Front Yard Formal Shade Garden Plan 

Native landscaping isn’t just for the back yard! If you want to establish a formal native shade garden for your front yard or other area, this  plan can help you. This Front Yard Formal article by Scott Woodbury from the spring 2019 issue of the Missouri Prairie Journal is a companion to this plan, and contains photos of many of the featured plants. Learn more about plants featured in this plan from this audio file from Scott, and learn more about the plants’ growth habits from this audio file from Scott. The following practices apply to plantings where some degree of control is desired. That is, these design elements will help produce a garden that looks as though it was thoughtfully designed and planned as opposed to a naturalistic meadow or recreated prairie where plants grow more randomly.

1. Purple coneflower (6 plants)
2. Oak sedge (14 plants)
3. Cliff goldenrod (6 plants)
4. Leather flower (1 plant)
5. Yellow honeysuckle (1 plant)
6. Virginia bluebells (8 plants)
7. Purple milkweed (3 plants)
8. Bradbury’s beebalm (6 plants)
9. Goatsbeard (6 plants)
10. Red buckeye (1 plant)
11. Serviceberry (1 plant)
12. Solomon’s seal (7 plants)
13. Sensitive fern (12 plants)
14. Little flower alumroot (11 plants)
15. Golden Groundsel (17 plants)
16. Beautyberry (2 plants)
17. Common witch hazel (1 plant)
18. Indian pink (5 plants)
19. Wild hydrangea (4 plants)