My first meadowscape

I'm trying to balance just letting the grass grow and cultivating loveliness

The grass under the tarps by the side of the road was good and dead, so I raked it up and planted phlox, forget-me-nots, two kinds of black-eyed Susan — prairie and Sahara —, plus gomphrena on one side and bachelor buttons on the other side (so I could finally learn the difference), and Mexican sunflowers.

Tarp-to-garden

This is all so I don’t have to mow that slope. It’s too dangerous. The riding mower might tilt and that would really be carnage. I keep weed-whacking these areas, but that feels like a fool’s errand. These grasses become beautiful when they are allowed to express their growth potential. Tall fescue, blowing in the wind, that is natural free beauty.

I am trying to find the right balance between just letting the grass grow and landscaping for loveliness. So I put down those two tarps, leaving room for fleabane that was in full pretty pink flower.

I also planted penstemon on both sides. That was my Father’s Day gift to myself, two gallons of penstamon. My boss at my part-time landscaping job says every garden in this part of the world needs penstemon and aster to keep the pollinators happy all summer long.

Penstemon & milkweed

Let’s go with that. Let’s go with happiness.

I also dug up some milkweed and aster from the back and planted them up front to represent the keystone species that grow wild around here. I mow around milkweed, and aster, as well as self-heal, and Philadelphia fleabane, which people say is a weed but I’m not buying it. Such a pretty pink mini-daisy flower.

Power to Philly fleabane.

I put a border around three sides of these gardens, because my boss says the key to a garden is the border. I don’t know if I completely agree but I also don’t think everything about gardening is necessarily an analogy for politics. I left the inside border open because it looks like brackets and reminds me of leaving room for fleabane.

There’s A LOT going on in the garden and forest these days. There’s the upcoming burning of the burn pile and the battle with invasives such as bittersweet and multi-flora rose. I’ll keep you posted; meanwhile, I just wanted to tell you today about getting these two gardens started. My friend Douglas sent me his Mont Blanc pen from Mississippi and I really feel it’s essential to use our gifts while we can.