Fire in the hole

Wow - its been so long since I posted here and yet so much has happened.  Seemingly overnight, the meadow burst into flower.  The following picture is mid-summer and the whole meadow was a riot of yellow and purple.  Butterflies and bugs of all sorts were everywhere.

As fall came, the meadow moved into its brown phase.  The flowers went to seed and the grasses does back.  Below is the meadow in December.  

And then it was time to complete the annual cycle with fire.  We did a prescribed burn the first of March and now we enter the black phase of the meadow.

Winter has been cold and wet and the ground is pretty well saturated.  Plants are already starting to grow, so in a few weeks we will start the cycle and go green again.

Marc Pastorek, the meadow man posted a piece on his blog about the burn.  You can read it here:

https://marcpastorek.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/2-st-tammany-residential-pine-prairie-gardens-burned-go-team-green/

Meadow Man Makes a Visit - Updated

Marc Pastorek paid the meadow a visit today to check on progress.  The weather is finally getting warm enough for some of the seeds planted in January to germinate.  We walked the meadow and I heard lots of "oh wow", "this is great" and "we planted that."  Marc also used a lot of Latin words, I think, and got down on his knees a lot.  Then he snapped a few pictures with his iPhone.

 Marc sent me the names of some of the species he identified in the meadow.  Here they are:

Boltonia asteroides

Rudbeckia grandiflora

Rudbeckia nidita variety texana

Eryngium yuccafolia 

Monarda fistulosa

Monarda Lindhiemeri

I have created image collections for each of these species and posted them to the Species Page.

The upshot of the visit is that Marc spotted a number of target species across the entire meadow demonstrating that the planting was very successful.  He was also impressed that there were so many species present at this early stage.  So, it looks like we are off to a good start.

I also learned that evaluating the progress of the meadow is a real science and not a matter of casual observation.  This is hard stuff.  But, Marc promises that the results will be readily apparent over time.

Marc the Meadow Man with a load of wild seed

Spring in the Meadow

Early spring has brought a flush of new growth to the meadow.  Most of the plants growing now are early succession species that are found elsewhere on the property.  But, the fascination of identifying those species and learning about them is brand new.  Once I identify species, I put them on the species page.  I posted a few today.  Here are some general photos of the meadow, mostly from ground level. 

Lots of Green in April 2014

Ground level is very interesting.  Need to ID these flowers

These are easy - dandelions in rich supply.  Wonder how many people in this country are trying to kill these guys right now. 

Something's Happening Here

Something's happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a patch of green over there
Telling me that Spring is here!

Hmmm. . . well, the sentiment is kind of right.  Things are happening in the meadow.  There is a green tinge to most of the meadow with patches of thick green stuff here and there.  It must be spring because my nose is going CRAZY!

 I have been using a photo collage program called Diptic on my iPad that I like a lot - its easy to use and has a lot of cool features. All of the pictures on this post, by the way,were taken with my Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 35 mm 1:1.8G Lens.  This is a wonderful lens with macro capability down to .3 meters.  I have shot closer than that, down to a few inches.  It has manual and auto/manual focus modes.  In the M/A mode, you can let the camera get close to focus and then tweak it manually.  For the close up shots I either use the automatic "flower" mode or set it to Aperture priority and open the aperture wide for incredibly short depth of field.  The long shots are simply auto, landscape mode. 

In the pic above, the bottom image shows the areas of green emerging in the meadow.  There is a close up on the heaviest area on the top left.  This is most likely just grasses that were already in the field before I started the dirt work that are coming back up.  Marc, the Meadow Man, tells me that the natives we planted will take their time to germinate and grow in.  In the meantime, the grasses and other plants that were on the site will fill in.  But, the native meadow plants will out-compete them over time and allowed to grow - and with fire, of course.  

Wandering around in the field yesterday, I was surprised to see some flower.  Out of nowhere, a burst of yellow caught my eye.  I bought a book recently on identifying wild flowers of the Coastal Plain and found it to be a good guide to identifying these plants.  Admittedly, I had some trouble and reached out to Marc, but I got the first one on my own.  The book is shown on the right and under the products page.  If you click the link and buy it, I get a commission.  I joined the Amazon Affiliate program and am giving it a test run.  No pressure. 

Turns out the yellow flower is Carolina Jessmine - Gelsemium sempervirens - and its a volunteer.  I was not aware of any Jessmine, or Jasmine as it is commonly called, in the yard when we moved in, but there may have been some.  In any event, here it is growing next to a tree where the soil was not disturbed and the grass not cut for about 8 months.  It is native to warm temperate and tropical America from Guatemala north to the Southeastern United States and is found in the Coastal Plain.  It is also used frequently in landscaping as a ground cover under live oaks in the New Orleans area.  This plant is poisonous. 

