Tiny and Wild: Build a Small-Scale Meadow Anywhere by Graham Laird Gardner

Go low-maintenance and no-mow while supporting nature and biodiversity by planting a mini wildflower meadow with guidance from Tiny & Wild. *2024 American Horticultural Society Book Award Winner* The word “meadow” might conjure an image of a broad, expansive prairie covering acres of land, but it doesn’t have to. Meadows don’t have to be big to make a difference in the health of the planet. If you choose the right plants, even a small corner of the yard will do. In Tiny & Wild, you’ll learn how to embrace your wild side and create a low-maintenance miniature wildflower meadow that’s teeming with life. The perks of creating a wild planting, even on a small scale, are many. Tiny but mighty meadows help mitigate climate change, foster biodiversity, sequester carbon, and calm the senses. With as little as a few square feet of space, you can create a beautiful, naturalistic planting that supports a diversity of plants, pollinators, and a plethora of other living things, not to mention its visual appeal to human eyes. Author and landscape designer Graham Laird Gardner helps you find inspiration in natural spaces so you can successfully site, design, plant, and care for your own small-scale meadow. Whether you live in the city or in suburbia, Read more

From the Publisher Why a Mini Meadow? You’ve heard the calling—for a more resilient biodiverse garden, full of flowers and movement, that is inspired by the wild spaces around you. Perhaps you feel a sense of nostalgia for the wilderness of your childhood or a need to invite wild places home. Do you have a balcony or an underperforming section of yard? Maybe you have an area of lawn you wish to convert, or a section of your veggie plot you’d like to devote to attracting more pollinators and other beneficial insects? In this book, you’ll learn why naturalistic planting design is important, how to evaluate your property and select the best site for your project, how to understand basic principles of successful design, and how to prepare the area, as well as how to lay out and install plants to make a mini meadow of your own. Planting Your Mini-Meadow Landscape plugs Landscape plugs are one of my favorite ways to purchase plants because they allow you to stretch the budget. Essentially, landscape plugs are what the nursery industry purchases and plants up into larger pots for sale. If you are willing to be patient, landscape plugs planted directly in the meadow area will catch up to plants in larger pots in a matter of months, if not weeks. Starting from seed If you have enough lead time, growing from seeds is one of the least expensive ways to create a new garden. You can grow them outdoors or indoors in flats or direct sow them on the site. Direct sowing is the least time-consuming method, but you may have more success growing in pots and flats. If you’ve decided to direct sow, mix the seeds with sand to disperse them evenly. Larger plants You may get more for your money by purchasing a larger plant and dividing it. Another reason you may wish to spend more on a plant is because it’s uncommon, or difficult to find, in the trade. Some plants take a long time to reach flowering age from seed, so you will pay more for a mature plant because of the labor involved in growing it. Weigh your options against your budget. Meadow Maintenance In addition to enjoyment, watering and weeding will be your primary tasks during the first year. However, in order to know what to weed, you’ll need to define the term for yourself and begin to learn to identify the plants that appear in your plot. Don’t worry. Over time you will become familiar with what shows up. Even if you don’t know how to spell the names in Latin, you will start to identify the plants that are undesirable and how to best manage them. Ideas for Mini Meadow Placement Hell strip For those unfamiliar with the term hell strip, it refers to the narrow patch of land between the sidewalk and the street You will need to take into account limitations such as foot traffic, pets, poor soil, compaction, lack of irrigation, car pollution, road salt, and more. Provided you have a way to water a hell strip meadow during establishment, the poor quality of the soil and lack of irrigation make it an ideal location for many meadow and prairie plants. Rooftop Rooftop meadows are a colorful haven for wildlife and humans alike. Most rooftop sites are hot in the summer and windy in the winter, so choose plants accordingly. Good rooftop design capitalizes on city views and encourages lingering. The planting medium is lightweight and shallow, and following building codes and structural engineering protocols is essential. Fence to property line When it comes to property or fence lines, ask yourself if you want to call attention to them or blur them. If you have an existing fence, consider softening it by planting in front of it. Use the fence height as a gauge. If it is a six-foot (1.8 m) wooden fence, be sure the new bed is at least six feet (1.8 m) deep. A shallower planting will look like a decorative afterthought. Containers Pots and other containers are a simple way to experiment with creating a micro meadow. Whether it is one large pot or an assemblage of various sized pots, containers offer a unique option as site preparation will be minimal. You will be able to create your own soil by selecting a prepackaged container soil or mixing your own. It is important to get the growing media right in containers.