Tag Archives: prairie planting
Planting #117 a success
By Bill Kleiman This 2015 planting at the Senger tract is awesome. 35 acres planted with 1,400 pounds of un-cleaned seed from 117 species. Below are some photos looking down. Above is purple milkwort (pink), western sunflower, wide leaved pussytoes, … Continue reading
Nachusa prairie planting #133
This Fall we began the process to turn a retired agricultural field into a mosaic of wetlands, wet prairie, mesic and dry prairie. Below are the photos and maps of this work. At the end is a link to the … Continue reading
The Timing of Prairie Seeding Matters!
By Julianne Mason, Restoration Program Coordinator, Forest Preserve District of Will County Here is a strong visual example of how the timing of prairie seeding matters. A former agricultural field in Will County, Illinois was seeded with rather diverse mixes … Continue reading
Planting prairie #97 with the full monty
By Bill Kleiman, The Nature Conservancy The photo above is from this season of a 2010 planting, our 97th at Nachusa Grasslands. There is a lot of gayfeather and white indigo. Harder to see are the thimbleweed, coreopsis, lupine, various … Continue reading
Lesson learned: Plant all species you want on year 100 on year 1
A generation ago it was said that to plant a prairie you start by planting a “matrix” of rough and tough native plants to make the soil ready for the more finicky plant species to be added years later. These finicky, or … Continue reading
Lesson learned: Plant a high diversity of seed by starting early
To create diverse prairie, you not only need a lot of seed weight per acre but you need a lot of different species of seed. We start harvesting in May and go into November. The photo above was taken in spring from … Continue reading
Sometimes we wait
By Bill Kleiman Recently I wrote how it could be a good thing to use a tractor applied boom spray across a failed restoration to return it to grass. But there is the other way too, waiting. Fourteen years ago we … Continue reading
