Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design

3 Fields Books

by Benjamin Vogt

Connecting to nature with native plants Landscaping with native plants has encouraged gardeners from the Midwest and beyond to embark on a profound scientific, ecological, and emotional partnership with nature. Benjamin Vogt shares his expertise with prairie plants in a richly photographed guide aimed at gardeners and homeowners, making big ideas about design approachable and actionable. Step-by-step blueprints point readers to plant communities that not only support wildlife and please the eye but that rethink traditional planting and maintenance. Additionally, Vogt provides insider information on plant sourcing, garden tools, and working with city ordinances. This book will be an invaluable reference in sustainable garden design for those wanting both beautiful and functional landscapes. Easy to use and illustrated with over 150 color photos, Prairie Up is a practical guide to artfully reviving diversity and wildness in our communities.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Nature, Plants, Horticulture

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 24, 2023

About the author

Benjamin Vogt has a PhD in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an MFA from The Ohio State University. His writing and photography have appeared in over 60 publications from journals and magazines to anthologies. Benjamin writes a native plant gardening column at Houzz.com and speaks nationally on sustainable and wildlife landscapes. He owns Monarch Gardens LLC, a prairie garden design firm. Benjamin and his wife live in Lincoln, Nebraska where they dream of reviving 20-40 acres to prairie, and creating a one acre native plant display garden with artist residency.

Reviews

[Misti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally a beginner native plant book that is approachable! 10/10 for not showing ritzy homes and gardens maintained by professionals. 10/10 for the resources and Q&A at the back. Minor quibbles about regionality with plants but that really goes beyond this book to horticulture as a whole--I only hope gardeners will dig in to find analogues to some of the plants listed which may not be in every region.

Otherwise this blows other naturalistic garden design books out of the water, which is what we've primarily had to go with over the last decade.

[Dottie Tompary · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE PICTURES!

I’ve been into native plants for 7 or so years and this is the book I wish I had when I started.

THE PICTURES!

Prairie Up is a five chapter “introduction to nature garden design”.
1. Bringing the Prairie Home
2. Learning about Native Plants and Plant Communities
3. Planning, Installing, and Managing the Garden
4. Designing the Garden
5. Resources

The logical buildup of chapters helps the reader with all the steps of bringing the prairie home without being too overkill, a digestible 129 pages for the main chapters. Chapter 4 uniquely includes four designs layouts which many other native books lack.

DID I MENTION THE PICTURES?! You can’t look at them without being inspired.

Pictures include a variety of mostly broad shots with several individual plant photos toward mostly the last third of the book with great captions. This is not an encyclopedia of native plants but includes some key plants and the Resources chapter shows how to find others in your area.

A great read for new or seasoned native plant lovers! Highly recommend!

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I'm honest, the key motivation for me last year when we moved for converting a portion of the grass to prairie was a deep aversion to giving up time off to spend mowing. What I found in watching our fledgling prairie start to grow, though, was a fascination by how quickly we saw an impact on the ecosystem - birds, tons of butterflies, the hum of the insects that sounds to me like a bit of a natural symphony. Plus I absolutely love the wildflowers. What happened next was that the more I learned about impacting the environment in your own yard, the more I wanted to know and the more I wanted to do. Now I am spending time this winter planning out the steps we will take over the next few years to plant more native species and to convert more of our grass into plants that support life around us - which brings me to Prairie Up. This is a new release that is packed full of really useful and practical tips and strategies on how to design natural garden spaces. There is so much info out there that it can be a little overwhelming to try to figure out where to start. Vogt pulls it together in a way that is easy to digest and gives me the basics I need to start thinking about the space and how to pick native plants that interact well together and are right for the conditions that we have. While we have a lot of space to plan for, the book really targets how to do this in small spaces - so very practical even if you only have a small area to work with. Highly recommend this one.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's surpringly difficult to find an informative book about how to create native gardens, how to design, how to choose plants, how to actually get rid of lawn. Kudos to Benjamin for tackling the logistics. Very helpful book especially for beginners.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prairie Up is a textbook for people who want to design and create a natural garden. I want to design and create a natural garden, but I really, really, really don't like textbooks. Whenever someone tells me there are three ways to do something, I want to shake my finger in that expert's face and say, Three things? Only three things? Sorry, but I don't think so. And this author does a lot of three-thing-ing. And I'm aware that most people like textbooks, especially when they are going to do something new. This is a good textbook, if you like that sort of thing. And it has lots of lovely lists, which I do like.

[Beth Cato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prairie Up is a thoughtful book about the importance of reverting standards lawns to native prairie grasses, legumes, and plants, and how to go about it. We recently moved to Minnesota and have about an acre of property in a small town. A few things I really appreciated about Vogt's approach: he's clear that the change to prairie plants is a process, not an instant thing, and that is not only because of time investment and cost, but because of entities like HOAs that may still insist a "wild lawn" is a violation; the beautiful photographs throughout include small spaces and large, and aren't all mansions and obviously-wealthy settings, which makes the shift feels approachable; he emphasizes the science and the kinds of seeds mixes needed and how to go about things, which is why I'll have my husband read this book as well as he'll be handling that technical side. I have a feeling I'll be referencing this book many times over in the coming years!

[Ron at Rockhaven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great photos for one thing, if you need a little more inspiration to plant native plant wildflowers and grasses and trees. Great defense of the moral need to do so. I love living near prairie also and fear all that is being lost because we are not preserving natural native flora and expanding our understanding of our gardens to include all of our living spaces. Worried about AI? Connect with a little plant intelligence.

[Sarah]

The pictures in this book are absolutely gorgeous! The specific subject matter and layout I struggled with. I think I may have been looking for the next step in Natural Garden design vs an introduction. I like what the author is doing though. The layout/format didn't work for me unfortunately.

[AnnaRichelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well put together and very easy to understand book about how to convert your lawn to native prairie plants. I love it and will be returning to it again when I need a refresher course.

[Larry Mays · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book. Can't emphasize enough our need to get a LOT more native plants into our yards and parks.

[Kaile Vierstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was 18 years old, I found the Pioneer Woman's blog. She had great photos and used simple language to cook delicious meals with ingredients that were familiar. Following her recipes gave me the confidence to start cooking and baking for myself and friends.

Prairie Up is that book for the beginner native gardener. Vogt uses straightforward language paired with gorgeous (yet attainable) photos to illustrate the importance of native planting and less lawns. There are even planting plans with a list of plants. SO helpful!

His instagram is another great resource! @monarchgardensbenjaminvogt

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very accessible. Loved the ecological foundation at the beginning of this book. I also enjoyed the author's sage advice that planting native gardens will be a life long experiment. The pictures were beautiful and you could see an example that would fit lots of different tastes and budgets.

Starting putting the book to practice this year on a south facing slope in the backyard.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Gardening from a prairie perspective means opening up our hearts and minds to these small wonders, as well as to a different method of design and management than traditional landscaping. Gardening from a prairie perspective means opening up to the perceptions and cultures of other creatures, and even other humans. Gardening from a prairie perspective means coming to terms with what we've eroded and how we can revive wildness in our communities. Ultimately, it's about the history of place and the history of close interaction, where one life depends on another for survival..." Vogt is a local prairie-inspired landscape designer who I follow on Twitter because I have been interested in getting rid of my manicured lawn for years. While I've allowed a lot of the manicured look to fade, I haven't learned enough about plant life here in Nebraska to feel comfortable in remaking my yard into something more natural for wildlife to live in as well as maintain soil health. This book is a great starting place with tons of resources, ideas, and practical tips. It is going to require a lot of undoing before I can make obvious progress, but I feel confident that I have places to start now and will be able to make a little headway this year. "Patience is required" is my main takeaway from this book, so I guess I'll need to stock up on some of that, too.

[Carrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this, after watching a webinar with the author, but I found the organization of the book, the writing, and even the font to make it a less enjoyable read than anticipated.

