The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee explores the beauty and ecological significance of meadow landscapes in America and guides readers through the process of creating and maintaining meadow gardens that thrive in various climates and conditions. As a nurseryman and designer, Greenlee sees the meadow as a viable option to the traditional lawn offering the complexity of a border and a safe habitat for wildlife together with relatively low maintenance and sustainability. With a mixture of personal anecdotes and scientific knowledge, Greenlee provides practical wisdom and artistic inspiration for achieving a healthy and enduring landscape.
After discussing the benefits of the meadow ecosystem, the author provides practical advice for replacing the tradition grass lawn with a meadow containing colorful wildflowers as well as grasses. He includes suggestions for site preparation, appropriate plant selection, installation, maintenance and companion planting options. Design tips show how to use various grasses to enclose spaces, define paths, develop accents and more. Insets provide lists of plants with special attributes such as best fragrant grasses, bulbs for tropical meadows, and daisies for Mediterranean meadows. Over 50 pages are devoted to profiles of grasses and grass-like plants from spike grass, sweet flag and sedge to papyrus, rush, and millet. The profiles are color coded so that readers can easily identify plants that are suitable for ground covers, fillers, backgrounds, accents, and natural lawns. One chapter features small and large examples of successfully designed meadows mostly from the West, especially from California.
Greenlee’s writing style is simple and direct. A plethora of outstanding photographs by Saxon Holt illustrate the beauty of meadow gardens and the many ways that grasses can be used in combination with flowering plants to create meadow gardens that thrive in various climates and conditions. My one caveat is the inclusion of exotics such as pampas grass and giant reed grass that are known to be invasive. I would like to see more emphasis on native species that would add to diversity without threatening the environment.
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