Have you noticed the un-mowed stretch of hillside at Hilltop Park this spring and wondered why – they are meadow-ing!  What is a meadow?  “The term meadow refers to uncultivated areas featuring herbaceous plants and soils that aren’t wet year-round.  While grasslands are defined as having more than 50% grass cover, meadows have more than 50% forb cover.  Most forbs are wildflowers, although the term also includes non-flowering plants like ferns.”   (WeConserve PA)

Meadowing a parcel of land means intentionally choosing not to mow more than 1 or 2 times a year to allow a diversity of vegetation to grow in lieu of turfgrass.   Species of native grass such as bluestem and purpletop are some of the first colonizers here in PA, followed by asters, black-eyed Susans, goldenrod and daisies.  With time, an area can transform from a parcel of turfgrass to a meadow of diverse plants better suited to the climate and conditions of our area.  Easttown’s Parks and Recreation Board decided to meadow this parcel of Hilltop Park, inspired by the 1999 landscape design for the property and the Board of Supervisors’ approval of a pilot meadowing program (see attached map).

Turfgrass covers over 63,000 square miles in the United States, roughly the size of Texas.   These lawns full of non-native species require a staggering amount of water, herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides, gasoline and manual labor to maintain their pristine appearance all with high economic and environmental costs to homeowners and the greater environment.  A single gas-powered lawn mower emits over 100lbs of carbon dioxide per year, not to mention hydrocarbons and particulate matter which impact local air quality. 

Many locations in the United States, including here in Hilltop Park are converting portions of their turfgrass to meadows as a cost-effective, environmentally friendly way of changing the landscape to better suit the non-human environment.   The lawn care industry in the U.S. is a $30 billion industry and the average American spends 70 hours a year on their lawn.

Meadows have many other benefits as well including better absorption of stormwater and groundwater recharge due to their loose soil and more extensive root systems.   An established meadow can improve water quality by absorbing waterborne chemicals before they enter waterways whereas turfgrass can often be a source of such chemicals.  Native plant species found in meadows are typically drought-tolerant and do not require irrigation while landscape irrigation including turfgrass requires roughly 9 billion gallons of freshwater a day according to the U.S. EPA.   Meadows or infrequently mowed grass allows for a diversity of vegetation to grow attracting insects, resting birds, insectivores and pollinators who rely on pollen and pesticide free areas to forage. 

Keep an eye out for changes to occur at the meadowing site in Hilltop Park.  We may begin to see our first native grasses and asters in bloom this fall.  The Parks and Recreation Board plans to mow at the end of the year and meadow again next year with a slightly larger footprint.