Design

The difference between meadows and perennial borders is, perhaps, a matter of scale, with the mix of plants a key to their look and feel.  Perennial borders can look quite meadow-like, at least in our vision of them,  while our 'front meadows' are probably more like exuberant perennial beds than true meadows, which include many grasses. But I think the key is the mix of flowering perennials, whether they have large showy flowers or the reduced flowers of grasses;  this mix determines how the border/meadow feels and looks (in the garden).  A cottage garden is largely flowering perennials without grasses; a meadow includes a majority of grasses as the matrix. Front 'meadow' in Asheville But a sparser front planting bed, in the process of becoming more complex, feels like a meadow in progress, too.

The border next to the garden shed is especially fun this spring. It looked great after initial planting, settled in, and has continued to be an interesting mix. With abundant rain, Coreopsis 'Nana' has flourished after sulking for several years, and the Liatris , Phlox , and Agastache are coming along nicely. The ornamental Alliums are also looking good (also thanks to plenty of rain).

I'm enough of an experienced gardener to know that many of the perennial borders that I admire on garden visits require lots of maintenance and change-out of plants. They're beautiful, certainly, but folks like me that don't have full-time to devote to their gardens (uh, isn't that most of us?) would rather have lower maintenance mixed shrub and herbaceous perennials in focused areas, with naturalistic plantings elsewhere, with 'color' in specific spots in our garden, often in containers. At least, that's my approach! I like to use foliage colors and textures to provide a soothing feel, in addition to the blues, grays, yellows, and purples that stem from flowers and leaves. The shed border, undergoing a pleasant transition, is anchored by a large rosemary, but surrounded with Coreopsis 'Nana', ornamental alliums, and Agastache growing rapidly at this point in the year. Earlier in spring, Veronica umbrosa 'Georgia Blue ' added color to th...