Wildflower meadow has never looked better

There are lots of flowers blooming in our gardens around the house, but for this Garden Blogger's Blooms Day* I'm going to feature our wildflower meadow, which has never looked better.

It's been a strange summer with far too much rain and low temperatures (until it got hot this week). The effect on the meadow has been to slow the blooms down, and keep the flowers fresher for longer. I think the cool nights have contributed to this in a big way.

Echinacea and Ratibida with Monarda in the background

As a result, we have flowers blooming together that normally would not be there at the same time. This is especially noticeable with bee balm (Monarda didyma). In a normal, hot summer, it would be going to seed by now. So when photographing, we have these lovely soft lilac-mauve tones through the meadow, which is dominated by the yellow of the ratibidas and rudbeckias at this time of the year.

Liatris has become well-established in the meadow now

Together with camera club friends, I spent many hours photographing in the meadow this week. We try to start at sunrise and go until 8 or 9 a.m. and then have coffee. Our photographic goal is to try to create some visual order out of the profusion and chaos of the wildflowers. It's a fun challenge.

My crew and I also weeded this past week (mostly my crew, I have to admit). The meadow, which is made up of native flowers and grasses, was getting overrun with non-native Queen Anne's Lace, which takes over and gives us white blobs in the background when we photograph.

It actually wasn't too bad a job because the wet ground made it possible to pull them out - tap root and all. By not allowing this biennial weed to go to seed this year we've cleared up the problem for a couple of seasons. (The other weeds we remove from the meadow are Canada thistle and sow thistle.)

Queen Anne's Lace is pretty, but like all weeds, it reproduces excessively, and ends up dominating parts of the meadow.

Many gardeners imagine that you don't have to weed naturalized plantings, but it ain't so, I'm sorry to say. If you want a wildflower meadow to look its best, you have to control unwanted plants. I find that it always seems like a much bigger job than it turns out to be. In fact, removing the Queen Anne's Lace only took a couple of mornings and part of two afternoons, thanks to David and Shelly, my invaluable garden helpers. (I did a short stint too, but mostly, I've had to stick to the mowing, which never seems to end.)

More blooms:

Echinacea shot with a portrait lens
that allows for lovely soft backgrounds

Meadow blazing star beginning to bloom

Rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium)

Monarda still in bloom in mid-August

Ratibida pinnata, the yellow that dominates the late summer

More information about our meadow and how we established it is at my website.

*Thanks to Carol at May Dreams garden blog for the opportunity to share with other gardeners. Be sure to visit her blog to see many more August Blooms Day offerings.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

First outside gardening job of the season done

Well, it isn't really gardening, but the job of the weekend was mowing down our wildflower meadow. We like to get this job done when the snow is gone, but the ground is still hard frozen.

It's cold and dusty, and I'm thankful that John sacrificed himself to do a half on Saturday, and the rest today. To get it all down, he had to go over each area twice, as the dried stems are quite tough.

The button seedheads are beebalm Monarda didyma and the grass is little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), which is a lovely copper color all winter.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener