In 2021, I started preparing 4 acres of field to be converted into a prairie consisting of a high percentage of forbs. The site was predominantly brome grass with a limited amount of milkweed, goldenrod and a few other plants that were able to compete with the grass.
The first task was to break up the sod. Using a disc behind the tractor, the process began. The sod was tough and I added quite a bit of weight to the disc in order to cut through it.
I was only able to make one pass around in the fall of 2021 and was anxious to get started in the spring of 2022. In April, the ground proved a bit too soft and the tractor became stuck. By May, I was making good progress and in total went over the entire field with the disc 7 times.
There were a few smaller Ash trees and some junipers, which we removed with a skid steer.
August 2022 After the final pass with the disc, a rotary tiller was used to break-up and smooth out any leftover clumps of sod and ridges created by the disc
After a few weeks, the weed seeds began to germinate. I then sprayed the emerging weeds with roundup.
September – October – time was given for the spray to take effect and the weeds to die down
November – just prior to the winter, freezing and snow, broadcast seeding was done. The seed list can be seen here. I used sawdust to mark out the 4 acres into a grid of 16 smaller spaces. The seed mix was then split evenly into 16 buckets. This was very important in order to get a more even distribution and prevent over-seeding at the beginning and running out at the end.
The first snow fell shortly after the seeding
April 2023 the snow melted, by May germination began. Unfortunately, new weeds also germinated in spring.
June 2023 – Unfortunately, 2023 was an extreme drought year and far more weeds than prairie seeds germinated.
By July, the area was dominated by Hoary Alyssum, the weed which thrives in disturbed soils. To prevent it from shading the prairie seeds and to reduce the amount of weed seeds, mowing was done.
The entire area was mowed a total of 3 times over the course of the summer of 2023. Evidence of plants seeded began to show. This included Lupines, Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, Sweet Everlasting, Monarda, Mexican Hat, Coreopsis, etc.
At the end of 2023, there was still a large number of weeds with the prairie plants trying to emerge between them. To combat the effects of the drought and with a fair amount of open ground between the plants, I re-seeded the area with 50% of the original mix in the fall in hopes of making up for the dry year.
In Spring of 2024 the weeds continue to dominate. While the Hoary Alyssum had diminished greatly, red clover has taken over. Some prairie plants are showing up which were not found in the first year, such as the Penstemons
Hopefully, going forward the weeds will continue to be surpassed by the prairie plants. The extreme drought of the first year planting put the project at a disadvantage.
The thistles and Mullen came in strong in the second year having gained a foothold in the extremely dry first year. The entire prairie was mowed to prevent them from going to seed and reduce the choking effect. While the desirable prairie species are visible on inspection, the dense weed cover is certainly no helping.
More prairie plants are becoming visible amid the weeds. The predominant weed of the first summer – Hoary Alyssum – is only sparsely present. There were concentrated areas of plumeless thistle, absinth wormwood, and Mullen, which the mowing helped with. More troubling is the thick occurrence of both Red Clover and Bird’s Foot Trefoil. Hopefully, these will diminish in the same way the Hoary Alyssum did.
The second year mowing helped tremendously and more desirable plants are appearing:
Despite the high number of weeds, it is beginning to look more like a proper prairie in places.
More species:
Nearing the end of September, many plants were still in bloom, while established plants in other places are finished. This is due to the mid-season mowing. The weather is providing a late summer, which hopefully will continue long enough for the seeds to ripen from these late flowers.
Some spot-weeding is planned. An area that is dominated by wormwood is big enough to be a problem, but small enough to be hand-weeded.
To be continued…