Prepping for your pollinator/native garden
While the most exciting parts of establishing a new pollinator or native garden are likely planting and seeing blooms, site prep and maintenance are the most important in achieving a garden that meets your other expectations. While it is hard to wait to get going on a new planting, ensuring your site is prepped and existing vegetation is eliminated thoroughly will save you trouble in the long run.
Preparation
Eliminating the existing vegetation is likely required for your site, regardless of what you have growing currently.
Every site is different so there is no one way fits all preparation method. See some of our favorites/most used below.
Smothering with newspaper and mulch - from our friends at Favor Native. Prep in as little as 60 days but over winter is best. Smothering and/or solarization are likely only practical for small areas.
Solarization with plastic - 6-8 weeks minimum but over a full growing season and/or winter is best.
Herbicide -
Tillage - Repeated tillage of an area of a growing season can eliminate vegetation and leave a smooth planting bed. Tilling should be considered carefully as it does expose weed seeds and encourage them to germinate. Thorough/repeated tillage is likely necessary to make sure the weed seed bank is exhausted before planting.
Sod cutter - You can use a mechanical or manual sod cutter (or even a spade for small areas) to remove turf grass and leave a clean planting bed. You may need/want to lightly till the area after removing sod. We have a kick sod cutter available in our tool loan program for free check out.
Prairie Moon Nursery - site prep for seed mix guide
How to Prep your Site for a Native Planting
Preparation
Eliminating the existing vegetation is likely required for your site, regardless of what you have growing currently.
Every site is different so there is no one way fits all preparation method. See some of our favorites/most used below.
Smothering with newspaper and mulch - from our friends at Favor Native. Prep in as little as 60 days but over winter is best. Smothering and/or solarization are likely only practical for small areas.
Solarization with plastic - 6-8 weeks minimum but over a full growing season and/or winter is best.
Herbicide -
Tillage - Repeated tillage of an area of a growing season can eliminate vegetation and leave a smooth planting bed. Tilling should be considered carefully as it does expose weed seeds and encourage them to germinate. Thorough/repeated tillage is likely necessary to make sure the weed seed bank is exhausted before planting.
Sod cutter - You can use a mechanical or manual sod cutter (or even a spade for small areas) to remove turf grass and leave a clean planting bed. You may need/want to lightly till the area after removing sod. We have a kick sod cutter available in our tool loan program for free check out.
Prairie Moon Nursery - site prep for seed mix guide
How to Prep your Site for a Native Planting