Plants Landscape Design

The Native Landscape Design Center at Adkins Arboretum offers a way for homeowners to achieve an affordable, professionally designed native landscape. Working in conjunction with a landscape designer, you will create a beautiful native landscape that serves your needs and benefits wildlife and the environment. Known as conservation landscaping, this approach to landscaping enhances natural systems and strives to create a healthy balance that allows people, animals, and plants to thrive and protects the quality of water, soils, and air.

To help you achieve a beautiful landscape and to support the goals of conservation or ecological landscaping, the Arboretum offers several resources.

• Four-session native landscape design consulting service that engages homeowners as co-designers;
  
• Lectures and workshops on native plants, gardening, design, and landscape conservation practices; and
  
• Demonstration of recommended landscaping practices on the Arboretum's 400 acres, including gardening with native plants, rain gardens, wildlife habitat enhancement, meadow, woodland, and wetland creation and maintenance, invasive plant management, and more...

Design Your Own Landscape

In the first session, at your home, you will discuss your goals, draw a base plan, perform a site analysis, and apply for a soil sample test.

In the second session, at Adkins Arboretum, you will begin to develop your design-determining the location of paths, trees, and planting beds, and learning now to reduce lawn.

In the third session, you will explore your preferences and style, and fill in the design details with specific plants and hardscape materials. This session will focus on year-round appeal, as well as attracting birds and butterflies by selecting plants that provide food, shelter, and biodiversity.

In the fourth session, you will finalize planting and maintenance instructions, as well as schedule phasing your new landscape installation.

These sessions are fun and informative. You will have the benefit of the designer's full and undivided attention. You will have tasks to complete before each session. The final product will be a landscape plan, including a list of plants and materials, that will guide your landscape investments.

The Center’s lead designer, Chris Pax, is a professional landscape designer with 10 years’ experience designing conservation landscapes.