Step-by-step Guide:
How to make a pollinator garden

A summary of the steps:

First, do as few or as many of these steps as you want—it’s your land, your vision, your hard work. These are just the steps, tips, and insights we’ve learned through the years that have had very good results. We want you to have a garden or restoration that meets your expectations! These instructions are for projects planted with plugs or pots which is what we recommend for beginners and pros alike; starting projects with seed is cheaper but much more difficult to accomplish well.

1. Find a well-drained spot with either sunny or shady conditions, depending on whether you want a garden with sun-loving plants or shade-loving plants. Sunny gardens have a LOT more plant choices. These gardens can look neat and short depending on which design you choose, so don’t be afraid to showcase it in your front yard! Or plant a big and tall garden in your yard—again, it’s your choice.

2. Design and pre-order your plants. Use one of our free tried-and-true designs or create your own. We have short, tidy designs great for front yard gardens and big, tall designs that pack a big pollinator punch but visually might be more suitable for backyards. We highly recommend Meadow Blazing Star for any sun garden--it attracts SWARMS of monarch butterflies for its nectar. Plant a dozen and be amazed!

3. Remove the vegetation--either by smothering it with paper rolls & mulch or cardboard & mulch for at least 2 months before planting, or by removing the sod, or by spraying a grass remover. Tilling will not kill grass or weeds. We do not recommend tilling the garden before planting unless you want to.

4. Add edging (optional, but recommended). 5" deep plastic edging is best for keeping out weeds and lawn grass that creep underground. Blocks look nicer but grass will creep through the cracks.

5. Add 3" of wood mulch (optional, but highly recommended). Do it before or after planting. Buy bags, get bulk mulch delivered, or call around to tree trimming companies to try and get a free or cheap load! (Note: it might take a few weeks of waiting if you go the tree trimming route, and "you get what you pay for", but for large gardens it saves a lot of money)

6. Plant your plants. Lay them out first, scrape some mulch aside, dig or drill a hole, plant them level with the ground, put some soil back on top of the potting soil to seal in moisture, and put the mulch right against the plant. Water immediately afterwards. Really soak them to muddy the soil tightly around the plant.

7. Water every 2-3 days for a month (unless it rains). Always watch for wilting. Before you water, check with your finger to see if they are dry. It's much better to really soak them every 2-4 days when they need it (or 1" rain every 2-4 days), instead of sprinkling them a little every day and making them too wet for too long. If you added 3" of mulch, you might only have to water them once after the first month. If it's bare soil, you'll probably have to water a lot more often and for a couple more months.

8. Weed at least once a month. It's much easier to tell the difference between a weed and your new plants when the weeds have just sprouted--because the weeds will be tiny random sprouts, and the native plants will be in bigger clumps and probably evenly spaced. Once the weeds get to be the same size as the native plants it is much more difficult for beginners to tell the difference. It also takes just a second to pull a 3 week old sprout versus a minute to pull a 6 week old weed. If they get big their big roots start ruining the mulch layer when they get pulled. We like to walk our new gardens every few days, doing a little at a time and watching the garden grow.

9. Trim the plants in the spring or fall, or don't--it's your decision. We like to leave the trimmings on the garden, it's less work and it adds organic matter back to the garden. But again, it's up to you. You don't have to do the same maintenance every year.

Preface: What do we expect from a native plant garden?

Most native plants from North America are regular perennials that come back every year, just like the perennials from Europe, Asia, and Africa that you would normally find at nurseries. The difference is that plants “native” to North America have evolved with North American birds, bees, and other insects to provide them with specific food and habitat—unlike foreign perennials which might not be as valuable to them. Just like any perennial, some native plants stay in a clump and some of them spread. Some of them are tall and bushy, some are short and tidy. Read the plant descriptions and details to make sure it’s a good fit for your garden or restoration. There are many tall native plants we love but don’t put in certain gardens because they spread too much (or maybe we put them in gardens where we want tall, spreading plants!), and there’s many short native plants we would love in restorations but usually just plant in gardens because they might not survive in a mature, crowded wild area as well.

Everybody has different goals with gardens and landscapes, and they can change from one place to the next, one year to the next. We like some gardens to be short and tidy and free of weeds, and other gardens to be more wild and packed full of taller natives that spread a lot. We choose the plants for each garden depending on what we or the homeowner wants: short and tidy, or tall and wild? A short and tidy garden is probably more appropriate for front yards and near sidewalks, but if weeds aren’t taken care of they can overwhelm the smaller natives. Tall native plants tend to spread a lot and compete better with weeds—so the garden becomes a jungle but the weeds are kind of hidden and don’t take over as easily. It’s your choice what you want the different parts of your landscaping to look like—maybe you want different types of gardens in different parts of your yard, each with different types of plants!

