Designed Meadows

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The meadows in this gallery include successional hayfields to which we have opportunistically added native wildflowers, as well as those similar to the E. lupine meadow, where we were able to seed onto bare ground. Hence the use of the descriptions "augmented" and "designed."

Meadows line the driveway.

This wet meadow has been overseeded with switchgrass, blue vervain and others.

A swale, aka rain garden, supports these showy cardinal flowers, cleans runoff and slows water velocity from the driveway.

The Lupine Meadow usually blooms from late May to mid-June.

Prairie smoke pairs nicely with the Eastern lupines.

The Lupine Meadow with eastern lupines, Lupinus perennis, in full bloom.

Close up of eastern lupine, Lupinus perennis, and blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium sp..

Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, and butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa, blooming amidst little bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium.

The hummingbird moths love Monarda fistulosa.

The Lupine Meadow in late summer with wild bergamot, shrub Hypericums, goldenrod and black-eyed Susans.

Wild bergamot attracts many skippers in summer.

In autumn, little bluestem sparkles as the lupines go to seed.

We are encouraging the eastern lupine, Lupinus perennis, to take over the low meadow in the east yard of the cabin.

By mid-summer, the wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, practically obscures the bench overlooking Stone Pond.

This designed meadow forms a transition between the built environment and more natural areas.

The low meadow in autumn sports low clouds of a wild aster.

Blue vervain, Verbena hastata, enlivens the landscape along with boneset and woolgrass in this "augmented meadow."

These low white asters, Aster ericoides, make a lovely border for this path and we didn't even have to plant them.

Blue vervain, Verbena hastata, brightens the midsummer meadow.

The blue vervain in the foreground was added to a drainage swale along the meadow and provides a nice color accent in late summer.

Goldenrod and aster seedheads catch the evening light.

New York ironweed towers over other meadow plants with bright purple plumes on stems reaching six feet or more.

Meadow at right of the path was disturbed for underground utilities, subsequently seeded/planted. Meadow at left of path shows new meadow plants seeding into older successional meadow.

Joe Pye's flower attracts migrating monarchs.

Meadows glow in the evening light.