silver plains project
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For many years, we — being myself (Robert G. Mears) and Coleen Zebeluk — have been researching and taking photographs of native plants from the Tallgrass Prairie of the Great Plains of North America:
grasses, wildflowers, rushes, sedges, and the like.
Tallgrass Prairie Preserve
A few years back, we decided to replant our acreage with indigenous flora; plants that once grew all over southeastern Manitoba. Just seven generations ago, had you been standing in what is now our yard, you would have seen a sea of grass stretched to the horizon in every direction. In the meantime just about the entire region has been turned into farmland and towns and cities and roads. Along with those alterations came a bunch of other plants. There are various labels for them: introduced, exotic, alien. Many are invasive. The cumulative effects of plow, pavement, and plants from elsewhere has pretty much eradicated a once magnificent ecosystem. Tallgrass Prairie is almost gone.
Essay why native?
pygmyflower
big bluestem
We got started in this because native plants are exceptionally beautiful. From pygmyflower — that grows about 4 cm tall with flowers that are so small you need a magnifying glass to see them — to big bluestem — the backbone plant of Tallgrass Prairie that reaches 2 m high and turns every colour of the rainbow in the fall — there is no shortage of diversity. And with a few hundred distinctive plants to include, there is no shortage of material. We’ve photographed and have information on over 130 species so far and will add new images / data as we can.
Plant Image & Data Pages
Plant Gallery Pages
Tabular Data by Species Type
site drawing ~ regions
The physical site has a variety of moisture conditions and lends itself to a compressed version of the Tallgrass Prairie ecosystem with a variety of micro-ecologies that comprise the whole. We have split the yard into nine regions each of which are being planted with species typical of Tallgrass Praire, Praire Meadow, Sedge Meadow, Riparian, and Aquatic. (About one third of the property is a dugout pond.)
Concept Statement
Project Overview
Region by Region
Site Drawings
Photographic History
heleniumGerminated two years after seed was sown.
Success and failure is part of the process in endeavours such as this. A combination of factors, such as high seed dormancy and the vagaries of weather, come into play:
• Some native flora spreads like wildfire, but most of it is particular about
starting, especially from seed. Sometimes two, even three, years after seed was sown, long after it appeared to have been eaten,
rotted, or simply failed, plants appear. And some plants, even when they do germinate, take three (some as many as eleven) years to flower
and produce seed.
• It doesn’t help when, after a week and a half of daily rains, a freshly seeded low area
— with seedlings starting — fills with water and everything drowns.
• Some plants have not taken to the place.
• Not to mention all the undesirable plants that invariably come up while one is encouraging the natives.
scarlet paintbrushOne plant we have not yet been able to grow on the yard.
So far we have about 90 species growing on the yard. A quarter of the site is sporting primarily natives and, depending on the success or failure of frost seeding from the winter just passed, we will have a third to half of the yard planted this year.
Check on our progress:
2004-2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010
While this project is definitely not a source of instant gratification, Tallgrass Prairie plants, when they make an appearance, are worth the wait. I am not overstating the case by saying this has been an adventure in gardening / landscaping; one that has made us realize first-hand that nature — the environment — is not something separate or once removed. It’s right outside the door.
baltic rush
red columbine
great egretSpeaking of right outside the door, there are more than 50 species of birds visiting the site each year. While some spend the winter here, like snow buntings and crows, most arrive in the spring and leave in the fall. Geese and gulls usually get here first, then ducks, red-wing blackbirds, and dark-eyed juncos. Western meadowlarks come with the blackbirds and the summer symphony begins. Soon after, raptors — especially northern harriers — are busy scouring the fields around us for rodents.
funnel web weaver spider
Most of us, when we hear the word insect, think of pesky mosquitos and flies. But there is a host of the small creatures; they love the native flora and could care less about humans. Damsel- and dragonflies, hoverflies, butterflies, bees, shield bugs, beetles, hoppers, loopers .... And let’s not forget the fish, amphibians, and mammals. Yes, there are fish in the pond and frogs hopping here and there. Meadow voles, mice, snowshoe hares, and skunks make occasional appearances. And our two resident cats are always up to something.
insects
fish | amphibians | mammals
felines
Upon returning from a visit to the Rockies a neighbour asked the prairie dweller, “So, how did you like the mountains?”
“They were alright, I guess.”
“Just alright?” the neighbour asked, surprised.
“Well, they kind of block the view.”
view westLiving on prairie is like living on a placid ocean. The land is flat. But that provides uninterrupted views of the ever-changing, often spectacular, prairie sky.
sky | activities | silver plains
Coleen and I invite you to see for yourself the exquisite flora and fascinating fauna indigenous to the Tallgrass Prairie of the Great Plains of North America, to marvel at the magnificent prairie sky, and to check our plans for and progress with the place.
Robert G. Mears
April 2010
