cktimes.ca Archives for Ecowrappin'


Ecowrappin'

With Darrell Randell

Take a look at the photo

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

In the photo along with this article you will see a very healthy stand of native warm season grass. The seed mix included big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, cord grass, switch grass, and Canada wild rye. When the seed includes numerous forbs species of seed, like cone flowers, brown eyed Susan, bergamot, and dozens more the mix becomes a native tall grass prairie planting.

Tall grass prairie is notoriously difficult to establish. I have been taken to sites many times to look at plantings that were several years old and had a very poor catch of seed. The Rural Lambton Stewardship Network has for more than a decade been planting, researching and learning how to plant successfully.

I will not get into all that they have learned for the purpose of this article but it is sufficient to know that the odds of having a success have improved. Get the grasses established first and then over seed the forbs a year or two later. This will allow herbicide control of broadleaf weeds early on. Once the grass is established it is durable, with some management.

The biggest remaining problem is landowners not looking after the site during the first year. Weeds have to be cut. You do not have to eradicate them but when the desirable plants are only 3 inches tall and the weeds are 8 inches tall, simply clipping the weeds at a safe height allows them to compete and thrive. Remember that these are warm season grasses that do most of their growing in the summer while your lawn has stopped growing due to heat and dryness.

Look at the photo again. This is where I start bragging a little. I had RLSN plant an open 2 acre notch into my bush in order to square up the front. It made for straighter lines while farming and at the same time provides another element of habitat diversity. I already had a small pond, and 16 acres of woodlot.

I burned the cornstalks from last year, ahead of planting in early May. Burning always seems to have a positive affect on prairie. I have done no herbicide applications as yet. I did go back and clip the weeds above the warm season grass twice.

Look at that photo again! It was planted in May of 2004. After only one growing season it was well established throughout the site and had more than half the planting, grown head high and gone to seed.

There are always variables but I explain the success this way. We sure had lots of rain to germinate the seed. I kept the weeds clipped back to give it a fighting chance. It may be that burning the cornstalks helped promote this growth. I have pretty good dirt. Maybe the person who planted it was lucky for me?

I suspect that I benefited from a lot of lessons that have been learned the hard way, and now result in RLSN expertise. I can show you many great stands of prairie locally, but not one of them looked as good as mine did, after only one growing season.

Maybe it was just dumb luck? Maybe I am simply the ideal landowner? Either way, look at that photo again.



Darrell Randell works for Ducks Unlimited Canada as a Conservation Programs Specialist in South West Ontario. Before that he was a Lambton County Pork Producer for 25 years. He served 2 terms on Sombra Township Council, 1994-2000, and is currently a councillor in St Clair Township. He is a past president of the Lambton County Federation of Agriculture. He was a founding member of the Rural Lambton Stewardship Network and served as chairman of that group from 1995-2003. He and Nancy have 3 grown children, each of whom they are extremely proud.