plant list : Perennial Meadow Garden

My last couple of posts about granite and stone walls and such have been a little gray and monotone. It feels like time for a little color. The plant list for the yard has largely been finalized, so while it doesn't look like much now, we can at least dream about what it will look like.

In the front yard there will be two large (at least large for our yard) borders that will be planted as perennial meadow. Perhaps more than anywhere else in the yard, John and our designers took their inspiration for these beds from the work of Piet Oudolf. Although ours won't be this big and mature, we will have a yew hedge framing our perennial meadow.

Piet Oudolf's garden in Hummelo, Netherlands

Last summer when we were visiting friends in Buck's County, Pennsylvania we made our usual stop at the truly spectacular Linden Hill Garden Nursery. We noticed they had turned a drainage ditch into a wet garden that they called the Rill Garden. Since we will have two drainage outfalls in our front yard, we decided to make them a part of the planting beds rather than try and channel the water off of the property. Not only does this make for interesting planting opportunities, but it also keeps more of our runoff onsite which is better for the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

So our perennial meadow beads will have a wet end and a drier end.

What we have right now is a muddy puddle. It's the low point, not just of the front yard, but the entire property. Rather than fight the fact that all water flows this direction, we are deciding to embrace it by planting things that like wet conditions but don't need to be in constant water.

Plants for the wet ends of the perennial meadow garden

Baptisia australis 'Purple Smoke'

Carex muskingumensis (Sedge)

Chelone glabra (White Turtlehead)

Eupatorium 'Gateway' (Joe Pye Weed)

Iris 'Caesar's Brother'

Sambucus canadensis 'Lemony Lace' (Elderberry)

Lobelia siphilitica

Panicum 'Shenandoah' (Switchgrass)

Thalictrum 'Black Stockings' (Meadow-rue)

Plants for the drier ends of the perennial meadow garden

Allium sphaerocephalon

Molinia 'Transparent'

Aster umbellatus

Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster'

Amsonia hubrichtii 

Echinacea pallida

Liatris aspera

Stachys 'Hummelo' (the purple in the middle)

Fothergilla 'Mt Airy'

Echinacea 'Pow Wow Wildberry'