Designing a Mid-height Meadow

2010-09-20T08:59:00.000-04:00

Planting Date: August 2010

Total number of plugs: approximately 2,000 Landscape Plugs™

Total Planting Time: 5.5 hours

Total Labor: 4 to 5 people planting; 1 to 2 people laying out plugs
Planting rate: 75 to 85 plugs per person per hour
Total Area: 1,450 square feet

Creating a Native Mid-Height Meadow

Last fall our Landenberg farm underwent a series of renovations in effort to create space for additional growing ranges and a new head house. A tributary of the White Clay Creek touches the western border of our 17 acre propagation facility. As stewards of the land our goal was to capture as much stormwater as possible by installing a constructed wetland and capturing the remaining water in our two ponds. In coordination with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, a division of the Department of Agriculture, our project was underway. Fast forward to late summer of the following year and we are anxiously nearing completion. The final step: re-vegetated the slope leading into the constructed wetland. We’re delighted to report on the most recent addition to North Creek, a 1,450 square foot mid-height meadow.

Completed Mid-height Meadow

What is a mid-height meadow?

Ranging in height from 1-3 feet, our mid-height meadow competes with the most undesirable environmental conditions. Clutching to a south facing 5 to 10% slope, these plants will bake throughout the sultry summer months. This, in combination with very dry, poor sub-soil and a rip-rap channel underneath mean only the strong will survive.

Native meadows serve myriad of ecological functions. They significantly reduce the need for mowing and contain plants that support desirable wildlife while providing seasonal interest. Meadows along the east coast generally serve as a transitional ecosystem, and eventually become a forest. As mentioned before, our project runs adjacent to the west branch of the White Clay Creek and touches the tall deciduous trees of a wooded area. Eventually the meadow planting will expand toward the tree line and create a harmonious landscape around our ponds and demonstration gardens. As the Landscape Plugs™ grow, their root systems will secure the embankment and serve as a food source and nesting area for many insects, birds, and animals.

Mid-height Meadow Layout

A flat of Landscape Plug 38's

Shannon, Erin & Dalton in a sea of Landscape Plugs

Installation Complete!

Garden Design: Claudia West, North Creek’s Landscape Architect & Ecological Sales Manager, took many factors into consideration while designing the mid-height meadow. Her keen sense for ecological plant communities lead to a list of tough as nails natives that would provide diversity best suited for environments including full sun, steep slope, dry soil and high erosion potential. Forbes such as Agastache, Allium, Baptisia, Echinacea, Pycnanthemum, Rudbeckia, Ruellia and Sisyrinchium were grouped into drifts while the meadow edge was loosened up with a mixture of warm and cool season ornamental grasses.

Plant List:
Sporobolus heterolepis (49%) and Bouteloua curtipendula (11%) are main components of the mid-height meadow while Deschampsia cespitosa (2%) was interplanted for aesthetic purposes. To round out the palette, an assortment of native warm and cool season grasses were interplanted with native perennials and bulbs.

Sporobolus heterolepis 49%
Bouteloua curtipendula 11%
Echinacea purpurea 8%
Sisyrinchium angustifolium 'Lucerne' 8%
Agastache foeniculum 6%
Ruellia humilis 6%
Allium cernuum 2%
Baptisia australis 2%
Deschampsia cespitosa 2%
Echinacea paradoxa 2%
Pycnanthemum muticum 2%
Rudbeckia fugida var. fulgida 2%

Echinacea paradoxa

Sporobolis heterolepis

Ruellia humilis

Future Thoughts:
For more information on how to create a beautiful meadow of your own, we encourage you to read Urban & Suburban Meadows: Bringing Meadowscaping to Big and Small Spaces by Catherine Zimmerman. Catherine’s book addresses the problems caused by the extensive planting of non-native grass lawns across America. Zimmerman weaves her personal journey of changing her own landscaping choices into a guide that demonstrates both the need to change current, detrimental landscaping practices and the practical know how and resources to accomplish that change.

Urban & Suburban Meadows

“This skillfully crafted guide is a wonderful resource providing the gardener with concise step by step instructions on how to “meadowscape” existing lawns into easily managed, pesticide free, native meadow gardens that provide all-season beauty while protecting and providing for nature.” Steve Castorani, North Creek Nurseries.

North Creek’s mid-height meadow was designed by Claudia West and installed by: Kenny Silveira, Erin Kelly, Sarah Horstmann, Shannon Thomas, Dalton Jevnick & Mark Cyron.

Rain Garden Re-design, Summer 2010

2010-07-26T11:29:00.000-04:00

When designing a rain garden there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration. The first of which is the surrounding site of your desired rain garden location. You need to ask yourself:

What is the distance between the proposed rain garden and the established non-permeable structures? (i.e. house/parking lot/road)

How much runoff is generated by these areas?

What is the soil consistency and how high is the infiltration rate?

In addition to these key factors proper plant selection is crucial. Using a strong mix of native plants that will tolerate the extremes of both wet and dry conditions will increase success.

Our Landenberg farm acts as a living laboratory for customers, employees and garden guests. Every couple of years a new palette of plants are installed in order for us to study them in different settings. Even though the pre existing rain garden in Landenberg was successful, runoff from the surrounding gravel driveways posed an issue. To remedy this problem we came up with a double “micro” forebay system, which slows water velocity and increases sedimentation before stormwater runoff enters the basin of the rain garden.

The first step was to clear out all of the existing plants, till, and re-grade the area. With re-grading complete, our next step was to lay the concrete slabs that would serve as the base of the forebays (slabs allow for easy clean up of runoff sediment). Next, our ground cloth and filter socks were set into place (the addition of these will prevent erosion and the possible establishment of a mosquito pond). Stone slabs, from the neighboring quarry in Avondale, were then set into place to give the forebay a more natural look.

Step 1: Clear, till & re-grade

Step 2: Lay the concrete slabs that will
serve as the base of the forebays

Step 3: Set ground cloth and filter socks into place

Local stone from the Avondale Quarry
give the forebays a more natural look

The final step was installing a mix of native perennials and shrubs including: Callirhoe involucrata, Carex amphibola, Carex pensylvanica, Chelone glabra, Clethra alnifolia, Helenium 'Mardi Gras', Itea virginica, Ilex verticillata, Iris cristata 'Powder Blue Giant', Juncus effusus, Liatris spicata, Lobelia cardinalis, Lobelia siphilitica, Monarda 'Raspberry Wine', Packera aurea, (syn. Senecio aureus), Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks', Spartina patens, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae 'Bluebird' (syn. Aster novae-angliae 'Bluebird'), Vernonia glauca.

Helenium 'Mardi Gras'

Monarda 'Raspberry Wine'

Carex amphibola

Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks'

A week after installation we received 1 ¾ inches of rain in less than a half hour! On the bright side, the two “micro” forebays fulfilled their duty and all of the plugs remained intact. Ironically enough the only plants misplaced were the one gallon Chelone glabra. To this day, our rain garden re-designed has been performing above and beyond expectations. Never underestimate the strength of a plug…now only if the rain would return!

'Micro' forebays hard at work

Newly installed rain garden, May 2010

Rain garden, July 2010

North Creek Ramblings - Another Day at the Plant!

Designing a Mid-height Meadow

Rain Garden Re-design, Summer 2010