Program Managers: Janine Pollack and Darlene Squibb 

Introduction

In 2015, budget cuts forced some difficult decisions in terms of landscaping, with planting beds being removed in favor of larger expanses of turf grass.  One such location was a small 0.1-acre area directly in front of the main entrance to the Earth Sciences Building.  The existing vegetation was removed in the fall in preparation for seeding with grass the following spring.

However, Goddard’s Environmental Management team saw this as an opportunity to explore different, more sustainable landscape options that could also meet current budget demands. The Earth Sciences Division, too, saw this as an opportunity to reflect the Division’s values. Consistent with their study of the Earth, they sought a landscape that was natural, low maintenance, and ecologically sound. Thus, the meadow demonstration project was born.

That initial 0.1-acre plot has proven to be beautiful, productive, and low maintenance.  As a result, we have added additional meadow areas through a partnership with the USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Our federal neighbors to the north, located at the Plant Materials Center, are in search of a method by which landowners can convert areas of turf grass to meadow.  Our Greenbelt campus is the perfect spot to experiment as we have plenty of turf we would prefer to be meadow.  Each new area incorporates a slight tweak in the method.  It could be a different approach for removing the existing vegetation (tilling, smothering), a change in the time of year (spring, early summer, or fall), seed versus plugs, etc.  Each tweak produces results we study and brings us closer to perfecting the technique.  It also results in more meadow on Center, and the multitude of benefits that come with it.  For more details on this years-long process, keep reading below.

Current Status & Meadow-Morphosis History

May 16, 2024: Our 2nd Annual Meadow Day!

Looks like we’ve got a tradition going! For the second year in a row, we hosted employees as well as some external groups during Meadow Day. Our USDA/NRCS partners were on hand to answer questions and lead tours through our various meadow areas. To spice things up and really get people active, we had a scavenger hunt which challenged attendees to find specific species of plants and look for various wildlife. Those who completed the challenge were then offered a free native plant to add to their home meadows or gardens. It was a fun, informative day, with our meadows being the stars of the show!

March 5, 2024: Late winter cut – just a little off the top, please.

Now that winter is mostly behind us, it’s time for some maintenance on the meadows. Our grounds crew does a yearly late winter/early spring trim, just to keep woody growth at bay. They haul away the majority of the cut materials so we don’t end up smothering this year’s new growth. After a fresh cut, we couldn’t help but snap a picture. Lookin’ good, meadow… lookin’ good!

June 22, 2023: Despite the drought, things are still growing.

We’ve had a very dry stretch here in Greenbelt.  This week was the first measurable rain we’ve had in what seems like a couple of months.  This had us a bit concerned about our recent teff plantings at buildings 33 and 34.  But, as you can see from the pictures, the teff has seemed to weather (pun most definitely intended!) the drought just fine!  Both areas have a beautiful, lush carpet of bright green taking hold, which is precisely what we were hoping for.  The dense vegetation is keeping invading weeds at bay, which should make for optimal site conditions for later when we put in our native grasses and wildflowers.

And our more established areas have performed extremely well under these dry conditions.  This is just one of the beautiful things about native plants!  They are accustomed to the local climate and soils and can better handle the stresses than plants from another locale.  Just look at this gorgeous shot of the area near the H-wing of building 33.  Is there anyone who would rather see turf grass than this beautiful, vibrant landscape?  WOW!

Our newest additions are coming along!  Another small area (roughly 0.1 acres) at building 33 and then a much larger 1.3-acre site near building 34 were tilled and seeded with teff as the first step.  We will allow the teff to grow the entire summer, when it should outcompete any weeds that may crop up.  In winter, we’ll do a dormant seeding of native grasses and wildflower seed.  Exposure to the elements will force the seed to break dormancy in the spring and the teff should create a nice sort of mulch.  While this approach of using teff to serve as a nurse crop / weed suppressant has been extremely successful, we continue to tinker with the timing of things, as well as the use of seed versus plugs to determine which process produces optimal results.

May 16, 2023: Let’s celebrate – it’s Meadow Day!

What is Meadow Day, you ask?  No, you won’t find it among the list of federal holidays and we’re pretty sure you can’t even buy a card for it at your favorite store.  No, Meadow Day is all about setting aside a day to celebrate the victories we’ve had with bringing these beautiful areas to campus and sharing some of the lessons learned with a few of our colleagues.

