Native Landscape Planting Suggestions
Wet Meadow Garden - AKA - Rain Garden
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Selected species for wet meadow gardens

Always check the scientific name of a plant. A plant may have more than one common name or the same common name may refer to more than one plant.

Scientific name

Common name (flower color)

Recommended space between plants

Perennial Flowers

Tall (most plants are 3-5 feet)

Asclepias incarnata

Swamp Milkweed (pink

28 inches

Aster puniceus

Purple-stemmed Aster (light blue)

18 inches

Lobelia cardinalis

Cardinal Flower (red)

12 inches

Medium (most plants are 2-3 feet)

Iris versicolor

Blueflag Iris (blue)

24 inches

Lilium michiganese

Turk's Cap Lily or Michigan Lily (orange)

12 inches

Chelone glabra

Turtlehead (cream)

16 inches

Grasses

Tall (most plants are 3-6 feet)

Andropogon gerardi

Big Bluestem

48 inches

Sorghastrum nutans

Indiangrass

24 inches

Spartina pectinata

Prairie Cordgrass

24-36 inches

Medium (most plants are 2-4 feet)

Calamagrostis canadensis

Blue Joint Grass

12-18 inches

Schizachyrium scoparium

Little Bluestem

18 inches

 

How to create a wet meadow garden

1. Find a location that is relatively level, downhill from the house, and takes advantage of runoff from hard surfaces (e.g., pavement, roof). Look for areas where water already sits after a rain, or where water runs past on the way to the storm sewer.

2. Dig down 2-3 feet in the center of the area. Dig out from the center gradually sloping the sides of a depression to the size of the wet meadow you want to create. On clay soils, the depression only needs to be deep enough to capture water (1-2 feet).

3. On sandy soils, place a liner in the depression. Rubber liners available at landscaping outlets work best. Cut the liner to twice the size of the depression. A kiddie pool can be used for a liner, but will not last as long. Fill the liner with the soil you dug out, leaving a slight depression. On extremely sandy or heavy clay soils, add organic mulch to the soil to improve plant survival.

4. Slope the adjacent area so that overflow water, from the wet meadow during extremely wet conditions, does not back up to the house.

5. Plant the area with plants suggested above.

6. During extremely dry conditions, you may need to water your wet meadow.

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RollingAcres Native Landscape Nursery L.L.C.
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RollingAcres Native Landscape Nursery L.L.C.
2513 Humpty Dumpty Rd.
Reedsvile, WI 54230