{"id":5434,"date":"2016-06-17T11:37:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-17T15:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/?p=5434"},"modified":"2019-06-03T15:20:14","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T19:20:14","slug":"garden-turns-big-beautiful-meadow-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homegardenjoy.com\/site\/2016\/06\/garden-turns-big-beautiful-meadow-garden.html","title":{"rendered":"When My Garden Turns Into a Big, Beautiful Meadow Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a point in June when my perennial garden turns into a big, beautiful meadow garden. The perennial garden is supposed to be a well-tended patchwork of pretty flower beds connected with a meandering gravel and Buckingham slate path. Instead, wide swathes of “weeds” – aka wildflowers – take over, and I couldn’t be happier.<\/p>\n

It’s June, and it’s the time of year when my garden turns into a big, beautiful meadow.<\/p>\n

And I couldn’t be happier about that.<\/p>\n

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Entrance to my perennial garden today, June 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Natural Garden Design: The Meadow Garden<\/h2>\n

Natural garden design is the term I use to describe the meadow-like jumble of perennials blooming in my garden at this time of year. The paths and entrance trellis give the garden structure, but the plants have a mind of their own.<\/p>\n

I love a jumble of what my husband calls “weedy” plants, those plants that might be mistaken for weeds or wildflowers, depending on your point of view.<\/p>\n

There’s coreopsis, which I planted from seeds, and flea bane, a ‘weed’ or wildflower that most people pull from the garden but I leave for its pretty little flowers. It grows wild along the country lanes and roads here in south central Virginia.<\/p>\n

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Coreopsis and\u00a0fleabane, a local weed<\/p><\/div>\n

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And then there’s yarrow (Achillea) which also grows alongside the\u00a0fleabane<\/p>\n

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Dark pink Achillea grows alongside the weeds – ox eye daisy.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Daisies, Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), and Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) also grow in masses and drifts on the slope of the perennial garden:<\/p>\n

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Yellow daisies, black-eyed Susans, and purple coneflower on the slope. You can see the meditation bench in the back.<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the garden design has long since been absorbed by the glorious mess of perennials, there are a few common elements that I feel ties the look together.<\/p>\n

These include:<\/p>\n