FROM THE PRAIRIE TO THE PRAIRIE GARDEN IN THE NETHERLANDS
The prairie is a strong, healthy and long-lasting community of grasses and perennials, ideal for both humans and animals, and a great promise for the future! And, most importantly, it is a breath-taking view all year round with all its colours and structures.
Compared to ‘normal’ borders or planting, prairie plants in a well-designed prairie border balance and complement each other after a couple of years and thus require less maintenance. Prairie plants retain moisture and do not necessitate splitting once every four or five years.
However, is it even possible to build such a prairie or ‘prairie garden’ in Europe? The answer is yes! The climatic conditions of the tall and mixed grass prairies in North America are comparable to the continental European conditions. North America witnesses sharper differences in temperatures (cold winters and warm summers) and high amount of rainfall, but the plants have adapted to these difficult environmental conditions.There are possibilities of planting prairie on wet, mesic to dry soil in Europe. Whereas weeds are the main problem in rich European soils, North American plants are strong and able to adapt to these conditions and even out-compete weeds. This is one of the reasons why we started our own prairie garden in 2008….the other is that I think a prairie garden is dynamic and very beautiful!
Next to our nursery we now have a 3.500m2 sized prairie garden, a show garden, and a collection of grasses, equalling 7.500m2 in total.