Meadows have long captured the imaginations of naturalists, poets, and artists, who have immortalized them in our collective imagination as idyllic outdoor spaces replete with grasses and dew-painted wildflowers. But naturally-occurring meadows and prairies are an increasingly rare sight in nature. Perhaps for this reason, the idea of creating a man-made meadow appeals to many gardeners and non-gardeners alike. Whether you're looking to convert an area of turf grass, beautify a narrow roadside strip, or renovate a bed or border, you can apply the wisdom of the meadows to create stunning space in your own garden.

What Makes a Meadow?

Prior to European settlement, vast swaths of the American continent were covered by prairies and wetlands — including much of the Willamette Valley where we live and garden today. These unique ecosystems are characterized by communities of grasses and other non-woody plants growing out in the open on flat or rolling lands, and they each represent different kinds of naturally-occurring meadows. Whether wet or dry, plants from these systems are adapted to grow in full sun in close proximity to their neighbors.

When trying to replicate the look of a meadow in a home landscape, there are a variety of approaches, and while the results may look superficially similar, they often have different theoretical underpinnings. Terms like "meadowscape," "meadow garden," and "managed meadow" abound, and while these may seem like synonyms, they aren't necessarily. The following are our best working definitions for the purposes of this guide:

Kinds of Meadows

Meadowscaping: This is the practice of designing, planting, and managing an artificial meadow that primarily uses native prairie plant species for the express benefit of local ecology. Meadowscapes can either be grown from seeds for a looser, more informal feel, or intentionally designed and planted. They are a kind of habitat garden, and we often think of them as existing on a residential scale.
Meadow Garden: This is a "catch all" term used to refer to soft, naturalistic plantings that are inspired by meadows and prominently feature grasses. We tend to distinguish meadow gardens from meadowscapes in that their primary concern is ornamental, whereas a meadowscape is more functional, although there is plenty of room for overlap!
Managed Meadow: In contrast to the smaller-scale meadowscapes and meadow gardens highlighted in this guide, we think of managed meadows as being much larger and featuring less (if any) design intent, focusing rather on restoring habitat. Of course, that isn't to say they can't be beautiful! In nature, natural forces like fires are integral to the long-term integrity of meadow ecosystems where woody plants or invasive species might otherwise take over. When humans either work to restore a meadow or create one from scratch — generally using carefully selected native seed mixes or plugs — we take on this custodial role. Managed meadows are often maintained via yearly or multi-year cycles of mowing and/or controlled burns, which may not be appropriate for a residential garden.

Related Terms

Naturalistic Gardening: Popularized by the New Perennial movement, this gardening ethos revolves around the beauty of natural landscapes and seeks to recreate them in an idealized form, generally relying on repeated groupings of perennials and grasses. While naturalistic gardens can incorporate native species, aesthetics are the guiding principle of naturalistic gardens, rather than ecology.
Habitat Gardening: Also called ecological gardening or wildlife gardening, this practice is rooted in the idea of creating a biodiverse garden using native plants with the express purpose of supporting wildlife and the greater ecosystem. Meadowscapes as we define them are a kind of habitat garden.

Making a Meadow Garden at Home

At the Farm, our Pollinator Meadow along 82nd Place is a wonderful example of a meadow garden that features a mix of native and non-native plants. While you can purchase and broadcast an appropriate wildflower seed mix to achieve a wilder "meadow look," we recommend more structured plantings for most residential contexts, as they better fit conventional expectations of a front garden. Starting with larger containerized plants or combining these with seeds allows you to lay out your meadow visually, and provides much more immediate impact.

Start With Grasses

The key to any meadow-inspired garden is grasses! Not only do they add texture, movement, and structure to the landscape, but they are low-maintenance and drought-tolerant. Generally, you want to look for bunchgrasses and clumping grasses that don't spread by rhizomes, so they stay put — especially if you are taking the time to compose a meadow garden more intentionally with plants weaving in and out. (Don't worry! Virtually all the ornamental grasses you'll find at the Nursery fall into this category.) The following are some of our favorites:

Ornamental Grasses

Blonde Ambition Blue Grama Grass (Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition')
Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster')
Little Miss Maiden Grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Little Miss')
Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima)
Hameln Fountain Grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln')
Autumn Moor Grass (Sesleria autumnalis)

PNW Native Grasses & Sedges

Slough Sedge (Carex obnupta)
Foothill Sedge (Carex tumulicola)
California Oatgrass (Danthonia californica)
Tufted Hair Grass (Deschampsia cespitosa)
California Fescue (Festuca californica)
Roemer's Fescue (Fescue roemeri)

Incorporating Perennials

When selecting plants for your meadow-inspired garden, consider a mix of native and non-native species with a focus on species that naturally occur in prairie-like environments. For a more structured meadow garden, prioritize well-behaved, clump-forming perennials for some of the same reasons you would choose bunchgrasses. The following are some of our favorites for this application, including many you will find in our Pollinator Meadow:

