How to make a micro-meadow

CREATING your own tiny patch of meadow in an urban or suburban area doesn’t have to be complicated – in fact you only need five types of plants to do it.

So says Lucy Bellamy, author and former editor of Gardens Illustrated magazine, who has a smallish city garden 5m wide by 8m long in Bristol. She has now written Grow 5 – a collection of 52 simple planting ‘recipes’ featuring seasonal ideas for small outdoor spaces using just five plants.

She says that using five types of plants draws on repetition, a key design principle. A combination of five allows the plants to provide the excitement and perform the lion’s share of design work.

“I chose five because it’s close to nature, where it’s really rare to see a monoculture or just one or two plants in a sea of soil. Nature is all about knitting a small group of plants together – and that’s what this does. If you have no borders and only a trough or other container to plant in, you can still grow a micro-meadow, she insists.

“The idea of five plants works really well in a pot, working together as a medley but in a really tiny space, using maybe one of each of the five plants. It’s about thinking about your colour palette, using different textures and choosing plants that flower for a really long time.”

THE FIVE PLANTS YOU’LL NEED

Allium ‘Miami’; Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum; Foeniculum vulgare; Iris ‘Sable’; Stipa gigantea.

Method

1. Dig over the soil to a crumbly consistency.

2. Starting with the Stipa gigantea, space the plants out on the soil, still in their pots, and consider how they will look in different spots, including when you view the scene through your window.

3. Add the Cirsium and fennel, in ones and twos, so that the flowers and foliage mingle at the tips.

4. Dot Iris ‘Sable’ at random among the other plants, making sure you don’t place them too close together, as they will be hefty plants.

5. When each plant has a spot, dig a hole for the stipa, Cirsium and foeniculum, tapping each plant from its pot and easing out a few roots with your fingers. Dig a hole the depth of each plant pot before planning them.

6. Plant the irises, not too deeply, as the top of the rhizome must remain above the soil. Water thoroughly.

7. Alliums are best planted the previous autumn as dormant bulbs, buried 10-15cm deep, tucking them between other flowers, or you can buy them as budding bulbs in early summer.

Bellamy adds: “These modern meadows are designed to have a long season of interest – the plants will naturally change and evolve throughout the year – so the fennel will in summer have yellow flowers, while the allium and cirsium will hold their shape after their colour fades, providing decorative seedheads which last through winter.”

Grow 5 by Lucy Bellamy, £22. Out now.