Create A Restoration Garden In Your Backyard

Build Biodiversity in Your Suburban Landscape - Beautifully!

Even in a modest yard, you can bring nature home. Restoration gardens mimic natural ecosystems - like prairies, meadows, or woodlands - to heal local habitats, attract pollinators, and support birds and beneficial insects.

You don't need acres to make a difference. A small backyard bed or a forgotten side yard strip can become a lifeline for native wildlife! Restoration gardening is an easy, affordable, and low-maintenance way to turn your space into a wildlife sanctuary!

Even better? You can do it beautifully, without raising eyebrows or triggering HOA emails. With the right plants, smart placement, and a tidy edge or screen, your new “mini wild” can blend right into suburbia!

What Is A Restoration Garden?

A restoration garden is a designed patch of land that reintroduces native plants and rebuilds ecological relationships. Think pollinators, songbirds, soil health, and water retention. Restoration gardens can be:

Prairie-style plantings with native grasses and wildflowers
Woodland understory gardens using shade-tolerant native perennials
Dry meadow beds in sunny, sloped, or tough-to-water areas
Riparian buffers near runoff zones or drainage swales

They're meant to work with Ma Nature, not against her. Find natives for your state here!

What About a Prairie Garden?

Prairie gardens are a type of restoration garden that mimics native grassland ecosystems. These sun-loving plots include swaying grasses, cheerful native wildflowers, and deep-rooted plants that build rich soil and provide food and shelter to wildlife. They require minimal water, no fertilizer, and reward you with four-season beauty.

Prairie Garden Benefits:

Supports bees, butterflies, birds, and beneficial bugs!
Reduces mowing and maintenance
Prevents erosion and improves water infiltration
Adds movement, texture, and seasonal color

Where To Plant It?

Most of these prairie plants love the sun, so start with a sunny strip or patch in the backyard. For understory and shaded areas, there are plenty of part to full shade-loving native plants available too!

Start with small spaces:

A narrow strip between your home and the fence
A corner of the backyard
Between the sidewalk and street (if allowed)
That hard-to-mow slope
Under a downspout where a rain garden is needed

You don't need a prairie the size of Kansas! Even just a 10-square-foot plot can provide valuable food and cover!

Keeping It HOA-Friendly and Curb Appeal-Approved

Yes, you can garden for wildlife and keep it tidy! Here's how to make it look intentional and neighborhood-friendly:

Design Tips:

Edge it! A clean border (paver, brick, metal, or mulch trench) makes it look planned.
Add structure. Use taller grasses or shrubs at the back, and keep front plants shorter.
Pathways or signs help signal this isn't a "weedy mess", but a managed planting. Try signs like "Butterfly Waystation", "Native Plants at Work", and "Prairie in Progress". There are even societies that will recognize your garden and make it official, like the Xerces Society, Monarch Watch, National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, the Homegrown National Park, and Audubon.
Screen with a fence or ornamental grass hedge if needed.
Include ornamental natives and navitars like Purple Coneflower, Butterfly Weed, or Blazing Star for show-stopping color.

A little tidiness at the edges makes all the wild stuff in the middle look deliberate!

Great Plants For Small Restoration or Prairie Gardens

Many of these are native across broad regions and perform beautifully in Zones 4-9. Mix and match for your area!

Top Native Wildflowers & Prairie Perennials

These native bloomers are the heart and soul of any restoration or prairie-style garden. Chosen for their ecological value and natural charm, each plant here pulls double duty: delighting the human eye while feeding pollinators, sheltering wildlife, and enriching the soil. Many are long-lived perennials that thrive with little fuss once established, no fertilizer, no fuss, just a bit of sunshine and Ma Nature's rhythm.

Mix colors, bloom times, and heights for a dynamic tapestry that changes with the seasons. With deep roots and deep purpose, these native beauties will help you plant with intention and impact.

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea): Iconic, pollinator-friendly, drought-tolerant. You can also plant Pale Purple Coneflowers and Gray-Headed Coneflowers
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa): Monarch host plant, orange blooms
Blazing Star (Liatris spicata): Vertical purple spikes, attracts bees and butterflies
Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta): Long bloom time, golden yellow charm
Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea): Unique, purple blooms and nitrogen-fixing roots
Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea): Early bloomer for native bees
Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa): Fragrant lavender flowers, edible leaves
Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata): Cheerful, long-blooming, easy to grow
Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium spp.): Tall and lush, late-season nectar magnet
Asters: Fall blooms for late pollinators

If you have the room, add a few towering Compass Plants, or maybe just a few Sunflowers for height. Add late-blooming color with Goldenrod and Blanket Flowers, too!

