Building your garden one native plant at a time

Native Bee balm takes centre stage in the garden alongside the fern garden.

Be part of the solution: Plant a few native plants each year

If 1 million of us each planted just ONE native flower this spring, we would feed half a BILLION pollinators across hundreds of species—bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and more.

Building a garden does not happen overnight. In fact, some of the best gardens take a lifetime of planning, planting, changing and repositioning.

And, for most of us, that’s the true joy of gardening. Like a living room interior, it works better if it evolves over time. Not only do the conditions in our gardens change as tree canopies grow larger and shade out the areas below, but new opportunities arise when once shady locations are opened up to the sun’s rays after a storm, for example, takes down a tree.

One of the great joys in the garden occurs each spring when we anxiously await the emergence of last season’s new plantings.

Native plants are not only beautiful, they contribute to our gardens in so many ways, from creating diversity in plant life, to bringing in a greater variety of fauna from birds to butterflies.

Last year, a number of new plants as well as existing plants were added to various areas of our garden, and I am so looking forward to their emergence and presence this season after they’ve had an opportunity to get established and put on a full year of growth.

Purple coneflowers, wild columbine, wild geranium and wild ginger are just a few of the native plants we added to the woodland garden last year either as new plants, or by dividing some of the plants already in the garden.

There are probably others that I can’t even remember – just one of the benefits of getting old.

It will be interesting to see how the new plants survived our difficult winter. The high snow provided the needed protection for the newly planted roots, but those same conditions forced our rabbits, deer and smaller critters to nibble on many plants that they have traditionally not touched over a more normal winter. And “nibble” is more of a kind way of saying “attacked.”

I am hoping our wild ginger that I planted last year will begin to get more established this season.

The result, plants that have been set back somewhat and clipped off just as they were beginning to show signs of good growth. I’m hoping the natural pruning will force more growth and result in more bushy plants this year, but that might be a little optimistic.

In any case, much of the spring expectations centres around the new plants and how they will change our landscape this season.

Plan now to add new natives this spring

I can’t imagine a spring without this expectation of great things to come. And, that’s why it’s important to begin planning now to add new native plants to the garden this spring and summer so that next year you will be able to experience that same anticipation.

In our garden, I’m planning to add a few favourites to various areas of the garden.

A Native gardening gem

A Garden For The Rusty-Patched Bumbbee is a must-have book for any native gardener looking for detailed information on individual native plants.

My first stop is an outstanding garden book and plant encyclopedia of native plants written by native plant experts Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla with excellent illustrations from Ann Sanderson. Although “A Garden For The Rusty-Patched Bumblebee, Creating habitat for Native Pollinators” is focused on Ontario and the Great Lakes, it is a wealth of information for any gardener looking for information on native plants in this general area, whether in Ontario or in the surrounding areas including the eastern United States Great Lakes area. If you want more information on this outstanding native plant book, read my full review here.

Wild Columbine

Wild Columbine should make a strong appearance in our garden after adding additional plants last year.

Just be sure to try and purchase your plants or seeds from a reputable seller as close to where you garden as possible. This helps to ensure you get hardy plants that are proven for your specific region.

I try to purchase most of my native plants from Ontario Native Plants. (link to my earlier post on this mail order company)

So what are my planned new native plants for this season?

Here are three that I hope to add to our woodland garden.

Meadow Sundrops. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Meadow Sundrops (Oenothera pilosella): These yellow-flowered Carolinian-zone plants, not unlike evening primrose, are easy-to-grow yet versatile plants that according to the authors of A Garden ForThe Rusty-Patched Bumblebee, needs to be grown in more gardens. They provide the following description: The clusters of large (in relation to the overall size of the plant) fragrant flowers are a lemon yellow that glows, and the flowers have lines that serve as nectar guides. Bees, flies, butterflies and skippers all visit the blooms, which provide nectar and pollen.”

That sounds perfect to me. But that’s not all, authors Johnson and Colla report in the book that the foliage is often reddish, and the plants tolerate both dry soil and moist conditions. They do well in rain gardens and readily spread creating colonies.

