WILDLOWERS AND NATIVE
GRASSES
Updated September 2008
December 2001 I finished a
177 square
foot area around my arbovitaes in nearly full sun and seeded it
with
1 ounce Echinacea purpurea
PURPLE CONEFLOWER with a dash of COLUMBINE aquilegia
candensis.
I used landscape timbers at ground level so I can mow up to the edge,
eliminates
weed wacker trimming.
A month before that I seeded another 124 square foot plot with the
same heavily shaded by a white pine.
Into 2007, Purple Coneflower has been strongly evident year after
year. I think I've seen some Columbine.
May 12, 2002 from Missouri Wildflowers I spread one ounce of Prairie Dropseed to the above areas, seeded in with the Purple Coneflower and Columbine. I used potting soil and compost at a 10 or more to one ratio to aid in spreading evenly. I would suggest light sand or vermeculite, easier to see where you are sowing. A very light rain started as I put down a 4 by 4 piece of 1/2 old plywood and walked on it to tamp the seed into contact with the soil. I don't expect any more 40 degree nights, the last one was first week in May. .
 purple coneflowers |
 prairie dropseed May 5, 2004 |
May 15, 2002 just as a light rain began I spread an ounce of Buffalo Grass mixed with compost on a 20 to 1 ratio, seeding an area where I had a woodpile for three years but it was overcome with weeds and no Buffalo Grass ever showed. I have a 3 x 30 foot double sheet of black plastic along my 70 foot south side fence to prepare that strip for wild flowers and native grass. August 30, 2002. The patch under the pine tree has few weeds and possibly some plants. I haven't figured out what they look like vis a vis 'weeds'. The patch in front of the house got many weeds and grasses since it is in full sun. By April 2005 these patches were mature enough to have caught a bed of leaves which I raked out in March/April 2006. I had cut down the patch in front of the house in the fall when the purple coneflower had gone to seed. It was necessary to clear the entire patch of maple buds that had taken root when a mature tree had dropped very fertile buds in 2005.
December 2004. Mixed up 2 ounces of Side Oats Grama and 2 ounces Deep Soil Wildflower mix with an 8 quart bag of peat moss and sprinkled it lightly over the two patches I had done in earlier plus regular rate of seeding of a new area, the south border of my property between austrees and green giants, approximately 150' x 3' = 450 sq ft plus a small area along front fence around a large cedar. I had two areas still covered with black plastic, one in the middle of my south side border and one a hundred feet or so further east along the fence. I decided to seed what I could before winter so ordered 2 ounces Deep Soil Wildflower mix and 1 pound Side Oats Grama. I finished the south side middle, either side of a cedar tree with a mix of the Wildflower mix and Side Oats Grama. The large area further east (about 70' by 9'=630 sq ft) I did in sections using only Side Oats Grama. It got tricky to get it done between near zero overnight temperatures and almost daily strong winds or breezes. I would have to wait till evening just before too dark to spread the seed by hand.
April 2005, removed black plastic from two areas and sprayed with Roundup weed killer. About 4 days later I spread a mix of one ounce Deep Soil Mix and one ounce Sideoats Grama with potting soil and around the new elm tree (10 by 18 = 180 sq ft) and a patch (16 x 10= 160 sq ft) to the west of my vegetable garden area. That's a total of 340 sq ft and the Mo Wildflowers catalog indicates one ounce per 250-300 sq feet. However it sure didn't look like I was overseeding. Almost nothing showed the first year, grass and weeds were overwhelming around the Elm tree, the other patch was sparse with weeds and some grass came up, turns out it was the Sideoats Grama and it filled in to become quite dense by April 2006. I saw about 6 yellow buttercups or something in August. They might have been already in the soil. I cut the weeds a couple of times with the weedwacker. I like the Sideoats Grama over the Prairie Dropseed.
Contents of the Deep Soil Wildflower Mix that I recognize as having come up:
plus Purple Coneflower (E. purpurea) pictured above.
 Blue
Aster |
 Blackeyed Susan |
 Blue
Sage |
 Pale Purple Coneflower |
 Gray-head,aka Sweet
Coneflower |
 White Wild Indigo |
 Lanceleaf Coreopsis |
 Prairie Blazing Star |
 my
plant in Aug 08 |
 Western Sunflower |
 Wild Quinine |
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Unless noted otherwise photos are cropped, adjusted copies from one of the following sources: Easy Wildflowers
Prairie Moon Nursery
Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses
Not seen or recognized contents of the Deep Soil Wildflower Mix:
Butterfly Weed, Royal Catchfly, Rattlesnake Master, Wild Bergamot, Palafoxia (annual), Penstemon digitalis aka Foxglove Beardtongue, White and Purple Prairie Clover, Browneyed Susan, Joe-pye Weed, and Golden Alexanders.
November 2005, the patch around the Elm tree may have had one or two wildflowers but the crabgrass dominated. I cut it down with the weedwacker to 6 to 8 inches three times. The patch to the west of the garden on the south side had more flowers this year and the Sideouts Grama gradually filled the patch, clumpy however. I need to watch the entire south border in 2006 for 'results'. An area north of the kitchen extension and 4 foot borders on either side of the northwest Austrees won't be ready for 2-3 years.
April 2006 I rec'd 2 seed packets of Purple Coneflower and a pound of Side Oats Grama. As of November 2007 they haven't been planted due to various delays, primarily due to a December 2007 ice storm.
Thanks to the ice cover in Spring 2007 I had a beautiful display of wildflowers from a mix along my south side border next to the fence. Other areas had some wildflowers into September.
 06 |
 07 |
 purple coneflowers |
July- August 2007. I weeded the Purple Coneflower patch in front of the house and apparently decimated any Prairie Dropseed crop since I could not distinguish it from invasive fescue from my lawn.
December 2007 I made a
large planting of 
Butterfly Milkweed
(Asclepia tuberoas) mixed in some
areas with Side Oats Grama. Seed and picture source Easy
Wildflowers site
Summer 2008, my pasture out back had numerous healthy patches of
Pennsylvania Smartweed (Polygonum pensylvanicum). As you see by
comparison with
the yardstick, the clusters had long, slender
pink, almost lavender flower spikes.
 smartweed |
 summer '08 |
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