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/
Green Meadow Project
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
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:
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 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 |
Saturday, April 12, 2014
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. |
Monday, March 17, 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
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.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
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
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.
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
composites and forbs
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