The plants reach a height of 45-60 cm (17-23 inches) and the yellow flowers bloom late spring to early summer. They prefer lots of sun and will attract pollen specialist native bees, are larval hosts for primrose, pearly wood-nymph, grape leaffolder, white-lined sphinx, Nessus sphinx, gallium sphinx, red-streaked mompha and others. For more information, check out the Wikipedia page here.

Ontario Native Plants website showing the beautiful Spotted Beebalm (monarda punctuate).

Spotted Bee Balm (Monarda punctata): I planted spotted bee balm a few years back but for some reason it never took. Its interesting yellow and purple flowers are just too much to resist so I’m planning to take another shot at it this year. Our other bee balm and monarda plants are doing well in the garden, so I’m sure I can get this established with a little more care this time around.

Spotted bee balm blooms mid-summer, likes a sunny exposure in dry to average soil. Its impressive flower clusters appear in tiered whorls that grow up the central stem. Add to its attractive appearance, the fact it is a Carolinian zone perennial that appears to “glow with a silvery Sheen from the prominent silvery bracts. it is short-lived but if you plant it in an area it likes, it will self-seed. Expect native bees, wasps and beetles to be regular visitors.

I like bees, especially native ones. Check out my earlier post here on native bees.

Wild Lupin as seen on Ontario Native Plants’ website. Don’t mistake the common lupin hybrids with this native variety.

Wild Lupine (Lupnus perennis): Don’t mistake this Lupine for the wildly-coloured hybrids that grow all over the Atlantic region. These are not vibrant multi-colour lupines that, quite frankly, can look spectacular in a large drift. These are spectacular in their own right, but no-where near as showy as their hybrid cousins.

What makes these special is that they have specialist relationships with native bees and even more importantly are a larval host for the (extirpated) Karner blue butterfly, as well as the eastern tailed blue, wild indigo, duskywing, Perseus duskywing, frosted elfin, orange sulphur, clouded sulpher, painted lady, grey hairstreak and silvery blue butterflies, clover looper, phyllira tiger, Bella and sweet clover root borer moths. (Don’t ask me about all these butterflies. I got the information from, once again, the incredible encylopedic information in A Garden For The Rusty-Patched Bumblebee. (if you don’t already have this book, do yourself a favour and pick it up.)

So, wild Lupine sports lovely blue flowers, grows from 30-60 cm (12-23 inches)in height with late spring to early summer flowers and like sun to partial sun.

Again, from the authors of A Garden For The Rusty Patched…. “This carolinian perennial is gorgeous in all its stages; the glowing green of its palmate leaves, the beautiful blue of its pea-like flowers in late spring and early summer and decorative, dried seed pods.”

It does best in sandy soil, has a deep tap root and requires a specific inoculation in the soil, which native plant nurseries ensure is present when cultivating this plant.

A wrap: Let’s talk again next year

There you have it. Three new plants that I hope to get in the ground this season. There’s a good chance I’ll not get much enjoyment out of these plants this season, but we’ll certainly have something to talk about next year.

Remember, a native woodland garden is not something built in a day, week even in a season. It takes time, patience and a whole lot of persistance.

Let’s talk about this again next year.

Are you ready for spring migration?

The Red Wing Blackbirds are beginning to make an appearance in our local wetland signalling that spring migration is about to begin.

Red Wings remind me that warblers are on their way

Just recently, I spent the morning at a local wetland photographing Red Wing Blackbirds.

Now, we get a few Red Wings in our woodland garden throughout the year but they prefer wetlands over woodlands.

Their early arrival, however, marks the beginning of the spring migration in our area and elsewhere. They are a reminder that it’s time to begin getting our garden ready for the full migration of warblers, hummingbirds and other songbirds that is fast approaching.

Singing in spring

The hollow stems in bullrushes are perfect hiding places for insects over the winter. If you don’t have a wetland and bullrushes in your garden, you can add larger ornamental grasses to provide wintering shelter for insects.

These migrating birds are either simply passing through the area, or looking to make our backyards home during the warmer months.

