If you don’t feel like traditional lawns and stuff like that and want a more sustainable idea, perhaps a meadow garden can be a good idea. A meadow garden is literally what is it: a garden with plants that are native for the area, with blooms and grasses that are the main ones. It can consist only of natives or may include annuals and other plants. Such a space is like a modern take on pollinator garden as it attracts bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insect pollinators for obvious reasons.
What Are Meadow Garden Advantages?
Such a garden is environmentally friendly as it supports wildlife of various kinds: butterflies, bees, hummingbirds. It doesn’t have to be large, even a strip of land will do for creating such a space but still its impact (especially with color) will be immense. It’s very low-maintenance as meadow plants can grow in poor soil without fertilizer or topsoil required and not much water.
Gorgeous bold meadows with purple, fuchsia, orange blooms and grasses form garden beds on both sides of the path.
A lovely meadow space with colorful and white blooms and some grasses takes part of the garden and adds color to it.
A large area with violet, fuchsia and pink blooms and some grass is a beautiful space to spend time in.
A super colorful and bright meadow in all the colors possible is a great alternative to a usual flower bed.
A small bright area with grasses and some bold blooms can be a nice addition and alternative to a pollinator garden.
A white chamomile meadow is also a thing, colorful blooms aren't a must, you can stick to only neutrals if you want.
Large chamomiles paired with bold tall lupine are a nice combo, you get both colors and texture.
Create a meadow at the window of your bedroom, so that you will be able to enjoy the colors and looks when you wake up.
Bright meadows are a super creative alternative to a usual front yard, they are colorful and they match a cottage house very well.
A grass path and cornflowers and orange tulips along the path to create a meadow effect, the color combo is fantastic.
How To Plan A Meadow Garden?
Choose A Place
You need to find an area that receives enough light, it should be accessible for planting and maintenance. One of the best places for a meadow garden is a curbside strip if it gets enough light.
This catchy meadow features a combo of textures and colors and looks amazing.
A pretty area with grasses, burgundy and orange flowers plus a natural pond with stones at the shore.
A lush and large field with purple and white flowers, grasses and shrubs is a cool idea for a cottage space.
A meadow with mostly grasses and some pink and purple blooms at the wooden deck is a nice idea.
A bright and large meadow with blue and yellow flowers, purple and fuchsia ones, with tall grasses.
A beautiful field featuring purple and white flowers and grasses plus a small gravel path in its center.
A lush and textural grassland with various greenery and some purple and fuchsia blooms plus a pond with rocks.
A lush and textural meadow with grasses, greenery, pink, yellow and blue flowers runs into a forest naturally.
Multiple colors of your blooming plants will make your meadow gorgeous and will catch an eye.
A bright meadow with orange, yellow and red blooms at the tree is adorable for any cottage garden.
Do The Research
Find out what kinds of plants are native in the area, go to local meadows or find some experts. Make a list of plants and choose what you like, then find seed mixes that you can buy. If you want to attract wildlife, choose plants accordingly: they should provide food and shelter.
Make A Plan
The experts offer 60-65% native grasses and 35-40% perennials though you may change the proportions. Such a combo creates texture and movement, and flowering plants add a pleasing touch.
What Are The Best Meadow Plants?
Little and big bluestem, side oats grama, carex, foxglove beardtongue, butterfly weed, mountain mint, smooth aster, beebalm, pyramid orchid, rough hawkbit, knapweed broomrape, red clover, common spotted orchid, bladder campion, common knapweed, crosswort, dropwort, yellow rattle, meadow cranesbill, horseshoe vetch, wild mignonette, goat’s beard or meadow salsify, quaking grass, giant California buckwheat.
A beautiful pastel meadow with lilac and pink flowers, lush grasses is dotted with bold red poppies.
A native meadow with pink asters, tall grasses and greenery and a flagstone path in the center.
This lovely pollinator garden with fuchsia, pink and white blooms and greenery plus a fountain is a gorgeous front yard idea.
A meadow with red poppies, pink tulips and some smaller and bolder blooms is a fantastic example of creating a garden bed in natural style.
A long and fantastic meadow with grasses, purple and lilac blooms and greenery is a cool and lovely idea for a garden.
This lush and textural garden with lilac blooms and some grasses, blooming and not looks gorgeous even in the fall.
A meadow with ornamental grasses, white agapanthus, allium, phlox and echinacea paired with a pond is great for a garden.
Lush tall meadows with pink and white flowers, grasses and a grass path to walk on are rgeat for enhancing the nature.
A lush garden with mauve and purple blooms, white flowers and grasses styled more like meadows but still a bit more formal.
A beautiful meadow with yellow, lilac and purple flowers, with grasses and some shrubs is amazing, a bench at the end of the path.
How To Plant A Meadow Garden?
Cover the area with black plastic for several months or even up to a year to kill the weeds and their seeds. Break up the dirt and mix a small amount of compost, add sand and gravel but don’t over-amend the soil. Sow so that the plants completely covered the soil to suppress weeds and reduce maintenance. To sow wildflower seeds more evenly, mix with sand before spreading.
How To Maintain A Meadow Garden?
Water regularly until the plants are established. If you are growing from seed, keep the soil evenly moist under plants germinate. Cut plants in late winter before they break dormancy. Mow your meadow in early spring and mow grass pathways several times a year.
A lush and dimensional plot with grasses, greenery, red blooms and some berries at the tree is a cool idea for a garden.
This pretty grassland with purple, red, yellow and orange blooms and dense grasses looks very natural, as if it's part of the natural landscape.
A lush and cool purple meadow with various flowers and grasses is a beautiful landscape to recreate.
A lush and tall meadow with purple, orange, coral and blue flowers and grasses is amazing to add a natural feel to the space.
A beautiful grassland with white flowers looks relaxed, calming and all-natural and makes the space airy.
A field with grasses and chamomiles plus a bird bath in the center looks absolutely natural and gorgeous.
Skip traditional garden beds and prefer meadow-style ones with yellow and blush flowers and tall shrubs.
This adorable field with burgundy, orange and yellow blooms plus grasses is a gorgeous idea to pair up with an elegant and formal front yard.
A densely planted meadow with violet, purple and yellow flowers and grasses is a cool idea for any cottage space.