Day 227
If we could do it all, we most certainly would.
One idea was to utilize some of the bland and boring green space in front of our pole barn as prairie. However, if and when we host nature family events at our house, this is where people would park, so adding prairie might not be ideal. Additionally, we are still hoping to add trees to our property line. While they will need time to grow, planting prairie where trees will potentially one day cast shadows might not be the best use of our resources. We've talked about adding prairie plants around our garden to add some color and attract pollinators. However, with the success of our garden and its amazing productivity, we might just expand our vegetable garden and use every available space for growing our own food. When I added the butterfly garden to our backyard, I made it in a more manicured and “planned” way than I would in a more wild prairie. Mainly, this was to adorn the area currently utilizing a culvert. Now, instead of a boring culvert, you see a diversity of wildflowers. I don't foresee adding any more manicured areas around the culvert and hoping any future prairie will develop more on its own. Like I mentioned, establishing property lines through plantings is in our plans. Paying for such a plan is still a major question mark. Because we don’t have a set plan about what we want nor do we know what our future neighbors have in store, we aren’t willing to commit time,money, and energy into that project at this time. That leaves us with one area where we are ready and willing to commit to establishing an upland prairie.
Our grand plan for the development of our land included having a number of things.
Backyard vegetable garden? Check.
Natural play area? Work in progress.
Restored wetland? Another work in progress.
Improved forest land? We’ve made some small steps, but are hoping grant money will be available to make those steps take us a little further.
Establish and expand prairie? Now that we have a location, it is time for the fun (and work) to begin.
