3–4 minute read

Learn how your native soils can help to identify the plant communities present in your garden. Common plants for each community are linked to photos and additional information. The community name is a link to a description, a guidesheet, map links for local examples, and a printable plant list with photo links.

Find your soil series

Soil series characterize not only the physical and chemical properties of soil, but also the depth of its layers, the position of the water table, and the nature of the underlying bedrock — factors that play an important role in determining the type of plant community. You can easily determine your soil series using an online soil map.

• Learn how to use the NRCS-USDA Web Soil Survey to identify your soils using your address. This is the best way to find detailed information about your native soil, but is slow and not user-friendly.
• The Orange County Interactive GIS Tool is much faster and easier to use than the NRCS-USDA tool. However, during busy times (beginning of the workday, lunch, etc) the server fails to load the needed soil series overlay.

Find the associated natural communities

Click on a soil series below to view the common plants for each associated plant community.

Decide which communities are present

Because soil series is only one of several factors that influence the plant community, the Plants table will likely show several community choices. Consider the following to help decide which communities are present in your landscape:

• First, see if your yard contains plants that are characteristic of a community (symbols for these are colored red) in the Canopy section. If there are none, see if a plant that is abundant in your yard is present uniquely in one of the communities.
• Click any plant name to view photos and descriptions.
• Refer to the Concepts graphic showing the relationship between landscape and plant community.
• Soil series do not capture small-scale variations, so if plants that are common in your yard are not found in the table, try looking at the table for the corresponding acidic or basic community. The table for Wilkes is a quick way to see all of the basic communities, while Appling shows all of the acidic communities.

Choose your plant palette

Learn more about a community — learn which plants are truly typical of the community, obtain a printable plant list, and find links to local parks where you can see the community. You can quickly navigate to your community by clicking on its name in the Plants table above.

Find a plant source

Conservation through propagation is a goal of both the North Carolina Botanical Garden and the North Carolina Native Plant Society. Each organization lists native plant nurseries that propagate their own plants as opposed to collecting them from the wild.

• NCBG list
• NC Native Plant Society list

Create and install your design

• Need design inspiration? Visit a local natural area.
• NC CES has a very complete website, Going Native, to guide you through the design and implementation of a native urban landscape.
• To accurately identify your soil conditions, pick up boxes and forms from the Extension Office and submit soil samples for a free analysis. The links below provide detailed instructions for sampling your soil, sending it for analysis, and interpreting the results.
• Links
  • Overview of NC soil and improvement
  • Soil
  • Soil Testing homepage

A final note

Development alters the characteristics of a site. Your garden, situated near buildings, concrete, or fencing, is no longer a pristine natural environment. For example, plantings may receive reflected heat from streets, sidewalks or walls or receive less moisture than normal. Each of these altered areas may deserve its own plant community, one different than the dominant one for your area. Consider enhancing the biodiversity of your site by adding communities that are found in your local area and make the most of conditions created by development.