by Filippine Hoogland and Fiona Mitchell
As a new generation of landscape designers have successfully convinced the public of the aesthetic appeal of meadows, meadowscapes have become increasingly popular.
Hiring a professional landscaping business to install a biodiverse meadow isn’t cheap. Of course, you can do it yourself, but either way, a picture perfect flower meadow can be a labor intensive and/or pricey adventure.
Meadows are wonderful, but invasive pressure has become so problematic that, no matter how costly or carefully a meadow is installed, it is bound to face tough challenges.
Recently we visited a number of struggling meadows in Westchester County, NY. For each of them owners paid serious money. All these meadows had, after a number of years, lost a great number of their initial plants, and all were suffering serious pressure from invasives. This was true for meadows with a more relaxed maintenance protocol and those with a strict follow-up schedule. It made us wonder if homeowners might be misled with false promises when it comes to “meadowscaping.”
Meadows, or grassland with wildflowers, are an essential habitat for many pollinators, and giving up on this type of landscape is not an option. So, in this newsletter, we want to discuss strategies that will lead to more successful outcomes for meadows and offer realistic solutions for the sun-filled spaces in your yard.
Mowing and Haying
Keeping it Lean
If you have an upland or a dry/well-drained property with full sun, you can create a colorful meadow from your lawn with a simple mowing and haying regimen. “Haying” means removing the cut material. Let the lawn grasses grow and use a string trimmer to cut back the growth at least once a year. It is best to do this in phases; cut portions throughout the year while, if possible, leaving a minimum of 30% standing. Rake out the cut plant debris and dispose of it elsewhere. The removal of the plant debris will open up the soil for self-seeding flower species and reduce nutrients. Decreasing nutrients, especially nitrogen, will slow down the overall growth of the plants and make invasives more manageable.
Hand-pulling of invasive perennials and seed removal of short lived invasives, will be your biggest task. If you have little time, prioritize the removal of mugwort above all.
Adding Plants
Once your meadow starts to thin out, begin adding seeds and plants such as: golden alexanders (Zizia aurea), foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), wild bee balm (Monarda didyma), American asters (Symphyotrichum spp.), goldenrods (Solidago spp.), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), and brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).
Don’t let your expectations stand in the way; consider your modest outgrown lawn a victory already; The taller grasses will immediately offer great habitat for crickets, grasshoppers, lightning bugs, skipper butterflies, birds and many other little critters.
Woodland Edge Habitat
A More Common Habitat
Real meadow habitat isn’t typical for Westchester. Most of our open habitat can better be described as “woodland edge habitat.” This area receives sun but is framed by trees and, therefore, has coevolved with leaf litter. It is also where invasive vines, shrubs, and garlic mustard are most prevalent. Managing this habitat starts with removing the invasives.
Managing the Bullies
Use a plant identification tool to become familiar with the invasives and make a priority list. Make sure to tackle mugwort, garlic mustard, and all the invasive vines, such as bittersweet
Adding Plants
With the bulk of the invasives gone, you can start to welcome volunteering natives, and to add native plants. Look for species with good survival strategies. Don’t expect a delicate appearance; the more successful native species for this habitat are often taller and may look a bit unkempt. You can mitigate the more chaotic look by mowing clear borders and pathways, or by ensuring you have something colorful flowering at all times.
Suitable Plant Species
Goldenrods, American asters, cut-leaf coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), woodland sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus), boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium spp.), figwort (Scrophularia marilandica), mountain mint (Pycnanthemum spp.), evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), skullcaps (Scutellaria spp.), thimbleweed (Anemone virginiana), tufted hair grass (Deschampsia cespitosa), sedges (Carex spp.), common yarrow (Achillea millefolium), meadow rue (Thalictrum pubescens), beggar’s tick (Bidens spp.), Virginia jumpseed (Physalis virginiana), golden alexanders (Zizia aurea), foxglove beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), hairy agrimony (Agrimonia gryposepala), black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), honewort (Cryptotaenia canadensis), and the avens (Geum spp.) are all good choices.
Dense plantings of sturdy natives will help to out-crowd invasives, Over time, an occasional visit to hand pull invasives will be all this habitat requires.
If you have open space in your yard, but little time and means: plant trees. The more the better! Native trees, especially oaks are super habitats. Afraid they might fall on your house? Use small native trees or dwarf cultivars.
Novel Ecosystems
Whatever kind of yard we have, numerous plant species will present themselves without any invitation. These plants naturally spill over from the wild, unkempt landscapes in our county. What is going on in those natural landscapes today is rather horrific, but ignoring the reality of it in our designs will only set us up for failure.
Our advice? As daunting as it is, become familiar with these new plant communities and recognize their inherent challenges. Expel the worst bullies from your yard and give uncooperative species timeouts so they won’t have the chance to defeat you.
Our pretty little flower beds are not going to save the pollinators. To make a real impact, we have to manage our whole yard and also the environment around us in a more sustainable way. And, if we can’t conquer our enemies, we have to find strategies to live with them.
The name for these types of landscapes is “novel ecosystems.” Novel ecosystems encourage a more cooperative approach with our changing environment.
The point we are trying to make is: don’t neglect the yard outside your flower beds. And, instead of chasing a fictitious ideal, concentrate on creating a habitat that is sustainable in a way that a lawn or a tangled mess of invasives isn’t.