By offering them the basic necessities of survival we can help them along the way and maybe convince a few of them to stick around and bless us with families.

How it all began in our garden

For years, our garden attracted most of the common birds in our area – cardinals, blue jays, several varieties of woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, and finches. however, it wasn’t until we began to let the garden go a little ‘wild’ and plant more and more native flowering trees, plants and groundcovers that I began to notice a significant increase in not only the number of birds, but the variety of birds in the yard.

This Blackburnian Warbler was just one of the many that dropped down in our garden to feast on a myriad of insects and fresh water in the many bird baths on the property.

It all culminated a couple of years ago with what I called “A weekend of warblers” (see post)which actually lasted a week or two. It may have been simply a lucky “fall out” of warblers over Mother’s Day weekend, or it may have been the pay off for all our hard work over the years slowly transforming our traditional garden of grass and non-native plants into a woodland-style garden with lots of native trees, plants and “wild” areas.

In any case, I prefer to think it was more than just chance.

In the following years, we’ve attracted our share of tanangers, warblers, orioles, oven birds and other primarily insect-eating birds. But that’s not all, last year we had a screech owl spend most of the winter in our owl box, this year it’s wild turkeys, and foxes are regular – almost daily – visitors to our yard along with other birds of prey.

Whether you live in the far reaches of Northern Ontario, Nova Scotia and Maine, or the northeastern areas of the United States and southwestern parts of Canada, or even in Western areas of Canada and the United States, the migration has begun. Keep an eye out for unusual birds over the coming months, especially the millions of colourful and joyous warblers that pass through these areas on route to their summer breeding grounds.

Native plants such as this monarda are critical to attract the greatest variety of backyard wildlife from birds and butterflies, to insects, caterpillars, mammals and reptiles.

And, of course, there is the annual hummingbird watch that captures the attention of so many gardeners and bird lovers.

How can we prepare our gardens for the spring migration?

But what do I mean when I say “preparing our gardens for the spring migration?”

We can start by ensuring that we have a reliable source of clean water available for the migrating birds. A bird bath is great, but several bird baths at different levels in the garden is even better.

On-ground bird baths or small watering holes are even better. A small patio pond or even better a naturalized pond takes our garden up to another level when it comes to providing the necessary ingredients to attract birds and other wildlife to our yards.

This water is not just for the migrating birds. It encourages insects and small mammals to our yards, which, in turn, become food for many of our migrating birds that follow the rise in insect activity along their migration route.

Native cedar provides ideal cover and shelter for a host of birds and wildlife that both nest in the trees and escape to them when threatened by predators. They also provide excellent roosting areas where they can escape high winds and freezing temperatures in winter.

While I was photographing the Red Wing blackbirds, I noticed other birds including Eastern blue birds capturing the early insect life that was beginning to emerge from their winter habitats. Many of the insects spent the winter in the cosy confines of the bullrush reeds that covered the wetlands.

Ask yourself if you have enough places in your garden for overwintering insects to survive our freezing temperatures. Did you leave your grasses up all winter? Do you have native grasses in your garden where the insects can hold up for the winter?

If the answer to these questions is “no”, chances are you need to add these to your garden this year to take advantage of the important early spring source of insects for migrating birds.

These grasses don’t have to be native grasses. Many of the larger, ornamental non-native grasses available will provide overwintering spots for insects and small mammals, but look for native plants whenever possible. Also, make sure that any non-native grasses you plant, are not invasive in your area. Don’t forget that many of these non-native grasses can spread far and wide from seed.

One of our resident wild turkeys enjoying the seeds of our native Northern Sea Oat grasses.

Our native Northern Sea Oat grasses, for example, provided a food source for our wild turkeys all winter and now they should provide migrating birds with insects if the wild turkeys didn’t eat them all.

The fountain grass is also very dense and provides hiding spots for overwintering lady beetles and other insect life.

It’s one thing to plant these grasses, it’s another to keep them up not only during winter, but well into spring to allow the overwintering insects to emerge safely from their hiding spots. If you must cut them down, don’t throw them out. Find a corner of your garden where you can leave them to allow overwintering insects the opportunity to escape into the garden. Later in summer, you can add these to your compost heap.

