Have you noticed articles about native plants mainly cover flowering plants whose height may be no more than 3 feet (1 meter) high? That’s not enough. Your habitat garden should incorporate height – a vertical component – in its design.

A natural habitat, except for some desert areas, includes flowers, vines, shrubs, small trees and tall trees. Birds, butterflies and native bees are adapted to live in this vertical environment.

Now you don't have to have all the levels in your yard to create a decent habitat. Not everyone has room to add a giant oak tree. But the more levels you have, the better nature-positive design you create. If there are trees nearby, you can fill in with lower levels. Shrubs and vines should be on your design list.

🦋 Why native shrubs matter. Multiple organizations around the globe recommend that shrubs be incorporated into your habitat garden.

• Birds can nest in shrubs. They eat the berries. They use them as intermediate points to check for predators before they head over to a water source.
• Butterflies and hummingbirds feed on the nectar from the shrub’s flowers. They rest inside the branches from winds.
• Some butterfly caterpillars eat the leaves. Many caterpillars climb into shrubs to pupate.

How to find native shrubs. So how do you choose the best shrubs? Just like native flowering perennial plants, the shrubs sold at plant stores you go to may not be native. Many shrubs sold are beautiful but from other global environments that have not evolved in a relationship with the beneficial insects and birds in your area. So, you need to seek out a source that tells you specifically the native shrubs that are appropriate for your area.

As seen in previous posts, the resources provided by the NWF can help in North America. They provide, for every ecoregion, a list of all plants, including shrubs, ranked by how many native bees and butterflies they support.

To show you an example of the process to select the best shrubs to build your habitat, here's how I used the NWF Native Plant Finder site, with updated navigation. On the plant finder site, I entered my zip code for the U.S. (There is an alternate navigation to cover all North America.)

1. I got a page with two sections: “Flowers and Grasses” and “Trees and Shrubs”. This initial page already showed eight of the highest ranked trees and shrubs, but I chose “See All” under the Trees and Shrubs list to see the full list. It’s long, giving us many options.

2. I simply scrolled down to browse to see what natives fit into my landscape. The shrubs and vines are all mixed up together with the trees, so using this resource in this case takes some effort.  Screenshot from the National Wildlife Foundation’s Native Plant Finder site. This section is from the Trees and Shrubs category and shows, for example, oak trees, smaller plum and cherry trees, and cranberry and blueberry bushes, each supporting over 200 species of beneficial insects.

It was gratifying to see blueberries (bottom right in screenshot) as a highly ranked shrub and now I have two bushes. Add me to the number of supported species.

Blackberries appeared a little farther down in the list and already grew wild in my yard. Good excuse for avoiding large scale removal which would have led to my arms being shredded by the thorns. I allowed two areas to get taken over by blackberries. I wanted to eat some while leaving others for the birds.

There are native plant databases other than the NWF Plant Finder, refer to the Resources section for more, but this one ranks the shrubs by how many species they help. I am always surprised at the number of species that I can help in my habitat garden by choosing the best plants. It is easy to support hundreds of different types of beneficial insects with a few well-chosen plants. More bang for my buck.

You can follow the same steps to find the best shrubs for your garden.

🦋 Why native vines matter. Vines definitely don’t get enough attention. They add to the important vertical structure of your habitat and have ecological benefits the same as shrubs. They fill a different space need, though. Still, you don't see them covered enough in native plant articles and books.

They are perfect for covering metal or other fences. You can put a trellis or structure (pergola, for example) in your garden and let a vine climb all over it. You can let a vine climb along a porch or deck. When the vine lets its flowers loose, hummingbirds, native bees and butterflies all arrive. If you happen to be sitting in or around that structure, you have a unique enjoyment perspective.

I had a long, slim space between properties that was perfect to place vines. I procured some tall metal trellises for this purchase. I chose Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) and Carolina Jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), also known by other names. These support our hummingbirds and pollinators with their nectar for months in the spring. Birds nest in them during the summer.

