Alternative Meadow Making - the (Modified) Wait-and-See Approach

By Bonnie Beers   
Reposted from November 2020
 
We wanted to create a low-growth meadow in a 3 acre area near our house.  Ever hopeful and loath to use chemical sprays, we decided to give this former hayfield a chance to show its stuff.  The site had been mowed for hay with little improvements for decades, at least.  It was bordered on one side by a small stream and woods border, on a 2nd side by a deeper wood, and on the remaining sides by our driveway and the mowed/planted areas around our house.  Along the woods edges, we found natives like sumac, dogwood, redbud, locust, pine and cedar, and hardwoods.  We also found a patch of ailanthus, a good bit of autumn olive and some encroaching vines like Japanese honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet.


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