A natural garden is not a particular style but a way of designing: with plants that suit the site, with natural stone, wood and gravel, and with room for wildlife. The nine ideas on this page are sorted by the place where they work: sunny areas, shade under trees, water and the edge of a lawn. For each idea you will find what it suits, what it needs and where its limits are.
All gardens on this page are AI visualisations by GardenPilot, not built gardens. They show design ideas. Which plants exactly are in the picture cannot be determined with certainty. What the text says about care and wildlife is based on expert sources, not on the picture.
Where should the idea go?
- Sunny, dry areas: ideas 1 to 4
- Shade under trees: idea 5
- Water: ideas 6 and 7
- At the edge of the lawn: ideas 8 and 9
For sunny, dry areas
1. A seating area in a gravel bed
A wooden pavilion with a bench and a low table stands on gravel, and the planting of grasses and perennials reaches right up to the bench. There is no lawn and no paved terrace.
- Suits you if a sunny corner away from the house should become a place of its own.
- Needs free-draining soil and plants for dry open ground. The gravel serves as mulch.
- Limit: A pavilion with a solid roof is a structure. In Germany, depending on its size and the federal state, it may need a permit, so ask your building authority if in doubt.
2. Natural stone slabs and gravel instead of a sealed surface
From above you can see how the garden is laid out: areas of irregular natural stone slabs and gravel alternate with islands of grasses and perennials. A long water channel runs down the middle, and a wooden pavilion stands at the end.
- Suits you if you need paths and seating areas but do not want large sealed surfaces. NABU advises unsealing as many surfaces as possible so that rainwater soaks away on site.
- Needs a load-bearing sub-base under the slabs. The joints stay open or are filled with grit.
- Limit: Weeds germinate in open joints and gravel. Some of them can stay, the rest gets pulled.
3. Lavender along a gravel path
Here, lavender grows right at the edge of a gravel path, with grasses with long, pale awns and silvery-grey cushions in between.
- Suits you if a path runs through a sunny, dry corner. Lavender is on BUND's list of plants for wild bees.
- Needs full sun and free-draining soil.
- Limit: Lavender is not a native plant. According to NABU, it is better cut back in spring: after a cut straight after its late flowering, the new growth can be damaged by the first frost.
4. A wall of fieldstones
Behind the seating area stands a wall of round fieldstones with tall grasses growing on top. Lavender flowers in front. The metal pergola is modern, yet the wall gives the place a grown-in feel.
- Suits you if you want to frame a seating area or take up a change in level.
- Needs stones laid on top of each other without mortar. According to NABU, this creates cavities where insects, spiders and, depending on the location, even lizards find shelter.
- Limit: A dry-laid wall that holds back soil must be built properly. Above a certain height it is a structure that needs structural design, and that belongs in the hands of a specialist contractor.
Which idea suits your garden? Upload a photo and add what you want to try, for example "seating in a gravel bed with grasses". The first image is free. Start free with your photo
For shade under trees
5. Cranesbill and fern under birches
Under a group of birches, cranesbill with purple flowers and ferns grow up to the edge of a stone terrace.
- Suits you if there is bare soil or struggling lawn under your trees.
- Needs plants from the woodland and woodland-edge habitats. Leaves can stay here and protect the soil.
- Limit: Birch pollen is a problem for many allergy sufferers. And how dense the planting under trees becomes depends on how much light and water the crowns let through.
More plants for shade and why they save work: Creating a low-maintenance natural garden.
Water in a natural garden
6. A stone trough with running water
Water runs over the edge of a rough stone trough into a bed of pebbles, and grasses grow right up to the stone.
- Suits you if you want to hear water in the garden but lack the space for a pond.
- Needs a pump and therefore electricity in the garden. Cables and outdoor sockets belong in the hands of a qualified electrician, and outdoor pumps are protected by a residual current device.
- Limit: A trough with a circulating pump is decoration, not a habitat like a pond. With small children in the household, any water must be secured, because toddlers can drown in just a few centimetres of water.
7. A small basin with plants at the edge
Next to a lounge under a wooden pergola lies a shallow basin with a pebble floor. Water plants grow in the corners, and a small bubbler sits in the middle. Light stepping stones lead through the gravel.
- Suits you if water should be close to the seating area and the space is small.
- Needs care: leaves and algae have to come out regularly, and the bubbler needs electricity.
- Limit: A basin with a pebble floor and a bubbler is not a pond habitat. If you want to offer wildlife something, plan a pond without a pump and with shallow margins. According to NABU, a balance develops there after a while, and the water stays clear without a pump. Exit aids for animals that fall in are important. For children, the same applies as for idea 6. More on banks and transitions: Designing a garden by the water
If the lawn stays
8. Stepping stones in the lawn, lavender at the edge
Light sandstone slabs lie in the lawn and lead to the terrace, with lavender and grasses reaching up to the slabs on both sides.
- Suits you if a route across the lawn is used every day and would otherwise wear into a track.
- Needs slabs laid flush with the lawn surface so the mower can run over them.
- Limit: Grass grows into the joints and needs trimming along the edges of the slabs now and then.
9. A flowering border along the lawn
Between the lawn and the house grows a wide bed of ornamental onions, hostas, lavender, small-flowered purple perennials and hydrangeas.
- Suits you if you want to shrink the lawn and let the edge flower. Once the plants cover the soil, a wide border needs less regular work than the lawn it replaces.
- Needs weeding and watering in dry spells during the first one to two years.
- Limit: The large flower balls are typical of mophead hydrangeas. These varieties carry only sterile showy flowers and offer insects hardly any food. BUND advises choosing plants with single, unfilled flowers for wild bees. Hostas are popular with slugs and snails.
Unremarkable, but effective
Some natural garden ideas do not look spectacular in any photo and still do a lot:
- A meadow corner instead of lawn. It is mowed only once or twice a year. In return it needs poor soil, the cuttings have to be removed, and it is hardly walked on.
- A pile of leaves and branches in a quiet corner. According to NABU, it is a winter shelter for hedgehogs and a refuge for beetles and wrens.
- Leaving stems standing over winter. Insects overwinter in hollow stems. They are cut back at the end of winter.
- An open, sunny patch of sandy soil. Around three quarters of the wild bee species in Germany nest in the ground.
- Light only where it is needed. NABU recommends downward-shielded, warm-white lights and motion sensors, because many insects die exhausted at light sources.
How much work these ideas take and what to consider when setting them up is explained in the article Creating a low-maintenance natural garden.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a nature-inspired garden and a natural garden?
"Nature-inspired" is a broad term: the garden looks natural and takes wildlife into account. NABU defines a natural garden more narrowly as one that consists of at least three quarters native wild plants and does without pesticides and mineral fertiliser.
Which plants suit a natural garden?
Plants that suit the light and soil where they will grow. Perennial nurseries give the habitat for this, such as woodland, woodland edge or open ground. If you want to help wild bees, choose native species and plants with single, unfilled flowers.
Does a natural garden suit a modern house?
Yes. Ideas 1, 2 and 4 sit next to modern houses and pergolas. What matters is the planting, not the architecture. If you want it cleaner and tidier, you will find ideas in the article Low-maintenance modern garden.
Further reading
What would this look like in your garden?
Upload a photo of your garden and see design ideas on your own space. The first image is free.
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