When you’re choosing plants or making a planting plan, it’s a good idea to ask yourself what you’re expecting, especially with how many tall or spreading plants you’re comfortable dealing with or how many weeds you can handle. If you want a more traditional, shorter garden and don’t want to spend time keeping plants in their place, try to choose short plants that don’t spread a lot by seed or roots. You’ll probably want to follow all the steps below. If you want a taller pollinator garden with spreading plants and don’t mind weeds, then you probably don’t have to prepare the site as thoroughly or put in edging.

Step 1: Find a good well-drained spot

Most plants grow best in good, well-drained soils that are free of weeds—whether they’re native or not. People often think that native plants can handle really tough spots like soggy low areas, dense clay, or weedy backyard areas. That’s a little true—you can certainly find native plants that can handle those conditions—but the vast majority of native plants prefer good soil that doesn’t flood or have many weeds. The best gardens are put in prime locations where they are cared for.

Sun or shade: Some plants like sun, and some like shade. Find a sunny or shady place in your yard and then choose plants that grow well in that type of sun or shade. There’s a few native plants we really love that need a lot of sun and we usually go out of our way to find a sunny place to put the garden. Sometimes you have a shady spot you want a garden and then you have to choose shady plants.

Sand, loam (black), or clay: There are native plants that grow in all kinds of soil conditions. Mulch can help many plants survive in soil that is a bit sandy or dry—and many of the shorter prairie plants grow well in sand. Black soil is great for a wide range of plants. Clay isn’t a terrible thing as long as it isn’t saturated with water for long periods of time—and many of the taller prairie plants can grow well in it.

Dry, medium, or wet: We really only think of “dry” soils as those that are really sandy. Most soil falls under “medium” as long as it doesn’t have standing water or saturated clay. A 3” layer of wood mulch on a garden can turn most dry soils into medium soils and allow many plants to grow well.

Step 2: Design and pre-order your plants

Once you’ve figured out if your garden is going to be sunny or shady, short or tall, dry or wet, you can start choosing plants based on those conditions. Our Native Plant Store has plant pages that can be sorted based on those characteristics.

We recommend using one of our free tried-and-true designs. We have short, tidy designs great for front yard gardens or big, tall designs that pack a big pollinator punch but visually might be more suitable for backyards. You can also use our designs as a foundation and add other plants that you like. All of our garden designs and all of our plants attract pollinators in some shape or form. Even grasses provide food for skipper butterfly larvae!

Draw a rough design. It’s good to visualize a garden, even if you don’t plant it exactly that way. Traditional gardens put plants in solid groups, but we prefer a more naturalistic style where the plants are spread around and blended with each other. That way, when plants bloom, not only will they be blooming—and providing color—throughout the garden but there’s also a good chance they’ll be mixed next to other plants that are blooming at the same time. An easy middle ground is to create a design where the plants are in solid groups but when you plant it, blend the plants on the edges a bit.

Pre-order your plants. Some of our plants online sell out by April, so it’s a good idea to get an order in early. We ship our plants in May and early June, and we also have pickup locations at Twin Cities Plant Sales and at our greenhouse in Owatonna, MN. We’ve gotten very positive comments about how our plants are shipped and how well they grow afterwards.

Step 3: Remove the vegetation

This step can make or break a garden. If you want a weed-free, low-maintenance garden, it’s really important that you completely remove whatever vegetation is in your garden spot first. Weedy grasses and lawn grasses, in particular, are difficult to get out once a garden has been planted—even for professionals.

If you prefer to keep your yard organic, you can first apply two layers of thick paper rolls or cardboard (we buy them at home improvement stores in the paint aisle), and then immediately put at least 3” of wood mulch on top. This takes a long time to kill grass and weeds—wait at least 8 weeks after you do this before you plant, and make sure you look for any grass that sprouts back and pull it out, roots and all, before it can spread. If you want to plant in May or June, that means you should cover your lawn with paper/cardboard and mulch in March or early April as soon as the snow melts. Keep in mind that this method isn’t completely effective at killing the weedy grasses—sometimes it just puts them into dormancy and they sprout back again weeks or months later, so weed often and keep your eye out for grasses that seem to be spreading underground. Cardboard or newspaper also works although it takes more than you think to cover an area. Be sure to overlap edges of paper or cardboard and remove plastic tape and labels first.

