How to create a plot of Palouse prairie grassland in your own backyard.
By William Schlegel
My current plot of prairie is about four to five feet wide, and maybe 20 feet long. In short it's a single garden bed worth of prairie. My expansion plans are limited only by the space available in my backyard. There are several different techniques to starting a plot of prairie plants. Sometimes plants can be salvaged from a soon to be construction site (with permission), or seeds can be obtained by purchase or collection from public or private land with permission. There is no doubt that the process of creating a backyard prairie takes skill- plant identification, seed germination, weed control. Plants cannot be salvaged without some weed seed tagging along with- so weeding is essential. In order to collect seed you must do so as ethically as possible, without hurting the donor populations. Seeds often have species, or even population specific requirements for germination. In order to grow natives in a greenhouse as I do, these germination requirements must be researched and taken into consideration. But to germinate in a cold frame- bed, or outside, the best route is often to plant in the fall and wait for the seeds to come up in the spring! The following sections are intended to help with the most common problems.
Identifying plants is one of the most frustrating as well as enjoyable hobbies you can have. In order to have a prairie you have to be able to identify the plants. Latin names are a must know with plants. Why? My stock answer is that you can't type a common name for a plant into a web browser and come up with any info on the right kind of plant! The beginning hobbyists answer to plant identification is to find a good field guide with hundreds of pictures. I chiefly rely on four such books, though I know of several others. Lone Pine field guides are an excellent choice. I own Plants of the Rocky Mountains by Kershaw, MacKinnon and Pojar. I understand Plants of British Columbia also by Lone pine is another excellent book. For pictures of grassland plants specifically I rely heavily on Grassland Plants of South Dakota and the Northern Great Plains by James R. Johnson and Gary E. Larson. A similar book for Montana range plants is now available though I do not own it. I then am seriously impressed by Sagebrush Country a Wildflower Sanctuary by Ronald J. Taylor. It is perhaps the book I own with the most specific knowledge of Palouse Prairie plants.
But I warn you- field guides can only hold so many pictures of plants. So any plant that did not get it's picture taken for the book will be a mystery to the books owner! The answer to this problem is a botanical key- an almost complete list of species for a given area with botanical features for identification. The state of Montana is covered by Vascular Plants of Montana by Robert D. Dorn. Most people refer to the book simply as Dorn. The use of such a book will probably require that you take a college level course in plant identification. At the University of Montana in Missoula, a course titled Rocky Mountain Flora serves this purpose well. But there is a major, major drawback! The key only works when the flower is in bloom!
This leads us to the last major botanical resource. Experience. No I'm not kidding. You need to find and hang out with someone like me, until you pick up the experience you need to create your own prairie. If you live near Ronan Montana drop me an email wischlegel@hotmail.com and you can come over to my house and spend all the time you need. That is as long as you are willing to pull some weeds, or do a little transplanting. Not to fear- this is the best way to learn. How otherwise to hook up with knowledgeable people? If you live in Missoula you should drop by the prairie project behind the Missoulian Newspaper offices often you will find a local botanist there named John Pierce. He is probably the closest thing to a Palouse restoration expert there is! All you have to do to learn from John is to pull up whatever weed he is pulling while you ask as many questions as you like. Another source is the noxious weed control program in Missoula http://www.umt.edu/sentinel If you don't live near Missoula or Ronan well, you probably want to join the Montana Native Plant Society http://www.umt.edu/mnps/
Preparing the Ground
Preparation is the key! A complete kill of existing vegetation is necessary for the successful establishment of native plants from seed. Most sources suggest that preparation of the ground should take at least one full growing season. Most people I've talked to are unwilling to spend more than a month or so preparing the ground. I personally have never known anyone, including myself to take this incredibly sound advice. The arguments are many, "I want to plant the seed This Fall", "We need to show some progress this year", "I don't want my yard to be a mess that long", "you'll create a mud hole and the dogs will have no where to run" - all quotes are somewhat fictionalized but you get the picture. So the best advice is this- kill weeds as throughly as possible, continue controlling them as long as you possibly can stand to! Ideally in your backyard you should use Roundup herbicide and make multiple applications over the course of a growing season- this is the quickest and probably most effective method. Many people are unwilling to use herbicide- or the large amount of herbicide needed to do an entire lawn or the entire portion of the lawn selected to become prairie. My own family included. The second option is plowing or rototilling repeatedly ideally for an entire growing season or longer depending on weeds present! But realistically, most people will only be able to prepare the ground for a limited time. So do the best job you can stand to do- then prepare yourself for the eventuality of having to pull some weeds. But beware- if you are too casual, expect to increase your expense by having to redo a job that should have been done right the first time. Because without a good enough kill the planting will fail. Don't turn up your nose at a partial success however- the plants that do grow can be enjoyed for some time before the prairie becomes totally overcome by weeds. If establishment is somewhat successful you may have twenty years or longer in which to pull out the persistent weeds. After you spray or plow you might consider purchasing enough weed free sand and compost to cover your site with an inch or more of weed seed free material. A final note- make sure the site is raked free of excessive thatch if you are spraying- and packed down if you are plowing.
