places you can responsibly order seeds from. Here are links to the native plant groups in the three Prairie Provinces.

Do Drought Tolerant Plants Need To Be Watered?

In short, yes. Like any other bush or perennial, your plants need to be watered every day (unless it’s raining or the ground is saturated) the first year until they are more established. I personally would water them in the second year as well, especially if the weather is abnormally dry or hot.

After the third year, your native plants should require very little care.

Easy to Grow, Low Maintenance Native Plants for the Prairies

One last disclaimer–this list is intended for a beginner gardener in the Prairie Provinces or even the Mid-West of the United States. I garden in zone 3 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and my list is best suited for this area.

I’ve strived to pick plants that are readily available and drought tolerant. This means, they may not be the exact native variety, but a naturalized one. I hope you find this list with pictures helpful!

If you would like to go further in your native plants journey, I urge you to see the sites I’ve suggested above. Is there a plant you feel should be on this list? Let me know in the comments!

Edible Fruit Trees

Saskatoon Berry

Chokecherry

Buffalo Berry

Sand Cherry

Highbush Cranberry

Hazlenut

Shrubs

Dogwood

Prickly Rose

Showy Mountain Ash

There are lots of beautiful native shrubs, but unfortunately, it is not so easy to find stock photography of them. Please see this website for plenty of shrub options with pictures. I think the Mountain Maple and Smooth Sumac would also be beautiful options.

Flowering Perennials

Sage

Wild Blue Flax

Coneflower

Crocus

Gaillardia

Wild Columbine

Related: 5 Reasons to landscape with native plants

Aster

Goldenrod

Yarrow

Hyssop

Liatrus

Black Eyed Susan

Scarlet Mallow

Grasses

There are many beautiful grasses you can grow to add winter interest and movement to your garden. It is suggested that you grow at least one cool season and one warm season variety. Click here to read more and discover different varieties.

Vines

Wild Hops

Virginia Creeper

Virginia creeper can become invasive, so plant with caution!

Which one of these resilient plants will you plant? Or will you create a whole flower garden with them?

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots. She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden. She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

How to Create a Low Maintenance Vegetable Garden on an Acreage or Homestead

May 3, 2019

You’ve just bought an acreage and are starting the life you’ve always dreamed of. You want a garden, but that garden space that came with the property is just so big and overwhelming–a brown blank canvas that you have no idea what to do with and no idea how you’re going to keep the weeds down with all the other yard work you have to do.

Here’s how you can keep your vegetable garden as low maintenance as possible on an acreage.

Having a large vegetable garden on an acreage sounds like a dream. . .until you have to figure out what to plant and how to weed it. This article has so many good tips on how to keep homestead gardening low maintenance when you have tons of space!! #acreage #homestead #vegetablegarden — Photo courtesy of Giselle King

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read more about it in my Privacy Policy. Thanks for supporting Shifting Roots!

1. If You’re Starting From Scratch, Start Small–and Use Cardboard.

If you’re new to gardening and have a large blank canvas of a landscape to work with, start small.

It’s okay if your vegetable garden feels like a postage stamp in your backyard. There’s so much yard work on an acreage that you want to do everything you can to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed.

My favourite method to start a new garden space is to lay down cardboard.

If you’re able to lay down the cardboard in the fall, you can rototill it in and start a new vegetable garden relatively weed-free. If you need to start your vegetable garden in the spring, you can put at least 4-6 inches of soil directly on top of the cardboard. The vegetable garden won’t be the best you’ve ever had, but you’ll still be able to grow vegetables and it will be relatively weed free.

P.S. Need some help figuring out what’s a weed and what’s a plant? Click here!

2. Grass Clippings=Free and Abundant Mulch

Growing up on a small farm, I was responsible for cutting the lawn every week. I loved the job, but it took me 4-5 hours to do on a riding lawnmower. The good news was, every week it produced lots of free mulch that could be used in our garden to keep the weeds down.