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview on the importance of prairies and restoration (really, whatever your local ecosystem is, not just tallgrass prairie). It has a lot of helpful information for planning gardens and working with your neighbors--HOAs, county weed inspectors, etc. It's not a one-and-done resource, however; it advocates a lot of research and experimentation, but lacks extensive species-specific information. There are no handy tables of common plants organized by root type, or bloom season, or aggression level.

Overall, I'd say it's a good resource to inspire one to plant more natives. It would pair nicely with The Gardener's Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox. There's some overlap, but this book is more of a conversation on the why (and it's very readable), while Gardener's Guide is the nitty gritty how-to, full of tables and detailed plant information. This book will capture your interest and inspire you; Gardener's Guide will give you the practical, as it has already compiled all the research that Prairie Up advocates into one extensive resource (not that it has every prairie plant under the sun, and its focus is specifically prairie, not woodland, but it's really solid).

[Alina Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good. I think the subtitle — “An Introduction to Natural Garden Design” — is accurate. If you are starting from square one with an all-grass lawn and want a basic, general guide to converting some or all of your lawn to prairie, this book is a good starting point.

That said, I have a hard time imagining I’d recommend this as a reference book to anyone. It’s too short to feel like you’ve delved heavily into the subject. I was left wanting to know more about the author, his landscape company, and personal stories illustrating some successful yard transformations. At the same time, the book is too lengthy to serve as a quick-reference guide. I’d probably just direct someone to the Prairie Moon Nursery website and tell them to poke around to get a sense of the native plants they like.

The most useful part of “Prairie Up” is probably pages 115-127, where Vogt lays out plans for four sample gardens using a block planting technique. If you want a “plug and play” garden design, this is it. Even so, the planting guides left something to be desired. Plants are labeled with their abbreviated Latin names, not their common names, and the color key is in a different chapter. Do bigger circles correspond to taller plants, or a particular plant type? I’m still not sure.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in planting a prairie/meadow this is a great resource. It contains a lot of practical information I haven't seen in other native plant books I've read like how to prepare a site and make a seed mix. Also had some interesting discussion on plant spacing. There were also some sample garden plants for varied conditions.

My main critiques was sometimes things could get a little overwhelming. The author is a professional landscaper so at times things were a bit overwhelming for this DIY gal. For example, it was encouraged you get A LOT of information on any plants you want to plant, more so than one would normally think of. Would have been cool if there was a plant directory included with some of that information.

Also not really a critique as the book is about what its about, more an FYI. As one might guess from the title "Prairie" Up this book is about meadows/prairies, so it doesn't discuss woody plants. The author is also midwest based so I imagine that is where most of the plants are native too though of course many are also present in ohter parts of the country.

[Joyce Edmeier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creating a colorful native garden is gaining in popularity and Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design is the ultimate guide for homeowners and gardeners. This book offers step-by-step instructions on creating a plant list, plant selection, installation, and offers four garden design lists with the pollinators who depend on each plant. Over 150 illustrations show close-ups of native plants in beautiful color, along with foundation plantings that any beginner can manage through many seasons of enjoyment. Vogt also provides practical advice on how homeowners can pass a weed inspection, dealing with HOAs, adapting to a changing climate, and offers a valuable list of resources at the end of the book. Although the book is written from a scientific point of view, new gardeners will find many designs, tips and ways to manage their natural garden. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in gardening with native plants.

Thank you to the University of Illinois Press and NetGalley for an ARC for this review.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can not even with what a delight this book is. Practical (including some balanced scripts to use when talking with your local government or HOA about your meadow-designed yard and what percentage seed to have grasses and flowers) and aesthetic, with some incredible photographs of actual places and yards, it has the inspiration to ignite you and the how-to to get you there. Also, it's more than a little funny.

I maybe would ding it half a star for being midwest focused, but when the title references the Great Plains prairies, that's hardly their fault.

If you are thinking #nolawns or even #lesslawn, this is a must-read text.

[squee me · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely love this new gardening book focused on prairie planting. This is a must-have for any gardener interested in native plants. The writing is much more evocative than I usually expect from a gardening book and yet there's lots of good tips and guidance as well. The photography is both beautiful and practical, giving the reader ideas and inspiration for their own projects. I especially liked the chapter that provides several sample gardens with ideas on how to replicate or modify as needed. Thank you to the publisher for the ARC, I will definitely be adding this book in hard copy to my gardening shelf in my library.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intro to native plant gardening at home! I’ve worked on native plant restorations in natural areas but wanted to learn more about design concepts for my own yard. This book delivered, and left me wanting more, in a good way. The pictures are also great, and a good source of inspiration. I have a few nitpicky things from the background chapter about how the author presents certain findings from studies as if they can be applied universally (e.g., prairie strips in ag fields WILL reduce topsoil loss by 95%), but…details. Overall, the message is clear we need to prairie up! (Or, you know, up whatever happens to be the native plant community/ies in your locale).

[Susan Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prairie Up is a masterwork for me. Everything that I have worked so hard to learn in the past four years is brilliantly and efficiently explained . Ecoregions, cultivars, layers (temporal and physical), diversity, seeding, planting, maintaining........It's like Vogt rolled all our guru's; Tallamy, West, Darke, Narango, Holm, Vogt, Fialkoff, Falk and common sense......into a tidy 150 pages.
This book provides visual sense of landscape combined with ecological service: The holy grail of design and love of the life that native plants bring to our yards.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful, clearly-written guide on establishing prairie gardens at home, including how to research plants native to your eco-region, how to prep the soil (whoops—I did this all wrong), and plants to consider for certain situations. This book is so packed with helpful info that I probably only got about 5%of what it has into my head , but I know my starter garden will be better for it. Also: lots of inspiring pics!

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book to read if you want to do your part to beautify whatever land you live on and to help save the world from the natural collapse that is already happening. Reading him along with Doug Tallamy has inspired us to transform our gardens into lush and beautiful habitat for all the other beings we share the land with. There is so much aliveness in my yard I often just stand and look in awe. Vogt offers clear and doable advice.

[Andi Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not letting perfect be the enemy of the good, this book nails it. Photos are beautiful and motivating. Vogt gives many reference books to check out (go to the library before purchasing, to see which books are a good fit for you), and plenty of resources for native seed. Any person, even with just containers, or a corner of dirt, can help wildlife and plant native (and insects are a significant part of our wildlife).

[Alice Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introductory information for those perhaps who haven't ever used native plants in their landscaping. it was nice to read stuff I already had learned and agreed with. im not in an ecoregion where some of his specific ideas would work. I also have to have my yard more of a tidy wildland rather than just let it all go. loved the nice ecoregions map and the basic steps of how to be a bit more conscious of creating an ecosystem in your yard.

[Jafowlernp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benjamin Vogt’s detailed work is exactly what I’ve been searching for in my effort to restore native plant communities on my small hobby farm. Rather than simply focusing on individual plants or groups of plants, it provides valuable information on the “how” and “why” of native plant cultivation. And, as a bonus, it’s filled with beautiful photos. I am treasuring this book!

[Ryan Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource with practical advice on native plant gardens. I have converted parts of my lawn to native plants with mixed success. This book provides plenty of information on how to make a plant community. Lots of color pictures with examples and plenty of resources make this an excellent beginner guide to native gardens.

[Sia Karamalegos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview of natural, ecological gardening techniques. Compared to other books, this one is more concise without sacrificing information. It's also very practical and offers starter "recipes" for prairie plant mixes which I very much appreciate. Now I feel more ready to combine this with plant data for my local region to apply to my garden.

[Sheryl Melvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book about native plant gardening that I have found. Purchased two additional copies to give away. Solid details about complimentary root types, which I’ve not seen addressed before. Includes how to get started, how to maintain, and how to plan for plant succession. This author knows his stuff.