The Making of McFarlane Meadow - Part 3
3/30/2022 8:33 am
The Making of McFarlane Meadow - Part 3
My Favorite Part – Plant Shopping
The 11.5-acre McFarlane Nature Park had a section of pasture that no one really used. The seed of an idea began - to establish a meadow – not a garden. A messy area filled with native plants where we could grow ourselves some insects. Hopefully, an increased population of insects would also bring us more birds.
Having researched methods of starting a meadow and deciding to ignore the conventional wisdom, I moved ahead to deciding what plants we could incorporate into our nascent meadow. There are several sources of landscape plugs for native plants, and I chose to use North Creek Nurseries with whom I had become acquainted through volunteer work at the Atlanta History Center.
Because McFarlane Nature Park is located in the middle of a residential area, I thought the neighbors would be happier with an assortment of plants that didn’t look too messy. I targeted about 35% grasses and 65% flowering perennials. With the Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, prepared by Alan S. Weakley, University of North Carolina Herbarium, at my side, I prepared my list of candidates, avoiding plants that are known deer magnets.
The final list included:
- Andropogon gerardii ‘Blackhawks’
- Sorghastrum nutans
- Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’
- Heliopsis helianthoides var scabra ‘Bleeding Hearts’
- Solidago odora
- Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’
- Vernonia ‘Summer’s Surrender’
Having shared the plan with the taskforce committee for McFarlane, and receiving no response, I went ahead with ordering the plants in September 2021. Because of the high likelihood of failure, I decided to fund it myself.
Seeds were also collected to use in the project: baptisia, liatris, stokesia, rudbeckia and clover.
Stay with me and I will try to document the growth of this idea, not knowing if it ends in success or failure.
NEXT: The Planting Plan