If you prefer to keep your yard organic, you can also just remove the sod. Rent a sod cutter from a local equipment rental place or do it with a shovel. This is very labor intensive and you also have to deal with getting rid of the sod or finding a place in your yard for it. It does remove some of the best soil from the surface of the garden, so it’s not our preferred choice.

If you are not concerned about an organic yard, then the quickest, most effective way to remove weedy grasses or lawn is by using herbicide. Do your research first to find out if this is the right option for you. Only use products with a single active ingredient called “glyphosate” which kills on contact and doesn’t linger in the soil as long as other herbicides. Do not use herbicides with any active ingredients besides “glyphosate”. If you follow the label instructions it will not have severe negative impacts on pollinators over the long-term—it is not an insecticide. You can put on 3” of wood mulch a day or two after you apply it and you can plant soon after your last application. If you followed the label instructions it will not harm the roots or leaves of your new native plants.

Should I till? Unless you have extremely compacted clay soil, we do not recommend tilling the garden. Tilling the soil brings weed seeds to the surface. It’s usually an unnecessary step but can make planting a little easier.

Should I add compost/topsoil? Unless you have extremely clay soil, we do not recommend adding compost or other soil supplements. It’s usually an unnecessary and expensive step. Many native plants are used to growing in natural soil conditions.

Step 4: Add edging

Edging is optional, but recommended. With gardens surrounded by lawn, grass and other weeds will always creep underground into your garden. Some of the weedy grasses like quack grass can creep across 2ft underground! It is difficult to keep these grasses out of your garden unless it has buried edging to keep it in check.

5" deep plastic edging is best for keeping out weeds and lawn grass that creep underground. Buy good quality plastic edging (the 5in deep, 40ft rolls are often OK). You will never regret putting in too many underground spikes to hold the edging down, but you will definitely regret it if you don’t have enough and your edging gets pushed up and chopped up by the lawn mower! For stakes, we recommend buying 8” or 10” spikes from the hardware department—they are often cheaper and better than the edging spikes you can buy in the landscape department. Buy enough stakes to put in the edging every 4-5ft.

For installing plastic edging, here’s a few tips: you want the top of the edging to be about 1” higher than the lawn-side soil, and you want to leave about 3” of space on the garden-side to leave space for 3” of wood mulch. After installation, your edging should be 1” higher than the lawn-side soil, a little bit under the grass itself, and you want the 3” of mulch in the garden to be flush with the top of the edging. We like to roll out the edging flat on a warm day beforehand so that it can flatten out and is easier to handle—otherwise it’s coiled and curvy and tough to to handle.

To install edging: First, dig a sheer face 5” deep around your garden edge. We recommend spray painting the edge first or laying a string/hose to help when shoveling the line. Next, stake in the plastic edging (if you already unrolled it in the hot sun it should be easy to work with). There might be a garden side and a lawn side—the garden side should be the side with the bottom “lip” where you pound the stakes.

Next, place the edging so that the top is about 1” higher than the lawn soil (1” above the soil level—not 1” above the grass). Take a stake, place right above the bottom lip of the edging, and use a mallet to pound it in at about a 45* slant (hammers WILL slip off and crack your knuckles!). Sometimes pounding in the stakes will pull your edging down so it’s flush with the lawn soil—just remove the stake, start with the edging a bit higher, and try it again so it’s 1” above the lawn soil when done. Put in stakes about every 4-5ft (more on tight corners). In the winter, the freeze-thaw cycle will try to “frost heave” the edging out of the ground. Having a lot of deep stakes is the only way prevent this!

Tip: When you have to connect two ends of the edging together, one useful thing to do is create an overlap so there isn’t a tiny gap in the edging for grass to squeeze through. Do this by cutting the top tubes off both ends about 4in—leaving the 5in flap underneath connected. Then, when you connect the top tubes together, the bottom flaps will overlap.

Finally, use the connector piece that came with the edging to connect your two ends together (you can also make a connector piece by cutting off a piece of top tube and slicing a line in the bottom so it can get smaller). Tip: This connector piece is hard to push in the tubes. Use a lighter flame to soften up the tubes before inserting the connector piece.