Native vines like Coral Honeysuckle (shown, with clusters of coral trumpets with yellow stamens peeking out) have cascades of flowers that beautify your garden while helping build a vertical component to your habitat garden.

An example of a native vine that grows in a wide area in the western U.S. is the Winding Mariposa Lily.

How to find native vines. You can find more about native vines for your area the same way you find shrubs. There is one caveat, however: It is difficult to search specifically for “vines” in the NWF or other native plant finders. You would have to go to the Shrubs and Trees section and check growth habits of those entries that you don’t know.

But the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center has come to our rescue! They have a plant finder that allows users to select a vine category to search! See the Resources section below for link.

This is a section from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center native plant finder showing three drop-down menus: State or Province, General Appearance, where “Vine” has been selected, and Lifespan, where Perennial has been selected.

Now you can more easily plan to fit in a native vine when you find the perfect spot in your design. Give vines the respect they deserve!

Seasonal Continuous Improvement: Early Summer

Early summer is when you shift from planting to maintaining and observing. Why observing? It's important to enjoy your work, but also to make sure all the important supports are available and working.

🌾 Observe and Enjoy Your Habitat

Get into a habit of watching what goes on in your habitat. Note which plants attract the most activity. Look for new native bees and butterflies you have never seen. Check insect houses you set out to see if they are in use.  Find invasive plants that you will remove later. Bringing along a little notebook may help keep track.

Do you see leaf damage? This is normal. Expect some leaf damage by caterpillars, leaf-cutter bees, and the like. This is a good sign. There is no need for insecticides. This is a significant mindset shift from traditional gardening. If you planted parsley, for example, you may see a large black swallowtail caterpillar on the plant.

This caterpillar of a black swallowtail butterfly, in a beautiful pattern of light green with rows of alternating yellow and black is feeding on parsley that has been set out for it in a convenient spot in a native plant bed. My personal herb garden is protected. I grow parsley from seeds and start enough to feed all who live in the habitat.

Whatever you do, keep enjoying your habitat. Butterflies alone bring joy.

💧 Maintain Water for Beneficial Insects

Heat increases water demand for all wildlife. You may already have a birdbath for birds, but now is the time to set out water for beneficial insects if you haven't already. They need a shallow dish with water, adding stones or sticks so insects can land safely. You can also set out a sponge dish.

Make sure the water remains available. Refresh it every few days. This also keeps mosquitos from using the water for breeding.

There is additional guidance in the Resources section.

🌸 Keep Blooms Continuous

Pollinator populations rely on a steady food supply. Observe when your garden has flower gaps. Make plans to fill these gaps with more native plants, shrubs, vines or trees. Also,

• Deadhead appropriate plants to encourage repeat blooms. Check their needs for this if you're not sure. You will eventually leave seedheads for consumption by wildlife, but for now, keep the blooms coming.
• Add a few quick-blooming or already-blooming native plants to fill gaps if possible.
• You might want to start a chart showing what months you have blooms. Most gardeners start out well, but blooms start to fade by the fall. Plan to fill that gap.

🌱 Reduce Disturbance in Active Areas

Early summer is peak nesting and breeding season. Birds are feeding young and need foraging space. Native bees are nesting in your supplied housing, in stems or underground. Limit your time working in spaces that will disturb them.

Recommended Resources & Reading

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Native Plant Database

Allows filtering for vines and shrubs for your area. You can also filter on amount of sunlight and other characteristics so that you can pinpoint the perfect plants.

National Wildlife Foundation Native Plant Finder

Find shrubs and vines in the Shrubs and Trees section. It’s takes an extra step to determine the growth habit (size and shape), but you get the benefit of seeing the number of how many species each plant supports.

Monarch Joint Venture — Structural habitat

This PDF from the Monarch Joint Venture discusses shrubs or fences as windbreaks, which create sheltered feeding and pupation areas for butterflies. It also has a Maintenance section that will help during your summer observation period.

Audubon Bird-Friendly Plants Guide – Pennsylvania (PDF)

Good example lists natives from short to tall, including vines, shrubs and small trees. In this way, it shows the different categories of vertical habitat building. You can think in these terms to plan your own vertical design to support hummingbirds, butterflies, and pollinators.

