Prairie Garden 2012

During late winter, as part of my management scheme for the prairie garden, I remove all of the dead growth from the previous year.  Last year, fire was my tool of choice and I burned the garden in early March.  The evening sunlight shining through the golden grass stalks gives the appearance of flame, as though the grass was begging for another burn.  This year, however, I’m going to mow the prairie garden as a way of removing that dead growth. 

At this angle, the appearance of the grass is more typical of what I see every day.  Since discovering larvae of the Unexpected Tiger Moth, an endangered species in Ohio, living on one of the Butterflyweed plants, I’ve decided not to use fire in this particular area.  The Unexpected Tiger Moth pupae overwinter just below the leaf litter near the base of their host plant.  Because fire removes the leaf litter and would most likely destroy the pupae, I feel that burning the prairie garden is no longer appropriate.

I’ve used blue flags to mark locations of a couple of cages that protect sensitive plants in the prairie garden.  The flags are placed so they are well below the cutting blades of the mower and anchored well enough that they shouldn’t pull free as the blades pass over.  The flags will allow me to easily reset the wire cages.

The Nodding Wild Onions have already begun their growth for the season.  While they are not looking exceptionally vigorous at this time, they are alive and will hopefully go on to produce an abundance of seed.  I’m still struggling to establish a stable population of Nodding Wild Onions in the garden.  Since something seems to knock them back each year, they are still receiving special treatment.  The blue marker will also allow me to avoid trampling or otherwise damaging the onions during the mowing process.  It bothers me that I have so much trouble growing what some people in the area consider to be a troublesome yard weed.

There are several other prairie plants that have begun their growth for the 2012 season.  These Round-podded St. Johnsworts have already put on a good bit of growth.

I accomplished the mowing with the help of the DR.  The DR is an easier tool than JR to use for small scale work.  I don’t typically cut thick woody vegetation with this mower, so the blade stays nice and sharp.  This allows me to get a clean cut of the grass.  It also has smaller tires and less potential for causing damage to growing plants.

There was a lot of material left on the ground after the mowing was completed.  The plants would go ahead and grow through this material, but since one of my primary objectives in maintaining the prairie garden is to observe the early growth of the plants, I removed the cut material to give me an unobstructed view of the ground.  A quick brushing with the leaf rake was all it took to adequately remove the material.

Following the raking, I replaced my cages and markers.  The ground is now clear enough to easily see what’s growing.  I’ll have no trouble monitoring the growth progress on into summer.

Adequate small material was left behind to afford some soil protection.  Some nutrients are lost with the removal of the top growth, but this area does not suffer from low fertility, so that won’t be an issue for plant growth.

Plenty of plants are poised and ready to shoot up as soon as conditions allow.  The Western Sunflowers always have some green leaves showing.  They’re one of those plants that seem to take advantage of the winter sunlight to produce some extra energy.