Water may be the most important critical element, but there ar so many more to consider in our gardens.

If you are lucky you might be able to attract an owl into your garden. Owls are an excellent way to control mice, rats and other small prey animals and insects in your garden. Although this Barred owl was photographed in a woodlot not far from our garden, we have had a screech owl (below) spend the winter together.

Screech owl in the garden

An owl box was the perfect winter home for this Gray morph screech owl “whooo” spent the winter using it as a roosting box before leaving in early spring.

Take note this year and plan to add for next year

Unfortunately, most of the other key elements had to be completed or “ignored” last year and in previous years in our garden.

But, again, we can do our best this season and do a little better next year and in the years to come. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your garden does not need to be either.

It’s the perfect time to take stock of what we already provide and areas of the garden that we can do better.

The next critical area we need to address are all those dead leaves that I hope are covering your garden. Let’s decide right now to just leave them. I know they look ugly in spring, but quite frankly most gardens look ugly before the plants begin to leaf out.

Here’s a secret, once the plants begin to leaf out, many of the leaves will already have started to break down in the garden and they’ll soon be covered by all the new foliage that is emerging through them. In the meantime, pay attention to all the birds that are poking about on your woodland floor looking for insects, insect eggs and other yummy treats.

Take joy in the birds finding food in early spring rather than how messy you think your garden may look for a couple of weeks. Attracting insect-eating birds in the garden is way more satisfying than looking out at a sterile yard. For more on the benefits of leaving your leaves, check out my earlier post: Why we should be leaving our leaves.

This adorable little red squirrel was photographed on one of our woodpiles. The tangle of branches provides cover for the little fellow, a home for smaller mammals and a breeding ground for insects as the wood and leaves that we pile on it in fall, begin to break down.

A woodpile or dead tree “snag” is a goldmine for wildlife

What about that old dead tree in the back of the yard that you’ve been meaning to cut down. DON’T do it. One of the features that I think has transformed our yard in recent years is the fallen tree in a corner of the yard. With it came our owl, wild turkeys and other wildlife that were not around before the tree met its end. My earlier post on the value of a brush or woodpile.

Sure, you may have to do some trimming to “tidy up” the tree, but leaving as much as you can will transform your yard. Try to find creative ways of using the tree, including using it to create a pathway planter. See my earlier post on creating a pathway planter out of a fallen log.

It’s not just the native flowers that add beauty of our gardens. Wildlife like this Yellow Swallowtail adds an immeasurable beauty to a landscape that no flower can measure up to.

What else can we do to encourage spring migrants?

First and foremost is the addition of native plants, including flowering trees, shrubs, perennials and ground covers.

These native plants are vital to any wildlife garden because they attract insects and caterpillars that are the primary source of nutrition not only for the migrating birds, but more importantly, for the baby birds that will begin being born in spring.

I could go on and on about the importance of planting as many natives as possible but check out a few of my posts below if you want more specific information.

Don’t forget shelter for the birds

Besides food and water, shelter is critical for birds and other wildlife.

In our garden, we try to provide both natural and man-made shelter areas. Bird boxes – including owl boxes and winter roosting boxes – are important to attract specific birds, especially our native blue birds. Well constructed and properly managed native bee houses are also outstanding man-made addition to our gardens. For outstanding bee houses, check out my earlier post here.

Offering wildlife natural shelter and roosting areas can really change your backyard. Few plants offer better shelter than groupings of evergreens, from cedars, to pines and low-growing evergreens.

This is an area that many gardens fall a little short. One large spruce, pine or cedar is a great addition, but a grouping of three or five is even better. Try to include one area in the garden for a grove of shelter trees, maybe three pine trees underplanted with low-growing juniper, birds nest pines or yews that even offer lovely berries in winter.

If evergreens just don’t work in your garden or if you already have your fill, consider a corner of the yard where you can plant a grouping of brambles that offer birds safe areas as well as berries in spring and summer.

