A Plant and a Plan: Matrix Gardening

You are starting a new garden. How many plants do you need? Where should they go? If you want your garden to look natural but not wild, and beneficial to pollinators while being pleasing to the human eye, matrix gardening may appeal to you. Matrix gardening is a design template that allows you the gardener to choose a set number of natural plants and is scalable from 10sqft to over 10000sqft. In this lunch and learn you will learn the tenets of design, receive information on a small number of native perennials, and leave with  ideas for creating a matrix design plan ready for your lawn to meadow conversion.

[@Mslaralah]

Excellent video! I finally understood Matrix gardening method. It has great visuals and it is well explained. I learned a lot. I wishedI had discovered it a couple of months ago as I was going for a wild but still good looking garden in an area of my back yard. I still have plenty of land to apply this method. Thanks so much for posting this.

[@threeriversforge1997]

Very nice. I'm a fan of the more formal layout, especially where it's visible to the public. I see too many complaints from people because a native enthusiast has been a bit lazy in how they designed their garden, allowing it to take on a more "wild and messy" appearance that's offputting to many. As stewards of the land, half the fun is in using a limited array of plants to create something that rivals the gardens of Versailles. You don't have to be exceptionally formal, with trimmed hedges of Yaupon Holly, but a straight line of Side Oats Grama, for example, will give you that hedge-like appearance and cue everyone passing by in on the fact that this is a manicured garden. It looks like it's being taken care of, so people aren't nearly so quick to complain.
As for the daffodils in the spring time, there are plenty of early-blooming natives. Spring Ephemerals can be quite nice to have around, though I'll admit that they aren't always good for a lot of sites, or as showy as a daffodil. I try to encourage folks to go for at least 70% native plants, and use those non-native plants as the "specimen" piece or for special circumstance.

[@n0sr3t3p]

keep the stems for longer than mid spring. some plant stems are used for years.

[@70starre]

Would you consider the style of Piet Oudolf also to be Matrix?