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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by maryjane[/i] [br]Janet, how's Nellie's teat? I have my bottle of Underwood and baking powder ready should I need it. I assume I'd transfer some of the Underwood into a spray bottle???? Yesterday was a big day for us; we seeded several large strips of native flowers and grasses. I consulted with my neighbor, Jacie, and Trish Heekin from the Latah Soil & Water Conservation District as to what types of prairie short-grasses and flowers (forbs) would grow in an area that appears to be too moist for the grasses and forbs Jacie planted there in "pollinator" strips in 2006. What's mainly growing there now is tar weed. It's a native plant that moves into problem areas. Trish recommended some native grasses that do better in moist areas. Jacie had some flower recommendations. And unbelievably, because of Jacie's ground-breaking passion for converting land to native prairie, there are now several local businesses specializing in the growing and selling of native plant seed. Jacie sells what she grows also. And to think she started out many years ago by walking the ridge (Paradise Ridge visible in the distance) carrying a gunny sack and filling it with seeds that she took home and figured out how to cultivate. It's amazing to see what she and her husband Wayne are doing now: acres and acres planted in crops like yarrow or goldenrod, different grasses, etc. Spike Bentgrass California Brome Mountain Brome Bluejoint Reedgrass California Oatgrass Tufted Hairgrass Slender Hairgrass Blue Wildrye Meadow Barley Oregon Sunshine Blanket Flower Wild Iris Camas The Soil and Water Conservation district has a seeder (speciality machine for tiny native seeds) and Jacie loaned us her tractor to pull it (ours isn't big enough). The seeds were mixed with corn grits to help with flow as they're being "drilled" into the ground. Jacie's strips were gorgeous this past spring (she planted about 10 acres in pollinator strips a dozen or so years ago). We call them Jacie strips (noun:) The two new strips we planted yesterday are called "Janet strips." (Janet, I know how much you value pollinators and your own prairie that you've planted.) I figure naming them after two of my favorite land stewards will make it super easy to refer to them. Good stand of native grasses: [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5307.jpg?v=66335207[/IMG] Stand of tar weed: [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5308.jpg?v=52033785[/IMG] Comparison (dark patches are the tar weed; light are prairie grasses): [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5305.jpg?v=15527180[/IMG] A few weeks ago, we thought to reseed it by rototilling the tar weed, but we stopped after one pass. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5411.jpg?v=91223204[/IMG] Jacie pointed out some of the native flowers that had managed to survive amongst the tar weed (that we wouldn't want to kill by rototilling) and told us about a drill we could borrow for free from the government. Here's a penstemon. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5455.jpg?v=1944346[/IMG] And here's what an entire patch of that looks like in the spring. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2980.jpg?v=60520572[/IMG] [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_2990.jpg?v=57161156[/IMG] Here's what the hopper looked like after we loaded the two 50# sacks we bought into it (corn grits and native seed stock). [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5372.jpg?v=10906512[/IMG] A drill works like two facing plates (disks) with sharp edges pushing into the ground while dropping seed into the cut that the rotating plates make. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5344.jpg?v=5059014[/IMG] And here are what the marks in the ground look like. Very little impact; existing flowers survive the intrusion and the tar weed is then crushed on top to serve as mulch. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5487.jpg?v=72767933[/IMG] Here's where one of our Janet strips is in relation to our cluster of buildings. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5462.jpg?v=95233459[/IMG] You can see a few more tar weed patches in the distance that we'll plant next fall after we get down on our hands and knees to see what sprouts this spring and observe how well it does during the summer. In the foreground in this photo are ready-for-winter tall cinquefoil seed pods (I'm standing in a Jacie strip). [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5427.jpg?v=5277241[/IMG] Here's what one of Jacie's healthy pollinator strips looks like. It has a mix of native grasses and lots of flowers. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5439.jpg?v=81114553[/IMG] The dark, tar weed patches in this photo (up close and those in the distance) have now been planted. I'm excited for next spring to see what happens. [IMG]https://www.heritagejersey.org/chatroom/uploads/2019/10/IMG_5449.jpg?v=31934662[/IMG] [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature. Check here to subscribe to this topic.