If your grass has a lot of weeds you might not want to use them, but in my opinion, the few resulting weeds will be far less than the amount of weeds if you didn’t mulch at all. You know your yard and your tolerance for weeds, so the choice is ultimately up to you.

Planning to mulch this year? Here’s what you need to know.

Also, if you have the budget for a chipper shredder, you can easily make your own mulch year-round from dead trees and leaves around the property. This mulch is far better than using grass if you’re able to make it for yourself.

3. Have a Plan for Any Space You Rototill

A rototiller is a great tool, but if you’re not willing to pick out the weeds and grass that grow back time after time, or keep roto-tilling every week or two, you need a plan.

If you’re roto-tilling a new vegetable garden, plant only potatoes the first year and cover the non-vegetable space with cardboard and mulch.

If it’s an established vegetable garden, plan on laying down mulch between the rows, or consider moving to planting your vegetables square foot gardening style.

You’ll still have to do an initial big weeding 3-4 weeks after you plant, but after that the vegetables will crowd out the weeds, leaving considerably less work for you to do.

Plan the Perfect Garden

Get your free Garden Planner and worksheets and start creating the garden of your dreams.

4. Use Tarps for Vining Vegetables

Vegetables like cucumbers, melons, squash, and pumpkins take up a lot of space, but in the early days of growing there’s a lot of bare soil that just begging for weeds to grow in it.

The solution?

Lay down a tarp and poke holes in for the vegetables. The ground stays weed free and you only have to weed the area where you made the hole for the vegetable.

One caveat–make sure you create a bit of a well where the vegetables are planted, so that the water can get to them when it rains.

Write what vegetable you planted in what hole on the tarp, and reuse it every year.

5. Raised Beds Work for Acreage Gardens Too

Just because you live on an acreage doesn’t mean you have to rototill your garden and plant things in rows. You can convert your current garden to raised beds so everything becomes easier to manage.

I really like the raised bed setup that Jess has at Roots and Refuge.

If you prefer a raised bed garden kit, I like these options in wood, vinyl, and metal.

6. Protect Your Garden From Pests

While I can’t possibly go into every pest you might run into on a acreage, there are certainly more to deal with when you’re out in the country. If your budget allows, consider fencing in your garden to protect from deer, rabbits, and other wildlife.

Fencing also helps protect your your tender seedlings from the wind when you first put them out in the garden.

I hope these tips help you avoid the overwhelm of having a large vegetable garden space and that you have a weed-free and low-maintenance gardening season! Have any tips to add? Share with us in the comments?

Kristen Raney

www.shiftingroots.com

7 Backyard Landscaping Decisions You’ll Regret

March 24, 2019

Everyone wants a backyard that is beautifully landscaped and low maintenance. A place where you can relax after a long day.

However, if you’re going the DIY route to creating a backyard landscape, there are some pitfalls to avoid. These mistakes look fine when you first plant them, but in 3-5 years they’ll have you regretting your decisions, pulling out plants, and redoing the whole thing.

Who wants to create extra work in the yard? Not me!

Cedars

Don’t sharpen your pitchforks just yet. Cedars are beautiful and I love them too, but after 15-20 years they just look tired and have often grown way too big for the space they were intended for.

Avoid this problem by trimming them once a year, and make sure you plant them far enough apart.

Case in point, my house. I’m sure there’s a house somewhere behind those cedars…

Planting Trees and Shrubs Too Close Together

Sure, those trees or shrubs look perfectly spaced now, but they will soon be over crowded and die in two years time. The suggested space between trees on the tag is there for a reason.

Cheaping Out on Mulch

If you’re going to use mulch, make sure you actually use landscape fabric or cardboard underneath the area and put a full 4 inches of mulch on top. Anything less means you’ll have weeds in a month and your whole project will be ruined next year.