Garden Perennials

Moonlight Yarrow (Achillea 'Moonlight')
Millennium Allium (Allium 'Millennium')
Bluestar (Amsonia cvs.)
Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
False Lupine (Baptisia cvs.)
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
Biokovo Hardy Geranium (Geranium x cantabrigiense 'Biokovo')
Beebalm (Monarda cvs.)
Russuan Sage (Perovskia cvs.)
Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia cvs.)
Meadow Sage (Salvia nemorosa cvs.)
Tall Verbena (Verbena bonariensis)

PNW Native Perennials

Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea)
Small Camas (Camassia quamash)
Great Camas (Camassia leichtlinii)
Farewell-to-Spring (Clarkia amoena)
Oregon Sunshine (Eriophyllum lanatum)
Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)
Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata)
Globe Gilia (Gilia capitata)
Common Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale)
Oregon Iris (Iris tenax)
Fernleaf Biscuitroot (Lomatium dissectum)
Barestem Biscuitroot (Lomatium nudicaule)
Sickle Keel Lupine (Lupinus albicaulis)
Tarweed (Madia elegans)
Douglas Aster (Symphyotrichum douglasii)

Prepping, Planting, and Maintenance

When starting a meadow garden or meadowscape, it's best to start with a blank canvas. That means removing any existing plants you don't plan to incorporate into your meadow and weeding the area thoroughly. If you are converting a section of lawn, eliminating any existing turf grass is essential; otherwise, it can quickly take over your meadow when left to its own devices! (Solarization using a sheet of black plastic is an effective, chemical-free method to safely kill off grasses, though it takes more time than digging.) Depending on your soil, you may want to amend it with organic matter to improve drainage and fertility, but that's not always necessary — especially when using native plants. Many true prairie plants don't care for soil that is too rich.

It's a good idea to plant your meadow fairly densely to discourage weeds, but especially until your plants fill in, you will need to stay on top of weeding — and watering — your meadow garden. While a well-designed meadow planting is low-maintenance, that doesn't mean no maintenance! You really, really don't want to give invasive weeds like Himalayan blackberry a chance to take hold, as they can spread rampantly if left unchecked, but even less trying weeds can take away from the beauty of your meadow.

When using containerized perennials and grasses, sowing some native annual seeds between them can help to "hold the ground" while your perennials get established, but you need to be able to tell the difference between native annual seedlings and weed seedlings for this to be particularly effective. In our own Pollinator Meadow, we used native California poppies in this manner, which worked particularly wonderfully that first summer. Since then, they've self-seeded into certain areas and more or less ceded other territory to the perennials. We love this aspect of meadow-inspired plantings: Over time, they evolve and change, and we can nudge them in one direction or another depending on our preferences.

Apart from normal tasks like weeding and watering, a meadow garden or meadowscape is relatively low maintenance. Generally, deciduous grasses can be left up for as long as you enjoy them at the end of the growing season, but for a tidier appearance, they should generally be cut down sometime in mid-to-late winter to make room for new growth in the spring.

An Eye for Design

One of our top design tips when planning a meadow garden or meadowscape is to plant in sweeping drifts! Group several of the same plants of the same kind together, and repeat these groups throughout the space to create a living tapestry! In doing so, our brains are poised to interpret these plants as a textural or colorful unit, rather than individual plants, which helps to create a calming sense of unity, order, and rhythm in a garden space. From there, you can punctuate the design with carefully-located focal plants or pops of color for added interest. While this process is often employed on a larger scale — such as in the context of a lawn replacement — the same principles can be scaled down for smaller spaces, too!

For a "wilder" — but still very much curated — look, consider matrix planting. (We promise this technique isn't nearly as intimidating as its name, and the ideas behind it are useful even if you don't fully commit!) Matrix planting draws inspiration from naturally-occurring plant communities that function as ecological units. The idea is to choose plants that have similar growing requirements and complementary growth forms so that they cover the ground densely, but no single species outcompetes the others. A "matrix," therefore, is just a carefully chosen palette of plants designed to grow together as an attractive, low-maintenance unit. It should consist of groundcovers, mid-level plants, and taller perennials in a ratio that is both pleasing to the eye and functional for suppressing weeds. (In many cases, the stems of different species may serve to hold one another up, as well, providing structural integrity.) While a matrix can be designed to use natives, it can just as easily feature plants from disparate regions that would have never met in the wild. You could use a single matrix to cover an entire garden, or create drifts out of different matrices, but the ratios of the given plants should remain the same and distributed fairly randomly within the coverage area so they knit together as intended.

When designing multiple matrices in a space — or even when thinking about simpler drifts — think about using related plant forms and colors that "speak" to one another. For instance, if you like purple, consider using a perennial salvia in one matrix, a similarly-hued catmit in another, and a Russian sage in yet another to draw the design together and provide visual cohesion. (Bonus points for getting two "tall spiky" plants in there, as well!)

Creating a Meadow-Inspired Garden

What Makes a Meadow?

Kinds of Meadows

Related Terms

Making a Meadow Garden at Home