Meadow Lab

Meadow Lab Creators of landscaping products that put nature back where it belongs.

What do you learn from living with a meadow season after season?Meadows are dynamic plant communities. What thrives, wha...
09/30/2026

What do you learn from living with a meadow season after season?

Meadows are dynamic plant communities. What thrives, what recedes, how species compete, and how a landscape responds to weather and management only become clear over time.

That makes the land steward’s perspective an especially valuable one. In our latest Field Notes, we spoke with Skyler Smith, a horticulturist with Denver Parks & Recreation who has spent the past five seasons transforming and tending a three-acre garden in Denver’s Washington Park.

Along the way, he reflects on:
* why “the more densely I plant, the less I have to weed” — and how dense planting shifts maintenance from constant weeding toward editing a plant community
* why designing for climate resilience is as much about variability as drought, and why that means accepting that some species simply won’t persist
* why butterflies and bees are only part of the picture — and how spiders, beetles, praying mantises and other members of the food web can tell us more about whether a landscape is functioning ecologically
* why native and perennial landscapes aren’t necessarily low-maintenance, even when they require fewer inputs
* what five seasons of observing the same garden have taught him about allowing a diverse plant community to sort itself out, while still meeting the aesthetic expectations of a highly visible public landscape

Thanks, Skyler Smith ! Read the full conversation through the link in our profile.

What exactly are we designing when we design a meadow?In our latest Field Notes, we spoke with Matt Dallos of .workshop ...
07/02/2026

What exactly are we designing when we design a meadow?

In our latest Field Notes, we spoke with Matt Dallos of .workshop about one of the central questions of meadow design: where should a landscape fall on the spectrum between careful authorship and ecological process?

Matt argues that the goal in meadow-making isn’t a meticulously controlled flower border, nor is it a meadow left entirely to its own devices. Instead, every project asks for a different balance—one informed by its ecology, the people who will use it, its budget, and its long-term management. It’s a perspective that he says challenges many of today’s “meadow-ish” landscapes, which often borrow the language of ecology while still being designed as static compositions.

Along the way, he reflects on:

* why one seeded meadow project’s three most successful species weren’t even in the seed mix — and what that taught him about designing for a site’s latent processes, not just planting plans
* why so many “meadow-ish” plantings borrow the language of sustainability and ecology while still being designed as static — and how that creates management nightmares that get unfairly blamed on the broader meadow movement
* why Rudbeckia hirta went from a “floofy” flower-border plant to a “gritty partner in meadow making” (we feel the same way!)
* how a mature meadow reveals microtopography, hydrology, and soil history that even rigorous site analysis can miss
* why financial and cultural support for meadows still lags behind the growing interest in them

One observation that stayed with us:

“Meadows reveal the granularity of places in a way that traditional landscapes never can... Meadows allow you to think through the qualities of a place at the scale of a seed germinating.”

Thanks, Matt! Read the full conversation through the link in our profile, and explore Matt’s beautiful and thoughtful work at .workshop

One of the privileges of our line of work is getting to play a small part in helping landscapes come back to life.
Bushw...
06/29/2026

One of the privileges of our line of work is getting to play a small part in helping landscapes come back to life.

Bushwick Inlet Park’s new Motiva section sits on land that was once industrial waterfront. After an initial seeding attempt failed, NYC Parks needed a way to establish native meadow vegetation quickly so the site would be ready when the park opened. When they and Abel Bainnson Butz ( ) reached out, we were glad we could help. We supplied a combination of Signature Native and Signature Enriched Wildflower Sod™, installed by Family Tree Service in November 2025.

One thing we always try to explain is that meadows don’t behave like lawns—and they aren’t meant to. They change dramatically with the seasons. We harvested this sod just as it was going dormant, which meant shipping pallet upon pallet of brown warm-season grasses and dormant wildflowers. Dormancy is part of a healthy meadow’s natural cycle - but it’s not a condition most are used to seeing in sod. Swipe to see photos from the harvest, and a site visit in March that required a little faith!

By the park’s opening in May, the first wave of annuals and perennials was already in bloom, pollinators had begun to arrive, and a new meadow was taking shape. It’s hard to believe it had been bare ground just a few months earlier.

Thank you to NYC Parks, and Family Tree Service for trusting us with this meadow; to our amazing growing partners at ; and to everyone else who helped bring this project to life and back to its people. 

Full case study at the link in our profile. Photos by the talented 


What does it mean to work with a landscape that shapes itself over time?For Abby Clough Lawless, it begins with acceptin...
04/01/2026

What does it mean to work with a landscape that shapes itself over time?

For Abby Clough Lawless, it begins with accepting that a meadow is never fully authored. Based in Shelter Island, New York, Abby is the founder of Farm Landscape Design.

