Grant Park Meadow Makeover

Like many other people that reach out to us, this client was tired of the traditional mow and blow lawn maintenance routine. He knew the negative effects it had on biodiversity and the environment, and was looking for alternative options. During out initial consultation, we determined his priorities - increase biodiversity, eliminate lawn maintenance, reap a harvest from the land, have a more naturalistic aesthetic - and began to create the vision for an edible landscape immersed in a native wildflower meadow.

In this design, we removed the foundation shrubs and replaced them with blueberries, pineapple guava, fig, asian persimmon, and culinary herbs, and removed and replaced the existing lawn with an extremely diverse selection of native wildflowers, specifically chosen to bloom spring - fall, native grasses, and flowering shrubs. It will take a few years before this meadow is fully mature and producing an abundance of fruit, but even after a few months, the landscape is blooming and alive with pollinators.

• Photos taken three months after install.