Once you use proper mulch, you’ll love how much work it saves you. With less weeding and watering, you’ll wonder why you didn’t join the mulch bandwagon sooner.

Forgetting that Trees make Shade

That adorable little tree next to your garden or flower bed might barely cast a shadow these days, but in just a few short years it could completely shade out your growing space. It can be hard to visualize how large a tree will grow, but trying to do so and planning accordingly will save you a world of hurt (and an expensive tree removal bill) down the road.

Planting a Tree Underneath a Power Line

Enough said. Why?!?!

Digging Through Power and Cable Lines

There’s a reason you’re supposed to call before you dig. Please call your power and cable companies to come and mark your lines before you take on any landscaping project. They can usually be there within two weeks, often sooner.

Planting Invasive Perennials

I know, I know, you have this giant blank slate of a yard and you just want to fill it. Perennials save you money, but they don’t really get to their full size until after 3-5 years. Invasive perennials will fill out sooner, but can quickly take over a space if you’re not diligent about removing plants in spots you don’t want them in.

Here’s 28 Perennials You’ll Regret Planting, Plus 50 more Perennials to Avoid

Don’t believe me? I bought an old house with an overgrown backyard and I am constantly picking out ferns, bellflower, and lily of the valley out of my flower beds every year. I’ve owned it for three years and I’ve barely made a dent in the fern/bellflower/lily of the valley population.

Here’s the backyard we started with.

Have you made any of these mistakes? Do you have anything you’d add to the list?

Kristen Raney

www.shiftingroots.com

Creating Whimsy in Your Garden

March 11, 2019

Once the perennials have emerged, you’ve planted some annuals here and there, and all your flowers are looking great, it time to have some fun by Creating Whimsy In Your Garden.

I truly love every task that gardening involves, but my favorite thing to do is kick my creative side into high gear and add some personality and whimsical touches to my gardens. Okay, let’s have some fun and get creative. Come along and let me give you some ideas and tips to bring out your artistic side.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase something, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read more about it in my privacy policy. Thanks for supporting Shifting Roots!

Low Budget Ways to Add Whimsical Decor To Your Garden

First take a walk around your own yard and see what you can find. Keep an eye out for interesting limbs, old logs, rocks or boulders, old fencing, broken flower pots, etc. If you have littles, get them involved. My five year old grandson now looks for big rocks for his Nana’s garden. Be creative!

Rocks and boulders make awesome borders around your gardens. Or even just a small pile of field stones with flowers growing around and through them looks super cute.

Logs look great in the garden with flowers as a backdrop. They also look cool hollowed out and used as planters. Birch logs especially look amazing in gardens. Use them to add height in a flower pot.

Logs can be used to make very whimsical statement pieces. We had several trees cut down and I’m always foraging through the wood pile for an interesting log or limb. In this example, the piece of wood was rotten in the middle, so it worked well to plant marigolds in the hollowed out middle.

I think whimsical garden art really makes a backyard flower bed. I love these 20 diy ideas that are either recylcled, upcylcled, or from junk that nobody wants. I need to do some of these in my outdoor space--Solar lights are so easy. #gardenart #whimsical #flowergarden #landscapingideas — Photo courtesy of Gingham Gardens

I also use logs like tables or stands to add height to planters. Create little scenes, or vignettes, with garden art pieces you have on hand. If you’d like to see how my husband made the branch ladder in this picture, check out Easy DIY Garden Decor Using Tree Branches when you’ve finished up here.

Not sure which annual flowers are best for your garden? Here are my picks for sun and shade.

Don’t toss out broken pots or containers. You can use a broken clay pot as a tipped or spilled planter feature like this. Because the pot is broken on the side that is buried, it doesn’t even matter that it’s broken. Really just about any planter looks whimsical tipped on its side with flowers spilling out.

Other Ways to Add Whimsy to Your Garden

Doing something as simple as adding landscape lighting can go a long way to add a whimsical touch to your garden space. These solar lights look super cute both in the daylight and nighttime. And, the twinkling of landscape lights adds tons of whimsy and ambience to your gardens at night.

