Gardening by Mistake

Okay, this time I’m using commercial seed for Big Bluestem, so I can be more sure that whatever grows will actually be big bluestem. Also started is a bunch of little bluestem and some blue grama. The other thing I did differently was to inoculate the soil with a mycorrhizae mix and I think that will definitely help. If I can get some growing they should be big enough by the end of the growing season to make it through winter.

I’ve been doing more reading and, happily, it looks like I can have the best of both worlds in one spot. I do intend to install a rain garden where the pocket prairie was originally going to go. However, it looks like I can plant a lot of the same plants in this rain garden. Big Bluestem, for example, likes it moist but can tolerate dry periods. Although exotic plants can be used if, as in any other garden the conditions meet their needs, the overwhelming recommendation is to use natives. Happily, that is what I was already growing for the pocket prairie.

Additionally, I don’t know that any plants there would need to be able to tolerate extended periods of  puddled water. I dug two six-inch deep test holes in the area yesterday and filled them with water. The first two times they drained within 2 hours each. The third time they drained sometime overnight, so it wasn’t even half a day. I think this area should be able to absorb water well. Some rain gardens can have puddled water for 2 or even 3 days. Others are designed to hold it for no more than 4 to 6 hours. I won’t know for sure until I get it set up, but I think mine will drain relatively quickly.

The flooding we had this past weekend washed away part of my pocket prairie. That is, I’d put down a thick layer of cardboard topped with leaves in an attempt to smother all the nasty stuff growing there already (like poison ivy– what fun!) before I planted my prairie plants.  That seemed to be working beautifully. The water washed away the leaves and some of the cardboard. Once I can get out there again without walking through water an inch deep, I’ll see if I can’t repair some of the damage. The fence at the far end of the garden caught a lot of the leaves, so I might be able to haul them back to the prairie area.

The fact that I hadn’t been able to plant my prairie seems like a blessing in hindsight. I’ve been frustrated that I couldn’t get that planted this year but there’s an upside. It would be worse to get it planted and lose a bunch of plants to the flooding. The prairie didn’t get done this year for two reasons: the first was that the cardboard and leaves hadn’t decomposed as I’d thought they would. Hopefully that won’t be the case next year, and if it is, I’ll consider removing the cardboard since it will have been smothering things for over a year at that point. The other reason was that I had the darndest time getting the native grasses to grow, and at a certain point it became personal so that I’m determined to do it myself rather than buy plugs or small plants.

I did end up getting big bluestem to grow… I thought. In fact, it grew much more vigorously than the little bluestem. And when it got big enough, I couldn’t see that it was different from some invasive weed grasses. I just don’t know enough about the various grasses to know for sure. The big bluestem seed came from a trade, however, rather than a commercial source, so I worried that it was mis-identified. I certainly didn’t want to plant an invasive non-native grass in my garden. I have enough of that to pull as it is! So that went bye-bye.

So I’ve come up with a different approach to getting my prairie. I’m going to try some native grasses that are supposed to be easier to grow. And I’m going to keep trying the big and little bluestem at the same time.  As I said, that’s become a personal challenge. I’ve ordered the seed and I’m going to get busy with it as soon as it gets here. If I can get some germinations, the plants will still have most 4 months for growing.  They might be large enough for planting next year.

I haven’t given up on growing some native grasses from seed. I just potted up another batch today. Even if they all make it, I’m still not going to have what I’ll need, but I’ll be a lot farther along. At this point, ironically, I don’t have a place to plant them.  I’d set up a lasagna bed for the pocket prairie area, and it’s not composted yet. It seems too deep to just plant the small, slow-growing grasses in it. Those grasses will get out-competed and covered up by invasive, quick-growing grasses, I’m sure. So, it looks like I’ll have all of this spring and summer to grow my grasses in pots with the expectation that I’ll be able to plant them, finally, in the prairie, in the fall. I also have the forbs that I intend to plant in the prairie area. I guess I’ll go ahead and plant those whenever they seem big enough. They can have a season to get established before they have to start competing with the roots of the grasses, which I read will be quite impressive some day.