Step 5: Add 3” wood mulch

Mulching is optional, but highly recommended. We like to add 3” of wood mulch to every new garden. Then, we try not to add mulch ever again! (Note: “not mulching ever again” requires frequent, diligent hand weeding, because the roots of big weeds destroy the mulch layer when pulled up, getting soil on the mulch and making it easy for weeds to sprout on top the mulch again)

Mulch helps in two major ways: it prevents many weed seeds from sprouting and it keeps plants from drying out too fast. Using mulch can reduce weeding from hours to minutes per month, and it can reduce watering from 20 times the first year to just a handful. It also makes plants grow faster and bigger since it holds in soil moisture, reduces soil temperature extremes, and creates consistently good growing conditions.

How much mulch? To cover a garden with 3” of mulch, plan for 1 cubic yard of mulch for every 100 square feet of garden space (ex: a 10ft x 10ft garden would be 100 square feet and require 1 cubic yard of mulch. Another example: a 10ft x 50ft garden would be 500 square feet and require 5 cubic yards). Wood mulch is sold either in bulk (cubic yards) or in 2 cubic foot bags. It takes about 14 bags of mulch to equal 1 cubic yard (27 cubic feet=1 cubic yard). It’s about the same cost—$40 per cubic yard (get the bags on sale in the spring). If you buy in bulk, you can often pay to get it delivered.

What kind of mulch? We prefer natural color, “shredded hardwood mulch”.

Tip: If you need a lot of mulch (5-10cu yards or more), you can call around to tree trimming companies to ask for a free load of mulch. It’s usually free, but the quality can be hit-or-miss (leaves, soil, trash), and you can never count on timely delivery (it might take a few weeks!). It can save a lot of money on large projects, however.

Do we ever use plastic groundcover underneath mulch? No. It’s a short-term weed suppressant but a long-term headache—once the mulch on top degrades after a couple of years, weeds start sprouting on TOP of the plastic and mulch. Then what do you do—add another layer of plastic and mulch? (yes, that is what people often do…) You can use these thick paper rolls instead—they last the first season, which is the most important time to prevent weed seeds from sprouting (we buy them at home improvement stores in the paint aisle).

Mulch before or after planting? It’s up to you—we do it before we plant so we don’t have to haul mulch around tiny plants. When you mulch first, you just scrape away the mulch with your foot or hands, dig/drill a hole, and then push the mulch back up next to the plant.

Step 6: Plant your plants

1. IMPORTANT: Do not pull the plant out by the stem! Some of the plants have delicate roots and you can accidentally rip the stem from the roots. Instead:

   • Hold the pot with one hand and place the other hand on top of the plant/potting soil. Tip the pot over, so that you are now holding the plant upside-down in your hand. You might have to squeeze the pot first or do this step with a downward motion to get the plant out into your hand.

2. Place the plant in a freshly dug hole. The top of the potting soil should be at or slightly below the surrounding soil level.

3. Cover the potting soil that the plant is growing in with about ½” or 1cm of soil that you dug out of the hole. Make sure it completely covers the potting soil. We call this the “moisture cap” because it helps hold in moisture, otherwise the potting soil can dry out and the plant can die quickly on hot, windy days.

Watering—Very important: Water your plants immediately after planting. Water each plant and then water them all again and again to really soak them and settle the soil around the plant. This is a very important step! It dissolves the soil clumps you dug out and settles them around your plant.

Depending on whether you used wood mulch or not, you may have to water them every other day (no mulch) or every 2-5 days (with mulch) for 3-6 weeks after planting. You can check if they need water by sticking a finger into the plant soil and feeling for moisture. But don’t water too much or the roots can rot! In a month or two they’ll rarely need water from a hose—the rain will be enough—but still watch for signs of drying out.

Planting Tools and Tips: If you’re planting a lot of “plugs” or 3.5” pots, and you have decent soil, you can save a lot of time by using a 28” long auger and cordless drill to make your holes (find a 28” long auger on BetterGardenTools.com or Amazon). The 28” long ones are nice because you can do it standing up. It takes a while to get used to—the auger tries to screw into the ground, so the technique is more about making sure the auger doesn’t go down too fast so that it can pull the soil up in little chunks. It’s very difficult and a little dangerous on hard, clay, or rocky soil. If it gets stuck it can wrench your wrist really fast, so be careful. Use the 1.75” auger for plugs and the 2.75” auger for 3.5” pots. Scrape the mulch back with your heel, drill a hole, repeat. It’s useful for planting vegetable starts too!

