Before you get too carried away, remember to plan—at least a little

It seems like every year, we gardeners are bombarded with enticements about growing our own meadow. There are seed mixes that promise to transform a part of your yard into the equivalent of a flowering field, studded with all kinds of blooms all through the garden season.

Alas, that promise is rarely fulfilled. It takes planning and preparation to develop a meadow, but if you take the time to do so, it is a wonder and a joy.

One of my personal favourite garden spaces is the butterfly meadow at Dalhousie Agricultural Campus (the former NS Agricultural College) in Bible Hill, NS. It’s especially marvellous in September and October when the fall-flowering asters erupt into bloom, with cascades of flowers in shades of pinks and purples. Asters are beloved by pollinators of all sorts, and on warm days the meadow is vibrating with bees and other winged delights. It’s a contemplative, peaceful space made even more interesting by the pieces of the Berlin Wall that are placed at the top of the meadow. The concrete slabs resided in downtown Truro for some years after the wall came down, and then found a home on the campus. It’s a good place to wander and meditate on peaceful things.

Another more recent but equally beloved meadow planting was begun in 2020 by Donna and Duff Evers, who live in a quiet and spacious subdivision in Hammonds Plains, NS. There is a small plot of about a quarter acre of land at the end of their street, right next door to the Evers’ garden, a right of way that belongs to Halifax Regional Municipality. Donna and Duff had been cutting the grass on that plot of land for some 20 years but that was no longer an option. As Donna wryly says, “we are old!” When she approached her counsellor to ask about turning that piece of land into a pollinator meadow, he was most obliging. She says, “the existing sod was lifted, and new soil added and spread for us.”

Donna and Duff are long-time and passionate gardeners with a wonder of a garden spread across their sprawling waterside property. Suffice it to say that they knew something of what they were getting into—but not all. Donna knew that she wanted only plants that attract pollinators and birds, and that would establish and be self-maintaining to a certain extent. In time she will add more and more native species to The Meadow, as a young gardening friend is growing on some species from seed. She says, “As the native plants develop, they will be encouraged by removing some of the competitors (more vigourous and non-native species). These competing plants will find homes with people wanting to establish their own pollinator gardens.”

Rainbow of blooms throughout the season. High summer includes marigolds, rudbeckias, echinaceas, and liatris.  

Once the city gave permission and the site was prepped for planting, Donna admits that she wondered what she had gotten herself into. That empty space suddenly looked enormous. “We started with 60 liatris (Blazing star) and some bits and pieces from our garden, and it didn’t make a dent.” She made a list of plants in their garden that attract pollinators and consulted with gardening friends about more ideas. Then she posted the list to Facebook explaining what was planned and what was needed.

Anyone who gardens knows that fellow gardeners are so generous, and plants for The Meadow came pouring in from across Nova Scotia. Donna says the flood of plants allowed—or forced—her to make a plan of sorts. “We planted in drifts, of liatris, echinacea, rudbeckia, peach-leafed bellflower, sundrops, turtlehead and great blue lobelia.” The plants take turns at being centre stage throughout the season. In between the drifts they added what she calls “statement plants” like giant fleeceflower, Joe-pye plant, and perennial grasses, then added pollinator and seed-producing shrubs were also added for the bees and birds to enjoy.

The plants kept coming—more than 2,000 in 2020. Flats of plants were gifted to The Meadow from the Friends of the Garden in Bible Hill, and from Kingstec’s horticultural program. COVID-19 had put a stop to their plant sales. Additionally, local nurseries including Briar Patch in Berwick, Oceanview in Chester, and Bloom in Hammonds Plains took turns filling the Evers’ van with pollinator plants. Donna says, “Every morning our driveway was lined with plants. Sometimes I knew where they were from, other times it was an anonymous donation.”

Wise gardeners knew that grasses were needed and dropped off divisions. When there were concerns about erosion on the bank, moisture-loving shrubs were donated. Seed-growing friends dropped off unique pollinator plants, and in autumn, bunches of deer resistant bulbs were donated. Donna says that donations have continued into the second year. “This little idea turned into such a joyful explosion of goodwill and generosity. It makes my heart sing.”

It isn’t surprising that people in the neighbourhood have wholeheartedly embraced The Meadow. I was there half a dozen times at least through the summer, bringing plants and photographing the sequential bloom, and there was usually at least one person coming through, taking pictures, watching butterflies, and chatting with Donna.

The Meadow’s bloom season kicks off in spring with bulbs and early-blooming perennials, with lots of blues, yellows, and whites. There are no plants that will tempt ever-hungry urban deer, so no tulips; just deer-resistant bulbs like daffodils, and hardy plants like peachleafed bellflower, sundrops and coreopsis.

Summer is “a riot of colour” with pinks of echinacea, purple and white liatris, and the golds and yellows and bronzes of various rudbeckias, with pops of other colours from milkweeds, bee balms and additional plants beloved by pollinators. The late display of the season comes from grasses and autumn asters, which then give over to browns of dried seed heads. These are left standing throughout the winter as a source of food and nesting sites for beneficial insects, then the planting is mowed in March in time for the cycle to begin again.

When you visit The Meadow, there are other delights to enjoy besides the flowering plants. A strip of clover, carefully mown weekly, cuts a path down through the centre of the plantings, and there is a bench where people can pause and enjoy, read a book, have a snack. There is a Little Free Library, which was built and installed by neighbours, always chock full of books for the bibliophile (including some garden books, of course). The Evers often find gifts on the bench and in the library. It is, as Donna observes, a wonderful place to sit in the sunshine with a morning coffee.

The course of making a public garden does not always run smoothly, and since this was the first pollinator garden developed on city property there were a few hitches to iron out. HRM officials from concerned departments visited the site and resolved the issues quite quickly, and there’s a sign proudly explaining The Meadow’s purpose.

After the planning and preparation of that first spring, the now-established garden doesn’t receive any fertilizer or mulch, and only new plants are watered until they’re established. Donna does some weeding but was excited this past summer to find out she had hundreds of seedlings of Verbena bonariensis, or vervain, that were going to pop up everywhere, and did. This is a beloved plant for many gardeners, and it blooms until a hard frost, providing nutrition for a variety of butterflies and other pollinators.

Asked about those ads for wildflower gardens, Donna says, “you can do that and have a colourful, showy garden the first year but after that it’s downhill. The aggressive plants, whether those in seed mixes or in the wild, take over and you have to start again.” She says if they had opted to grow everything from seed right in the meadow, she would have ordered seed from a supplier who specializes in wildflower mixes, like Wildflower Farm in Ontario.

But again, Donna says with a smile, “I’m getting too old to grow things from seed!”

Some tough plants for a meadow planting 

Perennials: Joe-pye plant (Eupatorium); ironweed (Vernonia); milkweeds (Asclepias species); coneflowers (Echinacea); rudbeckia, gayfeather (Liatris) bee balm (Monarda) hummingbird mint (Agastache); lambs ears (Stachys); asters (various genera); cranesbills (Geranium); evening primrose (Oenothera) tickseeds (Coreopsis); perennial grasses such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium), big bluestem (Andropogon), switch grasses (Panicum)

Shrubs and small trees: sumac (may run so be careful); mountain ash (Sorbus) witch hazel (Hamamelis); shadbush/serviceberry (Amelanchier)

Annuals (may self-seed once established or require seeding yearly: Vervain (Verbena bonariensis); swamp vervain
(V. hastata); corn poppies (Papaver rhoeas); bachelor buttons (Centaurea) and cosmos.