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.