Shelter for other garden critters

One of the easiest and best ways to attract even more wildlife to the garden is to include wood or brush piles.. They don’t have to be large, but the larger you can make them, the better chance of attracting a greater variety of wildlife like mice, possums, skunks and foxes. I know attracting mice may not sound desirable for many of us, but a healthy number of mice is ideal to attract everything from owls and raptors to foxes, coyotes and other predators including some you may not have realized like blue herons, wild turkeys etc.

Finally, don’t forget to clean out any existing bird houses that you have up in the yard. Birds want them cleaned out as much as possible. Sprinkling in a little powdered sulphur will eliminate any mites that may have overwintered in the bird house debris from the previous year.

Every year is a journey, take steps to make it more exciting down the road

Spring is also a good time to take stock of your feeders. Give them a good cleaning and make sure to clean and prepare your hummingbird feeders to be ready for that first sighting that is not too far away for most of us.

Can’t wait.

Like I said, gardens are not born in a day, a season or even in a year or two. They take time.

Use this article as a stepping stone to introduce more bird- and wildlife-friendly elements in your garden over time. One project at a time … a few every year, and before you know it, spring migration will be an exciting time in your garden and one that you’ll look forward to rather than a reminder of all the work that is ahead of you.

---

The making of a meadow

Angela den Hoed in front of her impressive meadow garden at her Pensylvannia home.

Landscape designer shares how she made her meadow garden

Removing sod and replacing it with a meadow is slowly taking root with progressive gardeners looking for a more natural approach to their landscape.

These gardeners are building meadows in the front, back and side yards to welcome wildlife that has had to make due with small islands of native and non-native plants and flowers for so many years.

Landscaper Angela den Hoed is one of these gardeners who have recognized the importance of meadow and prairie gardens and have taken the challenge of converting a large swath of turf in the front/side of her Carlisle, Pennsylvania home into a meadow.

It was a project that certainly came with its challenges. She chose to go with the most labour-intensive approach and, although the results after the first year appears incredibly successful, she admits it was a real learning process.

It just so happens, that was actually one of the key points of the entire project.

• If you are looking for ideas on using low-growing ornamental grasses, be sure to check out my post on Five low-growing ornamental grasses for the garden.

The meadow garden in Angela’s side yard with Black-eyed Susan, Blazing star, grasses and Purple coneflower just to name a few.

• More on Angela’s move from Engineering to Landscape designer here.

• More on Angela’s Woodland Garden design here.

Angela explains that installing the meadow was an important learning opportunity which she hopes to be able to take advantage of in future work with her landscaping clients, many of whom are beginning to ask about removing some or all of their grass in areas of their landscape to create a meadow garden.

In their book, Garden Revolution, How our Landscapes can be a source of Environmental Change, Larry Weaner and Thomas Christopher, write: “Native meadow is likely the best answer to North America’s over reliance on lawn, a means of saving the enormous quantities of water, fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, and fossil fuels annually invested in the cultivation of turf. Unlike shrublands and forests, meadows can be established from seed in a relatively short time to gravitate toward open space and expansive views, attributes not common in a forest or shrubland.”

The authors ask why, then, does grass continue to dominate our landscapes?

They point to the quality of seed that has been sold in the past to create these meadows and the desire by homeowners to have an instant meadow in a single season.

For more on meadow gardening, check out my post: Fields of Gold: Sunflowers and Goldfinches.

“Meadows can work, but only if the gardener selects plants and uses techniques that reflect the local habitats and ecological processes that will affect their survival and proliferation. This is why successful meadow will look quite different in different regions.”

Their approach to creating a successful meadow is a fascinating look at working with nature using native plants and a more ecological approach. Although it is aimed at creating and maintaining large meadows with the least amount of work, their approach is certainly one that works in a mini meadow-inspired garden.

If you have visions for a larger meadow, Garden Revolution is a must read gardening guide to creating meadows and other inspirational gardens by working with native plants.

If you are interested in exploring this approach in greater detail, check out my more extensive post on Garden Revolution here.

Back to Angela’s experience installing her meadow garden. I could try to explain the process in my own words, but I think it’s best to allow Angela to tell her story in her own words.

