Silver Plains Tallgrass Prairie Yarden
Tallgrass Prairie
Tallgrass Prairie
Purple Prairie Clover fixes Nitrogen in soil.
Scarlet Paintbrush is parasitic.
Helenium;
appeared two years after seed was sown.
Now it is self-seeding, appearing here and there
around the yard.
Little-leaved Pussytoes & American painted lady caterpillar
This is a record of a love affair. You might want to call it a threesome, maybe even a foursome. You see, the spouse and I fell in love ... with Flora and Fauna of Tallgrass Prairie.
As generally happens with matters of the heart there have been ups and downs. We’ve had our share of difficulties. But, since deciding to replant the acreage where we reside with Native plants, we have come to see the world around us in a different light:
This planet where we live — the biosphere we all inhabit — is extraordinary.
What started as a “love affair” has blosssomed into a relationship. And, as you know, a relationship is a process; it is ever and always a work in progress.
A relationship is like a journey where arriving at some destination is not the objective; it’s the experiences had along the way that matter. So far, this has been an interesting peregrination, one that has opened our eyes to a number of things:
Plants grow in self-organizing communities in the wild, including some which fix nitrogen in soil that helps
neighbouring plants grow. When they are growing in communities plants are mutually supportive. But, then,
some Native plants are
parasiticscarlet paintbrush
Canadian lousewort
swamp lousewort
and others excrete a substanceCanada goldenrod
Missouri goldenrod
stiff sunflower that prevents germination or growth of neighbouring seedlings. Both latter types of plant
cause surrounding plants to move elsewhere. A fascinating aspect of a healthy ecosystem is that it’s always changing,
the flora keeps rearranging itself. While humans impose static patterns — with predictable results
— on the areas they inhabit, the Natural world doesn’t work that way. Though Natural areas are
considered by many people to be unkempt, from the perspective of flora and fauna, messy is healthy.
Some Native species germinate right away and spread readily but many are particular about starting, especially from seed. It may be two or three years after seed was sown before seedlings appear. And some Native plants can take three (some as many as eleven) years before flowering and producing seed. Unlike conventional domestic landscaping, where one gets immediate results, replanting to Native is a slow process.
In terms of visual delight — part of the motivation for domestic landscaping — nothing is lost when one replants a patch of earth to Native. Not a thing! If you factor in the increase in butterflies and birds attracted to the Native flora, much is gained.
Caterpillars of some indigenous butterflies eat only Native plants and then pupate only on other nearby, also Native, plants.
But, given the extent of damage to the pre-existing ecosystem — that exotic plants now dominate on millions of hectares in the vicinity and vastly outnumber Native plants growing in the region — there are times when this endeavour feels like a fool's errand. It may be that we are planting a genetic refugee camp or, perhaps, a Tallgrass Prairie sanctuary. Still, this project, this journey, seems more worthwhile than when we started replanting back in 2006. By way of a small example:
dark-eyed junco
In previous years you could count on one hand the number of dark-eyed juncos visiting the site; in spring 2011, though it’s only partially planted, we watched dozens of the small birds pick seed from the yard before migrating to their nesting grounds. They eat seed from primarily Native flora.
What we are doing matters to other species and our efforts are contributing to the spread of Native flora. More Native plants (and more of each species) are now growing in the ditches and fields around the site. That’s a good thing, to us at least.
Most importantly, we used to perceive human activity as apart from the Natural world. We no longer subscribe to that fiction. After “discovering” Native plants we realized that humans are a part of the biosphere, as is every other lifeform on the planet. Nature is right outside the door. In fact, in terms of the biosphere, there are no doors. Whether we see it or not, we humans are in a relationship with every other species on the planet.
Story The Grassland ~ a heretic’s view of domestic landscaping
Young Yard
Along the way, we have met or learned about other people with a passion for Native flora and fauna. Both in the region where we live and across North America there are an increasing number of people growing Native plants on their properties.
Page devoted to others of like mind
site drawing ~ regionsThe 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 Synopsis
Region by Region
Site Drawings
This ecological renovation is not like, say, removing a wall in a house. Once removed, the wall in the house stays gone. Not so with vegetation. In spite of a few failures and constant competition from undesirable introduced species, we have managed to get around 130 Native species growing on the yard. To date, about one third of the site is sporting (mostly) Natives.
Our annual progress is noted on the following pages:
2004-2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011
Photographic History
Big Bluestem
We got started in this because Native plants are exceptionally beautiful. Perhaps because they are adapted to the soil, Native plants have a subtle glow to them that foreign plants don’t. It’s like the difference between gold and brass. And there is considerable diversity to work with:
Big bluestem (the backbone grass of Tallgrass Prairie) reaches 2 m high and turns every colour of the rainbow in the fall.
Pygmyflower grows about 4 cm tall with flowers that are so small you need a magnifying glass to see them.
Pygmyflower (3 X enlargement)
With several hundred distinctive plants to include, there is no shortage of material.
We’ve photographed over 150 species so far. And, along with our images, this website presents information on more than 190 Native species of grasses, wildflowers, rushes and sedges, and shrubs and vines. We will add new images and data as we can.
Plant Image & Data Pages
Plant Gallery Pages
Tabular Data by Species Type
Baltic Rush
Red Columbine
When living in the country and when observing plants up close, it’s impossible not to notice the fauna that the plants attract. From a host of insects to more than 50 species of birds which visit the site each year, not to mention fish in the pond, frogs hopping here and there, and a number of small mammals that make occasional appearances, this is a busy place; one could say, “It’s a popular spot!”
Great Egret
Funnel Web Weaver Spider
insects | birds | fish / molluscs | amphibians / reptiles | mammals
Something else one can’t help but notice, when living on the prairie, is the ever-changing, often spectacular, prairie sky.
Prairie Sunset
sky | sunsets | activities | silver plains
We 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 out our plans for and progress with the relationship.
Robert G. Mears (with Coleen Zebeluk)
August 2011