Episode 33

The Modern Gardener's Dilemma with Guest Christina Musgrave

Published on: 3rd April, 2025

The Modern Gardener's Dilemma

Turning Big Garden Plans into Small Actionable Projects

Episode Introduction

In today’s episode, The Modern Gardener's Dilemma, I chat with my friend and garden designer Christina Musgrave on how the average person can fight overwhelm and tackle their garden projects with a dose of reason.

Host Stephanie Barelman

Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a midwest motivational speaker surrounding the native plants dialogue, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.

Guest Christina Musgrave

Christina Musgrave has spent most of her life as an artist specializing in watercolor and printmaking. During COVID, Christina felt a strong desire to begin her garden journey and fell in love. After discovering the myriad benefits of native gardening, she changed her focus to converting her suburban lawn into pollinator habitat. As much as she enjoys gardening for herself, Christina felt a deep desire to assist others with their gardens as well as educate the necessity of pollinators to the environment. She has since returned to school to become a certified landscape designer and has started her own business, Kingsfoil Gardens.

Christina now uses her background in art and love of gardening to bring joy and appreciation for the native landscape.

Thanks so much for joining us Christina!

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Episode Content

TRIGGER WARNING: We occasionally discuss plants with a more eastern or western range. But we make a point to only discuss midwestern U.S. plants. Always check BONAP or other range maps to determine the best estimates of historical nativity.

Kingsfoil Gardens

Visit Christina's website and learn more about her work and business at www.kingsfoilgardens.com

What Most Gardeners Would Do Differently

Plan first, tackle projects in small steps, and remember creating excellence takes time.

Cool Gardeners

Monty Don, UK gardener: not US native-plant focused, but has solid gardening knowledge and techniques

Piet Oudolf, dutch designer that does favor quite a few native plants: very artistic naturalistic landscapes,

Kelly Norris, garden designer and author from Iowa: visually stunning native plant-forward landscapes

How to Start Planning Your Landscape

Make a list of what kinds of spaces you want
Look at your existing landscape

How A Designer Might Plan

BASICS: Get an aerial view of the house via GIS system, Google Earth; check sun tracker apps; make a base map with measurements of everything possible; check window perspectives (from the house to the landscape;) check street or sidewalk perspectives; and GET UTILITIES MARKED!
FLESHING IT OUT: consider hardscape, paths, seating areas, etc. first! After you have considered the locations of those in your design, a designer may start with trees and shrubs and then work down to perennials and even annuals to hold the space until bigger plants mature

GET YOUR SOIL TESTED!

https://midwestlabs.com/

Traditional Garden Design Touchstones

Consider:

Scale: Go out and measure, take out some grid paper and play around with stencils, maybe invest in some clear rulers
Balance: Taper plant sizes so that you don't have height discrepancies. There are always exceptions to every rule but it's good to put similar height plants together and back larger ones to the back of the border and place shorter plants up front
Repetition (good for aesthetic cohesion)
Visual Abundance: Mixing Different Plants (mixing different colors, textures, and bloom times)
Shapes- Curvilinear or Rectilinear, which ideally is matched to existing landscaping
Multi-Seasonal Interest (again, the different bloom times)
Habitat Value

Native Annuals to Use as Fillers While Your Plants Mature

Plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)

Lemon bee balm (Monarda citriodora)

Rocky Mountain bee plant (Peritoma serrulata)

Clasping coneflower (Dracopis amplexicaulis)

Christina and Steph's Favorite Plants to Plant "En Masse"

Wild Strawberry
Switchgrass
Prairie Smoke
Penstemon sp.
Asters
Shrubby St. John's Wort

Visualize garden spaces as rooms

It helps! Trust us.

Christina's Favorite Plants for Texture

Liatris
Eryngium
Yarrow

Christina's Favorite Plant Pairings

Mt. Mint X Coreopsis
Pussytoes X Plains Oval Sedge
Smaller Liatris sp. X Sedges

Garden Transitions

Think gates, arbors, hedges, walls, doorways, negative space, etc.

Negative Space: What's That

A place for your eye to rest, negative space can be comprised of turfghass (could be native turf,) balancing smooth texture against rough texture, a color monoculture, hardscaping or fencing vs. plants.\

Christina's 7 Herbaceous Plants She Can't Live Without

Wild Strawberry
Prairie Smoke (Regional Native)
Bradbury's Bee Balm
Butterflyweed
Rattlesnake Master
Prairie Dropseed
Plains Oval Sedge

If you've read to the end of this, thank you and I hope it has been informative!

Additional Content Related to This Episode

What Makes a Plant Native?

http://bonap.net/fieldmaps Biota of North America North American Plant Atlas database-select Nebraska

https://bellevuenativeplants.org Bellevue Native Plant Society

native (wild type) vs. nativar/native cultivar (native plant cultivated by humans for desirable characteristics)

Local Plant Suppliers

Midwest Natives Nursery

Great Plains Nursery

Nebraska Statewide Arboretum

Prairie Legacy Nursery

Mulhall's

Online Plant Suppliers

Prairie Moon Nursery

Prairie Nursery

Stock Seed

On the Web

BONAP aforementioned

Bellevue Native Plant Society on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/bellevuenativeplantsociety

Books & Authors

Rick Darke- The Living Landscape

Douglas Tallamy- Professor and Chair of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Entomology at the University of Delaware, author of The Living Landscape, Nature's Best Hope, naturalist, and curator of "Homegrown National Park".

Enrique Salmon- Iwigara

Daniel Moerman -Native American Ethnobotany

Heather Holm- https://www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com

Native Plants of the Midwest

Planting in a Post-Wild World

Jon Farrar's Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska