Nature Hates Bare Soil

Self-seeded Wild Flowers

I don’t know if you’ve really stopped and thought about this, but nature hates bare soil, which means you can carpet your nature garden with masses of flowers, practically for free.

My native plant woodland garden was planted nine years ago. I’ve spent very little on plants for it over the years, yet it now contains a carpet of wild flowers, which varies from year to year.

Self-seeded Violets

Woodland Violets Appear

When I planted my woodland garden nine years ago I purchased just 3 each of most of the native plants I chose. One of the woodland natives I chose was Viola sororia – common blue violet.

To prevent weeds in my woodland garden I put down cedar mulch.  Over time, as the mulch composted, small patches of bare soil appeared. By that point the plants had flowered and dropped seeds. Seedling violets sprung up, at first close to the plants, but, over time further and further away (they’ve now reached the other side of my house).

Native Columbine and More

Columbine and More

Not long after the violets began spreading through my woodland nature garden, new columbines, Aquilegia canadensis, began to appear too.

My native woodland garden is right next to my prairie garden. One of the amazing things is that the plants are free to choose the niche, or environment, which works for them. The plants I put in for their shade tolerance have mostly stuck to the shady areas.

Surprise Yellow Poppies

Nature in Balance

In spring of 2009 I was a little shocked to discover both the violets and columbines munched to total destruction, leaving only the flower stalks and leaf veins.

Rabbits have always enjoyed the violets, but this was different. It was too late to do anything and I don’t like spraying anyway. I wondered what would happen. Would the violets be gone, or would they spring back from the roots?

Mother Nature Takes Care of My Garden

In the fall of 2009 I enjoyed a massive display of Ageratina altissima (also known as Eupatorium rugosum, or white snakeroot). I’d planted white snakeroot 8 years before within the prairie section of my garden and it had never spread until 2009. And this last week, when looking to see if the violets have come back, I discovered that for the first time in nine years I am blessed with extra Stylophorum diphyllum, or wood poppies, another native plant which had not previously germinated from seeds.

We never quite know what Mother Nature has in store for us. Have there been any native plant surprises in your garden?

Related posts:

1. What Can You Find in a Nature Garden?
2. Planning a Nature Garden
3. How to start a butterfly garden