The Meadow Garden at Longwood Gardens

A couple of weeks ago, J and I went to Longwood Gardens to check out the newly reopened Meadow Garden. I confess that in my many visits to Longwood, I'd never explored the Meadow Garden prior to its closure and expansion, so I can't compare its current iteration to the way it used to be. The Meadow Garden doubled in size during the expansion. Apparently, Longwood successfully (after almost two decades of petitioning) moved a county road around the entire property in lieu of it bisecting the meadow. So they were able to join the two halves of the meadow (the former side and the one that was not open to visitors on the other side of the county road) to create an even larger garden.

Many of the gardens at Longwood are purposeful in their design and feature colorful plants that are always in bloom. Not so with the meadow garden. It felt very natural and peaceful and like I was walking through a field (I was). I recognized native plants for pollinators, walked on trails mown through the grass, and stepped on animal droppings. There was still a lot to see and great little touches of well-integrated design here and there.

You can read more about the Meadow Garden here. I'll let my pictures do the rest of the talking.

Home for mason bees

 

Asclepias tuberosa and Callirhoe involucrata