If You’re Thirsty, They’re Thirsty: Make a Simple Water Source to Support Pollinators

From the Xerces Society, describes how to meet the needs for various butterflies, native bees, and beneficial insects

Conserving Desert Pollinators and Water in Face of Climate Change

Tips specifically for those who maintain habitat gardens in dry areas,

Nesting Resources for Beneficial Insects

When you start observing your habitat, make sure your nesting areas and resources are being used. This guide from the Xerces Society shows what to look for.

5 Ways to Increase Nesting Habitat for Native Bees

If your habitat observation tells you that some improvements are needed, the Xerces Society provides these tips for supporting Native Bees.

Western Monarch Call to Action

This Western Monarch Call to Action, led by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, aims to provide a set of rapid-response conservation actions that, if applied immediately, can help the western monarch population bounce back from its critically low overwintering size. You can help with some of these.

Western Monarchs Are in Trouble: This Is How You Can Help

In this guide, the Xerces Society offers simple steps that any individual can take to help support the western monarch population. This is intended as a companion document to the Western Monarch Call to Action, linked in the Related Resources list.

#HabitatGardening #BiodiversityGardening #Gardening #NativePlants #Nature #Environment #Conservation #Biodiversity #Invertebrates #Pollinators #BirdConservation #WildlifeWednesday

I’m Joe Wynne, a gardener since 1965 when I started as a helper for my grandmother. We maintained irises then and I still have those plants today. I’m a former Tennessee State Park Naturalist, who now focuses on making my garden a habitat for native plants and native bees, birds and butterflies. It’s working! I share what I learn.

Follow me on Mastodon. See articles from others in my magazine on Flipboard: Habitat Gardening

© Joe Wynne 2025-2026

Your seedlings are ready; the soil is prepared and now comes the rewarding part: planting. Whether you’ve grown native plants from seed, picked up healthy starts from a nursery, or are ready with direct-sow seeds, this is the big moment!

Take a moment to make sure you get everything right.

🌿 Consider spacing. Before you begin, take a little time to review the spacing guidance for each species you’re planting. Different natives have different preferences for spacing. Following those recommendations will give your plants the best chance to establish quickly and reduce problems later.

If you're planting multiple species in the same bed, and they all have different spacing requirements, it can get a bit complicated. I have a small metal tape measure that I have used for these situations. The good news is that you really just have to do this once per bed. You are planting perennials after all.

🌻 Follow your garden design for placement.  Ideally, you’ve already roughed out a basic design while planning your plant purchases (previously covered here). That doesn’t mean every plant has to go in an exact spot, but having a general layout makes planting days smoother. Just like traditional gardening, native plant gardens can be formal, informal, or somewhere in between.

Set out your seedlings, starts, and seeds so that you can assess where each will go. Some seeds that you started before planting season may not have germinated. (It happens!) Check to see how this effects where you place what items.

I live in Suburbia, so I have this length of space on the far side of the driveway that is perfect for a mini-prairie design. It also holds any extra plants or seeds I end up not finding a place for.

🌱 Consider the seeds. Don't forget your direct-sow seeds! They may have been forgotten in all the effort to grow seedlings in the off-season. For designed beds, leave a space for seeds where their height will fit. Again, follow directions for spacing and consider nearby plants.

🚿 Follow traditional gardening best practices in early days. Once planted, keep the soil consistently moist for the first few weeks. That steady moisture helps young roots expand into the surrounding soil and settle in. This is no different than traditional gardening.

There are many more tips in the Resources section below.

Here is a portion of my yellow/purple native plant bed, showing a shrub in the background, American Beautyberry, which has bright purple berries along its branches. In the foreground, Anise Hyssop, coordinates with purple spikes of flowers. Both of these had survived two periods of four weeks in summer heat with no rain. This is becoming more common here. The shrub suffered – you can see leaves are sparse – but survive it did. I did not water so that I could see how resilient these native plants can be. (That’s why I’m not embarrassed to show this pic.) The non-natives in my garden needed water constantly.

