Today I’m participating in a massive, worldwide blogging event called Blog Action Day, where the topic we’ll all write about is Water.
As any California gardener knows, water is our most precious resource. In this post, I’m going to show you how to create a lawn-and-chemical-free meadow garden teeming with life, color, scent and natural beauty. And the best part about meadows? If the correct plants are chosen, they’re very drought tolerant, requiring very little water outside of our normal rainfall.
Earlier this year I stumbled upon a gorgeous, wild meadow at Lake Tahoe. I couldn’t believe how absolutely perfect it was, and decided to take photos of a few key elements that I thought made it particularly beautiful.
I’ll compare some of these elements with meadows I’ve created for my clients to show how you, too, can design your own meadow garden.
Tips for designing a Meadow Garden
1. Vary the sizes of grasses Unlike traditional turf lawns, meadows have many different types of grasses with different heights, bloom times and colors. Don’t just use a single grass, but rather plant several grasses and blend them together for a more natural look.
Wild Meadow’s Grasses My Meadow’s Grasses
2. Color – just because you’re using grasses doesn’t mean you have to forfeit color! Look at any meadow and you’ll find a riot of color both from individual grasses and the wildflowers.
Wild Meadow’s Flowers
My Meadow’s flowers
3 Shape of Flowers – Many meadow flowers have tall and wiry stems, similar to their surrounding grasses. I can’t think of a logical reason for this other than Mother Nature has great aesthetic taste. Imagine a clunky dinnerplate dahlia mixed in here – it wouldn’t exactly ‘blend’ now would it?
Wild Meadow My Meadow
4. Drifts – Throughout a meadow, you’ll find drifts (or ‘swaths’) of one type of flower. Sure there’s lots of different flowers in a meadow, but mixed throughout are drifts – and it’s the combination of both that makes a meadow look natural.
Wild Meadow’s drifts of lupine and daisies
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this. The comparison photos between a natural and planned meadow really get the point across. It can be easy to come up with a nothing more than a messy yard when designing a meadow, but your explanations show what it takes to give it just the right amount of balance and structure. Awesome post.
and of course you know the meadow designs of Piet Oudolf…a huge impact on my life.
Love again.
S
You are SO right on with this, especially about how filled with life a meadow is…one adventure after another. Just sitting and watching is an education in life.
I loved this.
packing now and leaving Maine,
Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
Sharon, I couldn’t agree more with you about it being an education in itself. Just pulling up a chair to sit and watch a meadow is one of the greatest gifts we could give our children (our ourselves!) – the amount of activity going on is truly stunning! I, too, love Piet Oudolf’s designs – have you actually seen them in person? I would love to see one of his gardens. He was just featured in this month’s Garden Design (I think, that’s the magazine) – he’s probably one of my top 3 favorite designers of all time. Good luck packing and closing up – must be very bittersweet for you both. California’s waiting for you…..
This is the best Rebecca. I want to put a meadow-like garden in my postage stamp front yard that is not off-putting to my neighbors. My grass has to go. Nice post. This took a lot of work!
Thank you ‘Anonymous’ – very sweet of you. I’ve installed meadows in small gardens, and have had really good luck with Carex pansa as it’s not as tall as other grasses. It’s pretty slow to get started, though, I’ll warn you. But it’s truly beautiful and very tough.
What a marvelous combination of planned and natural landscapes!
I appreciated how you juxtaposed a planned meadow with a natural meadow.
It just goes to show that if given the space a woman made meadow can look beautiful and thrive.
Thanks Michelle and Daffodil – emulating the beautiful part of nature is what it’s all about, right? So glad you liked it!
Thanks Gen and Kerry! The lawn in the lush meadow photo is a mix of 3 different fescues and is very low water – only needing irrigation once a week in the hottest months of summer, and nothing the rest of the year. It also doesn’t need to be mowed except for maybe once every 2 years to rejuvenate it. Think of all the energy saved!!
Beautiful post! Lovely images and great ideas.
Rebecca, this is exquisite! The lawn in your meadow looks so tufty and natural. What type of lawn is that? It must be low-water!
I love your comment about how dinnerplate Dahlias would hardly be the thing. So true and such a good reminder! I think that’s the talent in being a writer and designer – you can articulate the elements which make an overall effect work.
Nice post.
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