Prairie Restoration

Prairie Restoration

The prairie restoration (of about 120 acres of the farm) began in November, 1999, with the planting of a mixture of grass seeds and flower seeds:

Grasses:

Indian Grass
Canadian wild rye
Big bluestem
Brome grass
Orchard grass
Switch grass
Oats

Flowers:

Purple Prairie Clovers
Yellow Coneflowers
Purple Coneflowers
Blackeyed Susans
Compass plants
Sunflowers

On April 9, 2000, we planted 1500 shrubs: 500 silky dogwood and 500 highbush cranberry, which were planted on the hills above the farm. 500 red osier dogwoods were planted down in the bottoms along the river. These shrubs were barely more than twigs, some resembled small sticks with roots! We used a tree planter to plant these shrubs. They were all planted in a single day. Click on each image below for an enlargement!

Planting trees	Newly planted tree--looks like a little stick!	1 yr later: Black-eyed Susans bloom	Wildflowers
Purple Coneflowers	Flowers and grasses growing	Sunflowers	Yellow Coneflowers
Big Blue Stem	Canadian Wild Rye	Highbush Cranberry	Silky Dogwood

In May, 2002, we planted another 1500 trees (oaks, hickory, hazelnut, and more highbush cranberry) on the hillsides down by the river for erosion prevention.

Hickory tree, Aug. '04


Summer 2004: Big bluestem is well- established.

In the fall of 2005, we burned the prairies for weed control as required by the DNR. See the pictures!