Seasonal Continuous Improvement: Late Spring / Early Summer

Think about last year. How did your native plants garden handle dry spells? Or extreme heat? Or higher than expected rainfall? Or whatever significant problems you experience in your area at some point in the growing season? Think about improvements that will help your plants thrive. Some examples:

• Improve physical water retention methods. I started shaping certain beds in curves to hold water from hard rains where too much would run off.
• Extend garden beds away from growing shrubs and trees. It’s very common to place plants too close to shrubs. After a couple of years, everyone is fighting over space, water, and nutrients.
• Too much water always collecting in an area, drowning your natives? Change out plants to favor those that like it wet and make a rain garden!
• Manage mini-prairie flowers seeding into your adjacent lawn by expanding the bed! The lawn is less important! Of course, if this is going to get you in trouble with neighbors or the HOA, be careful.

Start planning in early summer to complete urgent improvements. This gives you time to perfect designs, gather materials, and be ready for the best time to complete them.

Here are a couple of tips that are generally useful.

Compost builds the soil into root-thriving paradise. Habitat gardening, where you leave the soil layers intact, benefits from the use of compost even more than traditional gardening. A layer of compost ensures the soil is alive with beneficial insects, bacteria, and fungi, all working together to provide your native plant roots with what they need.

Some native plants that you grow may prefer soil that is found normally in your area and not the deeply “fluffy” soil that is often the goal of traditional gardening. You don’t need a large layer of compost for these plants, just enough to simulate organic matter that naturally accumulates on the soil surface.

Becoming a native plant gardener lets you see the importance of starting your own compost operation. You can check the many resources for composting if you are new to it. I have a simple small bucket collector in my kitchen and a simple cube bin in my back yard that produces the vast majority of what I need all year. I have added some links to get you started below in the Resources section.

Mulching for natives is not the same as traditional gardening. A good layer of mulch helps retain precious soil moisture, suppresses weeds that compete for nutrients, and moderates soil temperatures as days grow hotter. This is all good.

But in native gardens, we need to think about ground-dwelling bees who cannot reach the soil under traditional mulch. We need to think about how modern mulches with long-lasting color have dyes that cause the mulch to form a dense, hard layer that beneficial insects cannot penetrate.

Instead, create your own mulch from leaves, even small natural debris available locally. You can even include the compost you are making.

More about composting in the Resources section below.

Resources

How Far Apart Should I Plant Native Plants?

An excellent spacing reference for beginners. It walks through how mature plant size, growth habit, and planting density influence plant health, weed pressure, and long‑term maintenance, helping gardeners avoid overcrowding or overly sparse beds.

Guide for Beginning Native Plant Gardeners

A thorough introduction to native gardening fundamentals from Grow Native!. This guide explains how native plants grow and spread over time, why proper spacing matters, and how different design styles – from formal borders to naturalistic plantings – affect layout decisions.

Caring for Your Native Seedlings

From the Wild Seed Project, a practical, easy‑to‑read guide covering the critical early stages of seedling care. Topics include watering, crowding, repotting, and understanding the slower first‑year growth common to many native perennials.

Compost and the Native Plant Garden

This guide from The Wild Ones explores how compost fits into native plant gardening, including when it helps and when nature does the work on its own.

The Beginner’s Guide to Composting

A simple, no‑jargon overview that emphasizes composting as a natural, low‑stress process from Compost Magazine.

Compost 101: How to Start Composting for Beginners

From Epic Gardening,_ a clear, science‑based introduction that explains what compost is, why piles fail, and how compost improves garden soil.

#HabitatGardening #BiodiversityGardening #Gardening #NativePlants #Nature #Environment #Conservation #Biodiversity #Invertebrates #SolarPunk #WildflowerWednesday

I’m Joe Wynne, a gardener since 1965 when I started as a helper for my grandmother. We maintained irises then and I still have those plants today. I’m a former Tennessee State Park Naturalist, who now focuses on making my garden a habitat for native plants and native bees, birds and butterflies. It’s working! I share what I learn.

