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.

I managed to get most of the native perennials in the ground today. A good friend and I put half of them in the pollinator border at the Garden on Friday; this afternoon, in spite of distractions, and wind, I put the rest of them in the front meadow. They're all tough, and will hopefully flourish in the hot and dry conditions there.

I heard a remarkable keynote speech (at our statewide Master Gardener's annual conference) this evening by Roger Swain on 'Planting Villages' -- about how plants can connect neighbors, encourage interaction between them, and enrich our lives as a consequence. One of his points was about having a front garden that is welcoming to passers by. I know the names of my neighbors, but we don't know any of them well, and although we've created a wonderful garden (from our point of view) that suits us, most of it is behind the fence, and I don't know if our front garden welcomes people walking down the bike path (really a walking path) along our road. This is what it looked like when we first moved in. But, now, I do know people have noticed our meadow in front of the garage, and the buckeye in bloom, and the striking yellow sugar maple near the road in fall, so maybe we're having an impact in any case. At least the folks coming down the small hill across the street ...