Skip to content
Amanda Kupsti

Guides

Guides by Amanda Kupsti

Practical, local guides for Omaha, Nebraska — written for homeowners who want to understand their options.
A colored-pencil garden planting plan on graph paper next to a trowel, illustrated seed packets and potted native plants

Working with a designer

What a garden design plan includes — and what affects what it costs

What you typically get from a residential garden design plan, the difference between a consultation, a planting plan and a full design, and the factors that make one project cost more than another.

· 7 min read

A monarch butterfly on pink swamp milkweed and bumblebees on purple wild bergamot in a backyard garden by a wooden fence

Design

A pollinator garden for a small Omaha yard: what to plant and how to lay it out

How to fit a useful pollinator garden into a small city yard, patio edge or side strip in Omaha — bloom sequence, host plants, sun and part-shade lists, and simple layouts.

· 7 min read

A narrow side-yard garden with a stepping-stone path between ferns, sedges and red columbine flowers

Plants

Keeping rabbits and deer from eating your native garden in Omaha

Which native plants rabbits and deer tend to leave alone, how to protect new plantings, and simple fencing and timing strategies that work in Omaha neighborhoods and edge-of-town yards.

· 7 min read

Backlit native prairie grasses turning copper and red with dark coneflower seedheads in autumn light

Plants

Drought-tolerant native plants for Omaha yards: a practical list

Native plants that handle Nebraska's hot, dry summers once established — sorted by sun, height and use — plus how to water a new planting so it becomes drought tolerant.

· 7 min read

A hand-drawn planting plan on graph paper with colored circles for plants, a trowel and small potted native plants on a wooden table

Soil & site

Planting in Omaha clay soil: what actually helps (and what to skip)

Why so many Omaha yards have heavy clay, how to test drainage at home, which native plants handle it, and why big amendments often make clay problems worse.

· 7 min read

Frost-covered coneflower seedheads and grass stems in a winter native garden with a small sparrow perched on one seedhead

Design

Designing a native garden that looks good in all four Nebraska seasons

How to plan a small Omaha native garden for spring, summer, fall and winter interest — with bloom-sequence tables, grasses for structure and what to leave standing over winter.

· 7 min read

A curved front-yard bed of purple coneflowers, black-eyed Susans and little bluestem beside a concrete walk and a brick bungalow

Getting started

Replacing a front lawn with a native garden in Omaha: a first-season plan

A practical, season-by-season plan for turning part of an Omaha front lawn into a native planting bed — removing turf, choosing plants for full sun and clay, and keeping it tidy enough for the neighbors.

· 8 min read

Articles by Amanda Kupsti