Easy Wildflower Landscaping

Posted by Georgene A. Bramlage Feb 14, 2007

Easy Wildflower Landscaping: Wildflower Lawns and Meadows - Mow, Sow and Grow

describes work carried out by Professor A.V. Barker and his students at the University of MA, Amherst in the 1990s. Their projects demonstrated that successful wildflower lawns and meadows can be established without using pre-planting contact herbicides, a method often recommended. I was fortunate to observe for several years some of Professor Barker's test plots at the UMass research facility in South Deerfield, MA.

Wildflower plantings do not stay static; they change constantly year after year. The annual flowers are dazzling the first season; perennial plants join annual ones that have reseeded in the second year; a mixture of strong-growing perennials and hardy annuals reign in the third year. The plantings then need maintenance or they are lost to one or two dominant species.

The plantings are collages of black, brown and silver-gray stems and seedheads in autumn and winter. I find this feature attractive and the birds feeding upon the seeds very entertaining. Landscape gardeners who cannot tolerate constant flux in plantings and the need to leave mature seed heads in place will do well to stay away from this sort of landscape design. Unfortunately, community ordinances are another reason to stay away from residential wildflower plantings in conspicuous locations.

Please enjoy Easy Wildflower Landscaping: Wildflower Lawns and Meadows - Mow, Sow and Grow . If you do decide to try the systematic method described in the article, please let me know how your wildflower planting develops