How to Design a Natural-Looking Garden

When planting bulbs or plants in your garden, there are two philosophies of thought: The first is to plan where everything will go, in an orderly fashion. Follow a grid or use visual cues from the architecture of the house and yard, perhaps. The second is to naturalize" your yard, to make it appear as if everything had occurred naturally, blown in by the wind, bees and birds, and not by design.

Add plants in large groups

When you encounter plants in nature, you rarely find only one of a species. Rather, you'll see groupings of the same tree or shrub or plant. The same should be true of your yard. Instead of adding focus plants, where you only have one, or a random selection of plants, focus on a few types of plants and purchase them in bulk. Even in a small yard, you should have two to four of a species, and they don't have to all be the same age or size. When possible, avoid adding only one of anything.

Choose a variety of size, height and texture

While it may appear, while walking through a forest, that everything is about the same height (a bunch of tall trees) what is actually happening is called an overstory. Trees aren't all the same height. As they compete for sunlight, some get crowded out while others are able to outgrow the competition. There is also an understory, made up of shrubs and plants that grow at a lower height, and then groundcover, which hugs the dirt. Each layer" plays an important role in the ecosystem, filtering sunlight for the plants below and creating shade, anchoring the soil to prevent erosion and protecting the roots of larger trees, providing shelter for wildlife that helps sustain the system.

Your garden should have the same variance. When choosing plants, ensure that you are diversifying the height and shape of the plants, rather than having the yard focus on a few focal points.

Random spacing is critical for naturalization

One of the hardest aspects of naturalization is resisting the urge to plan where plants go. You should accommodate for sunlight or shade, and try to ensure each plant has enough space to thrive. But making every plant equidistant from one another or creating a grid will look planned.

A good example of how to plant is consider this method for bulbs. When you buy your bulbs, toss the lot of them on the ground. The bulbs will naturally space themselves randomly, and if you plant each bulb where it falls, you'll maintain that randomness. Over time, the bulbs will fill in the space; in some cases, some bulbs will fail to come back. Since the pattern is random, this won't look odd or be immediately noticeable. You can use the same method with larger plants by taking a few tennis balls and tossing them on the ground together. Plant where the tennis balls land.

Layer over time

The brilliant thing about naturalization is that over time, your yard will tell you whatit needs. Plants will compete with one another for sunlight; some will become stronger, and some weaker. You can relocate plants that need another space to thrive, and also divide plants that do well and help populate another area of the yard.

Don't let naturalizing deter you from continuing to layer in new colors and textures over time, either. You should continue to check into the garden every season, viewing it from different angles to see what areas need help. When you go to add to that area, do so with some randomization, in multiples, and try to integrate those plants into the greater yard area, as well.