Follow me on Mastodon. See articles from others in my magazine on Flipboard: Habitat Gardening

© Joe Wynne 2025-2026

How about some good gardening news? How about guidance that tells you to do a lot less than you expect to do? Well, I have some, but it's going to force you to break with some traditional gardening techniques, so you may feel a little uncomfortable at first.

If you've followed the process to this point you have purchased seeds or live plants and started the germinating and growing process in small pots or trays. Now, you're ready to get out there and prepare the soil for planting! For traditional gardening, that means cutting into the garden bed soil to loosen it, adding special amendments, and smoothing out the surface.

But I have good news for you: You don't have to do that for native plants! And if you do, you might be making the situation worse.

Let Go of Traditional Gardening Habits, Embrace Soil Communities

Native plants evolved to live in conjunction with certain neighbors. The plants, fungi, bacteria, insects, earthworms and more all existed in an interdependent community. The community was sustainable, resilient.

What’s more, soil has layers where different organisms live out their lives.  Soil organisms take natural materials such as dried leaves and minerals and recycle them into nutrients used by the plants.

When you disrupt these communities, by digging through them or dousing them with pesticides, you interfere with processes that support thriving native plants and that could make your life easier.

Alt text:  Section of typical soil layers near the surface, humus at the top, with topsoil underneath, and subsoil below that. Native plant roots are adapted to grow in natural layers in soil. Mimicking nature provides them with better moisture and nutrition. Prairie-type garden soils are different from woodland-type garden soils, but they both have layers that should be preserved. Source: Humus Definition Social Studies at John Macdonald blog.

When your Habitat Garden supports soil communities, the soil communities take care of your native plants. Less digging means less fertilizing and less watering. How does that sound?

So, there are a few specific things you don’t need to do anymore to prepare soil for native plants:

• Don't “fix” your soil with amendments before planting.
• Don't use herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides.
• Don’t seal soil under layers of fabric and mulch.

Here's how you do prepare soil for native plants.

Clear Gently, Not Chemically

If weeds have overgrown the area set aside for your native plants, use physical methods like hand‑pulling, cutting plants at the base, or smothering areas with cardboard. This approach preserves soil life and lets healthy communities develop and mature.

Apply Organic Matter on Top

Compost and natural local plant debris are still useful! Sprinkle them on the surface to simulate the natural process of dead and decaying matter falling onto the soil. The soil community will take it from there. Native plants are adapted to soils that are leaner than traditional amendment-rich garden beds.

Leave Organic Cover—But Not Everywhere

Leaf litter, fallen stems, and plant debris provide shelter for overwintering insects and help protect soil structure. But don't forget the ground‑nesting bees. They need access to bare earth. Leave cover in place but avoid blanketing entire beds. Mulch lightly around new plants and let some topsoil stay open.

That's not too much, is it? You'll have more time to focus on the bird calls and butterfly swoops.

Seasonal Continuous Improvement: Early Spring

Protect early bloomers!

Early spring flowers – both planted and naturally occurring – are a lifeline. Native bees often emerge before most garden plants bloom, and these first flowers can mean the difference between surviving and struggling.

What to do (and not do)

• Let early wildflowers bloom undisturbed. Resist the urge to pull all “weeds”.
• Leave as many as possible to provide nectar, but not to annoy neighbors. If an area is visible to neighbors who may consider it unsightly, consider maintaining that area per traditional expectations while leaving a “hidden” area undisturbed for pollinators.
• Skip garden “tidying” that removes flowers before pollinators arrive.

While you are out enjoying Nature, pay attention to which plants attract the very first bees and insects. Plan to protect these early bloomers that play an important role in your Habitat Garden.

In spring, timing matters. What blooms first is often critical to the success of beneficial insects before the majority of other native plants start to bloom. Let them do their job.

In my garden, this area of wild violets has created a thick carpet of green leaves. It did not take long for a couple of plants to spread. Not only is this native wildflower food for early pollinators, it also creates a groundcover that is hard for weeds to penetrate. I do not disturb t