Sowing

Yesterday it was in the 50s so I sowed the native wildflower and grass mixes. I purchased enough seeds to sow 1500 square feet but that did not end up to be enough but that's okay for now. 

I got packets of Classic Tallgrass and Classic Mixed Height Praire Mixes from Prairie Moon Nursery. I've bought single wildflower seed packets from them in the past and like the company.  The Mixes come with 3 packets of seeds - large seeds, small seeds and cover crop (regreen, a short lived perennial wheat hybrid).  If you plant in the spring you need to plant the large seeds first and then the small; however, if seeds are planted between October and March (preferred time to plant) then all seeds get mixed together and planted.  I also added in a packet of flower seed mix enhancement. 

The area I'm planting looked similar (maybe worse) to this area before I cleared it of invasive honeysuckle, green briar, wild black raspberries and wild grape and who knows what else. This is an area I have not cleared on the side of the house that separates our house from our field we contract out to a farmer. 

The area I planted is in front of the house near the ditch and road.  I marked some of it off with driveway markers (20 free with rebate at Menards!) and some pink tape. The guy that plows our driveway in winter likes to shove all the driveway gravel and snow way into the lawn so hopefully this will deter him from pushing around my wildflower seeds. 

Moving a little to the right there's a big circular area where a Weeping Willow tree used to be many years ago. It slowly split, got struck by lightning, etc. until it was dead. Many kids (cousins, nieces,nephews) have memories of climbing that tree back in the day and many still ask me if the tree is still there.   Well, anyway...the debris had been piling up in that spot for many years and now it has finally been cleaned up and I have a nice bare spot. I was originally going to put in a water garden there.   This is kind of the view I can see from my kitchen window.  

Here we are next to the Weeping Willow area. 

This is looking down the road from the other end of my patch. 

The seeds get all mixed together and divided into two sections. They are then mixed with moistened rice hulls.  Hubby decided he would sneak in and take a pic of me mixing up the seeds but I don''t think he knows how to use my camera! 

Broadcasting seeds. 

The mailbox on the ground belongs to the neighbor across the road and down the lane through the woods.  The legs on it rusted and blew over in the wind last week. I guess they aren't going to fix it. I'm not sure how they are getting their mail.  The flag on my mailbox is up because once again the person who delivers mail put someone else's mail in my box. This time the mail they put in my box was for someone in another town not even close to here! Sheesh! 

I guess hubby figured out how to use the camera. (Darn! I really hate having my pic taken).  I think at the beginning of broadcasting seeds I might have been sowing too thickly. The light brown on the ground is the rice hulls so supposedly I can see where I've sown seeds. 

It takes up to 3 years to establish a native planting so I am looking forward to the future!  I'll take pictures of some of the same areas again in the Spring.  

And sow on...

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Dec. 8 - Wildflowers!