Designing, installing and managing native plantings

Ecological restorations of small sites often rely on installing young plants to establish desired natural vegetation. Even large sites, which are typically seeded, may be supplemented with plantings.

This course presents the steps for designing, installing, and managing a native species planting project. It acts as a guide to making sound decisions for each of these critical steps.

This course will cover important steps including deciding to plant, selecting species, choosing planting stock, creating a planting plan, preparing to plant, planting, and post-planting management.

In this course, learn how to:

• Evaluate whether there are sources of plants on the site or in the landscape that could contribute to revegetation.
• Determine which species will be best suited for a restoration planting.
• Select and acquire the optimal kinds of planting stock for site conditions and project goals.
• Develop a planting plan.
• Prepare a site to be planted.
• Install large numbers of plants on a site as part of planned events.
• Manage sites following planting to promote vegetation establishment.

This course is part of a certificate program. 

It is strongly recommended, but not required, that students complete the Site Assessment and Setting Restoration Goals course before taking the other courses in the series, as the site assessment course lays the groundwork for the subsequent courses.

Find out more about the Ecological Restoration series