Step 7: Water/rain every 2-4 days for a month

How much you have to water really depends on whether you added mulch or not, how much it rains, and how hot and windy it is. It might be every other day, and it might be once a week. Always watch for wilting, and always check to see if the plants NEED water before watering—because over-watering is another reason new plants die (it’s called root rot). Do not water every day! Be alert during hot, windy days—brand new plants, especially, can dry out within hours.

Before you water, check with your finger to see if they are dry and look for signs of wilting. We stick our finger in the soil down to the potting soil to see if it’s light brown (dry) or dark brown (wet). It's much better to water them only when they need it (or 1" rain every 2-4 days), instead of watering them every other day and making them too wet for too long. If they get too much water the roots don’t grow outwards to find water, or worse, they start to rot.

If you added wood mulch, the plants probably need water or a good rain every 3-4 days for the first 6 weeks in early summer. After that, their roots should be established enough to only require water if there is a 2 week dry period. Watch for wilting and remember—over-watering is bad for plants too!

If you didn’t add mulch or they were planted into grass or a restoration, they might need water every 1-3 days in early summer, and once a week for the rest of the summer. We water these plants every day in the greenhouse—and without mulch, they might need water every day after they are planted and before their roots reach into the surrounding soil.

Step 8: Weed at least once a month

Weeding at least once a month is really important for keeping weeds under control. Every 2 weeks is even better. It's much easier to tell the difference between a weed and your new plants when the weeds have just sprouted--because the weeds will be tiny random sprouts, and the native plants will already be in bigger clumps and somewhat evenly spaced. Once the weeds get to be the same size as the native plants it is much more difficult for beginners (or pros!) to tell the difference. It also takes just a second to pull a 3 week old sprout versus a minute to pull a 6 week old established weed. When the weeds get big their big roots start ruining the mulch layer when they get pulled.

We like to walk in our new gardens at least once a week, doing a little weeding here-and-there while also becoming familiar with the native plants and what the common weeds are. Any weeds you miss can spread thousands of seeds or spread dozens of roots if left to grow for another month. A small 1 hour weeding job can turn into 6 hour wheelbarrow-size weeding job in just 2 weeks.

Tools: If you mulched your garden, use a 12” spike or a thin weeding tool to stab through the mulch and lever the weed out while pulling with your other hand.

Tip: if any soil gets pulled out with the weeds, make sure to cover it back up with mulch or get rid of it. Soil carries weed seeds.

Watch for creeping grasses: Most native grasses and sedges stay in “clumps”. Many weedy grasses spread underground by rhizomes/roots. If you see a grass that’s popping up every few inches, it’s almost certainly a weed. Pull it out and make sure you dig around it to remove any roots that are spreading underground. Watch that area the next time you weed, because there’s probably more.

Our 75%/95%/99% rule: When you think you’re done weeding you probably only got 75% of the weeds! Go back through and sweep the area for weeds again. Then you’ll have pulled 95% of the weeds! Go back through and do it one more time to be sure you’ve gotten 99% of the weeds. It only takes a few more minutes to get them all. This rule applies to beginners and pros—it’s a universal truth!

Step 9: Trim the plants in the spring or fall, or don't

Trimming a garden provides a cleaner look, but not trimming a garden is better for insects, birds, and wildlife. It’s up to you (and you don’t have to do the same thing every year).

We like to trim gardens in either fall or spring, depending when we have time, and to leave the trimmings on the garden—it's less work and it adds organic matter back to the garden. However, many of our gardens are shorter and there aren’t as many trimmings as big, tall gardens.

Benefits of not trimming: Easier for birds to eat seeds, probably better for insects that might be overwintering in stems and leaves.

Benefits of trimming and leaving trimmings: Provides a more uniform layer of plant mulch on the garden, gives a cleaner look, more sun to plants in early spring means they warm up and sprout faster, leaves hollow stems for insects to utilize for nesting, leaves seeds in the gardens for birds to eat, leaves seeds to spread.

Benefits of trimming and removing trimmings: If you have a garden with a lot of tall plants, it can be a lot of plant material at the end of the year. In nature, wildfires would remove it every handful of years, so removing it isn’t a big deal (but it is a lot of work).

Tools: A hedge trimmer is handy, or a weed trimmer with saw-blade attachment. You can also mow it if you don’t mind putting your mower through it!