On the top left we have the early growth stage of a Thistle - most likely Bull Thistle - Cirsium horridulum.  Alternatively this could be Carolina Thistle, but the latter is more adapted to woodlands, roadsides and ditches whereas the former is adapted to fields, open woods, pastures, savannas and pine lands - what we have here. Young stems can be chewed, juiced or served in salads.  This plant has been present in the field for quite some time.  Its window of growth precedes the turf grass in the field, so it bursts up before grass cutting and seeds around the time I cut - or used to - so it had a very nice niche.  Thistle is beautiful until it seeds and dies back.  I will take more pics of this as it grows. 

And, finally, the stumper, which required Marc's help.  The tiny flower on the right sits atop a long grass-like leaf base.  We see these all over the yard every year as the first flash of spring.  They stand only six inches high and once I start cutting grass, they go away - for a year.  Any guesses?

Marc said, "crush the plant and smell it - if it smells like onions, it probably is."  Ah, that took me to the right genus.  What we have here is Meadow Garlic - Allium Canadense.  This is common in the area and inhabits open woods, fields, and roadsides and emits an odor of garlic, although I had trouble smelling it.  These plants just flowered, so perhaps they are not quite as redolent as the will get.  The plant is edible and all parts of it were used by Native Americans as food.  Benson says the bulb tasted creamy. 

Meadow Man Blog

Marc Pastorek, my meadow consultant, posted an article to his blog on Green Meadow Project.  You can read the blog post here.

Planting Time

The weather this fall and winter has been unusually wet.  Getting the seed planted turned out to be a major challenge.  By the time I got all of the soil prepared, the rain started and simply didn't let up.  You can't plant seed when the tractor bogs down in the mud. 

 I found a nice photo of the site on Google Earth recently and posted it on the left here.  Below is the project plan developed by Marc Pastorek.  The site was almost fully prepared at the time of the photograph.  The section at the lower right of the field had not been turned over so it is hard to see the open area at about the 3 o'clock position.  I got that area prepared by the end of November so this photo
looks like late October. 



The planting had to wait for a window of time when the ground was dry enough and I had time enough to get it done.  The holiday season was busy and I left the country for a couple weeks.  So, finally, on January 9th, the forces collided.

Marc Pastorek send a load of seed that he had collected on his seed farm in Mississippi for the job and a special seed spreader.  These wild seeds are not clean and contain a lot of sticks and stems, so an ordinary spreader won't work.  Marc has a spreader with a sort of thrasher attached to the spinning seed thrower that breaks up the mass of seeds and stalks and allows them to fall through the holes in the spreader. 

This is what the "seed" looks like in the spreader - more like straw.  The spreader breaks it up and shoots it out.  Most of the seed is very light and kind of floats to the ground wherever it feels like falling. 

I put down 60 pound of mixed prairie seed over about 3 acres.  That rate of 20 pounds an acre is on the high side for meadow restoration which suits me fine.  Below is a list of the species that should be represented in the mix.  Its a mouthful. 


Seed list for herbaceous plants for Louisiana Cajun Prairie and Eastern Coastal Prairie

