Matrix Planting That Fits Amid Traditional Landscape Design
3 ways to fit wildish plantings into suburbia.
Matrix planting is a garden design strategy that taps into the power of natural plant communities to create beauty and reduce maintenance. (Read all about matrix planting here.)
Matrix-based gardens are a far cry from the norms of foundation planting. Whether you’re ready to go whole hog on this style or start small and ease into it, there’s no telling your neighbors’ reaction. A mix of prairie perennials and grasses may be mistaken for an unmowed, weedy lawn.
Just ask garden designer Benjamin Vogt. His 5,000-square-foot Nebraska home garden has been featured in gardening magazines nationwide, but it still “gets reported about every two years,” he told me.
When I interviewed Vogt and Virginia-based landscape architect Thomas Rainer about matrix gardening, they offered these tips for getting the "people community" to accept your plant community (and maybe even emulate it):
1. Have tidy edges. Corral the wild with a low evergreen border, fence, wall or paving. At the very least, keep the edges clean and neat.
“A lot of these mixes, we think of as liquid that gets poured into a frame,” explained Rainer. “(The frame) could be a curving edge of sidewalk. The more frames it has, the more exuberant the planting can be.”
2. Label it. Vogt recalled his local weed supervisor’s advice to add a sign proclaiming your intent. Whether it says “Native Plant Garden,” “Pollinator Garden” or “Feeding the Bees,” a sign indicating purpose tends to reduce complaints.
3. Play on repeat. Repeating plants, colors and groupings signals the space has been designed. This is good advice no matter your garden style.
“American suburban gardens don’t have enough repetition,” Rainer noted. “Find your three things—say phlox, tiarella and carex—and repeat.”
