Roadside Meadow

I envisioned this roadside meadow in late 2020 as an opportunity to revegetate a typical road cut along a well-traveled street in West Des Moines with pollinator supporting ecology. When the homeowners bought the property, the current embankment was a wild hedgerow along a dusty gravel road, of which only a lone hedge apple (Maclura pomifera) remains. As the neighborhood has developed, this street has become a bustling conduit between a substantial commercial development area and residential homes to the south and west giving the landscape a considerable vehicular and pedestrian audience. This roadside meadow along a busy street in a fast-developing neighborhood is both a beautiful protest and an ecological demonstration garden. 

The hillside faces west and with a nearly 45-degree slope towards its southern end and measures about 3,000 square feet in area. The client described it as difficult to mow and manage and a wasted opportunity when it could provide a habitat for pollinators and wildlife adjacent to the driveway entrance of the home.

The resulting meadow honors Iowa’s tallgrass prairie heritage with an emphasis on wildflowers (forbs) due to the client's insistence on floral diversity at all points of the growing season. I chose a single grass element (little bluestem) to support this visual richness which shifts dramatically between flowering cohorts every two to three weeks. The planting features 26 species, 88% of which are native to the Upper Midwest. The floral dynamics are eclectic and exuberant, both qualities inherent to the owner’s tastes and style. Spring begins with daffodils and native wild hyacinths (Camassia scilloides) and concludes with goldenrods and asters in late September and October.