Assess, Plan & Design

Most of what decides whether a native seeding succeeds happens before any seed goes down. Taking the time to understand the site, decide what the planting needs to do and plan where each species belongs makes every later step easier, starting with choosing the right mix.

1. Assess the site

Start by walking the site and noting what you’re working with. Slope comes first: steep or bare ground is prone to erosion and may need a cover crop or erosion-control measures before, or alongside, the native seeding. Then look at how water moves across it. Note where it ponds, where it runs off and where it drains quickly, and map any wet pockets separately from the upland ground around them.

Soil texture and light narrow the choice further, since a mix built for sandy, sunny ground won’t thrive in heavy shade or wet clay. Finally, look at what’s already growing. Some sites need weed and invasive control followed by a full seeding, while others already have desirable vegetation that only needs to be enhanced by inter-seeding. Whatever you find, choose a mix that suits the conditions the site actually has.

2. Plan around your goals

Next, decide what the planting needs to do. A meadow meant to boost pollinator habitat calls for a different mix than one meant to slow and filter runoff from a parking lot, stabilize a slope or buffer a solar array. Our seed mixes are designed for a range of site conditions and budgets, and you can filter them by site moisture and use case in the seed mix collection. Settling these questions at the start helps you avoid problems later on, through site preparation, seeding and establishment.

3. Design the layout

Seed establishes best where conditions suit it, so on varied sites it can pay to hold certain species back and hand-sow them where they’ll do best. If a mix includes Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor) or other species that prefer wet soil, for example, you might set that seed aside and sow it only in the moist areas.

You can also design for appearance, grouping purple and blue bloomers in one area and red and yellow in another, or placing taller species toward the back of a field so the shorter ones stay visible along edges and sightlines.