07/23/2026
Your yard has more potential than you think. 🌱✨
This little boulevard garden is between two driveways. A tree had died and was removed in the fall of 2023. Some of the wood chips were saved on site and spread out to a thickness of several inches in the pattern of the future garden. These were allowed to sit all winter, smothering the grass.🌱
Bare-root fruit trees (plum and apricot) were planted in May 2024, and the following native companion plants followed in June: Cardinal Flower, Blue Lobelia, Lance Leaf Coreopsis, Dense Blazing Star, Bee Balm, Virginia Mountain Mint, False Blue Indigo, and Smooth Blue Aster. Non native additions included Garlic Chives, Oregano, and Profusion Sorrel.
Some smaller ground cover plants were later added to the middle section: Blue-eyed Grass, Canada Bluets, Prairie Smoke and Shooting Star, Sea Kale, Salad Burnet, Purple Sage, and a cherry bush.
This garden collects some rainwater runoff from the driveway and was designed with this in mind. There is no nearby tap for watering, so it has only been watered during droughts. Since planting, it has been watered fewer than 10 times and weeded for about six hours over the last three years.
Two years later, some plants are thriving, and some have been feeding the local rabbit population. A different cultivar of plum was grafted onto the Toka plum, and peach branches were grafted onto the apricot in April 2026. The plum graft survived while the peach did not. Some different cultivars will be grafted on next spring, and the Bee Balm will be kept from spreading too much. The other plants will be left to fill in and fend for themselves.
Contact Wild Craft Permaculture for professional landscape design. Follow for more landscaping ideas and beautiful landscape transformations. ✨🌻