Pocket Meadows – Ecological Gardening

A couple of years ago, I removed all of the traditional landscaping in front of our house due to intense deer pressure and snow issues. Sadly, we also had to remove two enormous honeylocust trees, which were losing large limbs and becoming hazardous to the house. The silver lining is that now our front yard is in full sun. It makes the entire house so much brighter in fact. I decided to install two deer-resistant perennial borders on either side of our walkway leading to the front door. These plants have done well, and the beauty of this no-shrub landscape is that it can be cut down to the ground for the winter, buried under snow. It's quite peaceful not to worry anymore about ice damaging my boxwoods, or deer nibbling my ninebark shrubs. One of two walkway perennial gardens, soon to be pocket meadows Existing deer-resistant perennial garden The existing borders contain mostly non-native, deer-resistant perennial flowers planted for a succession of color from spring through the fall. The scaled planting plan below shows what's growing there now: NE--Catmint (Nepeta 'Walkers Low') PE--Peony (Paeonia 'Sarah Bernhardt' and others) SH--Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum 'Becky') RU--Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) MON--Bee balm (Monarda 'Raspberry Wine') MIS--Miscanthus grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light') Perennials currently planted in the walkway gardens There are also spring blubs, Ajuga reptans 'Chocolate Chip' groundcover, and possibly two cultivars of anemones, but the deer seem to keep these from becoming mature enough to bloom. However, I'm planning to convert these gardens into pocket meadows for several reasons. I'm interested in introducing more native plants to my landscape for one thing. For another, I believe the meadow approach will require less maintenance, because there will be less space for weeds to take hold. For now, I'm keeping the existing perennials to add structure to the garden, and because they are very meadow-like in form, except for the peonies. I'll plant new seeds in between these plants. At the moment, I do not have a problem mixing native and non-native plants together. But I might want to begin switching out the "exotic" perennials for native varieties as I dive more deeply into the project. Zinnias (Zinnia elegans) Pocket meadow conversion plans Because of the high deer pressure at my house, whatever new plants I introduce will have to be deer-resistant and will require protection until they are established. I plan to use a deer spray to "train" the deer to pass by my gardens on their daily walkabouts. Otherwise, they will eat the tender seedlings of any of my new plants, deer-resistant or not. The first thing I'll need to do is to remove all of the natural cedar mulch in the beds, currently in place to prevent weeds. I need to pull out any weeds that have overwintered. Whenever the snow melts, I can see there are quite a few! After that, I'll use my three-prong hoe to gently rough up the soil to be able to receive new seeds. I'm planning to plant my seeds on May 15th, which is past when we normally have our last frost, more or less. In the past, we needed to wait until Memorial Day, but temperatures have been rising. Of course, I'll be watching the weather and will cover the beds if there is any danger of freezing temperatures. Our soil temperature should reach the recommended 55 degrees by then, too. I will not cover the seeds per directions from the vendor, and I'll need to walk over the planting areas to ensure soil contact. I might lay down pieces of cardboard to help with this task. Then, I'll just need to water in the seeds. Red Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) New pocket meadow plants I ordered 1/4 pound of the "Deer Resistant Wildflower Seed Mix" from American Meadows. This mix contains annual and perennial seeds. The annuals will bloom this year, and the perennials will bloom next year and beyond. This amount of seed is noted to be able to cover 250-500 square feet for my gardens which total 320 square feet. However, I will probably not use all of them, since I am starting with so many perennials already in place. I've been storing the seeds in my cold, dry basement for about a month. Here is a list of the plants included in the seed mix: White Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) Blue Pimpernel (Anagallis monelli) Lance-Leaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) * Note: I will be removing this plant if it germinates. It is too toxic for a residential landscape in my book. California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata) Sweet Alyssum (Lobularia maritima) Yellow Lupine (Lupinus densiflorus) Hartweg's Lupine (Lupinus hartwegii) Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) Arroyo Lupine (Lupinus succulentus) Red Poppy (Papaver rhoeas) Gloriosa Daisy (Rudbeckia gloriosa) Scarlet Sage (Salvia coccinea) Blue Sage (Salvia farinacea) Zinnia (Zinnia elegans) I have to say I am doubtful about the viability of the lupines. I just don't see them growing in my region, but I'll need to do more research to find out why. Again, I'm also very apprehensive about the potential deer issues. I simply refuse to fuss with any plants that require extra protection against deer after they are established. So, we'll see what happens. But I'm very excited about this pocket meadow plan, especially since there is such a wide variety in the seed mix. It will be a lot of fun to watch what takes hold!

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