Returning to the Meadow

Posted in Around the Garden, Behind the Scenes, Gardens and Collections on November 9 2011, by Jody Payne

The Native Plant Garden is designed to showcase the beauty of native plants throughout the year. If this were spring, I might be talking about the planting of the woodland, where trillium, lady slippers and ferns were planted in April and May. But this is another time and another season.

Now the meadow is in focus. We haven’t had a meadow in the Native Plant Garden for a very long time–not since the old one succumbed to dodder. But once in bloom, the meadow will be an open, full sun grass garden punctuated with flowers. It has three distinct conditions available for plants, each offering a different environment to support a variety of species.

     – A low lying wet site;
     – Conditions somewhere between wet and dry, or “mesic” meadow;
     – And upland dry conditions.

Have a look at the slideshow below to get a better idea of what’s been planted here at the Garden, and how we went about planning the second iteration of our own meadow:

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As you can see, the process to create such a complex environment is time-consuming and laborious, but rewarding, as well. I look forward to seeing you in the meadow in the summer of 2013, when the Native Plant Garden is reopened to the public.