Old Canaan Building Materials

The lawn is not a New England landscape tradition. The close-cropped grass lawn is an English invention, imported with the English aesthetic, and it requires significant inputs — water, fertilizer, pesticides, mechanical maintenance — to maintain in New England conditions. The native meadow, by contrast, is what New England land does when it is left alone. The question is not whether to have a meadow instead of a lawn. It is how to have a meadow that looks intentional rather than neglected.

A native meadow in a New England setting reads as a field of grasses and wildflowers — little bluestem, switchgrass, goldenrod, aster, black-eyed Susan — in a combination that shifts through the seasons. In summer, the grasses are green to blue-green, the wildflowers in bloom. In fall, the grasses turn copper and bronze and the seed heads catch the light. In winter, the standing stems carry the snow and read against grey sky and white ground.

A native meadow planting in New England consists primarily of native grasses and forbs appropriate to the regional climate and soil conditions. Key species for Connecticut and southern New England: little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) for its copper fall color and fine texture; switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) for height and movement; Pennsylvania sedge (Carex pensylvanica) for shade and partial shade; purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), and New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) for flower interest.

Native meadow plantings establish slowly — the first year they look like weeds because they are weeds and wildflowers in a state of establishment. Mow once a year in early spring before new growth begins, to a height of 4 to 6 inches, to remove standing material and control woody plant invasion. By year three, a correctly established native meadow requires almost no intervention and no irrigation after establishment.

The native meadow is not a maintenance-reduction trick. It is the correct landscape for properties where the human and natural landscape meet — the edge of a mowed area, the transition from garden to woodland, the slope that is difficult to mow. On properties with meadow acreage, maintaining it as meadow rather than converting it to lawn is both ecologically and aesthetically correct.

From native plant nurseries and meadow seed suppliers. Recommended sources in New England: Native Plant Trust (Framingham, MA), Prides Corner Farms (Lebanon, CT), and High Mowing Seeds for seed mixes. Specify Connecticut or New England ecotype seed where possible — locally-sourced seed is adapted to local conditions and establishes more reliably.