We initially thought this would be more of an internal celebration, having our partners, USDA/NRCS and the USGS/Native Bee Lab, out and available to chat with employees who were interested in learning more.  However, word of our meadow work has gotten around, and we soon had several Federal neighbors asking if they, too, could join us.  In the end, we had folks from: FDA/White Oak, Fort Meade, Joint Base Andrews, Naval Research Laboratory, USFWS/Chesapeake Bay Field Office, and UMD/Extension Service. These facilities are all interested in converting turf to meadow and were excited to see examples of the practice and learn more about the techniques used here. It was also an excellent networking opportunity to bring together various natural resources managers from different agencies in the area.

Apr 25, 2023: Meadow – Coming to a building near you?

We’re branching out!  The higher-ups here at Greenbelt are tuning in to what we’ve been doing and apparently want to do more!  They’re looking for areas where the Center can reduce turf grass and the associated maintenance of mowing.  While our efforts thus far have been focused around building 33, now we’re moving up to building 34 and the big area of turf grass adjacent to the parking lot is slated for conversion to meadow.  We’ll again be enlisting the help of our federal neighbors to the north, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.  This will be the largest area we’ve tackled yet – 1.3 acres – but we’re excited to create even more critical habitat for our pollinators and other local wildlife.

Nov 17, 2022: The meadow is slowing down.

As the days grow shorter and colder, the meadows are winding down and preparing for sleep.  The teff grass, lush and green in summer, has started to wane, now a pale straw color and without its original vigor.  Yet, the last holdouts remain.  The beautiful purple mist flower can still be seen and serves as a reminder that the vibrancy of the meadow is still there, though swaddled in a winter blanket.

Oct 19, 2022: Hurray for H-wing!

Our newest meadow area, the H-wing of building 33, had its final planting day today.  This was a multi-step process, with initial planting happening in late-August, then this final round today. This area presented some real challenges with its steep slopes and large patches of Miscanthus, a non-native, highly invasive ornamental grass.  We needed to remove these large grasses from the area as their seed is easily spread by the wind in the fall and would quickly outcompete many of our natives.  Smothering with the plastic landscape fabric worked remarkably well and we plan to use this technique for additional infestations in the future.

Jul 7, 2022: It’s planting day!

The combined NASA and USDA/NRCS team put in a hard day’s work!  After removing the landscape fabric, we added hundreds of plugs to the area along the 32/33 pathway.  Seed for teff grass was also scattered about, to again serve as a nurse plant and weed suppression for our tender little native seedlings.

We also took this opportunity to begin preparations on our NEXT meadow area, near the east side of the building (H-wing).  We simply moved the landscape fabric down to the new location and put it in place along the edges, while the central portion of the area was tilled and planted with teff grass.

Mar 31, 2022: New meadow in the works.

Having already converted the grassy area on the north side of the walkway between buildings 32 and 33, we’re now planning to work on the south side.  We’re using the same plastic landscape fabric that we used way back in 2016 with our initial meadow to smother the current vegetation here.  And, we have plant plugs growing away at the NRCS greenhouse, that will be ready for planting when it’s time to remove the plastic.

Aug 19, 2021: Measuring success, one transect at a time.

Our newest meadow, installed in partnership with USDA/NRCS, is doing quite well.  The native wildflower and grass plugs we planted in the spring are busy putting down roots and establishing themselves.  This is made possible by the teff grass surrounding them and suppressing unwanted plant species that could take over the area.  Using teff as a “nurse” species is a relatively new technique for USDA/NRCS, and they wanted to quantitatively determine the effectiveness of the teff.  Here, two of the NRCS scientists walk transects across the meadow.  A string is marked with a spot at one-foot intervals, and the scientist looks directly beneath and notes which plant species is present.  By doing several of these survey transects, they can collect data to determine what percent of the meadow is made up of teff, the native plugged species, or something else entirely.  Preliminary data suggest a very high success rate, with greater than 85% of the species either the teff or the native plugs!

