meadow

The Informal Garden in High Summer

Late July on my bank

My north bank in high summer is where most of my native plants reside, along with some favorite hybrid cultivars. By July it is like an orchestra in perpetual warm-up. Colors start trumpeting their hues. Soon soft drumbeats of rhythm and bass notes gets the whole show going, ending with a chorus of anemones in a jubiliant finale. Each year the effect is slightly different, just as a musical score varies with every performance.

I’m a total pushover for this look, I must admit. I live for it all year long. To me, jazzy colors and intricate layers of texture are as uplifting as any piece of music. So what makes a garden invigorating as opposed to visual cacophony? Is it okay to mix annuals and perennials?

First let’s look at technique, then review the best performers.

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Making A Modern Meadow Garden

Helenium, daylilies, alliums, and coneflowers mingle

What is a “modern meadow garden”?

According to several sources I consulted, the term came into use to describe a relatively recent trend in gardening and to differentiate it from genuinely wild spaces. A meadow garden is deliberately created as a “naturalistic” planting, usually consisting of indigenous plants that mimic a wild meadow. A modern meadow garden incorporates a much wider selection of cultivars than would ordinarily coexist in nature, greatly expanding the concept.

I would describe the characteristics of a such a garden as informal and open, often grassy, with an unforced blowsy quality we identify with unmown fields, glades and prairies. The overall impression is one of soft movement and harmony framed by the larger landscape.

Traditional meadows filled with natives have been around for a while, but they never really caught on in a big way. With the world now yearning to connect more with nature, this modern interpretation has brought the meadow squarely into the public eye, popping up in parks and gardens and private properties all over the world.

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