Native Grass Project

After moving to our new house in February we found ourselves in possession of a newly fenced-in backyard that was essentially a blank canvas. No trees, bushes, etc. I’ve been interested in the idea of planting a native grass prairie for several years and so we decided to make our first yard project an experiment of sorts. I did some homework and decided to put in a perimeter of native grasses and wildflowers.

The project started by marking off a 3-foot perimeter around the yard and killing the grass off with Roundup. You can see here what it looked like after 2 weeks.

I actually thought it looked kind of cool like this if only we could have the same look but about 3 feet high. Anyway, after three weeks the grass had thinned out more as seen below. Murphy is also pictured here in one of his favorite spots.

Our next step was to remove as much of the dead grass as possible. I borrowed a gas-powered weed eater from a friend and spent a couple of hours attacking the grass. The end result was pretty close to what the seed company told me I needed. Nearly bare, compacted soil.

Planting day arrived and we had our seed mix ready, courtesy of the folks at Roundstone Seed in Upton, KY. The mix contains about 30 plants and 3 lbs only costed about $19. A real bargain and I’m happy to be supporting Kentucky growers.

I should also add at this point that I cannot recommend Roundstone any more highly. The product was shipped quickly and packaged neatly. The thing that impressed me the most was the time my contact at Roundstone spent with me via email and phone answering my questions. I’ve never done seeding at this micro-level and my questions were probably a bit silly, but if you don’t ask you won’t know. They were patient with me and I learned a lot.

To hear a bit more about their operation, download this podcast from WFPL’s HomeGrown and head to the 8:30 mark.

Because the seed is so light it has to be mixed with a heavier material to make it broadcast better. Roundstone recommended using cat litter with a mix of 4 parts litter to 1 part seed. Here’s what that looked like.

My youngest daughter did most of the broadcasting after some brief instructions. I supervised and took pictures. I love the concentration that is clearly evident in this picture. She covered the entire area we cleared for planting and then I walked back over it broadcasting a second time in a perpendicular path.

The cat litter also helps to get a visual on where the seed is falling. This is what it looked like after the first pass.

Our next step was to dress the area so as to encourage good seed-to-soil contact. In a large-scale operation this would be done with a culti-packer but in our backyard we had to do this by hand. We used some chicken wire with bricks on the end. My daughter is demonstrating here. Unfortunately this was a bit too heavy for her so I was the one that actually did the pulling. Quite a workout.

Not pictured here is the good watering I gave the area the following morning. We should have some green shoots breaking through the soil in a week or two. It can take up to two years for the plot to be fully established but we should see some interesting plants as early as September. This has been a fun project so far. Also good for the environment. The grasses will reduce water consumption for over 600 sq feet of our yard which means more rain water will make it into local streams.  Wildlife will find seed and new pollens which will help both birds and bees. Lastly I will not be using the electricity I normally take up with weed-eating the area every couple of weeks. We’ll let this grow and the area will be maintenance free.