Turnkey Native Gardens Delivered to Your Door
- Nuts for Natives
- Jun 5
- 5 min read
Really ... and you do the planting!
Is a turnkey garden a realistic possibility? I would have said no until recently trying out Backyard Bounty's new pollinator pathway "kits." These "kits" have everything you need to create a native pollinator garden on a fairly big scale: a tree, shrubs, perennials, plugs, a planting plan, stakes, compost for trees and shrubs, mulch and a yard sign. And it is all delivered right to your house. The rest is up to you!
The planting plan is a guide, showing you how you could lay out the plants. You can follow it precisely or customize based on what you already have. In the end, you will have a professionally designed garden.
I was fortunate to be able to try out one of the first kits. I approached it as an experiment. A lot of you are complete DIY fans. Others are very interested in native plant gardens but haven't the time to research the best plants for your situation and then shop for them. Until now, there weren't a lot of realistic alternatives to doing it your self or hiring a pro to create a design tailored just for you. Labor and cost-wise, those options are not possible for everyone. These "kits' provide a much needed third option.
I put "kits" in quotes because when I think of a kit, I think of something fairly small. The Backyard Bounty kits are actual gardens. The kit comes with a planting plan, the plants, mulch, tree protection and compost for certain plants. There are three sizes: 150 square feet (Nook Garden), 300 square feet (Haven Garden) and 600 square feet (Refuge Garden). The kits cost $1425, $2750 and $4875, respectively, an investment for sure. Mine was the middle sized option. Before we go on, you may be thinking, I could buy those plants myself at lower cost. So, I checked on that.
This is the plant list from the Haven Garden I tried out:
2 flats (50 plugs): Golden Groundsel (Packera aurea)
1 flat (32 plugs): Lynnhaven Carpet Fleabane (Erigeron pulchellus)
1 flat (32 plugs): Eastern Star Sedge (Carex radiata)
1 flat (32 plugs): Creek Sedge (Carex amphibola)
9 gallon size: Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides)
6 gallon size: Zig Zag Goldenrod (Solidago fleicaulis)
5 gallon size: Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum)
9 gallon size: Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon canescens)
9 gallon size: White Wood Aster (Eurybia divaricata)
3 3 gallon size: Summersweet Shrubs (Clethra alnifolia)
1 2 gallon size: Carolina All Spice Shrub (Calycanthus Florida)
1 7' tree: Sweet Bay Magnolia 'Green Mile' (Magnolia virginiana "Green Mile')
In total, 196 plugs, 38 full sized perennials, 4 shrubs and a large tree. I was able to find the plugs at two mail order sources and the perennials, shrubs and tree from four nurseries in different parts of Maryland for $1497.75. I was not able to find the 'Green Mile' magnolia, a narrower form of sweet bay magnolia, so substituted a straight species magnolia. Two of the plug types from mail order sources were available for shipping right away and two others were available for shipping later in June. So, one could buy the plants from multiple sources and get them all over the course of about 4 weeks.
More importantly though, would you? I know I wouldn't. For my plants, I would have had to physically go to four nurseries and then wait for the others by mail. If specific plants weren't available, I'd start to make substitutions which would undermine the cohesiveness of the plan. At some point, I'd likely say, ok, this is enough plants and head home! Not good for the plan.
There are advantages to the kit. First, you are getting a selection of plants that work together, are deer resistant and will look good. You are also getting a quantity of plants to create the necessary density for a garden that looks professionally designed (because it is!). This is one of the biggest challenges for us amateur gardeners -- getting the right plant density. Another advantage is the high quality of the plants. No root bound pots here. In my kit, most all of the plants were from a wholesale nursery in New Jersey. The root systems were incredibly healthy.
Having all of this, the expertise, the materials and plants, delivered to your home in one go is a significant time saver. The biggest advantage though is the planting combinations. Kits for sun, part shade or shade are selected with expertise. These plants grow well in a variety of situations and, very importantly, are compatible and provide blooms throughout the growing season.
As for my kit, the best laid plans... I ordered the part shade kit, which was to be the final piece of my garden, converting much of the remaining front lawn to a shaded woodland. The shade was created by two mature street trees and a 100 year old Siberian Elm, thought to be planted when the house was built. I began to lay out the plants.
A few days after the kit arrived, the Siberian Elm was deemed hazardous and scheduled for removal. This dramatically changes the light conditions of this space and I did not want to plant the area until I learn a bit more about what those changed conditions look like. So I moved to Plan B.
I used the plants in different areas of my small garden to fill in gaps. It really showed me the advantage of a professionally designed garden. The plant density is higher. In each place I added plants, the space looked the best it has ever looked.
I was also able to address another area beneath three mature eastern red cedars. A narrow swath of grass initially looked great. It created a place for the eye to rest between the underplanted cedars to the left and a small cut flower and vegetable garden to the right. But the grass always eventually suffered, It would look good for a year or two but then go into deep decline. I used about a third of the kit plants there.
I followed the directions in the Backyard Bounty installation guide video to remove what was left of the grass and added two trays of plugs and five perennials. That section took about two hours start to finish. I used the two wheel barrows full of old sod to create a small berm in the bed to the left. The turf removal was made so much easier by the previous day's soaking rain. If removing turf looks like too much for you, about 4 weeks in advance of planting your kit, you could use the cardboard method to remove turf described here.
Backyard Bounty garden kits are available for delivery within a 75 mile radius of Washington D.C.. Baltimore, Columbia, Annapolis, Frederick and more. This seems like a good time to note Nuts for Natives has no financial connection to any nursery or business -- just promoting the fun and value of native plants! A turnkey garden? A native garden delivered to your door? Yes indeed. It is possible!
Happy Gardening.
Thanks for sharing this very useful tip and the list of plants. Your practical suggestions are so helpful (and your yard is beautiful).
Thank you for sharing you Real World experience! It’s so valuable for those of us who are new to gardening. And I love the way packera fills in. It’s a very rich, deep green.
This is a great option, especially for people who aren't familiar with native plants. It's helpful to have a professional put together the combinations to ensure that the plants in front don't block the ones in the back, to have succession blooming, and ensure the combinations are esthetically appealing. When one considers the many gardening mistakes, this may actually save many people money in the long run.
Everything looks great here thanks for the information. However, I would definitely have to question removing that tree. It looked very healthy and removing any tree is a really large large consideration for wildlife that nests there , bats etc…you just don’t know. I don’t know if you took any of that into consideration, and maybe there’s something I’m not seeing here, but that really looked like quite a healthy tree?
That looks like a great list. I only just recently learned that calycanthus has a great fragrance. My calycanthus appears to have either produced another one from seed or they sucker. I'm going to move the volunteer this fall because they appear to bloom in incredibly dense shade.