NO PLACE in the high-summer landscape is more alive than a meadow. Even in the little unmown, informal, meadow-like area I encourage uphill from my house, I swear there is so much life buzzing around that it looks and sounds like you’ve tuned in to a whole different frequency compared to the rest of the garden just below.
But how do you make a meadow or meadow garden, and manage one? What plants, and what practices, combine for a successful mix?
Tom Brightman has been land steward at the famed Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania since 2007, where he oversees more than 700 acres of forest, meadow, wetlands and agricultural lands—including the 86 inspiring acres called the Meadow Garden.
Read along as you listen to the Aug. 15, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. Tim shared some advice he’s gleaned from his work, helping us think about distilling big concepts down to our scale to maybe enjoy a meadow of our own. Learn how (and when) to tackle woody invaders, why grasses (but not too many!) need to be part of the mix, and how to augment your planting with more of say, asters (and reduce another element that may be too thuggish).
You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
Details on visiting the Longwood Meadow Garden and on meadow-related events there are at the bottom of the page. It’s not far from Chanticleer and Winterthur…so a great summer or fall destination (or anytime) for a day or weekend of garden visiting.
my meadow-making q&a with longwood’s tom brightman
Q. The Meadow must be coming into its biggest moments, yes?
A. This is kind of the week when some of the spectacular plants like the Joe-pye weed [below] and
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A fad in modern architecture and gardening or a necessity to bring back nature into industrialised densely built urban landscapes? Living green walls are becoming more and more popular, so we decided to explore the benefits, installation and maintenance process of these structures. Read on to find out how long they have been around, why so many buildings are having them, and how you can make one for your home.
In Yorkshire we are lucky to have several gardens designed using the theme of a Himalayan Garden. The Hut near Ripon at Grewlthorpe is  ‘The Himalayan Garden’ with all the plants you would expect in such a setting including
A rock garden is a grand place to display your alpine plants. You can shade them with rocks, provide deep root runs and provide rain cover with perspex roofs
Britain has some of the best gardens in the world. The choice of which to visit is far larger than this selective list but at least it gives you somewhere to start planning this years outings.
In the cold wet winter it is a good time to plan where to visit as the year improves. The South West is the obvious place to start your visiting tour of gardens containing exotic plants.
China is one of the great destinations for visiting gardens. The influence over garden design and the vast array of plants and flowers is secondary to the investment in time and dedication demonstrated in so many great locations. This is just a selection of those you may consider visiting if you can make the journey..
Peace is not just the absence of war it can be a reflection of a personal inner tranquility. To many gardeners peace may be a state of harmony with nature. It is a theme of several ‘hard landscape’ projects and sculptural works as shown by the selection of Peace gardens below.
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.
For over 25 years I have gardened a rockery or rock garden on a triangular patch of poor soil. I progressively scrounged and collected a range of granite, limestone and sandstone rocks and added them piecemeal. I aspired to growing alpine plants and recognised good drainage and shelter from winter wet weather would be key but that is as far as my planning would go. For the first couple of decades I was busy at work and wasn’t able to put in the effort of looking after small but hardy alpines.
Not what you would expect for a garden called ‘The Phoenix Garden’ in the middle of Tottenham Court Road near Crown Point. It isn’t a phoenix from the ashes of a great fire or a WW11 bomb site at but was built on a disused car park in the 1980s. It may be part of an overflowing burial ground for St Giles-in-the-field church back in the 1600s and is reputed to be the last surviving Covent ‘Garden’. The entrance is located in St Giles Passage