As I have mentioned before, we have a little prairie going. It's probably about 30 square feet. There's been talk of expanding it, but I dunno. I like it small. I'll have to catalog what's in there one of these days. We have the standards, plus a few more exciting varieties: black-eyed susans, echinacea, prairie smoke, yellow coneflower, butterfly weed (one of the 17 types of milkweed native here), queen of the prairie, beardstongue, lupine (pictured*), spiderwort, beebalm, goldenrod (there's 14 varieties in Illinois -- I don't know which we have), coreopsis, daisy, wild indigo, and, you know, some grasses.
What is amusing yet frustrating about starting your own prairie is how difficult it is. What I haven't listed here are the numerous plants we want to grow, but have had zero success with. Prairie dock being the first example that springs to mind. These plants took over millions of acres without human help. Why is it such a struggle? Probably not enough fires scorching through our yard. Thankfully.
View photos of the plants mentioned and many other native Illinois prairie plants here.
* I took this photo. I'm very proud of it.
2 comments:
nice one.... :)
I've got some really sweet seeds you could plant out there...
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