As we return to our Field Notes column after a winter hiatus, Abby reflects on:

• the tension between wildness and maintenance
• why designing a meadow is more conversation than control
• how even the most careful plans give way to something unexpected
• the lessons that come from failure, adaptation, and time
• and what it means to work alongside forces you can’t fully direct

She describes meadow-making as a humbling process—one that asks for attention, patience, and a willingness to be just one of many forces at play.

Read the full Field Notes + explore Abby and her team’s work at

Last week, we gathered for our first Installer Partner Training of the year. Even on the cusp of spring, it was grey and...
03/24/2026

Last week, we gathered for our first Installer Partner Training of the year. Even on the cusp of spring, it was grey and chilly, but it didn’t slow us down!

We spent the morning dreaming ahead to blooming meadows, getting our hands dirty with a Wildflower Sod™ installation, and touring our few remaining over-wintering R&D beds to share more about our approach to bringing new products to market.

A sincere thank you to this stellar group of Landscape Professionals who came from near and far to learn and share their knowledge, curiosity, and great questions:








studio







We’re looking forward to partnering with you to bring more meadows into the world! ❤️

Missed this one? Our next Installer Partner Training will take place mid-summer in Cold Spring, NY. We’ll post again when registration opens.

What does a meadow feel like?For Liza Kiesler, it’s the feeling of a breath of fresh air - a space that gives a sense of...
01/09/2026

What does a meadow feel like?

For Liza Kiesler, it’s the feeling of a breath of fresh air - a space that gives a sense of lightness and freedom to someone stepping inside. Based in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, Liza is the founder of Viburnum Gardens ( ), where her work begins with grasses, sedges, and subtle base layers that hold entire systems together.

In this Field Notes conversation, Liza reflects on:

• meadows as emotional and spatial experiences
• why there’s never “empty” ground in a real meadow
• the underestimated difficulty of sown meadows
• grasses as the true architects of resilience
• what alpine plant communities can teach us about companionship over competition

She imagines meadows not just in fields, but in places of tension — outside courthouses, town halls, anywhere a pause with bees and seedheads might soften the day. “More nature snacks,” she says. We couldn’t agree more.

Read the full Field Notes at the link in bio + explore Liza’s work at

For projects that call for something highly specific—ecotypes from a particular region, mixes tuned to moisture or shade...
12/10/2025

For projects that call for something highly specific—ecotypes from a particular region, mixes tuned to moisture or shade, or plant communities that support regulatory or biodiversity goals—we offer custom-grown meadow sod.

These mixes start at the seed level, built for the site’s environmental conditions and long-term function. Because they’re grown to order, they require 6–12 months of lead time, depending on the season. Minimum order is 4,200 ft².

Custom sod can be a good fit for:
• Projects needing regionally specific species or genetics
• Sites with distinct soil, hydrology, or light patterns
• Wetland or biodiversity compliance requirements
• Meadow designs that benefit from a precise plant palette
• Events or installations meant to establish a lasting, living landscape

Pictured here: A straight-species sod we grew this year featuring one of our favorite native grasses, Eragrostis spectabilis (Purple Lovegrass). Photos rarely capture the full effect—this one shimmers in person. It’s a warm-season perennial that thrives where many grasses won’t: hot, dry, nutrient-poor, and sandy sites, even roadsides with winter salt exposure. Its fine, cloud-like seedheads bring a luminous texture in late summer, and its slow-spreading, tufted habit keeps it well-behaved in designed landscapes.

On the coast of Maine, where spruce woods meet long-used pastureland, Landscape Designer Gavin Boyce-Ratliff is shaping ...
11/25/2025

On the coast of Maine, where spruce woods meet long-used pastureland, Landscape Designer Gavin Boyce-Ratliff is shaping meadows that honor both history and place. Through his practice, , he works across the Northeast to create herbaceous landscapes rooted in ecology, craft, and a real understanding of how meadows come into being.

In our November edition of Field Notes, our ongoing series with designers and practitioners exploring the role of meadows in contemporary landscapes, Gavin talks about a life shaped by grasslands, from New England fields to the prairies of the Mountain West. His plantings blend warm-season grasses, forbs, and a few favorite non-native species that add contrast, texture, and movement.

We loved interviewing Gavin for this series - link in bio for the full conversation.

On the coast of Maine, where spruce woods meet long-used pastureland, Landscape Designer Gavin Boyce-Ratliff is shaping ...
11/25/2025

On the coast of Maine, where spruce woods meet long-used pastureland, Landscape Designer Gavin Boyce-Ratliff is shaping meadows that honor both history and place. Through his practice, , he works across the Northeast to create herbaceous landscapes rooted in ecology, craft, and a real understanding of how meadows come into being.

In our November edition of Field Notes, our ongoing series with designers and practitioners exploring the role of meadows in contemporary landscapes, Gavin talks about a life shaped by grasslands, from New England fields to the prairies of the Mountain West. His plantings blend warm-season grasses, forbs, and a few favorite non-native species that add contrast, texture, and movement.

We loved interviewing Gavin for this series - link in bio for the full conversation.

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