What to Consider When Choosing Your Plants

When installing LID features one of the most important aspects of your feature is the plants! Choosing the right plants for your feature will increase the efficiency of the feature while also guaranteeing the feature to be as aesthetically pleasing for you and your neighbours who can see it. Keep reading to learn about what you should consider when choosing plants for your garden.

Sun Exposure

Understanding plant sun exposure will help determine which plants have the best chance at not only surviving, but thriving in your feature. All plants have a minimum requirement of sun to actively grow. This can be divided into 3 categories: full sun, part sun/shade, and full shade. When shopping for plants, plant tags will often break sun requirements into 4 categories as part sun/shade is a large range of hours. The 4 categories follow:

Full Sun: Plants require a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight.

Part Sun: Plant requires 4-6 hours of sunlight.

Part Shade: Plants require 2-4 hours of sunlight.

Full Shade: Plant requires 0-2 hours of sunlight.

When shopping for your plants, this will be indicated on the nursery tag that comes with your plant by a symbol. The picture below is a quick guide to understand what the different symbols indicate.

Photo Credit: https://florissa.com/a-gardeners-guide-to-sun-exposure-water-requirements-and-more/

Moisture Requirements

All plants have moisture requirements. This means that plants have an optimal amount of moisture they can grow in. When shopping for plants they are usually categorized into 3 moisture levels: dry or well draining soil, normal, or moist.

Dry/Well draining soils- These are plants that can handle, or may even prefer for the soil to dry in between watering. These plants are considered to be low maintenance but still require watering from time to time especially in the height of summer or a dry spell. 

Normal/Moderate- These are plants that can tolerate some dry soils but typically thrive in soils that retain some moisture. These plants require regular watering. The general rule of thumb for these plants is to keep the soil moist at least an inch below the soil surface. This can be tested by sticking a finger in the soil and feeling for moisture.

Moist- These are plants that thrive in moist conditions. These plants are great for areas that are exposed to a lot of water whether from rain or runoff. These plants require constant moisture and will need frequent watering in drier conditions.

Photo credit: https://www.gwenwisniewski.com/garden-inspirations-blog/wise-watering-debunking-the-myths

Height of plants

When choosing plants for your project, it is important to keep in mind the mature height of your plants. For most situations, you want to make sure your taller plants are behind your shorter plants. This not only looks better but also ensures your plants are all getting sunlight. Taller plants can block out sunlight to your shorter plants and impede on their growth if placed in front. 

Photo credit: http://www.thebaysidegardencentre.com/2016/04/the-cottage-garden/

Spread of plants 

A plant’s spread is important to think about when designing your project. When plants are spaced appropriately, they have the right amount of room to grow and fill into. When this spacing is not followed, plants will have to compete with each other to fill the space and as a result this can cause the smaller, slow growing plants to fail at establishing. 

Take a look at the images below to see where to find the height and spread on a plant tag. Height and spacing can be found in centimetres, inches, or feet.

Photo credit: http://mastertag.com/products/universal-locking-plant-tags/ 

Tolerances

Something that is commonly overlooked when choosing plants is their tolerance to external stresses. The two most common tolerances that are listed for plants are salt tolerance and drought tolerance.

Salt
If your project is going to be in your front lawn or close to walkways it is important to consider your plants tolerance to salt. In Hamilton, we experience cold enough temperatures where salting our walkways to prevent falling is very common. When we shovel the fallen snow or the snow begins to melt, this causes the salt to seep into the soil and can affect your plants, commonly known as winter damage. When choosing plants, look for plants that have a tolerance to salt as they will have a better chance at surviving near salted areas.

Photo Credit: https://gardeningmd.com/salt-damage-to-landscape-plants/

Drought

When adding plants to your project, it's important to think about the amount of water the plants will be exposed to. If building a garden in a full sun area, think about how often you will be able to water your plants in the heat of summer. Opt for drought tolerant plants as they are more forgiving if you miss a watering or two. 

Drought tolerant plants should also be considered for the high points/outer edges in your LID feature. If building a rain garden, the water is directed to fall in the bowl and rarely ever fills enough to reach the outer edges of your feature. Drought tolerant plants are a great option in this area as they require much less water to grow.

Photo Credit:https://www.ejvmall.site/?path=page/ggitem&ggpid=1822814

Use this guide when determining what plants you want to plant in your garden. Stay tuned for our next blog that breaks down the different zones in rain gardens along with which plants are best suited for each zone and native examples!