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When you want a garden that delights the senses and welcomes beneficial insects, a sea of plain lawn or scattered perimeter plantings simply won’t do. For these three makeovers, designers replaced banal stretches of yard with brightly colored wildflowers, native wonders, fruit-bearing shrubs and other plants that call to wild creatures and humans alike. Could you adapt any of these ideas for your own yard? Let us know in the Comments.

Before Photo

Becky Harris

Photos by Cristian Umana

1. Healthy Choices

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A family of five and its two dogs
Location: Westwood, Massachusetts
Size: About 1.8 acres (0.7 hectares)
Landscape architect: Offshoots
Hardscape installer: Renovo’s Landscape & Construction

Before: A tract of bluegrass greeted the Offshoots landscape architects at this Massachusetts home. The owners, one of whom is an avid gardener, wanted to create a sustainable yard that would attract pollinators, produce food and even improve the health of the surrounding wetlands.

Offshoots, Inc.

After: The new meadow not only draws pollinators, but also requires little maintenance and can tolerate drought. Native black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia sp.) are helping to establish it during the first design phase, and other wildflowers are taking root as well.

The Offshoots team designed the yard using the principles of permaculture, which focuses on landscape health and productivity while also considering how a landscape can positively impact ecological systems beyond the property. The plans for this site included reestablishing native plants to help clean runoff water on its way toward the wetlands.

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Offshoots, Inc.

Closer to the house are alternateleaf dogwoods (Cornus alternifolia, USDA zones 3 to 8; find your zone); a transplanted Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia, zones 5 to 8); and a mix of shrubs, perennials and ground covers.

The team sourced many of the materials locally — such as stone from Goshen, Massachusetts, and granites from Connecticut and Vermont — to minimize the project’s carbon footprint. And a food forest by the driveway (not shown) offers plenty of sustenance for wildlife, such as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.

Read more about this landscape makeover

Before Photo

Plantology Ltd

2. Curves Ahead

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired grandmother
Location: Warwickshire, England
Size: 1,227 square feet (114 square meters); the plot has a level change from end to end of about 5 feet (1½ meters)
Landscape designer: Sam Plant of Plantology

Before: This long and narrow yard in England had two patios but little in the way of interest. The homeowner, a grandmother, had a wish list that included a sustainable and wildlife-welcoming design, opportunities for water harvesting and vertical plantings, and replacements for steep steps that weren’t safe for the grandkids. She brought in Sam Plant of Plantology to make it all happen.

Plantology Ltd

After: This photo was taken not too long after the initial planting, and the staggered plants will fill in over time. As they do, they’ll further define the outdoor rooms, such as the “secret” seating area seen here on the right. New shallow steps lead to curved paths that meander through the naturalistic garden and create concealed views.

The wildlife-friendly trees, flowers and grasses include rare Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula, zones 5 to 6); European white birch (Betula pendula, zones 2 to 6); ‘Claret’ greater masterwort (Astrantia major ‘Claret’, zones 4 to 7); and reed grass (Calamagrostis sp.).

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Plantology Ltd

This photo is from a year after the installation. Yellow Wallich spurge (Euphorbia wallichii, zones 6 to 9), purple ‘Caradonna’ sage (Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, zones 4 to 9) and purple and red tulips joyfully spring forth to entice visitors along the paths to the two seating areas.

Learn more about this project

Before Photo

Bosler Earth Design

Photos by Daniel Bosler

3. Love of Country

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: Mark Sandelson
Location: Santa Monica, California
Size: 3,000 square feet (279 square meters)
Landscape designer: Bosler Earth Design

Before: After 25 years of maintaining a large backyard pool that he used only once, this homeowner in Southern California was ready for a redesign. Being British, he wanted the feel of an English country garden, with varying plant colors and heights as well as softness. Landscape designer Catherine Bosler of Bosler Earth Design was up to the task.

Bosler Earth Design

After: Native and drought-tolerant plants, many from Australia and South Africa, thrive in the former pool area. Delightful scents abound thanks to jasmine, dwarf eucalyptus and lavender growing around the hot tub in the back right corner; all three are known to draw bees and other beneficial pollinators. Native milkweed (Asclepias sp.) beckons to butterflies and is joined by yarrow (Achillea sp.), grevillea and sage (Salvia sp.).

More jasmine appears on the cable railing panel between a new raised deck and the hot tub, and will soften the space even more as it fills in. ‘Silver Sheen’ kōhūhū (Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Silver Sheen’, zones 8 to 11) rises behind the deck screen. And although you can’t see it here, a copper fountain sits at the lower left corner of the deck — just the thing for thirsty hummingbirds.

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Bosler Earth Design

Vines wind up the sides of a steel-and-wood shade structure that defines a seating area to the left of the deck, adding a breath of English romance. And more jasmine grows on a wood screen along the back edge of the pergola, hiding the trunks of privacy-creating ficus trees. A Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’, zones 5 to 8) brings a lively splash of red foliage to offset all the green.