OGUNQUIT — Just about a year ago, the installation of the Seaside Garden along the Marginal Way walk was 90 percent complete, with new plants taking root. Today, the meadow garden of little bluestem grass, butterfly weed, blueberries and 16 other types of native plants thrives where once only invasive species grew. Even the boulders that pepper the color-blasted garden and the flagstone pathways are native rocks.

Landscaper Tom Lynch, who designed the garden, calls the reformed space in the area known as Devil’s Kitchen a “good example of what can be done” with native plants and some vision.

“It’s nice to take something so tired and, I would say, ugly with the invasive plants, and transform it,” Lynch said.

“Decades ago the Marginal Way Walk was a cowpath, so I thought it was appropriate to bring a meadow back,” Lynch said of the orange flowers and green plants rippling in the ocean wind. With the different heights of the plants and the grass, the motion of the waves almost seemed to continue onto the land and into the garden.

When Lynch designed the garden, he balanced the needs of the community with the overall look and feel of the garden, using a variety of plants that bloom in different seasons to ensure that there will be something to look at in the garden no matter the time of year. Even in the snowy months, there will be a bright red pop of berries on the winterberry bushes.

Boulders are placed to dissuade walkers and joggers from taking too sharp a corner and stepping in the garden inadvertently, and the benches are placed to allow people to feel like they’re “part of the garden” when sitting on them. Lynch even chose to put a beach plum bush near the edge of the garden to allow people greater access to it, because “how many people have heard of a beach plum?”

Yet when Lynch thinks of community, he’s considering more than just the human aspect.

The garden is a certified wildlife habitat through the National Wildlife Federation, meaning that the area Lynch has created provides food, water and shelter to animals as well. The serviceberries bring waxwing birds in droves to snack, as do the blueberries, chokeberries and winterberries. The meadow portion of the area is specially designed for pollinators, monarch butterflies in particular.

“A garden has a soul,” said Lynch. “You just work with that.”

And Lynch has been working hard. He had to start some plants himself, growing them specially for the Seaside Garden. Every week, he usually spends an hour in the garden, weeding and keeping an eye out for any invasive plants, like black swallow-wort, that try to creep back in.

“They’re not going to win round two,” Lynch said of the widespread invasives. “Preventative maintenance is key. ”

Weeding is the only real maintenance that the garden needs, though there is some replanting in process, to repair damage done over the winter. Though Lynch expected mortalities, only three plants were lost due to a late-season thaw and freeze.

A few more plants died because they were planted over a hidden underground spring, and the extra water was too much to handle. Lynch called that part of the learning curve, and is currently replanting the area with the water-tolerant winterberry bushes.

Eventually the garden will be mostly self-sustaining as the groundcover plants spread and stop weeds from taking root, but as it is young and still establishing itself, it needs some extra care. For that reason, there’s an irrigation system in place.

However, no chemicals are used and the garden is all natural. Lynch doesn’t deadhead plants but instead lets nature take its course. This allows for more animal interactions, like goldfinches eating seeds from coneflowers.

Lynch said a big part of his motivation for this garden was to “create something people can learn from.”

He’s happy to explain the garden to interested passersby, and did so multiple times as walkers overheard him detailing the layout of the garden. Lynch identified flowers, explained their purposes, and even gave tips on where to buy the plants as people pointed to their favorites.

“You have one person stop and suddenly you have eight people around you, listening in,” said Lynch. “We love to see people stop and look.”

There are some other spots in town and on the Marginal Way Walk where Lynch thinks more native gardens could be placed, but he said it comes down to a matter of funding. This garden was made possible by a $150,000 gift from Ogunquit resident Wayne Griffin, and Lynch said “not many opportunities like this exist.”

However, Lynch works closely with Oqunquit Town Manager Thomas Fortier to maintain the garden and thinks that residents of this coastal community have great love and respect for the garden, so perhaps the future holds more opportunities.

Jim and Marsha Ryan, visitors to Oqunquit from Massachusetts, said they walk the path every year they visit and they remember what the area was like before the garden was planted.

“It was a mess but it came out great,” said Jim Ryan. “It’s gorgeous.”

While Lynch maintains that “Mother Nature is the best designer,” it would seem from the comments of passers-by that he has done an equally wonderful job.