Your lawn and yard this season
Aesthetics and style trends have taken over our interiors, and we love the trends spilling over into our outdoor spaces as well. This year, as organic decor and biophilic design continue to dominate our home decor feeds, a similar gardening trend is growing—ie.
'Meadoscaping' is the replacement of a neatly manicured lawn with traditional landscaping using wildflowers, grasses and other native plants. Lawn care creates a wild, overgrown, lawn-inspired feel and takes yards by storm. By incorporating many plants and flowers into a lawn by scaping, pollinators benefit and biodiversity is more sustained than grass.
Meadows inspired by wildflowers
It also makes perfect sense for everyone to "bring the outdoors in" and lean into all things, turning our outdoors into real lawns. According to Back to the Roots' Nikhil Arora, that's exactly what's happening.
"Medoscaping is creating a garden that mimics a wildflower meadow or prairie by planting a variety of native plants that support local wildlife," he says. "It's really a celebration of biodiversity."
Perfect lawns are on the way out
Katie Damoney of Monrovia says landscaping is a natural step for those who shy away from natural lawns. If you want a more wild, natural look in your garden, you might have the idea of "grazing lawns," Damoni says. "As homeowners explore ways to remove the perfect green lawn and rely more on chemicals, lawn care is taking hold," he explains.
Cultivating lawns improves biodiversity
There's no denying that a "lawn" lawn is truly beautiful, but this aesthetic has other important benefits. Arora says that besides providing environmental benefits, it also promotes biodiversity. This trend provides habitat for pollinators while reducing maintenance and water use compared to traditional lawn care, Arora explains. "It's beautiful, saves water and is great for our pollinator friends," she says.
Best suited for spaces in full sun
If there's one downside to lawn scaping, it's that not every lawn will work with this approach to planting. If you're going to do that, says Arora, you need the right conditions. Since many flowers require full sun, lawns are best suited for large areas with full sunlight.
If you can check that item off your list, it's just a matter of what types of plants you should include.
"A great lawn needs a mix of native grasses, wildflowers, and other perennials that thrive in the local climate and soil conditions," says Arora. "It should include a combination of plant height and flowering times to provide year-round interest and support for a variety of wildlife."
Meadowscaping contributes to your local ecosystem
As Damoni points out, lawn care is about more than creating a beautiful yard—it's also about contributing to nature. If done right, it won't enhance your outdoor space. It will also greatly benefit the biodiversity of your land. "Every garden is part of a larger ecosystem, and we all want to do our part to support pollinators and birds," she says. "As homeowners become more aware and concerned about planting for their climate, there is an interest in learning more from nature."
Meadowscaping, Damoni explains, is a natural way to reflect that interest in our landscape designs. A beautiful lawn should look effortless and carefree - but never wild and overgrown.
"It becomes a complex, chaotic and overgrown scene," he says, noting that maintaining a sense of structure is even more important. This can be easily done with some pre-planting planning.
"We recommend that gardeners think about a few more plants that balance out plants that can actually become wild. If you love the idea of a lawn but can't imagine converting your entire yard to this look, Damo recommends starting small.
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