Here's more on planting perennials for a restoration garden.

Native Grasses To Anchor It All

Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium): Red fall color, upright habit
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum): Tall, upright, drought-tolerant
Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula): Quirky seed heads, host plant to skipper butterflies
Prairie Dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis): Feathery texture, fragrant seed heads
Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii): Known as the "King of the Prairie", this tall, clumping warm-season grass can reach up to 4-6 feet.

Extra Boost: Shrubs and Trees For Restoration Plots

Native Shrubs

New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus): Pollinator magnet, nitrogen fixer
American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana): Showy berries, bird food
St. John's Wort (Hypericum prolificum): Compact, sunny yellow blooms
Red-Twig (Red Osier) Dogwood (Cornus sericea): Four-season beauty, riparian use
American Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis): Edible fruit, pollinator flowers

Native Trees (For Shade or Backdrop)

Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.): Edible berries, early bloom
Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis): Spring color, heart-shaped leaves
Black Cherry (Prunus serotina): Larval host for butterflies, songbird food
Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis): Durable and host to multiple butterfly species
Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa): Supports hundreds of caterpillars and wildlife species

Shaded Woodland Restoration Gardens

Not all native gardens need full sun! Shaded areas beneath trees or on the north side of buildings are ideal for woodland restoration plots, where native ferns, perennials, and spring ephemerals thrive. These gardens mimic forest floors and support birds, amphibians, and early-season pollinators.

Great Woodland Natives For Shade (Zones 4-8)

Buffalo Grass (Bouteloua dactyloides): Dense, sod-forming native; drought-tolerant, perfect for low, sunny meadows
Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense): Ground-hugging foliage, hidden maroon blooms, aromatic rhizomes.
Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum): Arching stems with dangling white bells, spreads slowly by rhizome. Or try Variegated Solomon's Seal.
Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia): Frilly leaves, frothy white blooms, great woodland groundcover
Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica): Spring ephemerals with nodding blue-pink flowers
Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum pedatum): Elegant fan-like fronds, deer-resistant
Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum): Quirky woodland bloomer with hooded spathe
Eastern/Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis): Red-yellow nodding flowers, early pollinator favorite
Trillium (Trillium spp.): Classic woodland wildflower with three-petaled blooms; slow-growing but treasured for spring beauty and wildlife value. Choose Red, Great White, and Yellow options!

What makes it special: These shaded gardens offer early color, erosion control, and a tranquil woodland feel. Leaf litter, dappled light, and rich soil recreate the forest floor and help support species often overlooked in sunny prairie gardens.

Meadow Restoration Gardens

Want the look of a wildflower meadow without towering plants or grasses? Low-growing meadow gardens work well in front yards, parkways, or tighter spaces where you want open views and tidy lines. They use compact native wildflowers and short prairie grasses to build biodiversity in a contained form.

Compact Meadow Natives (Zones 4-9)

Blue Grama (Bouteloua gracilis): Quirky eyelash seed heads, stays under 18 inches
Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum): Pink flowers nodding from arching stems
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca): Fragrant, dusky pink flower clusters; Monarch magnet; may spread by rhizome
Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata): Golden daisy blooms, easygoing nature
New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae): Late-blooming lavender flowers on tidy mounds
Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis): Drought-tolerant, low, and lavender-blooming
Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium): Tiny, iris-like perennial with starry blue to violet flowers

What makes it special: These meadows stay shorter and are HOA-friendlier than tallgrass prairie versions. They offer year-round appeal, support bees and butterflies, and are ideal for low borders, mailbox plantings, and sunny strip gardens. You'll almost be able to picture the bunnies and deer grazing serenely out your back window now!

Easy Tips For Restoration Garden Success

tips for designing a restoration prairie garden

Use arborist mulch to control weeds while seedlings establish. Learn more about mulch here.
Water new plants regularly in their first year. Use the Finger Test to check soil moisture. Watch how here.
Choose locally native plants when possible. Check your state's native plant society or extension office.
Let seed heads stand through winter for birds, and cut back in early spring.
Avoid pesticides and herbicides. Restore the balance naturally with IPM and attract beneficial insects to do the dirty work!

Wildly Beautiful, Subtly Tamed!

You don't need a wild heart to start a wild garden, just a small patch of land and a little love for Ma Nature. A backyard prairie or restoration plot invites life to return, and when tucked neatly into your landscape, it looks as good as it feels!

Less mowing, more butterflies? Yes, please!

Happy Planting!