Tips for Creating Natural Garden Design

In order to provide plants and animals with an adequate habitat and retreat, the garden should be designed in harmony with nature. In natural garden design, the natural development is supported by only a few guiding interventions, making the garden a functioning ecosystem.

Shortly kept lawns and few, possibly exotic plants - which appears to us as a green island, is not recommended from an ecological point of view. To give an adequate habitat and retreat to plants and animals residing here, a natural design of the garden is sensible. The garden is by no means simply left to itself. In fact, this conceptual concept conceals a well-thought-out ecological endeavor: nature's gardening instead of against it is the motto.

What is the reason for the near-natural garden?

Naturally means that in the design and cultivation of the garden natural space is developed and supported in its development. Guiding interventions therefore do not have to be dispensed with. However, these measures should always be geared towards the garden, including the plants and animals there.

The use of native plants, which are suitable for the respective location, is elementary in nature-oriented garden design. This is not just a matter of location within the garden - just as relevant are the soil quality and the regional nutrient occurrence. If, for example, a moisture-retaining species always has to adapt to dry soil conditions, it is more susceptible to diseases and parasites. Exotic plant species are generally accustomed to different environmental conditions and are therefore rather unsuitable for the near-natural garden. What should generally be avoided in the near-natural garden is the use of chemical care products, since their long-term use can be harmful not only to plants, but also to humans.

For a near-natural garden design, it is also relevant not to regard plants and animals independently. The garden can be seen as a small ecosystem where there are interrelationships between all plant and animal species - they are, so to speak, "living communities". For example, certain insects feed on specific plants. These plants, in turn, have adjusted to the feeding pressure and developed compensation strategies. From the well-known as a persistent weed couch grass , for example, is home to over 80 different species. Here, too, it becomes clear why native plants should be preferred in the garden. Exotics can often not be used as sources of food by the animals living here, and thus do not fit into the ecosystem garden or not.