1. Get a garden team together. It helps to have a small team plan the garden, for support and idea sharing as you plan a garden for your group’s school, church, or park grounds. If you need approval for your garden, guide your small team through the planning steps below well in advance, and talk to your approval team up front for general buy-in.

2. Choose a season for planting. You can boost support by timing your garden with a nature celebration day, like Earth Day, National Garden Day, or a Creation Care Day celebrated by your church.

3. Choose options for the garden location. Walk the property to find options for your garden location. Offering two or three possibilities gives the approval team a chance to weigh in. A sunny spot is best. Decide on a garden size and shape for each possible area. Gardens can be as tiny as a circle a few feet in diameter, or as large as your budget allows.

4. Decide on plants. Pick the flower combination(s) you’ll use from the Pocket Garden Planting Guide. You’ll be planting perennials, which come up year after year. If you have a larger space, consider using multiple combinations or adding a few of the woody shrubs listed in the Planting Guide. The guide includes flowers native to much of the East coast and parts of the Midwest. If you are in a different region, choose plants from Pollinator Partnership. Enter your zip code to get your regional guide.

5. Work out a general plan for watering. Talk to your core team about how you’ll cover weekly watering for the garden. It’s important to have support for watering up front. Do you have access to an outdoor spigot? A large watering can works for a tiny garden.

6. Estimate costs. Plan on spacing your native flowers 12 inches apart, even if recommended spacing is wider. This will help your garden fill in faster, giving a visual punch without your group having to wait a few years. Native flowers typically cost between $8 and $13 each. Seeds cost less but make it harder for groups to participate on planting day – and give no instant visual payoff. Add up costs from the local or online (mail-order) nursery you’d like to use. Verify that your plants will be in stock when you think you’ll be ready to order. Nursery options include:

• A local nursery that specializes in native plants. Search online to find locations or get suggestions from your state native plant society or local garden groups. Examples: Native plant nurseries in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania; and in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
• Online native plant nurseries that deliver by mail. Examples – Prairie Moon Nursery, Izel Plants, Keystone Wildflowers, Toadshade Wildflower Farm.

7. Get approval for your pocket garden plans. Your plan can include covering plant costs through donations from your community if there isn’t an established landscaping budget. Use our Facts to Share to boost interest.

8. Promote your upcoming planting day and solicit needed donations. Let your whole community know about the garden plans. You can invite others to help on the planting day you advertise.

9. Get your plants and install the garden. Get your plants from the nursery you’ve chosen. It’s best if they arrive (or you buy them in person) within a few days of the planting day you advertised. Then meet your team at the garden site and get the plants in. Native plants don’t need fertilizer or other soil amendments. Water right away. Add a sign to spread the word about native plants – see our Featured Products for ideas.

10. Water weekly (at least) – and enjoy the garden! Create a watering schedule for your group using SignUpGenius or other scheduling tool. Make sure the garden is watered regularly during the growing season for the first two years in weeks with no substantial rain, including several times a week in the first few weeks after planting, and then weekly during dry weeks in the first two years. You won’t need to water after the plants are established.

11. Tweak your garden design over time. You’ll find that some of your plants thrive and others struggle. Supplement your garden after the first year with more of what’s thriving or with a different native plant you’d like to try. Gardens are always a work in progress.

12. Give us feedback! Please share how your project went – what worked, what was challenging, and ideas to make it better. We’re especially interested in your review of the nursery you chose, to help us guide other leaders to reliable suppliers.

Native plants are vital to the planet’s ecosystems, supporting insect and bird life under intense stress from habitat loss and climate change. Since 1970 North American bird populations have declined by one-third, a total loss of over 3 billion birds. Insect populations are also plummeting. At current rates of loss, their numbers could be cut in half over the next 30 years.¹ Planting new gardens filled with native plants can help reverse these losses.

A small garden with only 3 types of native flowers can help support over 100 types of butterflies, more than 50 bee species, and 96% of backyard birds that need insects to feed their young.²

An area filled with native plants supports up to 25 times more insect life than if were lawn or garden beds with exotic and invasive plants.³

Join the more than 23 million Americans who have converted part of their lawns to natural or wildflower landscapes to help nature thrive.⁴

Project description:

The village of North Chevy Chase, Maryland, transformed their invasive honeysuckle beds into a pollinator haven of blueberry bushes and native flowers.

Feedback:

“My son snacked on a few blueberries on our way to the bus stop this morning – I hope there are some left! Thanks for getting this beautiful garden into the neighborhood.”

Nature’s Best Hope by best-selling author and nature expert Douglas Tallamy presents a new approach to conservation that starts in the yard.