How to “Meadowscape” Your Yard

September 9th, 2015

Take your typical, orderly suburban landscape, blend it with the serendipitous color of a wildflower meadow, and you get a “meadowscape.”

Meadow-style gardens have become trendy as a way to attract pollinators and reduce mowing.

That’s the new term for a loose – some would say “wild” – style of gardening that’s gaining traction in these eco-sensitive times.

A lot of people like the idea of a landscape that takes care of itself.

But most aren’t quite ready for a full-blown meadow in the yard – especially not the kind yielded by those “meadow-in-a-can” seed mixes that were a fad several years ago.

Those seldom work, says Connie Schmotzer, a York County Extension educator who’s meadowscaped her own suburban-York home.

   “Meadows in a can sound so easy,” she says. “But if you look at what’s in them, there are usually no warm-season grasses. I’m hard pressed to find many varieties that are native to our area. And a lot of the varieties are annuals. It might look great the first year but then not much of anything after that.”

The new approach involves eliminating turfgrass by disturbing the soil as little as possible, then planting native grasses and wildflower plants into a mulched bed.

But the bigger twist of meadowscaping is laying out the beds so they’re more palatable to neighborhood sensitivities – not to mention weed-wary municipal code officers.

In her book “Urban and Suburban Meadows” (Matrix Media Press, 2011, $29.95), Washington landscape designer Catherine Zimmerman argues that it’s possible to package meadows in ways that work in suburban developments and town lots.

She suggests planting in island beds separated by grass, mulch or paved strips; using design tactics common to “regular” landscaping, and adding accessories such as benches and birdhouses to give the gardens a tended feel.

Zimmerman sees this as a kinder, gentler way to garden that undoes some of the water-polluting and ecosystem destruction done by our lawn-heavy landscapes.

“I’m not against lawn,” she said in a talk at the Native Plants in the Landscape Conference in Millersville. “But there are a lot of problems with lawns.”

She cites runoff from excess fertilizer; off-target wildlife damage from all of the herbicides, insecticides and fungicides; unnecessary use of gas from constant mowing, and noise pollution from leaf blowers, plus lawn’s lack of value to birds, bees and butterflies.

Alternatively, a meadowscaped mix of native grasses and flowers requires no fertilizer, no pesticides and no water after the first season.

The main maintenance is a once-a-year cut-down – ideally at the end of winter.

Connie Schmotzer’s York front yard is a sort of suburban-friendly meadow.

“These are not no-maintenance gardens,” says Schmotzer. “There is no such thing as a no-maintenance garden. These are low-maintenance, though.”

She says her work involves mostly some in-season weeding and periodic refereeing to cull out varieties that are getting “too happy.”

But what attracts most people to this type of gardening is not reduced maintenance but the benefits to wildlife.

“I liked the idea of bringing nature in,” says Rich Silverman, who with his wife, Linda, meadowscaped their half-acre Shiloh, York County, yard. “We’re seeing birds and insects now that we never saw before.”

“I came at it more from an environmental, ecological point of view,” says Linda Silverman, who like her husband, is a Penn State Master Gardener. “This was a way to really help the environment and enjoy a garden as well.”

Both admit to being unsure at first whether they were going to like this decidedly looser look.

“You have to have the right mindset,” says Linda. “When I started gardening, I had my little begonias all in a row. It was very structured. In my old age, I’m getting wilder.”

“It’s not for everyone,” agrees Schmotzer. “If you’re a control freak, this may not be the kind of garden you’ll like.”

Even Zimmerman admits to being “queen of the lawn” when she moved into her house 19 years ago.

But when she noticed the original army of fireflies virtually disappeared within two years of starting a four-step lawn-care regimen, she rethought her land-care values.

Rich Silverman says what helped was converting the lawn gradually, a piece at a time.

This is the Silvermans’ meadow garden in summer.

The Silvermans also planted in clusters and edged their beds in stone.

As more and more of the wide-open back yard transformed from sterile green carpet to buzzing mini-fields of beebalm and goldenrod, the look grew on them.

And rather than call the weed police, passersby paid compliments.

Like the Silvermans, Schmotzer and her Master Gardener husband, Mike, have been converting lawn to meadowscape one bed at a time.

She was especially concerned what the neighbors might think when they tackled the front yard.
“People get uncomfortable if they think no one is involved in a garden,” she says.

To alleviate that, the Schmotzers planted in curved beds that are lined with Belgian blocks and separated by mowed lawn strips.

They laid out the plants in a somewhat “landscapey” way – with groupings and layers – and finished it off by adding a paver patio out front with a bench.

“I’m using all natives because my main interest is planting for wildlife,” says Schmotzer.

Going 100-percent native isn’t a hard-and-fast requirement for meadowscapes, nor is scrapping all lawn and ornamental beds.

It’s OK to add natives and meadow gardens as part of a diverse landscape.

As Schmotzer says, “Gardens also have to please us or else we won’t plant them.”

What meadowscaping aims to do is give an option that looks good to us while looking tasty to birds, bees and butterflies.

Two other books to check out if you’re interested in meadowscaping

• “The American Meadow Garden” by John Greenlee and Saxon Holt (Timber Press, 2009, $34.95).
• “Bringing Nature Home” by Douglas W. Tallamy (Timber Press, 2009, $17.95).

How to create a meadow garden

Eliminate turfgrass. “Disturb the soil as little as possible,” says Catherine Zimmerman, author of “Urban and Suburban Meadows.” “Never plow. You’ll bring up weeds.”

Instead, strip off the grass, kill it with an herbicide or propane torch, or smother it by layering 5 sheets of newsprint, a layer of cardboard, an inch or two of leaves and an inch or two of wood mulch. Then wait 6 months to open planting holes after the grass has begun to decay.

Use small plants. In small gardens, young plants or “plugs” (seedlings the size of a thumb) spaced 12 to 18 inches apart work better than seeds. Include 20 to 40 percent native grasses along with wildflowers.

Police. Pull, dig or spot-spray weeds and overly aggressive plants to give the desired species an advantage in the early years.

Mow. For seeded meadow gardens, Zimmerman recommends keeping the plot mowed at 6 to 15 inches throughout the season for the first two years to keep weeds from going to seed. All meadow gardens should then be cut to stubble once a year, ideally at the end of winter.

Tread lightly. No need to fertilize. Native meadow plants prefer lean soil. Also, avoid pesticides and skip watering after the plants have established the first season.