One excellent way to replace your time and money consuming lawn area is to establish a prairie garden or wildflower meadow.  So what is the difference between the two?

A prairie garden is created using only the perennial wildflowers (or forbs) and perennial grasses that were indigenous to the area before it was settled by Europeans.

A wildflower meadow can have almost any flower or grass that either reseeds itself or is a perennial--indigenous or not. Since I am foremost a flower gardener, I opted to create a meadow using a combination of both natives that were hardy and long-blooming, as well as “exotics*” that I knew would reliably reseed and give constant color and cut flowers.

I’m lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where natural plantings are the norm--not the exception. If you are planning to add a natural area to your landscape, you may meet with some resistance from your neighbors.  A few ways you can show that this is a carefully designed and well-tended part of your yard, is to incorporate a few “elements of care.”  These may include building a fence or mowing a border around the perimeter, pathways, birdhouses, benches, or even a sign explaining that it is a “prairie restoration” or “nature preservation.”

Newly planted natural gardens are NOT low-maintenance.  In fact, I’ve spent many hours pulling the weeds that came up alongside my beautiful wildflowers.  I’m told that after three years the perennials will become established and my wildflower planting will be fairly low-maintenance--so we'll see!

One thing to note is that as the planting gets to be less maintenance--it will also get less diverse.  Many of the early, colorful, annuals will “peter out” and be overcome by the  more aggressive and/or hardy perennials and annuals.

The best way to keep weeding to a minimum is good preparation up front.  Site your planting where there is at least six hours of sun. It is also important to eliminate the existing vegetation before you start seeding your garden.  If you are planting a large area it might be wise to use Roundup or a similar herbicide.  If you are like me and very cautious about using any herbicide--there are slower methods you can also use.

For a smaller area, you can use clear or black plastic and solar-cook the unwanted weeds for at least one hot season (spring and summer).  Another method is to water the area well for several weeks until you have a lush crop of unwanted plants and then till them all under before they go to seed.  Repeat the process once more and you should eliminate most of the dormant seeds.

*Just a word of caution--It is estimated that in the US alone, invasive plants infest over 100 million acres and continue to expand their range by 8-20% annually (twice the size of the state of Delaware).  A prominent example here in Minnesota is loosestrife, which is threatening the biodiversity of our wetlands.  Whenever introducing non-native plants--be informed and be responsible.