Dig an old short shepherd’s hook out of your stash and hang a galvanized pot of annuals on it. Instant whimsy, right?

A container filled with flowers is a great way to fill up empty spaces and works really well to add personality and charm. Years ago, I had this tipsy tower of clay pots in my garden and it was always a conversation piece for visitors.

Do you have a fence, add décor or planters to the fence. At our former home we added framed heavy duty lattice panels to hide our neighbor’s chain link fence and it was always fun to add some yard art pieces to the fences.

Need Perennial Flower Planting Ideas? Here’s 53 of my favourites, 28 you should probably avoid, and 17 for those shady spots in the garden.

Garden stakes look cute nestled in with the flowers in your gardens. Craft fairs and boutiques are great places to find garden art and that’s where I found these adorable birdhouse stakes. Many years ago, I read to create groupings of odd numbered pieces in a garden vignette and it totally looks so much better that even numbers. Give it a try and I think you’ll agree.

Upcycling vintage items, like this old chair, is a very creative way to add character to your gardens, and I would like to think this is my speciality. Flea markets, estate sales and garage sales are the best places find pieces like vintage milk cans, ladders, bicycles, old chair, wheelbarrows and whatever else you can see in your garden. Personally, I draw the line at bathroom pieces and car parts, but to each their own. If you’re interested in taking a little garden tour to see my Upcycled Vintage Garden Decor, pop over when we’ve finished up here.

Adding a simple little water feature goes a long way to add whimsy. The sound of trickling water just adds to the atmosphere of peace and serenity in the garden, especially when placed by a seating area.

Ideas for DIY Whimsical Garden Decorations

Of course, there are tons and tons of ideas on Pinterest for making DIY Garden Decor, but here are a few (well, okay, several) ideas I have on my DIY to do list:

Dragonflies made with old silverware
Flower stakes made from dishes
Bird cages made into planters
Rocks painted to look like bugs or worms
Painted garden rock markers
Tin Can and flower pot people
Glass totems
Bird feeders made from old cups and saucers
Mosaic from broken dishes
Simple hand painted sign

See how fun and easy creating whimsy in your garden can be? Just keep in mind that adding garden decor or yard art is just another means to add to the beauty and personality of your gardens, and is not meant to compete with it.

Again, have fun and be creative! When I’m not sure how something looks in the garden, I take a picture. Sometimes looking at a picture helps to solidify the design or makes it easy to see if something needs to be changed. If you decide later that your little vignette looks more dorky or junky than whimsical, you can always rearrange it.

Do you add whimsical touches to your gardens? Leave a comment and let me know. Or, of course, if you have questions, you can always ask.

Joanna Von Bergen

Hi there, I’m Joanna from Gingham Gardens. I’ve been a fan of Kristen’s blog for many years and long before I became a blogger myself, so I’m honored that she would allow me a chance to guest post at Shifting Roots. Gardening has been a passion of mine for a very long time. And, although I’m mostly into flower gardening, I do vegetable gardening too. Come visit me when you have some time to take a virtual stroll through Gingham Gardens.

ginghamgardens.com/

How to Design a Front Yard Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

February 8, 2019

Space is at a premium in urban centres, and you might not have enough space in your backyard to plant as many vegetables as you like. But have you ever thought of going out into your front yard?

In some neighbourhoods, the front yard space is even larger than the backyard space, and can easily help you double your available gardening space.

If you’re thinking of starting a front yard vegetable garden, check with your city or municipality that they are allowed, ask for a line locate from your power, energy, or cable company, and start dreaming up your new raised bed vegetable garden!

Here’s how I made over part of my front yard into a raised bed vegetable garden.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read more about it in my privacy policy.

