Bee Balm Wildscapes

08/21/2026

Ayyyy and we are back to the sprouting garden! I'm actually quite pleased with this. It's slow and chaotic - it's from seed! That's what you get. But there's a lot of good here. Most of what you see is Oxalis (not something I planted) which germinated with great gusto once competition from the grass was removed. The oxalis isn't a plant I want much of in the final planting, so why am I leaving it?

When you disturb a site (for example, kill all the vegetation with herbicide) you create a wound that the ecosystem immediately tries to heal. The scab is these 'weedy' plant like oxalis that germinate and grow quickly. Later the slower plants (the plants I actually want) will get big enough to shade out the oxalis and crowd it out. It will disappear naturally. If you look under the oxalis you'll see all sorts of other stuff growing, building their root systems, and most importantly being protected from all the hungry rabbits in my yard. By the time they're growing past the oxalis they'll also have enough root structure to handle a little rabbit munching, which would kill them at a smaller stage. I LOVE the oxalis.

08/17/2026

One month of growth on a commercial installation in Fitchburg! This client had a previous pollinator garden in the space that had been neglected for a few years and was overrun with Canada goldenrod - a great pollinator plant but not ideal for the space. I pulled the Canada goldenrod and added a mix of native plants that will fill in quickly and extend the bloom season from April-ish through October. I also planted some adjoining spaces to create a more cohesive look. Some plants (common and showy milkweed, liatris, Joe Pye) were existing but most are new. I can't wait to see how this grows over the next few years (and return to pull the Canada goldenrod resprouts)!

06/08/2026

Time for a check in on my front yard from-seed experimental garden. Current status: still not impressing my neighbors. Lots of oxalis. Lots of indistinguishable inch-tall plants. Lots of mint family stuff. May was SO dry that I watered this a few times, mostly out of anxiety. Hoping the rain and heat in the forecast do their magic over the next few weeks. Starting from seed can be SLOW and it definitely takes more mental energy than pre-grown plants!

06/05/2026

Hello client garden checkin! I swung by this house today and was so excited to see all the plants in their place and doing their thing. Small, but healthy. I planted these in late summer 2025 and there are already a few flowers with more to come. Can't wait to see how this develops over the next few years. The cool thing about being a one-person business is how invested I get to get in each project. This was all me - from start to finish. I got to care the whole way through the project and through today and through next year. It's pretty special.

And this is a good heads up to anyone considering a native plant garden - yes they are wonderful. But they are slow, too! They take time, years, to mature. Expect changes and expect things to not really take off for a bit. They are worth it but they are not instant gratification.

04/29/2026

Native gardens can be SO SLOW.

Here's my front yard, April 24 2025 (year 2) and April 24 2026 (year 3). This is the most intentional/non-chaos garden at my house and it's cool to see it come in to its own. Already you can see that the plants are off to a stronger start with their big year 3 root masses. Native gardens are SLOW, especially in shade. This will be the first year where this garden might look filled in and cohesive and not just a scattering of separated plants. And I planted this at one plant per SF! This is also the first year where I'm seeing lots of reseeding of forbs and spreading of my Carex pensylvanica. Because this was a relatively weed-free site and I used sheet mulching to prep the site I haven't done much maintenance on this garden in 2 years beyond pulling some tree/shrub seedlings, adding a few plants and spreading seeds of plants that I want more of. You can see that one maintenance task I haven't gotten around to is "find new spot for the random paver offcuts currently stacked as a wall"!

04/06/2026

What's that coming up in my yard oh it's just RAMPS

At the farmer's market last year I saw someone selling ramps for culinary use, something like $5 for 15. I thought "Wow look at those cheap hecking native plants" and bought two bundles. Reporting back to say that despite the usual neglect (AKA no supplemental water after planting, being planted beneath a Norway maple, etc) they seem to be doing fine! I'd say I'll harvest them some day but honestly I don't know what to do with ramps. Mostly I wanted them for the flex of having my own personal ramp patch.

04/03/2026

Spring is the terrifying season where I get to see if any of the native plant experiments I've done around my house will work out. The big experiment this year was this: I killed most of my front yard with herbicide and seeded a self-designed part-shade mix into the space. My mix includes a lot of species from a few different niches and I'm so curious to see what will flourish and what will quietly fade away over the next few years. If this sprouts at all. Please sprout. Please.

03/31/2026

Doing a little woodland restoration attempt at a family property, had to check out the dead deer. Little Kid was fascinated. Bigger Kid was more interested in the spray paint we brought to mark trees. Having a hard time believing that we can actually return this to something ecologically useful given all the invasives present but trust the process, right?

03/03/2026

Need help with your native plant garden? I love to help folks who want to create their own native plant garden but aren't sure where to start. I advise on site preparation, native plant selection, layout and maintenance - you will leave our consultation with the knowledge you need to do a project yourself AND tips on how to avoid common beginner mistakes.

Have an existing native plant garden that isn't turning out how you'd hoped? I specialize in helping turn underwhelming (or overwhelming) native plant gardens in to spaces you can be proud of. Reach out today to schedule a consultation and start creating the native plant garden of your dreams!

You can contact me through my website: https://beebalmwildscapes.com/contact-location/

Native plant gardening in Madison Wisconsin that is custom designed to fit your yard and budget, all supported by environmental science.

02/27/2026

Sharing the handout I gave to folks who came to my garden expo talk. One of the top things you can do to make your native plant garden project successful is sourcing your plants from a specialty native plant grower! You'll get the best selection of actual natives, in the best (and most affordable) size pots, from fantastic and knowledgeable people, and you're supporting small businesses in our community! Skip the big nursery - buy from a native-only grower!