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Plant a wild flower prairie garden

"Many adventurous gardeners are
replacing lawns with wild flower prairie gardens."

It's a big change from the manicured lawn and, yes, sometimes neighbors raise their eyebrows. Our neighbors certainly did when we planted our meadow.

Prairie gardening with native North American wild flowers is part of the movement toward more sustainable gardening.

This naturalistic style provides great backyard habitat for insects and birds.

Prairie is the French word for meadow, meaning a plant community of flowering perennials and grasses growing together.

Prairie landscapes are natural to mid-western regions of North America, but today very little original prairie remains. Fortunately, restoration projects are underway in many regions.

Starting out: seed or plants?

If you want to plant a wild flower garden to replace a strip of lawn or a flowerbed in your backyard, you need to have full sun.

As for the plants, the easiest way to go is to start with young container-grown plants, which bloom much sooner than a meadow from seed.

Wild flower seed for prairie plantings is also available and it is cheaper for larger projects.

Remember, with seed, many of the perennials take about three seasons to reach blooming size. This is typical for perennials grown from seed, so you have to be patient and be prepared to keep up with weeding if you go that route.

As for the neighbors, here's how to keep them happy: be sure to keep a neatly trimmed border of lawn around your wild flower planting.

Related information:

Wild flower prairie plants to grow and step-by-step planting instructions

How to plant large scale wildflower meadows

Wildflower prairie gardening resources

Piet Oudolf's naturalistic garden style

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