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Additional Prairie
Establishment Pages:
Planning & Designing
Understanding Your Soil
Site Preparation
When to Seed
Seed Stratification
Prairie Seeding Procedures
Post Planting Management
Guide to Prairie Establishment
Introduction to Establishing a Prairie
Site Selection | Prairie Management Using Mowing & Controlled Burns | Tall & Short Prairies
You can heal the earth, create habitat for wildlife, and make a beautiful long-lived natural flower garden using North American native species.
Wildflower restoration represents a long-term investment in your landscape. With attention to planning, installing and maintaining your prairie, you can create a natural landscape that will return to delight you year after year. On areas over 1000 sq. ft. seeds are more economical than plants, but take longer to mature.
Seeds can be planted in spring, early summer or fall. Prairie Nursery's seed mixes are excellent values, ranging in cost from less than 3 cents per square foot to 9 cents per square foot. Please see our Wildflower Seed Mixes for the seed mixes best suited to your conditions.
Fertilizers and pesticides are not needed to maintain your prairie, so it’s an investment that improves the environment while you save time and money!
Site Selection
Prairies and meadows require sunny, open sites with good air circulation. Most prairies need a minimum half day of full sun to thrive and bloom. Prairie flowers and grasses do well in full sun on the west, south and east sides of a building. The north side is better suited to ferns and woodland wildflowers.
Sand and gravel on septic fields and mound systems support tough native species. The roots of herbaceous natives have been shown not to affect the function of drainage systems. An added benefit is that the deep-rooted prairie plants can utilize the wastewater and the nutrients contained in it, preventing them from entering the ground water.
Control aggressive, weedy plants adjacent to your site. Some creep into your meadow via underground rhizomes, others have seeds that blow in. If there is an old field next to your prairie, maintain a mowed strip 5-10 feet wide between prairie and field. Mow the field every summer before the weeds go to seed.
Sites that have a long history of weedy vegetation require extra preparation. One to two full years of site preparation is needed, using herbicide, smothering, cultivation, or a combination of these methods, to kill off entrenched weeds and to reduce the seeds harbored in the soil.
Prairie Management Using Mowing & Controlled Burns
The North American Prairie evolved under the influence of fire. Started by lightning or by Native Americans, these fires kept out trees, recycled nutrients into the soil and stimulated growth of the wildflowers and grasses. Controlled burning on a two or three year rotation remains the best method for managing prairie plantings. Properly conducted, a controlled burn is safe.
Design firebreaks into your landscape plan when using fire as a management tool. A mowed grass strip 10 feet wide or more can serve this purpose. Driveways, sidewalks, lawns, ponds and streams also make excellent firebreaks.
Do not plant your prairie next to conifers or other trees that are easily damaged by fire. Fire-resistant native trees include burr oak, white oak and shagbark hickory. Do not allow more than 1-2 trees per acre in a prairie, as most prairie plants grow best in full sun. Protect desirable but less fire-tolerant trees in your prairie by mowing the perimeter and removing flammable material before burning.
Mowing is an effective substitute when fire is not an option. Mow everything down to the soil level in mid-spring, and rake off the cut material to mimic the effects of burning. This exposes the soil to the sun and promotes prairie plant growth.
Divide your meadow into two or three “management units” to encourage ecological diversity and landscape interest. Mowed grass trails provide access into your prairie, and double as firebreaks between management units. Burn or mow each unit alternating years. Undisturbed plots help preserve over-wintering butterfly chrysalises, and provide spring nesting cover for birds. Each unit responds differently to the management cycle, creating various patterns of wildflowers and prairie grasses within the same planting.
Tall & Short Prairies
The Eastern Tallgrass Prairie once covered the midsection of North America, from central Kansas east into Ohio, and Texas north to Manitoba. On the richer, moister soils grew many taller plants. On poor, dry soils, shorter plants predominated. Today, we use combinations of these plants to create the landscape effects we desire. Short prairies are a good choice around homes and buildings. Tall prairies are best when planted on larger acreages, or in background situations. Most tall prairie plants grow best on rich soils and clay soils, while many of the shorter species tend to prefer drier, sandy and rocky soils.
You may want to plant some areas of both tall and short prairie to create two different landscape effects and habitat types. Place the tall prairie to the back and short prairie in the front to create a layered effect. Be aware that if you plant tall prairie to the west or north of your short prairie, the ripening seeds of the taller plants may blow into the short prairie to the east and south. Eventually your short prairie may become a tall prairie, as the invading seeds from the tall plants grow and mature.
For a prominent display of wildflowers, plant them with the shorter bunchgrasses, such as Little Bluestem, Prairie Dropseed and Sideoats Grama. These low-growing, clump-forming grasses allow the flowers to show off better than when planted with tall prairie grasses.
For tall prairies, an excellent combination is Indiangrass and Little Bluestem, mixed with various flowers. These two clump-forming grasses leave plenty of room for the flowers. (Wildflower Selection Guide - Grasses). Large, robust flowers should be planted with the tall prairie grasses, such as Big Bluestem, Indiangrass and Switchgrass. Please refer to our Prairie Seed Mixes for details.
Beware of planting only one type of flower in an area. The root systems of prairie flowers and grasses complement each other to create a tight-knit plant community. Tap-rooted flowers seem to grow better and produce more flowers when growing with clump-forming grasses. Grasses provide support for the wildflowers, as well as cover for birds. The grasses’ warm autumn colors extend the meadow’s interest into winter.
You can get the plants to do most of the work. By understanding plant behavior and working with nature you’ll create low-maintenance gardens. The secret is combining a variety of species.
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