You are currently viewing Cincinnati Nature Center Garden Tour

Cincinnati Nature Center Garden Tour

The Cincinnati Nature Center Garden Tour this previous Saturday was, without a doubt, a great success. Despite the oppressive heat, my Mt. Lookout garden easily received 100 to 125 visitors from nine in the morning till a bit past five in the evening. With so many eager and interested gardners to talk about landscaping and plants with, the hours flew by. 

Visitors from across the city were in attendance: Loveland, Milford, Oakley, Park Hills, Northside, Bridgetown, Hyde Park, Mt. Lookout, Price Hill and West Chester just to name a few and even a couple from San Francisco. 

As is to be expected, a great deal of the conversation regarded plants in bloom. The Gooseneck loosestrife was on full display as was the Bottlebrush Buckeye and Rudbeckia Maxima. As for garden design, how to transform a lawn into a garden was the main conversation on hand: one we may not have experienced even five years ago. But today, as we are more aware of planting for nature, the belief that a lawn with obligatory foundation shrubs is the only acceptable home landscape is a thing of the past. An ever increasing number of homeowners are looking for ways to completely forgo the lawn, or in the least, add a generous planting of non-traditional plants.  At the top of that plant list had to be the Rudbeckia Maxima, found in a full sun garden along the side of my home generously planted with pollinator friendly plants such as hyssopyarrowasclepia and rattlesnake master. 

Visitors experienced first-hand how a landscape could be transformed into a garden that allows plants to intermingle and migrate, almost at will. For those expressing a desire to have a bit more structure in their garden, the large bands of grasses and stands of one plant community beautifully illustrated how we can create a more organized garden plan that still embraces nature without disregarding all traditional landscape ideals. 

If you are ready to forgo the lawn, or add a more extensive garden planting to your landscape, call us. We’ll work with you to create a plan that’s perfect for you!

Leave a Reply