A Riverside Meadow Garden

Designed and installed in 2020, this naturalistic garden is a mixture of single species blocks surrounded by a matrix style planting. A ‘block’ is a group of a single species planted together. Blocks are then repeated through the design. A ‘matrix’ design is the use of scattered flowering plants throughout a textural base planting, usually of grasses.

This composition was inspired by wild plant communities growing along the river just to the south of the garden. This garden is on fertile, moist soil in full sun, which has the potential to be very weedy. To create a long-lasting, balanced composition that could outcompete weeds, Dave used larger plants with strong root systems adapted to high competition.