Meadow Inspired Garden

What motivated this garden design?

This backyard garden was intended to provide year-round colour in an ever-changing, naturalistic theme and to provide forage and habitat for birds and insects.

Wildness, movement, spontaneity were top of mind for this project. We wanted the character of the plants to shine through to achieve our meadow-inspired vision.

Immersion in nature, ecological benefits, drought tolerance, low maintenance, and constant beauty were the keys to this garden design.

What is the aesthetic vision behind this project?

This landscape offers different aesthetics, both from season to season and from different viewpoints. The rhythm of colour movement through the garden changes with time and perspective.

We created a dense, lush planting with a four-season bloom time. The colours of the growing season move from cool to warm as the purples and whites of spring and early summer give way to yellows, rusts and reds of the late summer and fall.

The vibrant autumn colours of the deciduous trees blend seamlessly into the surrounding landscape, creating the illusion of a much larger space.

Winter is coloured by the evergreens, the tans and browns of seed heads and grasses, and a single Hamamelis mollis (witch hazel) that anchors the far corner with its delicate, yellow, fragrant, winter flowers.

What other elements support this garden design?

The lawn area was seeded with a drought tolerant, chafer beetle resistant seed blend of fescues and micro-clover. We installed a new irrigation system for the back yard, and made modifications to improve and optimize the existing front yard irrigation.

Finally, a new deck was added, and boy does it complete the space!