The Before

Our front yard was pretty uninspiring, to say the least. In the previous year my husband constructed these cheap wooden raised beds for me because I could not fit in everything I wanted to plant in the backyard. I had even more plans to expand my vegetable garden, so the dried out potentillas had to go.

The potentillas were so overgrown and parts of them were even starting to rot. I’m sure they were beautiful in their time, but if I was going to keep them, they were in desperate need of a good pruning because they didn’t flower very much in the summer.

Ordering Soil and Mulch

I’m not sure why, but the thought of ordering soil and mulch from a landscaping company seemed really overwhelming to me. However, I knew that this was too big of a project to be dragging bags of the stuff from a big box store back and forth in my truck.

However, I went with a friend to one of the larger companies in the city and got it done!! I ordered 1 yard of pine mulch (the cheapest option) and 2 yards of soil with compost and peat already mixed in.

I assumed that because compost and peat was already mixed in, that I wouldn’t have to make any further amendments to my soil.

I was wrong.

While the vegetables in the new soil performed alright, there was a noticeable difference from the ones in the soil that I had been improving with compost and manure for 3 years.

Planting your first vegetable garden? Here’s the 10 easiest vegetables to grow, plus 6 tips I wish I would have known.

Though these piles may seem on the small side, it still took me around 9 hours of work to move everything with a wheelbarrow to where it needed to be. Since I don’t have a driveway, I had to get it all done in one day before any of my neighbours complained to the city.

If you are in this situation, check the city bylaws to see how long you as a homeowner can leave something like this out on a city street. In my city it’s 24 hours, but in some places it can be as short as 6 or as long as 48. If you need longer, you may have to apply for a permit.

The moral of the story? Schedule your delivery for a day when you know you have the entire day to deal with your soil and mulch!!

Creating My Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

Almost finished our front yard project. The two wooden raised beds in the front will be upgraded next year!

I filled up the raised garden beds with soil, surrounded the area with cardboard, and layered over a 4 inch layer of mulch.

Technically, I could have left the grass, but I wanted this project to be as maintenance free and neat looking as I possibly could. I don’t want to risk getting complaints from my neighbours because I am behind on the weeding.

The occasional weed will still come through your mulch. However, I can promise you that these weeds are super easy to pick–especially when you compare the amount of weeds you would have otherwise.

Looking for the next cool front yard landscaping ideas? How about a front yard vegetable garden?! Here's how I turned my yard with no curb appeal into a low maintenance raised bed garden. It's a simple design for a small space that anyone can do! #frontyard #design #vegetablegarden

Another thing you should know about mulch is that you’ll have to replenish it every 2-3 years. Wooden mulch will decompose over time, making your formerly 4 inch layer not thick enough to suppress weeds. You can use cedar mulch instead if you don’t want to top up your mulch as often. However, cedar tends to be more expensive.

The Best Method of Planting Vegetables in a Small Space Garden

Once the project was done, I planted my new raised beds using the square foot gardening method and the seeding square. (You can also get it on Amazon here.)

If you’re used to traditional rows in a garden, it can seem very strange to switch to this way of planting a garden. But once you try it, you’ll be hooked! You’ll be able to plant more vegetables in the same space and keep down the weeds much easier.

In fact, I found that once I had done the initial major weeding in June, there was barely any weeds after that, and it was easy to simply pull out the few that did manage to come up.

If you need ideas on square foot gardening, I have these 4 free templates (that are colour co-ordinated with the seeding square) that you might enjoy. If you don’t want to use the seeding square, you can figure out the spacing by using Mel Bartholomew’s book. (But seriously, you’ll save so much time and headache with the Seeding Square!!)

Get 4 Free Square Foot Gardening Templates

Start your square foot garden the easy way!

You'll get 4 4x4 plans for

Salad Garden
Beginner's Garden
Salsa Garden
Kid's Garden

Plus a short 3 day email course of how to get started with square foot gardening.

