Longwood's new meadow is a living landscape

A meadow is not an overnight kind of thing. You can't just toss a bunch of seeds out there and expect those wildflowers to last forever.

Meadows are complex ecosystems requiring years of planning; layers of design; a deep understanding of the interplay of topography, soil, botany, biology, weather, and wildlife; and hypervigilance on the part of caretakers.

Enjoying a meadow, on the other hand, is a delightfully simple experience. Prepare to exhale!

Friday, Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square opens its newly planted, meticulously restored, 86-acre meadow to the public, providing a rare chance for visitors to witness, up close and over time, the evolution of one of nature's most fascinating and beautiful displays.

"This is truly a living Andrew Wyeth painting," Longwood director Paul B. Redman said during an afternoon stroll through the new meadow, which more than doubles the size of the old and can be entered just beyond the Italian Water Garden or the Peirce-DuPont House.

Like Wyeth's art, the meadow conveys a strong sense of place. There's no mistaking this landscape for anything but southern Chester County, Pa. - in the locally grown native plants selected to grow here; in the Avondale stone, tulip-poplar wood, and other indigenous materials used for walls, bridges, benches, and structures; in the gently sloped grasslands and forested edges, wide vistas and wetlands; and in the small lake that houses at least one endlessly hungry beaver.

"It has the real feel of the Brandywine Valley," said Jonathan Alderson, the Wayne landscape architect who designed the meadow.

There's even a Wyethlike house atop the hill at the meadow's far end. Restored by John Milner Architects of Chadds Ford, the early 18th-century Webb Farmhouse now features the original hearth and meadow-related art and small exhibits.

It's a different kind of draw for Longwood, an internationally known, 1,077-acre public garden on the former estate of Pierre S. DuPont that attracts 1.1 million visitors a year.

Longwood is better known for formal allees, topiaries, fountains, floral displays, and holiday traditions. It also offers top-drawer classes and concerts and, in recent years, an extensive "green" strategy that now includes the meadow.

Redman thinks of the meadow as more of a "meadow garden," one that represents all that is Longwood: horticultural display, artistry, education, environmental stewardship. He also believes - others, too, apparently - that meadows like this one embody a universal standard of beauty.

Redman cites "A Darwinian Theory of Beauty," a 2010 TED talk by the late philosopher Denis Dutton of New Zealand, who suggested that beauty does not lie in the eye of the beholder, as is commonly believed. On the contrary, he said, "the experience of beauty is one component in a whole series of Darwinian adaptations."

How else to explain that people all over the world "tend to like the ideal savannah landscape," Dutton said, with water, wildlife, open space and greenery, and a path that extends into the distance, "almost inviting you to follow it."

"I thought, 'Oh my God, that's our meadow!'" Redman said. "It's in our DNA to love it."

It was a hard fight, at first.

When the project began in 2012, one of the first tasks Alderson's team faced was to mow down - and carefully target with herbicide - a rat's nest of bittersweet, crown vetch, miscanthus, foxtail, autumn olive, multiflora rose, and other invasives, whose possible return will have to be monitored long-term.

For now, all is well. Though in its infancy, the meadow - sometimes quietly, sometimes not - already thrills with life.

Here, with the faint hum of traffic in the distance, you'll experience a head-turning cacophony of bird calls as robins, cardinals, swallows, chickadees, and wrens swish through the air. From the Hourglass Lake Bridge, designed to look like one of the area's covered versions, you may find dragonflies and ducks, turtles and egrets.

At Hawk Point, one of four "learning pavilions" situated around the meadow, you'll squint at harriers and vultures, maybe a bald eagle. And as you stroll along three miles of handicapped-accessible walkways and raised boardwalk, you may meet pollinating bees and butterflies, red foxes and deer. (The herd is managed, the population in balance.)

All around you are thousands of native perennials, wildflowers, shrubs, trees and warm-season grasses, chosen for their heritage, ecological purpose, and seasonal value to wildlife. As they mature, they will successfully compete or die.

"A meadow is always changing. We'll see how the mosaic plays out," said Alderson, suggesting that visitors should return again and again, in every season, at different times of day, as he did during the design process, to watch those changes unfold.

Come back, too, to feel light, happy, and mindfully connected to the world in ways that smartphones will never know.

"You can take a deep breath here," Redman said, "and feel at home."

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Longwood Gardens is offering guided tours of its new meadow on select days and times from June 21 through Aug. 26. Free with admission, they focus on topics such as meadow ecology, pollinators, birds, and wildflowers.

Guests should be able to manage moderate inclines, and come with walking shoes, hat, water bottle, and binoculars. There are bird-watching scopes at some spots in the meadow.

Free transportation is available between the meadow entrance and the Webb Farmhouse.

Meadow Days, when experts will be on hand to answer questions, will be Aug. 2, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and on Sept. 20 and Oct. 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Garden and meadow hours: Sunday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Longwood Gardens is at 1001 Longwood Rd., Kennett Square. Tickets are available at the door or at tickets.longwoodgardens.org. Prices vary. Information: 610-388-1000 or longwoodgardens.org