A Call to Support Sustainability & Diversity

In recent years, several policy guidelines have directed Federal agencies to adopt more sustainable operations, including landscaping practices to create and protect habitat that supports the threatened status of pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies.¹ Federal facility managers are instructed to actively examine their current buildings, grounds, and practices for opportunities to transition to a richer diversity of pollinator-friendly plant species, improving the sustainability of Federal landscapes.² A 2014 Presidential Memorandum directs Federal agencies to take immediate measures to support pollinators through sustainable practices such as planting pollinator-friendly vegetation, increasing flower diversity in plantings, and limiting mowing acreage.³

Native Meadows: The Best “Lawn”

Landscaping an area with conventional turf grass is a common practice in this country. However, grass requires frequent warm-weather mowing and creates extremely poor habitat incapable of sustaining a diverse population of wildlife. Our plan is to alternatively transform this area into an aesthetically pleasing, ultimately very low-maintenance (requiring only one mowing per year) area of native vegetation that will support several species of pollinators, including Monarch butterflies by incorporating Milkweed which is critical to their survival.³  Conversion to meadow will also result in stormwater management benefits. Compared to a conventional lawn planting, native vegetation found in meadows has stronger and denser root and stem systems. This leads to a greater volume of water uptake (evapotranspiration), improved soil conditions through organic material and macropore formation, and greater infiltration, culminating in decreased runoff of the area.⁴

We tried to select native meadow plants that would do well given the conditions of the site. This includes full sun exposure, relatively poor, compacted soils, and highly variable moisture conditions. We also selected species specifically that are hosts for Monarch butterflies (swamp milkweed and common milkweed, both in the milkweed family). Here is a list of all the native plants you will find in the meadow.

1. Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta)
2. Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)
3. Maryland Senna (Senna marilandica)
4. Spotted Beebalm (Monarda punctata)
5. Hairy Beardtongue (Penstemon hirsutus)
6. American Germander (Teucrium canadense)
7. Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis)
8. Narrow-Leaf Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium)
9. Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
10. Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)
11. Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana)
12. Tussock Sedge (Carex stricta)
13. Pink Fuzzybean (Strophostyles umbellata)
14. Purpletop Grass (Tridens flavus)
15. Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans)
16. Beaked Panicgrass (Panicum anceps)
17. Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
18. Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium fistulosum)
19. American Yarrow (Achillea borealis)
20. Fringed Sedge (Carex crinoides)
21. Woolgrass (Scirpus cyperinus)
22. Tickseed Sunflower (Bidens polylepsis)
23. Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)
24. Virginia Wildrye (Elymus virginicus)
25. Hyssop Thoroughwort (Eupatorium hyssopifolium)
26. Grass-Leaf Goldenrod (Euthamia graminifolia)
27. Coastal Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium dubium)
28. Round-Head Bushclover (Lespedeza capitata)
29. Shaggy Blazingstar (Liatris pilosa)
30. Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris)
31. Virginia Bushclover (Lespedeza virginica)
32. Clustered Mountainmint (Pycnanthemum muticum)
33. Gray Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis)
34. Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
35. Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

Partnership

When we set off to create our first meadow, we had little experience in the area of sustainable landscapes. We knew we needed assistance in making this plan a reality. Dr. Sara Tangren, a native plant expert, had collaborated with us on past projects such as native plant rescues, so we reached out to her once again. Dr. Tangren was the lead trainer for the University of Maryland Extension Service (UMDES) Master Gardener and Master Naturalist program. She saw this as a golden opportunity to teach her students about creating a native plant meadow, using our site for practicum classes. Collaboration with the UMDES also supports the Presidential Memorandum to seek technical assistance through collaboration with the land-grant university-based cooperative extension services.⁵ For a little more insight into Dr. Tangren’s professional life and how she got to where she is, please consider watching the Maniac Lecture she gave on April 20, 2017.

With subsequent meadow areas, we leaned on a Federal neighbor just to the north of us, the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Plant Materials Center is located just up the road, and their expert team was looking to test out new techniques with teff as a temporary cover to aide in meadow creation. Our campus was a perfect test bed as they could tinker with their technique, but leave each individual meadow in tact, to see how each fared over the long-term.

We are extremely lucky to have found these amazing folks, and so thankful for all their help, expertise and hard work to improve the diversity, sustainability and beauty of our campus.

FAQ

See a list of the most common questions employees ask us about meadows.  If you still have a burning question, send us an email and let us know what’s on your mind!

References

1. Supporting the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators, October 2014
2. Guidance for Federal Agencies on Sustainable Practices for Designed Landscapes, October 2011
3. Pollinator-Friendly Best Management Practices for Federal Lands, May 2015
4. Pennsylvania Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual, 2006
5. Presidential Memorandum – Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators, June 2014
6. National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators, May 2015