In the bed on the right, should not have planted that pepper between the artichokes. I had never grown artichokes before, and had no concept of how tall they would actually get. (3-5 feet!) Needless to say, the pepper did not do well.

I also did not realize that butternut squash and watermelon would cross with each other. I was blessed with some lovely mutant squash. What do you get when you cross a butternut with a watermelon? A very weird squash that you really don’t want to eat!!

A Front Yard Vegetable Garden Builds Community

Overall, I was really happy with my front yard vegetable garden. It was easy to keep up with and I would often notice people who were walking by enjoying it.

Neighbours would often stop by to chat about the garden, and perfect strangers would stop their walk to ask me questions about the garden if I was outside working on it.

I was a bit nervous about possible theft come harvest time, but so far it has not been a problem.

In fact, my biggest problem was actually the birds that mercilessly picked at any lettuce, kale, beets, and swiss chard that I planted. Next year I will protect my plants with cloth until they are well established.

By late summer, the garden was very productive and my mutant butternut squash/watermelon vines had taken over. All in all, I’d say my front yard raised bed vegetable garden project was a huge success!

Recommended Resources

If you’re looking to plan your own front yard project, here are a few resources I recommend:

Mel Bartholomew’s 3rd Edition Square Foot Gardening Book.
The Seeding Square, on the product site, or on Amazon.
The Edible Front Yard Book by Ivette Soler
A Three-pack, 4×4 Raised Bed Garden Kit
Or this tiered wooden option
Or just a basic wooden raised bed.

P.S. If you’re a new gardener and looking for hold-your-hand-virtual gardening advice, my new online gardening course is for you!

Kristen Raney

Be Responsible, Don’t Remove Native Plants From Their Habitat

Where Do I Buy Native Plants?

Do Drought Tolerant Plants Need To Be Watered?

Easy to Grow, Low Maintenance Native Plants for the Prairies

Edible Fruit Trees

Saskatoon Berry

Chokecherry

Sand Cherry

Highbush Cranberry

Hazlenut

Shrubs

Dogwood

Prickly Rose

Showy Mountain Ash

Flowering Perennials

Sage

Wild Blue Flax

Coneflower

Crocus

Gaillardia

Wild Columbine

Related: 5 Reasons to landscape with native plants

Aster

Goldenrod

Yarrow

Hyssop

Liatrus

Black Eyed Susan

Scarlet Mallow

Grasses

Vines

Wild Hops

Virginia Creeper

1. If You’re Starting From Scratch, Start Small–and Use Cardboard.

2. Grass Clippings=Free and Abundant Mulch

Planning to mulch this year? Here’s what you need to know.

3. Have a Plan for Any Space You Rototill

Plan the Perfect Garden

4. Use Tarps for Vining Vegetables

5. Raised Beds Work for Acreage Gardens Too

6. Protect Your Garden From Pests

Cedars

Planting Trees and Shrubs Too Close Together

Cheaping Out on Mulch

Forgetting that Trees make Shade

Planting a Tree Underneath a Power Line

Digging Through Power and Cable Lines

Planting Invasive Perennials

Here’s 28 Perennials You’ll Regret Planting, Plus 50 more Perennials to Avoid

Low Budget Ways to Add Whimsical Decor To Your Garden

Not sure which annual flowers are best for your garden? Here are my picks for sun and shade.

Other Ways to Add Whimsy to Your Garden

Need Perennial Flower Planting Ideas? Here’s 53 of my favourites, 28 you should probably avoid, and 17 for those shady spots in the garden.

Ideas for DIY Whimsical Garden Decorations

The Before

Ordering Soil and Mulch

Planting your first vegetable garden? Here’s the 10 easiest vegetables to grow, plus 6 tips I wish I would have known.

Creating My Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

The Best Method of Planting Vegetables in a Small Space Garden

Get 4 Free Square Foot Gardening Templates

A Front Yard Vegetable Garden Builds Community

Recommended Resources

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