Year 2 Prairie (Spring Edition)

Year 1 Prairie

You read in books and prairie restoration manuals that Year 1 in a prairie is spent by the plants concentrating their energy in developing their root system. — The root system in prairies grow up to eight feet under ground (big blue-stem). They’re able to survive droughts & fire, while also nourishing the soil with microbial activity and nutrient exchange systems. These are the rich humus-like black earth soil farmers use to plant an abundance of crops on. — So not much blooms.

But, I watched and enjoyed that first year prairie. Had some golden alexanders, partridge pea, maximillion sunflower, brown eyed susans, and even a monkey flower popped up. I was happy to see mimulus.

There were some bare spots in Year 1 I needed to fix. I either raked the seed away, not enough sun gets there, or I never threw seed down in those spots to begin with. Regardless, I collected seed at the end of Year 1 and put the spread it around these bare spots.

Year 2 Prairie

The first visitor to arrive that’s new from last year is Penstemon digitalis. The areas that were bare, now have filled in plants (first year) growing. I expect to get at least 5-8 new flowering plants later this year.

The monarch caterpillars are back in massive numbers. Insane to watch these guys grow.

Other Notes:

The tall-grass prairie I planted in the back needed to be cut. There’s a thicket that backs right up against to it and invites all sorts of invasive species into the area. The seed bank beneath still needs to be depleted as well. So it’s a battle.

If you cut prairie plants back, they’ll continue growing. The point of it is to allow more sunlight to reach down to the smaller prairie seedlings trying to grow. Especially for woodland plants that like coming out early in spring and spreading out their leaves to attract as much sunlight as they can get.