Making a Mini Meadow
Discover more from The Simple Landscape
Like a lot of people, I’m interested in getting rid of my lawn in favor of creating habitat for wildlife.
Even though Ray genuinely enjoys lawn mowing, we have a huge, sloped backyard. It’s a lot.
I’ve spent the past year doing a deep dive into “meadowscaping” research. And I’ve learned it’s quite a complex process to convert lawn into meadow.
First, I checked with a Village official (who happens to be a good friend) to find out about any laws concerning lawns.
Many municipalities require properties to be maintained according to certain standards having to do with respecting neighbors’ views or preventing “critters” from moving in.
In my case, a backyard meadow would be considered a garden. No problem there.
Next, I consulted with my adjacent neighbors, both of whom have the same large backyard lawns.
Neighbor A said I should do whatever I want.
Neighbor B raised concerns about ticks. This is no small matter, considering we have intense white-tailed deer pressure in our village and high levels of Lyme disease in our community.
Neighbor B suggested the idea of using only low-growing plants for the meadow. I plan to research this further over the winter.
In the meantime, I decided to test out the Deer Resistant Wildflower Seed Mix from American Meadows in my raised bed at the Colgate Community Garden over the summer.
The seed mix is a collection of annual, perennial, and biennial native and non-native species of low, medium, and tall-growing flowers.
The community garden is fenced against deer, so I won’t know the level of deer-resistance this mix offers in my location. I just wanted to get my feet wet.
On Memorial Day, when all danger of frost had passed in my area, I planted the seeds in my raised bed according to the directions provided.
This involved scattering the seeds, putting down cardboard and walking over them to ensure good soil contact, and leaving them uncovered.
I watered them gently after that.
I did not have to remove turf or prepare the soil in my raised bed, as I will need to do in my backyard.
But I did ask the garden manager not to add any compost, because meadow plants thrive best in soils that are not too nutrient-dense.
If you’re curious, these are the plants included in the seed mix:
Achillea millefolium, White Yarrow
Anagallis monellin, Blue Pimpernel
Coreopsis lanceolata, Lance-Leaf Coreopsis
Coreopsis tinctoria, Plains Coreopsis
Digitalis purpurea, Foxglove
Eschscholzia californica, California Poppy
Gaillardia aristata, Blanket Flower
Lobularia maritima, Sweet Alyssum
Lupinus densiflorus, Yellow Lupine
Lupinus hartwegii, Hartweg's Lupine
Lupinus perennis, Wild Lupine
Lupinus succulentus, Arroyo Lupine
Papaver rhoeas, Red Poppy
Rudbeckia gloriosa, Gloriosa Daisy
Salvia coccinea, Scarlet Sage
Salvia farinacea, Blue Sage
Zinnia elegans, Zinnia
We had an unusually hot and dry start to the summer this year. I watered once a week, but I suspect the weather still impacted the germination time for the seeds.
Here is what the raised bed looked like after four weeks:
At this point my family and I left for a one-month vacation.
I considered asking my friend and neighbor to send me photo updates, since she also has a raised bed at the community garden, but decided I’d rather be surprised.
When I got back home, the very first thing I did was to go over and visit the mini meadow. Here is what I found on July 30th:
A huge stand of tall plants had taken over most of the raised bed, even though many other species were growing nicely around the perimeter and under the shade of these large guys.
I pulled out my phone to try to identify the tall plants and came up with nothing! I consulted the original meadow plant mix, and still nothing!
Later I reached out to my fellow community gardeners, some of whom are professional horticulture people, and we remain stumped. If readers of this newsletter have any ideas, please let me know!
Here’s a closer look at the mystery plant:
I decided to cut it all down except for one small stand, hoping it will flower at some point to help with identification.
Beth, the garden manager, suspects it’s something left in the seed bank from last year (this is the first year I have worked with the raised bed).
I suspect this is true, because annual marigolds have sprung up as well, and I did not plant them!
Even though it’s now September, I hope more of the wildflowers will have time to catch up. We’ve got at least six more weeks of growing time left.
So far, there are tons of poppies in all colors, a blue plant I would call a larkspur, which seems to be a volunteer (not in the seed mix), some lupine foliage, a pink-flowering plant also not included in the seed mix, and many more yet-to-be-identified seedlings.
I’m excited to see what else happens. But I’ve already decided three things going forward for my backyard meadow plans:
1. I will let everything grow in to see what’s there before eliminating the existing “lawn” (really there is very little turf grass there now; it’s mostly a mix of annual and perennial weeds and other plants).
2. After figuring out the best way to eliminate unwanted existing vegetation (there are four options, each with pros and cons), I’ll create my own seed mix with a heavy emphasis on perennial plants including grasses, rather than quick-color annuals.
3. Because of our deer issues, the whole thing is going to be tricky. I might need to plant a cover crop interspersed with larger container-grown perennial plants that will take over slowly.
And I might need to start small. But that’s okay. As with any creative work, the point is to begin.
Book review of Mini Meadows: Grow a Little Patch of Colorful Flowers Anywhere around Your Yard
When I tell you Mini Meadows (Storey Publishing) is my new favorite gardening and landscaping book, I’m not exaggerating.
Maybe it’s the designer in me, but I love the design of this book as much as its content. It’s a perfect example of breaking down a complicated topic into bite-sized chunks, and delivering a ton of information in a bright, inspiring, I-can-do-this format.
Author Mike Lizotte is the owner of American Meadows, the company from which I ordered my mini-meadow seeds.
American Meadows has an incredibly informative meadowscaping website by the way, not to be missed. But the book is such a useful and beautiful product, I think it’s a worthwhile investment.
It includes case studies of real-life folks who have created mini meadows for different purposes along with plant lists for different goals.
It also features clear step-by-step instructions for growing a mini meadow and wonderful photography.
Mini Meadows would make a terrific gift for anyone interested in growing native plants and supporting wildlife, or who simply enjoys gardening and flowers. There are ideas for planting even the tiniest of meadows in containers.
I’m pretty sure I’ve read every meadow-making book out there, and there are many great ones, but Mini Meadows is my hands-down pick if you just want to read one book on this fun and important topic!