monocots

Agrostis hyemalis  Winter Bent Grass

Andropogon gerardii   Big Bluestem

Andropogon glomeratus  Bushy Bluestem

Andropogon gyrans  Elliot’s Bluestem

Andropogon ternarius  Split Beard Bluestem

Andropogon virginicus  Broomsedge

Antenaentia rufa  Purple Silkyscale

Aristida purpurescens  Three Awn Grass

Ctenium aromaticum  Toothache Grass 

Dichanthelium commutatum   Variable Panic Grass

Dichanthelium scabriusculum   Panic Grass

Dichanthelium scoparium  Velvet Panic Grass

Eragrostis elliotti    Elliot Lovegrass

Eragrostis refracta  Coastal Love Grass

Eragrostis spectabilis   Purple Love Grass

Erianthus giganteus     Sugar Cane Plumegrass  

Erianthus strictus   Narrow Plumegrass                    

Muhlenbergia capillaris  Coastal Muhly Grass

Panicum aciculare   Panic Grass                                      

Panicum anceps  Beaked Switchgrass

Panicum dichtomum   Panic Grass 

Panicum scoparium   Velvet Panic Grass   

Panicum virgatum  Switchgrass 

Paspalum floridanum  Florida Paspalum     

Paspalum plicatulum  Brownseed Paspalum

Schizachyrium scoparium  Little Bluestem

Schizachirium tenerum  Thinleaf Bluestem

Sisyrinchium angustifolium   Narrowleafed Blue-eyed Grass 

Sisyrinchium rosulatum  Spreading Blue-eyed grass 

Sorgastrum nutans  Indian Grass      

Sporobolus junceus  Prairie Dropseed

Tradescantia ohioensis  Common Spiderwort   

Tridens ambiguous   Pine Barren Tridens

Tridens  flavus  Purple Top Grass    

Tridens srtictus Long-spike Tridens      

Tripsicum dactyliodes  Eastern Gamma  

composites and forbs

Aster dumosus  Bushy Aster  

Aster lateriflorus   Calico Aster

Aster paludosus V. hemispherica  Showy Aster

Aster patens  Clasping Leaf Aster   

Aster puniceous  Roughstem Aster

Aster praealtus   Tall Blue Aster 

Aster pratense     Silky Aster   

Bidens aristosa  Beaded Beggar’s Ticks 

Cacalia ovata  Indian Plantain                                

Chrysopsis mariana  Maryland Golden Aster   

Chrysopsis graminifolia  Silk Grass  

Coreopsis tripteris  Tall Tickseed       

Corepsis pubescens

Coreopsis lanceolata

Coreopsis tinctoria

Echinacea pallida  Pale Cone Flower

Erigeron philidelphicus   Showy Daisy Fleabane   

Eupatorium rotundifolia  Round Leaf Boneset      

Eupatorium hyssopifolium   Narrow Leaf Boneset 

Eupatorium perfoliatum    Boneset  

Euthamia leptocephala   Flat-topped Glodenrod    

Euthamia tenuifolia    Narrow-Leafed Flat-topped Goldenrod   

Gaillardia aestivalis  Yellow Indian Blanket 

Gnaphalium obtusifolium   Rabbit Tobacco  

Helianthus angustifolius  Narrow Leaf Sunflower 

Helianthus mollis  Ashy Sunflower    

Helinium  vernale  Vernal Sneezeweed

Liatris elegans  Pinkscale Blazing Star                      

Liatris spicata  Blazing Star  

Liatris squarrosa  Button Blazing Star       

Liatris squarrulosa   Blazing Star

Liatris pycnostachya  Kansas Blazingstar

Pasiflora incarnata   Passion Vine            

Rudbeckia grandiflora   Rough Coneflower

Rudbeckia nitida  var. texana    

Rudbeckia hirta  Blackeye Susan

Silphium gracile   Slender Rosinweed 

Silphium laciniata   Compass Plant

Solidago nitida  Flat-topped Goldenrod      

Solidago odora  Sweet Goldenrod      

Solidago rugosa  Roughleaf Goldenrod   

Solidago sempervirens  Seaside Goldenrod  

Vernonia gigantea     Giant Ironweed    

Vernonia texana  Texas Ironweed        

 

composites and forbs

Amsonia tabernaemontana  Eastern Bluestar

Agalinus fascilata  Beach Purple False Foxglove

Agalinus  purpurea   Purple False Foxglove

Baptisia alba Wild White Indigo                                     

Baptisia sphaerocarpa  Yellow Wild Indigo          

Baptisia bracteata var. leucophaea   Secund Fruited Wild Indigo

Baptisia nuttalliana  Nuttall’s Wild Indigo

Buchnera americana  American Blue Hearts

Callirhoe papaver  Winecups                   

Chamaecrista fasciculata  Annual Cassia 

Chaerophyllum tainturieri   Wild Chervil  

Croton monanthogynus   Dove weed 

Dalea candida    Slender White Prairie Clover    

Erygeron strigosus   Fleabane       

Eryngium yuccafolia  Button Snakeroot      

Erythrinia herbacea  Coral Bean    

Euphorbia corollata   Flowering Spurge     

Gaura lindhiemerii   Lindhiemer’s Beeblossom 

Guara longiflora   Longflower Beeblossom

Hibiscus mosheutos   Crimsoneyed Mallow                   

Lespedeza capitata  Round Head Lespedeza       

Lespedeza virginica  Slender Lespedeza  

Lobelia puberula   Purple Dew Drop     

Manfreda virginica  Rattlesnake Master           

Monarda fistulosa  Wild Bergamot        

Monarda lindhiemeri  Lindhiemer’s Beebalm      

Monarda punctata  Spotted Horsemint

Neptunia lutea  Yellow Powderpuff 

Passiflora incarnata  Passion Flower

Penstemen digitalis   Smooth Beardtongue

Penstemon australis ssp. laxiflorus  Beardtongue

Polytaenia nuttallii  Prairie Parsley

Prunella vulgaris   Common Self-heal        

Psoralia psoralioides   Sampson’s Snakeroot

Psoralia simplex   Single Stem Snakeroot

Pychnanthemum albescens  Whiteleaf Mountain Mint       

Pychnanthemum tennuifolium  Thin Leaf Mt. Mint       

Pychnanthemum muticum  Lowland Mt. Mint

Rhexia  mariana   Maryland Meadow Beauty   

Salvia azurea  Blue Sage

Salvia lyrata  Lyre Leafed Sage

Schrankia quadrivalvis   Sensitive Briar

Scuttelaria integrifolia   Helmet Flower

Teucrium canadense  Canada Germander

Tephrosia onobrychoides   Multibloom Hoary Pea   

Verbena halei   Texas Vervain      

*    many species not listed, such as some species of milkweeds, that have very brief, irregular bloom/seed collection time and/or seed of plants that are few in given populations, are collected and added as they are found year to year and in very small amounts, to the mix.