The Gooderham Lake Garden

What we did

23

native species

2

planting areas

June 9, 2026

installed

All three beds were planted on June 9, 2026.

Planting areas: Part-Shade Bed · Sunny Beds

The Design

The design has three interlocking layers. The matrix — Little Bluestem and Side-oats Grama weaving through all three beds, with Big Bluestem as the tallest grass — creates textural rhythm and year-round structure. Beneath it, a groundcover of Plantain-leaved Pussytoes, Wild Strawberry, and Prairie Smoke suppresses weeds, trails over the rocks, and covers the ground.

Smooth Serviceberries anchor the back of both the part-shade bed and the sunny bed — the tallest plants in the design, above the grasses. They provide spring flowers, summer fruit for birds, and fall colour at the forest edge. Through the beds, a succession of seasonal bloomers runs from Ohio Spiderwort's early blue through Coreopsis, Butterfly Milkweed, and Mountain Mint at peak, to Goldenrod and Azure Aster carrying things into fall.

Anise Hyssop repeats across all three beds, tying the composition together with purple spikes that attract butterflies and hummingbirds through summer. The rock divisions contain Mountain Mint to a section of the lower bed. The front-to-back height progression keeps the sightlines from the deck open — low groundcover at the front, taller perennials and grasses behind, serviceberries at the back. Rosy Sedge helps prevent erosion at the back of the sunny bed.