A front yard with a flower garden, pathway, and residential houses in a neighborhood, under a clear blue sky.
A single-story brick house with green shutters, a small front porch with stairs, and a lawn with some gardening tools and plants. A man stands near the left side of the house, and there are trees in the background.

Suburban Meadow Garden

Our clients purchased a home in a suburban neighborhood knowing they did not want a traditional American lawn. Instead, they envisioned a front yard they could walk through and experience — filled with color, texture, movement, and life.

Two years later, that vision has become a thriving reality.

With more than 600 perennial plantings, 11 evergreen border trees, native shrubs, understory trees, and groundcovers, the entire space has been transformed into a pollinator paradise and important habitat for butterflies, native bees, birds, and other beneficial wildlife.

We began this project by removing the existing turf grass and creating pathways that meander through the landscape, giving our clients a way to move through and experience the garden from within.

Trees and shrubs were added to establish structure, followed by hundreds of native perennials, and more than 100 moss phlox planted along both sides of the walkway to create a low-growing border between the path and the surrounding garden.

Clover and violets had begun to spread within the space and was allowed and encouraged to create a ground layer that has helped suppress the weeds while the garden establishes.

After just the first season, the landscape had already begun to fill in beautifully. By its second year, many of the perennials had started forming colonies and spreading naturally, creating soft drifts of seasonal color throughout the garden.

  • Close-up of tall, pink and purple liatris flowers with green, needle-like leaves. In the background, red and yellow flowers and a brick house with an open garage on a sunny day.
  • People placing and arranging potted plants along a sidewalk, preparing for planting or landscaping in a suburban neighborhood.
  • Close-up of a tall flower with light pink petals, green leaves, and small yellowish-green flower parts at the center, in a garden with other plants and a brick house in the background.
  • Front yard garden with colorful flowers, including red beeb loses and yellow daisies, in front of a brick house with a large window and green shutters.
  • Pink coneflowers with orange centers in a garden with green foliage, small yellow flowers, and a decorative turquoise garden ornament near a brick house.
  • Close-up of a yellow and red flower with a dark center, surrounded by green leaves, in a garden with a blurred background of pink flowers and a brick house.
  • Close-up of a garden with tall yellow and purple flowers, green foliage, and a house with beige siding in the background.