Seed or Plant Source
If you are a beginner at plant identification you should probably obtain your first seed from a reputable supplier. I recommend Western Native Seed in Colorado- they do collect from the wild http://www.westernnativeseed.com/ When more experienced you might consult the Montana Native Plant Societies guidelines for ethical collection and go out and collect seeds- never plants. Paramount in this is that you have a list of species, complete with scientific names, locally native to your area, and that you mainly plant those species. Here is the best list I have right now of our local species Local Native Species It is also important, that if possible you should obtain seeds or plants that are local ecotype- or the locally adapted variants of native species.
Germinating and Planting the Seed
Wherever the seed is obtained, once it is in your possession you bear the responsibility of getting that seed to grow. Make no mistake, it is a responsibility and a privilege that you actually grow the seed you collect. If you leave the seed to sit somewhere for more than a year, or two it will die whereas if not in your possession it would have had at least a chance to live or would have fed some wild animal. To avert this as long as possible- store in a cool dry place!
Not to fear however- if you grow it and it should grow- a great many plants will be obtained. The simplest way to grow seeds, is to take your seeds, combine them with perhaps 100 pounds of clean sand, mix throughly, and broadcast evenly over your well prepared site in the fall. Usually October would be an excellent time.
The other method is to research individual germination requirements- Western Native Seed usually includes a germination tip with the seed packet. Then to propagate the plants in a greenhouse. For this in depth process I must refer you to other sources- the sources I use myself. A good source is The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook- a different kind of prairie, but similar problems. Other great books are listed in a Montana Native Plant Society booklist that can be obtained ( in paper form) from the MNPS http://www.umt.edu/mnps/ Including the book Collecting Processing, and Germinating seeds of Wildland Plants by J A Young and C Young. Which I have used.
Weeding and dealing with Perennial Weeds
Weeds are the biggest problem with Palouse Prairie. The best answer on a large scale acreage is to never let them get established. That is do some research into the proper herbicide and application rates for your specific weed problem. Then spray, or hire someone to spray- Tordon 22k(Picloram)-but only consider Tordon if you have some acreage as it is not labeled for residential use, 2,4D -the active ingredient in many weedkillers readily available at your hardware store, Roundup (Kills almost everything so is only suitable if you are considering total replacement or applying it to individual weeds, or perform whatever control measure necessary to get rid of the small patches of weeds before they take over the entire prairie. The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook has a good deal of information about this, more can be had from your local extension service. But try and act before the weeds become a serious problem. Unfortunately in large areas of Western Montana and the world the weeds have already been allowed to get out of hand. The weeds are already established and in big numbers. This means that there is no perfect solution to getting rid of them. Biological controls exist and sometimes work- but they can mean living with both the biological control and the weed forever. Insects almost never eat their entire host plant! Sheep are a bio control for some species but must be grazed intensely to have an impact- doing as much damage to tasty wild flowers as to spurge or knapweed. Herbicides still work on large areas just as on small- but they are more worrisome on a large scale. The people who apply them must handle greater quantities and longer exposures, the general public is exposed to more. Certain natives are susceptible to spraying- There are optimum spray windows when most wildflowers are dormant but knapweed is not. But the few wildflower species which are not dormant are damaged. Integrated pest management is an admirable attempt to use a variety of such tools together in an attempt to bring out the best possible result on a large scale. On a smaller scale (The scale we are most interested in), the best results I have seen have come from hand weeding. Even hand weeding has it's disadvantages- inexperienced humans make mistakes in plant identification, and it's easy to pull up a native thistle, bastard toadflax, or a blanket flower plant. All of which are remarkably similar to non-native thistles, toadflax, and spotted knapweed rosettes. So the best quality restoration is done by knowledgeable native plant enthusiasts who can tell the difference!
Therefore, you should expect to have to learn every plant in your prairie patch, and to have to pull out anything that threatens the well being of the natives. When I can I pull out every thing non-native period. In my opinion this leaves more resources for the natives. John Pierce who I mentioned earlier, has learned to Prioritize, you and I should as well. Noxious weeds and aggressive non-native grasses are pulled out first. The grasses include both annual brome and perennial rhizomatous grasses. Shockingly the very grasses in your own lawn are a serious threat to Palouse prairie. Which means that if you didn't kill them when you were preparing your site- your probably going to want to pull them later. One possibility for making weeding out non-native grasses easier is to plant a wildflower patch minus the native grasses to make weed identification easier because then you can pull out all grass! Such a plot could have native grass planted into it later.
Regardless, the basic technique of weeding a prairie is to make sure of your plant identification, wrap your hand tightly around the offending weed as close to the base as possible- making sure a desirable plant is not included. Then yank the plant out root and all. This works best for taprooted weeds that do not resprout. For weeds such as quackgrass and morning glory/bindweed I have another solution. I use a small container of roundup and a paintbrush, I carefully paint the persistent weed but not the natives. If it is to difficult to do so, I wait for a time when the natives have dried up and the weed is still growing- this usually works and in the interim you can pull the top off the weed.