Creating an Urban Meadow Garden

By Ashleigh Smith

Urban Meadow Gardens are all about bringing vegetation back into city spaces. While some people really enjoy the feeling of being in a big city with tall buildings, busy streets, and sidewalks for miles, they still crave the feeling of being in a green space. In fact, several studies have found that people experience better health when they have access to green spaces. That can be anything from a public park, home garden, or even tree-lined streets.

Simply having some natural vegetation to break up the man-made materials around us is enough to affect our mental and physical health. Bringing these natural spaces back into urban settings can also help to improve localized temperatures and air quality. Cities are notoriously known for their poor air quality. Adding plants along streets, rooftops, balconies, and courtyards is a great way to enable natural air purification via plant activity.

One of the easiest ways to add some plants to the warm cityscape is by using plants that are naturally heat tolerant, such as meadow flowers and grasses. These not only add a touch of natural greenery, they come with a few blossoms too! While meadows traditionally occur in large open spaces, they can be made with some alterations for urban settings.

Steps to Create An Urban Meadow Garden

Locate Your Growing Space

This doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Start as small as a few pots or a raised bed. If you have more room, all the better. Don’t forget to make good use of any rooftop space you have access to. Many plants love full sun and can help take the scorching heat off of these fully exposed sites.

Raised Growing Bed

Select Your Seeds

As mentioned before, meadows are usually made up of native grasses and wildflowers. These will be great for attracting pollinators like bees, butterflies, and birds. Some of the most common meadow flowers include coneflowers, bachelors buttons, poppies, butterfly weed, yarrow, aster, clover, columbine, daisies, etc. To get a true meadow look, consider planting several varieties or using a mix. When planting wildflower mixes such as our Save the Monarchs or Save the Bees, you can support further research and conservation efforts. A portion of each purchase of these mixes is donated to Monarch Joint Venture or the Bee Conservancy, respectively.

Save the Monarchs Wildflower Mix

Save the Bees Wildflower Mix

Planting

Wildflowers are some of the easiest to grow because they are genetically designed to handle the harsh conditions of open fields or mountainsides. Simply follow our wildflower growing instructions. Be sure to maintain a regular watering schedule until they are established. Once their roots are established, wildflowers are generally very drought-tolerant. Get started as soon as this coming fall season. Wildflowers are great for fall plantings that will come up in the spring.