14 best garden plants for virginia

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Turn Your Backyard into a Wildlife Habitat

Combine your love for both gardening and adorable creatures with Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Wildlife!

Wildlife species and the areas in nature they call home are a vital part of our world and should be protected, preserved, and restored. Bring your yard to life using the abundant resources inside this book.

Nature is calling, come out and play!

The Importance of Native Plants

The most effective way to enhance our local ecosystems is by using native plants that birds, bees, and butterflies depend on. Inside this book, you'll find easy guides to sourcing and purchasing native plants as well as which non-native and invasive species to avoid.

Urban & Rural Garden Design

The design of your garden or landscape is just as important as the plants you choose. Whether you have acres of land, a modest suburban lawn, or a balcony in the city, you'll learn multiple approaches you can use to create your ideal habitat.

Give Your Garden Life Year Round

Learn which combination of plants and flowers will keep your outdoor space in bloom throughout the seasons. This will ensure you have a beautiful garden as well as food for a wide variety of local wildlife year round via nectar, pollen, berries, seeds, and insects.

Food and Water Sources

There are many different food and water sources your garden can offer. Providing a water source can be as simple as a birdbath or as intricate as building a pond. The best way to provide food for local wildlife is through native plants. You can also supplement with feeders, which will provide you and your family the opportunity to observe wildlife up close.

A Safe Haven

Wildlife requires cover for protection from the elements. Predators also rely on cover to sneak up on their prey. You'll find many options you can incorporate into your garden, whether you're using plants or water for a dual purpose, or constructing a more specialized cover. A pile of leaves, brush, or rocks are all simple, naturally occurring ways to provide cover.

Places to Raise Young

The plants in your garden will provide space and raw materials for nesting, egg-laying, or birthing for a diversity of wildlife from songbirds to butterflies to mammals. Discover the equal importance of having living and dead plants for wildlife to raise their young in. This book also contains projects for nesting places that you can build and add to your wildlife habitat for roosting birds, bees, and bats.

Sustainable Gardening

Learn how to maintain and manage your garden to keep it a healthy and attractive place for wildlife, as well as you and your family. The in-depth information on organic gardening is sure to make your habitat thrive. The importance of composting, conserving water, and saying no to pesticides is explored thoroughly so you can add it to your gardening tool belt.

Wildlife Profiles

Get to know the fauna you may encounter in your garden or lawn! Full page 'Wildlife Profiles' showcase eight different wildlife species such as toads and red foxes. Learn about their appearance, eating habits, cover requirements, nesting patterns, and behavior. You can use the information provided in these profiles to attract and support them in your very own backyard habitat!

Family Projects

Get the whole family involved in creating your wildlife habitat! Explore 17 different family projects with your children and grandchildren that will not only benefit your garden but also spark their interest in nature and wildlife. Step-by-step directions, a list of materials, and detailed illustrations accompany each project to guarantee quality results—so you can focus on family!

Tips, Facts, and Myths

Each chapter contains several tips, facts, and myths that pertain to the featured topic: Discover the variety of different ways native plants are sold; browse a guide to the best container plants; educate yourself and your family on commonly believed birdbath myths. These are just a few examples of the knowledge waiting for you inside this book.

Save Wildlife With Your Garden

Gardens are so much more than an attractive and decorative accessory to your home. This book will teach you how to become an active partner in bettering your local environment and ecosystem. You can even follow the enclosed checklist to have your garden recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation! Planting a garden may seem like a simple thing, but it is a powerful action you and your family can take to personally help support your local wildlife and the greater ecosystem we all share.

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A Portfolio of Designs

Explore 48 home landscape designs by 19 notable landscape designers. Large color illustrations show what the designs will look like, and site plans delineate the layout and planting scheme. Each design is accompanied by text that describes the plants and projects appearing in them. These designs can make your property more attractive, more useful, and—most important—more enjoyable for you, your family, and your friends.

Plant Profiles

This section of the book includes a description of each of the plants featured in all of the designs. These profiles outline the plants’ basic preferences for environmental conditions—such as soil, moisture, and sun or shade—and provide advice about planting and ongoing care. What’s more, the trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, bulbs, and vines that are included have all proven themselves as dependable performers in Texas.

Guide to Installation

Follow detailed instructions and illustrations covering all the techniques you’ll need to install any design from start to finish. To keep things simple, the jobs are organized in the order in which you'd most likely tackle them. Color photographs and illustrations will help you learn how to plan the job, clear the site; prepare the planting beds; and install as well as maintain the plantings.

Creative Homeowner's Home Landscaping Series

Of all the home-improvement projects homeowners tackle, few offer greater rewards than landscaping. Whether it's a carefully placed grouping of shrubs to create privacy or an island bed dividing the backyard for optimum use, you'll find the perfect design for your home. Look no further for beautiful, beginner-friendly landscaping solutions for any part of your property. From patios and decks to front entries and retaining walls—the possibilities are endless with Texas Home Landscaping, 3rd Edition!

• 48 designs created by landscape professionals
• 200 region-specific plant profiles with descriptions and care directions
• Step-by-step illustrations demonstrate proper installation techniques
• 400 full-color photographs and illustrations

"The Home Landscaping series takes the fear out of gardening by skillfully combining a wide range of attractive, dependable plants with clear, concise information on the techniques of gardening and easy-to-follow plans."

—Thomas Fischer, Executive Editor, Horticulture

"This idea-filled book takes the guesswork out of landscaping so you can focus on the fun. Designs that work, great plants you can find, accurate instructions, and detailed drawings will help you succeed."

—Nancy Beaubaire, former Editor, Fine Gardening and Country Living Gardener

Design Diagrams

Each landscape design comes with a site plan that positions all plants and structures on a scaled grid.

A Closer Look

A rendering of each design shows how the landscaping will look when plants are well established.

Plants & Projects

Every part of the noteworthy qualities of the plants and structures are described in detail.

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Introduction: What is the Raised Bed Revolution?

When you hear the word revolution, what comes to mind? You probably think of the more common definition, which is "rebellion" or "uprising", right? But revolution also means "innovation" and "modernization". For the purpose of this discussion—and for this whole book for that matter—let’s focus on those last two words.

The emphasis on eating fresh, local food over the past few years has really changed the landscape of our towns and cities. Not only are farmers’ markets more popular than ever before, more and more people are deciding to put their green thumbs to the test and grow their own food at home.

This is where innovation and modernization come into play. Raised beds aren’t a new invention, but they have certainly become more prevalent with this movement to grow fresh produce. And they’ve helped to modernize the way we garden. In bigger yards, raised beds seem to have replaced the typical expanse of a veggie plot. What’s more, gardeners have gotten creative over the years and are experimenting with different options. This burst of innovation means a raised bed may not be a typical rectangle shape built from timber.

In fact, raised beds can be made in all shapes and styles rectangles, squares, triangles, and circles; ankle- and waist-height; wooden and stone construction. They can even be welded out of steel, aging to a nice rust-colored patina over time, or made out of corrugated sheets of steel inset in a wood frame. Creative DIYers are rescuing materials from scrap heaps, antique markets, behind sheds, and underneath decks to upcycle into raised beds.

Commonly found items, such as washbasins, stock tanks, and recycling bins, are getting a new lease on life as ready-made gardens.

As the types of beds have changed, so have their locations. Raised beds are no longer just confined to the backyard. They’re appearing on front and side lawns of residential streets,

Donna Dawson

This kitchen garden at Beechwood Gardens in Johannesburg, South Africa, offers multiple points of inspiration, from the orderly raised beds made of stone to the obelisks and potscaping.

Tara Nolan

This chicken coop gives new meaning to the idea of “rooftop gardening.”

Karen Bertelsen

A handmade dibber (a pointed tool used to make holes in the soil for planting seeds) sits on display in Karen Bertelsen’s community plot. Bertelsen, who writes the highly entertaining blog The Art of Doing Stuff, uses this dibber to create evenly spaced holes for planting in her raised beds.

A Note To New Gardeners Who Have Installed Their First Raised Bed

If your shiny new raised bed is your first foray into gardening, fear not. There are ample online resources that can help a newbie gardener figure out what to plant—or troubleshoot any problems that may arise throughout the growing season.

To help you figure out what seeds to sow or which seedlings to buy at the garden center, think about the items that regularly make it onto your grocery list. Fresh herbs are some of the easiest plants to grow. And they can cost big bucks for a small bunch in the produce aisle. If you love tomatoes, then pick three to five plants that include a nice large slicing tomato and a snack-worthy cherry variety.

Peas, beans, and cucumbers are also relatively easy to grow and yield a sizable harvest; just be sure to give them something to climb.

Even the most experienced gardeners learn through trial and error, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes! There’s always next year.

Plant the things that most often find themselves in your shopping cart. Les Urbainculteurs / Smart Pots.