Thanks to my gardening friend in Minnesota, I have both Big and Little Bluestem grasses. They are quite different. I find it interesting that the Big Bluestem seems much more vigorous. I’ve got quite a few of those– when I originally didn’t plan on having any due to their size! They grow much faster than the Little Bluestem and I have no idea why. They seem hardier, too.  The Little Bluestem are more appropriate for my small prairie area, so I do hope I have success with the batch I potted up today.

One of the great things about gardening is the people involved in it. Pat is one of those wonderful people. He’s a gardener in Minnesota. I’ve never met him in person– just correspondence. He posted a “wanted” for buttonbush seed to a seed exchange forum. I had an extra packet because I accidentally put it in my basket twice (oops), so I was happy to send him some. I had no idea what a wealth of riches Pat was going to bestow on me in return. When he found out I’m starting a pocket prairie this year, he sent me countless seeds from his own prairie. Twenty-four kinds of seeds! Unbelievable. Because of Pat, I think the pocket prairie I planned is going to need a bigger “pocket!” My neighbors may not be pleased– prairies are not exactly tidy things and there’s nothing like it in our neighborhood. They’ll probably wish I’d get out and mow!

Thanks, Pat, for your generosity. I hope to have some beautiful plants to send you photos of someday.

Not only are native grasses boring to grow, they are not easy to grow. Aside from my chasmanthium latifolium (northern sea oats) I’m having miserable results.  It is very, very frustrating. It’s going to be hard to have my pocket prairie w/o the grasses! At this point, it looks like I’m going to have almost all forbs. I’m going to have to try winter sowing some and if those germinate, I’ll have to plan on babying those through the summer and then hopefully they’ll have enough size to plant out in the fall. If not, then I suppose I’ll have to bite the bullet and buy some from a nursery. I don’t want to do that if I can help it.

Very frustrating.

The asclepias, on the other hand, are shooting for the moon. It’s ridiculous how tall those seedlings are getting. I have trouble imagining that they won’t bloom this first summer. They are dwarfed only by the rudbeckia of unknown type that are growing next to them. One of these days, those rudbeckia are going to bloom and I’ll find out if they are the Cherry Brandy or something else.  It’s too bad they weren’t of planting out size before the killing freeze. Then I wouldn’t have to be caring for them over the winter. It’s rather silly to be doing so.

You know the old expression about something being as exciting as watching grass grow? I have several dozen grass seedlings growing under grow lights right now and I can now testify that grass is really every bit as boring as the old saying implies.

My intention is to begin turning a corner of my yard– currently a corner full of tall weeds like giant ragweed– into a pocket prairie. Although there is a prairie & wetland nursery not 2 miles from me, I’ll be growing what I plant. Buying plants is just too costly. I’d end up with about 2 plants, and that’s not much of a prairie! So if I want my prairie grasses, I’ve got to grow them. And that is how I ended up growing several dozen grass seedlings under grow lights right now. I know it seems ridiculously early, but many of the prairie grasses grow very slowly. Some take 2 – 3 years to achieve any size because they spend the first years mostly growing roots. I thought I’d try to get an extra year’s growth out of my plants by starting them as early as possible and growing them through the winter. Unfortunately, I didn’t double-check to see if any of my 4 kinds of grasses were not slow growers (mistake!) and it turned out the first bunch to germinate are going to get monstrously large before I can get them planted. Joke’s on me! The rest, though, need all the time I can give them. They need to be as large as possible to be able to withstand the nonnative weeds that will grow so vigorously.

When I looking at grasses growing in my pots I do not get that feeling of satisfaction I get seeing growing perennials. But I do know that in May when I can start planting and turning that weedy corner into the beginnings of a prairie (and without spending a fortune to do it), that will be satisfying. Fortunately, prairies are about 50 – 60% forbes, so I’ll get a lot more enjoyment growing those closer to the time.