Evolution of a Native Pond Planting

June 2024 by Christa Orum-Keller

In 2023, The Landscape Contractor published an article highlighting native planting work in 2022 and 2023 around the pond by the Midwest Groundcovers’ offices; that article was also published through the Natural Garden Natives eNewsletter.

Utilizing native plants in pond settings and within otherwise cultivated gardens, is a familiar goal and challenge on many sites.  There was interest in digging deeper into understanding the progression of our project, its context, and our approach for success in terms of species, stewardship, and aesthetic effect.  This article will give that background and we invite you, customers and industry professionals, to visit the site and walk around the pond to learn from the planting.

Over thirty years ago, we at Midwest, determined that one of the most useful ways we could help our customers gain plant knowledge was to develop the Display Gardens at our St. Charles facility. These gardens were put in place to test, trial and demonstrate plant species and cultivar performance for our industry.  Our demonstration gardens are one way we fulfill the International Plant Propagator’s motto, “To Seek and Share”.  We continue to seek plant knowledge to share with specifiers, installers, and the greater industry.

During the great recession, we exercised a practice of simplifying and reducing the scope of our gardens from a cost saving perspective.  As soon as our industry began to recover, we at Midwest began several years of preparation to celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2019. We began a significant garden redevelopment undertaking that required us to think outside of the box for what our gardens could achieve.  Part of our master plan was to create a sort of “amphitheater” of inspirational gardens as viewed from the lower patios or lower office level event room (Hickory Hall).

Many of the redeveloped gardens surrounding the office were completed prior to 2018, but the section of the circle of view which terminated at or behind the pond remained incomplete (lighter green arrows on the illustration), so a simple conceptual plan to address this area was developed in 2018 (see sketch).  Ecologist, Jens Jensen from Jensen Ecology in Wisconsin https://jensenecology.com/ , had already been working at our Midwest Natural Garden site for several years, so he collaborated with us to create a plant list of taller species for the backside of the pond and a shorter species mix for the side of the pond closest to the office.  Goals included:

  1. Maintaining a wide and tall enough barrier to deter Canada Geese
  2. Choosing species which could thrive in the artificial ebb and flow of the engineered pond, especially through dramatic rain events
  3. Create an attractive aesthetic effect to blend with the surrounding designed Display Gardens

To begin, we used the plantings surrounding The Morton Arboretum’s Meadow Lake as inspiration and assembled our plant list, starting with some of what we saw thriving there.  For our pond, there would be two Zones.  The first was the Tall Zone at the far side of the pond which sloped upward more than six feet and would act as the view backdrop all the way from the office.  The second Short Zone was the side closest to the office where the turf sloped down to meet the pond’s edge; this planting would only be seen when approaching and coming down to the water’s edge, otherwise it would disappear from vantage points further away.  Within each Zone, we planned two subgroups, one for the dry upward portion of the area and one for the lower portion which would most often extend into the water, where plants would most frequently be submerged.

The project was challenging because it is unlike a natural pond we might look to model after.  Slopes are constructed more steeply than they would occur in nature; soils have been compacted and manipulated and water flow and soil porosity are engineered in

ways not mimicked by nature.  Choices for plants which will thrive are at best an educated guess and this is where input from multiple people who know the plants well helped guide us toward best guesses and best successes.

Ultimately, the project developed in two phases.  The initial planning and planting installation laid out by Jens Jensen and the second phase of planning and planting together with our Midwest Natural Garden Nursery Manager, Enrique Rodriguez.  In both cases, I worked together with them in a collaborative, open, problem-solving manner over many months where we could refine thoughts and observations on the best species to try.  Time allowed us to agree on and gain clarity about our goals for overall look.

The following plant lists illustrate the varying levels of input over time, with indicators for which plant experts influenced various species choices, as well as broad plant characteristics; moist species were planted closer to the water and dry species on the upward slopes of the planting Zones.

The following plant lists illustrate the varying levels of input over time, with indicators for which plant experts influenced various species choices, as well as broad plant characteristics; moist species were planted closer to the water and dry species on the upward slopes of the planting Zones.

Native St. Charles Pond Planting Project Timeline

2018Master concept design created for Pond Edge Native Planting
2019Pond edge planting planning with assistance from Jens Jensen on specie choices
2020September, Jens laid out plantings and oversaw plug installation
2021November 2021, pond was dredged and site disrupted, especially on the west and south sides
2022Observation of recovery of plantings and planning enhancement plantings and replanting of south and west areas which was completed in September using Natural Garden Natives Plugs and laid out by Enrique Rodriguez
2023Continued stewardship; review of 2022 plantings, editing and expansion plans for 2024
2024Continued refinement planting
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