The following is a series of questions and answers for Angela about her experience.

Stairs leading to the back yard provide visitors with an impressive view of the side meadow garden.

1) What are your short- and long-term goals with the creation of your meadow garden?

My immediate goal with the meadow project is to gain experience in meadow making that I can share with my clients and followers. My clients are starting to ask for seeded meadows, and I felt the best way to really understand it was to do it myself on my own property, using materials available to regular homeowners rather than landscape companies. Long-term I want the meadow to be an example for my clients, neighbours, and the general public to see what is possible in a typical residential site. I hope it shows the ecological and economic advantages of a native planting vs. mowed lawn.

2) I have been following your progress on Instagram an it showed that the creation of the meadow seemed like a lot of work. Would you recommend it for the average do-it-yourselfer or do you think it is better left to professionals like yourself?

The average do-it-yourselfer is totally capable of planting a seeded meadow on this scale. Once you get to maybe 1/2 acre or more, it may be better to hire a trained landscape crew. We did go with the most labour-intensive method of site prep, which I would definitely NOT recommend.

Our options for sod removal were to solarize, use herbicide, or cut it out with a sod cutter. We missed our window of sunny summer months for solarization and didn’t want to spray glyphosate on 1000 ft² of lawn. So, the sod cutter was an experiment. Rolling up and hauling away the sod was the labor-intensive part, and we still ended up needing to spot spray with glyphosate anyway.

The other site prep methods take a lot less hands-on time. 

A monarch caterpillar at the milkweed in the newly created meadow garden.

Is there a lot of maintenance in a new meadow garden?

3) How about up-keep since you put it in. Has it taken up a lot of your time keeping weeds etc under control?

With the sod cutter, I was hoping to not only cut out the grass, but any weed seeds as well. Unfortunately, here in the Mid-Atlantic we have centuries of weed seed deposits in the soil (the seed bank) and they can remain viable for a very long time. I was shocked at how many weeds came up, both before and after we seeded the meadow plants.

Afterall, this area had been lawn grass for 25 years. Weeds are generally a problem if they interfere with the meadow plants germinating (blocking their light) so I wanted a clean slate for seeding. I used the scuffle hoe at first, but eventually I resorted to glyphosate.

After planting, more weeds germinated. Most of these were benign albeit surprising (petunias?). Once the meadow plants germinate, they can generally outcompete the weeds, but a few more thuggish ones needed to be removed like mugwort, thistle, morning glory, mulberry trees, even a butterfly bush.

The biggest problem is the yellow nutsedge, which I will need to stay on top of for a few years. Weeding actually doesn’t take much time at all. I'm out there all the time checking out what’s going on, but only go after the weeds maybe twice a month. Most of them would not have had the chance to germinate if we had used a different site prep method. I anticipate a lot less problematic weeds in year two.

4) Where did you get your inspiration to create the meadow?

I’m not sure there was just one point of inspiration to create the meadow. It was probably a combination of naturalistic design books and classes that I’ve taken – I’m inspired by the work of Claudia West, Benjamin Vogt, Kelly Norris, Roy Diblik, Adam Woodruff, Noel Kingsbury, James Hitchmough, and others.

Naturalistic design and science-based ecologically beneficial plantings are where my heart is but are a pretty foreign concept for most homeowners. It’s a hard sell to clients when there’s no local example to refer them to. My garden has always been my experimental space, and now it's becoming demonstration space as well. A seeded meadow is at the far end of the “wildness” scale in terms of garden design. I hope to do a more intentionally designed plug-planted perennial “meadow” garden in the future, which I think bridges the gap between a seeded meadow and a traditionally planted garden with larger groupings of plants. 

Black Eyed Susans dominate the meadow in the first year of growth. Angela expects a greater variety of blooms in the second year in the garden.

5) What are your plans for the meadow this year. Any additions, plant removals?

This will be year two for the meadow. In the first year the most visible plants were the nurse crop of oats and the mass of Rudbeckia. These will be significantly less prominent as more perennials and grasses start to take hold and bloom.

