Year Opened: 2018
Garden Designer: Bryan Fischer

Main areas of the Prairie Garden include the short grass prairie / steppe section, mixed grass prairie and tall grass prairie, as well as dry stream plantings. It serves as a showcase garden for meadow gardening style as well as underused, notable and unique native plants, especially those well-suited to cultivation in gardens.  

The goal of the space is to create a serene, immersive, beautiful place of respite for the visitor. The look and feel of the Prairie Garden is naturalistic, yet polished. Soft textures, expansive areas of color-coordinated bloom, and gentle but widespread movement are key features of the space. 

Another important part of the visitor experience in the Prairie Garden is interaction with or proximity to wildlife.  The extensive and diverse bloom of the Prairie Garden, as well as its diverse native plant foliage for insect and animal food and shelter, make it of high interest and value to insects, birds and other wildlife.

Featuring:

• More than a half acre of naturalistic meadow garden
• Exclusively features North American grassland plants, including some sourced from local prairies
• Long season of interest, highly attractive to insects and other wildlife
• Serves as a trial ground for plants that show promise but that have not yet been well-tested in gardens of the region or style
• A true "matrix style" meadow garden, all plants in this garden are interplanted, rather than being planted in traditional blobs or groupings, providing a more naturalistic feel in the space