SiLOSSiLOS

Let a third of it go wild, on

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seed packet
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1Pick the third

The far third. The slope. The strip along the fence that takes the string trimmer and a bad mood. It wants six hours of sun, and it looks best from a little distance, so the back third beats the front one. Four hundred square feet is about the smallest patch that behaves like a meadow instead of a weedy corner.

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2Mow the shape, not the meadow

Before you stop mowing, mow the design. One path through the middle, one strip around the outside, both mower-width, both a little curved. That edge is the whole difference between a meadow and a lot nobody owns. The path can move next year. The edge stays.

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3Then put the mower away for that part

Take a photo from the kitchen window; you will want the before. Then walk the path once a week like you own it, because you do.

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4Stop mowing and see what comes

The cheapest way and the least tidy. Goldenrod, asters, milkweed, ironweed and joe-pye weed come in on their own; so does whatever the wind brings. You get no say in the cast. The people who pick this have a big lot, a field next door, or a rented house and no budget. One extension office suggests a three-by-three patch in a quiet corner first, to see what shows up.

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5Kill it and seed it

The one that ends up looking like the seed packet. Scalp the grass in spring, cover it with black plastic or cardboard from mid-June to mid-September, and do not till. Rake the bare dirt, seed in mid to late October, and let the cold do the rest. Sunny, four hundred square feet and up, and a person who can wait two springs: that is who picks this.

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