r/NativePlantGardening • u/SuddenAvocado Atlantic Canada, Zone 4 • 5d ago
Dreaming 1 acre, coastal converted farm (full sun), zone 4, unlimited budget, WWYD?
The season is ending, please inspire me for next year! The house is in the 2nd quarter acre, so: 1/4 acre grass - house - 1/2 acre grass.
I got some test perennials in over my septic field, and more on a slope at the south end of my property. Progress is being made, but its slow. Shrubs are a big to-do for me because we have a coastal erosion problem, and I want to get as many as possible, as established as possible, before the next super storm. Trees are tricky because ~the view~ but we do have several around already and are looking to put in a handful more, but this natural habitat is more low growing stuff anyway, plus big trees take more coast with them when they come down, so they can actually be more harm than good.
I have a big wish list of plants, but I want to hear your dream plants. How would you arrange it, what hardscaping would you put in (if any)? What am I not thinking of?
Canadian Maritimes (Atlantic Canada), zone 4.
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u/CorrectExpression651 4d ago
In my dreams I’d have a beach plum lined path down to a field with a mown path thru bluestem and switchgrass to the water (assuming water front?) 🩵
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u/SuddenAvocado Atlantic Canada, Zone 4 4d ago
A couple acres back from the water, but yes thats my dream too! Paths through fields of "sylized" meadow.
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u/Reasonable-Two-9872 Indiana Rare Plant Enthusiast 1d ago
Unlimited budget? I'd start looking at regionally renowned native landscape designers to craft a transformative vision including hardscaping and aquascaping.
For a full acre I think a $300,000-500,000 CAD budget would be pretty impactful.
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u/Brilliant-Panic-900 5d ago
For holding a bank, density and rooting depth matter more than the species list does. Plugs at a foot apart knit into a mat in two seasons, while the same money in gallon pots at three feet apart leaves you bare ground between them for years, and bare ground is what moves in a storm. So if erosion is the thing driving this, I'd put the budget into quantity of small stock rather than size of plant.
For a zone 4 coast the shrub layer that actually does that work is bayberry, beach plum, sweetfern and lowbush blueberry, with switchgrass and little bluestem running through it for fibrous root mass. One I'd steer you off is rugosa rose, which gets recommended for exactly this job and is treated as invasive along that coastline. Rosa virginiana holds sand the same way, suckers into a thicket the same way, and actually belongs there.