FRIENDLY COMPETITION

In his new book, garden designer Benjamin Vogt explains the dynamics of plant combinations and more

- THOMAS CHRISTOPHER

I HAVE GREAT RESPECT for what you learn in horticultural schools. I am very grateful for all that was taught to me in the Student Horticulturist Program at the New York Botanical Garden.

Still, with the knowledge you get at such an institution, you also tend to absorb, and later take for granted, the attitudes of your teachers. So I'll admit to a prejudice about gardening: I am most interested in the practices of self-taught gardeners. Sometimes, lacking the standard answers that are given in school, autodidacts come up with novel and imaginative solutions. For example, there is Benjamin Vogt.

Benjamin is a poet and a former university professor who became fascinated with gardening as a way to connect with nature in the suburb outside of Lincoln, Neb., where he and his family live. In 2007, he and his wife purchased their current home, which was set on a patch of lawn identical to all the other yards up and down the street. Benjamin, however, turned 2,000 square feet of that turf into a tapestry of native prairie plants.

Despite pushback from neighbors hostile to his "weeds," he persisted, and the distinctive, all-season beauty of his yard attracted a growing fan base. His admirers kept asking Benjamin for advice and help, and in 2015 he launched Monarch Gardens LLC, a "prairie-inspired design firm" to share what he had learned.