The first thing we will do this year is the cutback in late March, along with spot-spraying the clumps of lawn grass that came back up in year one. The front street-facing edge of the meadow was planted with potted plants in a more traditional garden arrangement to indicate intentionality. This part of the garden may get rearranged a bit this year, I am still holding space for a bit of artwork to be added there as well.

How long before wildlife show up in a meadow garden?

6) What wildlife did you see in the meadow this year?

I think it takes a while for the wildlife to find your new native plants. At least in the rest of my property that seems to be the case. However, there was a small flock of birds that were always hanging out at the bottom of the hill during the summer; they would all fly out when I walked by. There were plenty of bees, and a handful of monarch caterpillars on the milkweed. We also saw a hawk sitting on the roof looking over the meadow, he must think it’s a good place to hunt. I imagine a lot of the neighborhood rabbits will be moving in this spring.

7) What has been the reaction of neighbours on the street about the meadow.

The reaction has been positive. I’m sure they all thought we were crazy when we removed the sod last fall and it looked like a giant swath of bare soil until the seeds germinated in May. One neighbour said she wished she was brave enough to do the same thing. I have noticed a lot more walkers on our street since plants started blooming.

8) Is there anything you would have done differently if you could design and install it again. Tips for people thinking about creating one of their own.

I would definitely have used solarization as my site prep method. This requires more planning and patience. Basically, you must scalp the grass and then cover with black or clear plastic starting in June when the weather heats up, then leave it in place until just before you seed. This kills both the grass and the seeds in the very top layer of soil, and you can seed in the fall, winter, or spring. Giant sheets of plastic are not super neighbour-friendly though, so if doing this in a very visible area, glyphosate may be a better option. It also depends on the size of the meadow, as sheets of plastic will end up in the landfill. It’s a balance of size and your priorities. A few applications of glyphosate in the months before planting will also do the job, but many are uncomfortable with that. 

I also should have eliminated the nutsedge ahead of time. The nutlets live 8+ inches below the surface and can prevent other seeds from germinating.

It will be a while before I know if I’m happy with my seed selection. I decided to not complicate it too much with a totally custom seed mix. I started with a readily available mix from Ernst Seeds and had them modify it by upping the percentage of perennials and lowering that of grasses. That’s primarily to get a heavier floral display in the meadow and help the neighbours see it as more of a garden. I also put in some plugs of Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower) and Eryngium yuccifolium (rattlesnake master) in small groupings for a little added interest. Hopefully the rabbits didn’t eat all of them! I can always add in a few other species in the future.

Five favourite plants for the meadow garden

9) What agricultural zone are you growing it in and what are the top 5 plants in your meadow?

I am in USDA growing zone 6b, in the Ridge and Valley ecoregion.

I would say the top most recognizable plants in the meadow would be:

• Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower)

• Rudbeckia hirta (Blackeyed Susan)

• Asclepias syriaca (common milkweed)

• Aster novae-angliae (New England Aster)

• Monarda fistula (wild bergamot).

Why is a meadow is so important to the ecosystem?

10) Why is creating a meadow so important for gardeners and lovers of the natural world?

 A meadow is an alternative style of garden that more accurately mimics how plants grow in nature. There is a much higher plant density than you find in a traditional garden setting, and consequently opportunity for much higher diversity – both in the plant species and the wildlife it can serve.

Even a tiny micro-meadow can pack in a lot of diversity.

There are 23 different plants in my seed mix plus the two plants added as plugs. With a seed mix, you can plant any size of garden with that much diversity in it. You are also hedging your bets against plant failure – if one or two plants don’t thrive in your specific conditions, there are plenty of other species that will fill in the gaps. 

The obvious benefits of planting natives include providing food and habitat for local wildlife and supporting the local food web (hawks included!).

Beyond these are the reductions in fertilizer, fossil fuels, and noise and air pollution generated by lawn maintenance. We also get the additions of better stormwater absorption, improved soil health, and much higher carbon sequestration. These are ecosystem services that have been stripped from the original landscape and need to be restored as best we are able.