Day 262
While I continue to learn how to burn, I am pretty certain a prescribed burn isn't in our immediate future. For the time being, I think we will continue to do a combination of mowing and herbicide treatments to continue the improvement of our land. We may up the tree removal to make more of the land accessible for increased treatments and mowing.
Once we have done a few more rounds of mowing and treatments, one of the potential next steps involves seeding areas natives don't come up on their own. To this point, it seems like any seeding will be minimal as early results seem to indicate a very active and “happy to no longer be drowned out by reed canary grass” seed bank throughout our land. This is very helpful as I have heard from a number more knowledgeable than I that the sending stage can be quite expensive. After focusing on eliminating and controlling invasive plants, many people can be turned off and dejected when they finally reach a level of success at controlling invasives only to then have to spend thousands of dollars on seeds.
Since finding seeds for our wetland areas might not be necessary, I have instead decided to focus on collecting seeds for what will become our upland prairie. While many companies offer seed mixes targeted at a specific mixture of plants, I feel confident I can create a prairie of plants that not only offer diversity of species and color, but bloom at different times. This will make every day a different prairie adventure.
Ever since I started learning about prairies and meeting with my prairie and poland people, I have had access to seeds. I participate in seed exchanges, attend seed collection days at sites around our local area, and harvest seeds from my own land and outdoor classroom that I can eventually relocate to the site of our prairie. With an expected prairie planting next fall, I still have plenty of time to collect even more seeds.
If you see me walking around a field with a bag, please don't ask questions or call the authorities. Join me and start a prairie of your own.
