Southeastern CT, full/part sun area. Any thoughts? Things I should consider or reconsider?
Butterfly weed
Swamp milkweed
Black eyed Susan
Wild bergamot
Anise hyssop
American wild carrot
Coreopsis
Yarrow- white and orange, maybe some pastel cultivars
Echinacea purpurea- white and purple
Rattlesnake master
Purple prairie clover
by Calbebes
16 Comments
My only thought is- do it. Start!! You got this
Add some native grasses, their stalks help support the flowers and keep everything from flopping over late in the season. Placing shorter plants near the edges of the bed will help this planting fit into a formal landscape without looking “weedy.”
Don’t forget some native grasses in your meadow!
It will be beautiful. You may wish to add some native bunchgrasses. I am a fan of Prairie dropseed, Little bluestem, blue grama, there are many lovely grasses which will make it a more rounded meadow. Consider expected height as you plan how you will place things. How is the rabbit/deer pressure? When I first planted D purpurea, the rabbits were crazy or it. Now I have plenty, and the rabbits are going after my veg crops, and completely ignoring native plants that I have plenty of to share. I was OK with them eating lettuce because it always self seeds, I do nothing but harvest. It you have pressure from mammalian herbivores, consider adding some native mints to try to throw hem off the scent of the delicious native plants you plant to enjoy!
Proposition approved, get after it buddy! Like others mentioned, grasses will help and are great for the ecosystem, you can use them to fill in gaps and they will help prevent your plants from flopping.
Cover with cardboard/woodchips and plant plugs, seeds can be unreliable
I’d suggests the garden packs from 3B natives or prairie moon. Or plug trays of orange coneflower
Consider adding some sedges if you can find them! I find them good for filling in bare spots
Read up on matrix planting. My matrix is 30% sideoats grama and 15% carex brevior. Both were easy to grow from seed. I’m pleased with the results.
Central MA here— great lineup so far!
I’d argue Purple Giant Hyssop over Anise Hyssop as it’s more native to New England.
A few other plants I have to recommend for the area include: Joe Pye Weed, New England Aster, Shrubby St Johns Wort, Short Toothed Mountain Mint, Blazing Star
Do you have any Pycnanthemum native to you? If so, I would definitely plant that.
My Pycnanthemum muticum is buzzing all summer from the bees, wasps, and butterflies.
Your mid-summer meadow will be gorgeous, but you don’t really have anything that will be flowering in the spring/early summer or late summer/fall. If they’re native to you, I’d add golden Alexander & a penstemon of some sort for spring/early summer and some sort of aster & goldenrod for late summer/fall.
Proposal is accepted. One thing to note is you want to make sure you can meet the water requirements. I don’t do supplemental watering once established so I go with drought tolerant plants.
I just read a fantastic article yesterday on growing a prairie/meadow from scratch. The most eye opening and new approach I rarely see mentioned was for the first year to include lots of native annuals to cover the ground while the perennials take time to grow. This also makes it much much easier to maintain as the annuals make it less easy for shitloads of weed to take hold. And they’re still immensely beneficial!
Give it a read:
https://www.ecolandscaping.org/06/installing-and-maintaining-landscapes/lawn-to-meadow-season-three/
In MA and these are all part of my native bed.
Developed a taste for hyssop or you’re gonna hate yourself. It’s in the mint family and spreads by seed. It grows in my front garden and I found it in every pot and part in my backyard this spring!
The coneflower, yarrows, hyssop, swamp milkweed, brown eyed Susan’s, clover and bergamot are all spreaders. I put them in the back of the garden and let them fight it out.
The butterfly weed, Coreopsis, rattlesnake master get bigger but I haven’t had the type of spread like the other plants.
All of this is to say zone your bed and if the spreaders wind up encroaching on the other plants, you should eat, move or weed them.
Monarda didyma, purple love grass, prairie drop seed, pink muhly grass, and little blue stem would be nice additions to your current list