Tall and Shady Pollinator Garden Kit - 72 plants
Can be shipped.
This Garden Kit includes 72 plants, a garden design, and instructions for planting and maintenance. The design and instructions are available here. We recommend reading the instructions page before purchasing.
People often ask us, “I just removed buckthorn, what should I plant in its place?”. The Tall and Shady Pollinator Garden Kit was created with those people in mind. We included our favorite woodland plants that spread aggressively by seed and by roots to quickly fill in planting areas (see list below). The result is a combination of tall plants and spreading groundcovers that help smother weeds while also attracting a ton of pollinators.
This garden blooms heavily in the spring and fall. It even has a shade milkweed—Poke Milkweed—to provide food for monarch caterpillars. The Asters and Goldenrod are a classic fall flower combination.
Did we mention this garden has shade plants that are big, tall, and spread a lot?
Details
Perennials
Sun: Shade, Part Shade
Moisture: Medium, Dry
Height: 2 feet - 5 feet
Blooms: May - September
Spacing: Plant each plant about 18″ apart
Zones: 3-8
Benefits: Butterflies, Pollinators, Hummingbirds
Great native garden choice for the Minnesota Lawns to Legumes grant program!
Size: One tray of 72 plants
Plants are 1.6” wide x 3.2” deep “plugs”. These 72 plugs come in a single tray that’s 11” x 21” long.
They are small but grow surprisingly big the 1st year and are large, flowering plants the 2nd year.
We use these plugs for our own projects because they are budget friendly and very easy to plant.
Plants included:
Flowers:
6 Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
3 Poke Milkweed (Asclepias exaltata)
6 Big Leaf Aster (Aster macrophyllus)
9 Shorts Aster (Aster shortii)
6 Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
6 Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum)
6 Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
6 Zig Zag Goldenrod (Solidago flexicaulis)
Grasses and Sedges:
6 Graceful Sedge (Carex davisii)
6 Pennsylvania Sedge (Carex pensylvanica)
12 Bottlebrush Grass (Elymus hystrix)
Note on Species: Depending on germination and greenhouse success we may have to substitute a species or two, but usually this list is spot on.
Installation Tips:
This Garden Kit will plant an area from 10ft x 10ft up to 10ft x 15ft, depending on how you like to space the plants.
It’s important to remove any grass or weed roots before planting. If you remove grass with a shovel, it can take a few hours. If you want to smother it with paper or cardboard, it can take 2-3 months. Plan ahead of time.
We recommend adding 3” of wood mulch (not included). Wood mulch reduces weeds, reduces watering to just 3-5 times the first year, and nearly doubles plant growth—well worth the extra work and cost (about $50 for a 10ft x 10ft area).
We recommend adding edging to prevent grass or weeds from creeping into the garden (not included).
