Show #33/4507. Gardening Outreach

Plant A Meadow Garden

James and Eric look at a small scale meadow garden, a perennial border garden that takes a lot of lessons from the meadow. There is Echinacea and Rubeccia in the front creating a good food source for birds and different animals, then the taller plants, Joe Pye Weed and Solidago, in the back which are great pollinators this time of year. Everything is planted closely together which helps with water consumption and cuts down on competition from weeds because as the beneficial plants grow up they fill those spaces, the weeds can't peek through once established. Eric, in his garden, does not use herbicides. The seed heads on the Rubeccia, provide an example of why. As the seed heads naturally fall to the ground and spread on the open ground areas little seedlings will then pop up and fill the area. If he were to use herbicide it would stifle that occurrence. Sedum is planted on the edge and Eric does see a few weeds but as the Sedum grows and fills the area it will keep the weed pressure down. So, there is a little maintenance at first but over time the plants will fill in. Keep the weeds out at first by hand, do everything to encourage the good plants to fill in and in short order this area will be filled with good plants.