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NRCS Seeding Plan & Prairie Moon Nursery Order Form for 33 Native Species
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Late the last November, I dormant broadcast planted a 1.1 acre showy Shortgrass Prairie on a prepared seedbed site. This was carried out with financial assistance from the US NRCS EQIP Honey Bee Pollinator Program. The Cost Share covered the funds necessary to purchase 34 native shortgrass prairie forbs/legumes and native short grasses.
It took a few iterations with the NRCS office and nursery to get the diversity I was looking for at a price that was covered by my cost share. The seed mix can be augmented with additional diversity by adding other desirable native forbs in the first couple growing seasons before the native canopy fills in all the available growing niches. . |
Map & MeasureUsing the WDNR Surface Water Data Viewer to subdivide the 1.1 Acre Plot into 10 roughly equal plots for the planting. Measured side distances were used to place stakes and lines while planting.
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Homogeneous MixThe 10.3 lbs of combined native grasses and forbs was divided into 20 ten gallon pales and then progressively and homogeneously mixed with coarse pine saw dust until the bucket was 3/4 full.
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Add Small Native SeedsThe small native form seeds were mixed in separately from the larger forb and grass seeds due to them being packaged separately and to ensure equal portions to each of the 20 pails. More mixing and additional sawdust was added until buckets were about nearly full, but not overflowing.
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Hand Broadcasting over 1.1 Acres (10 Equal Plots)
The 20 ten gallon pales of mixed sawdust and native seed were hand broadcase as evenly as possible at a rate of two pales in each of the 10 polygon zones as indicated on the SWDV map above. Each polygon was defined on the ground with flagged metal stakes and twine or bright pink cord.
Cultipacking for Seed to Good Soil Contact and Soil Structure
I fired up my vintage 1958 Farmall 450 tractor and hooked up the vintage Cultipacker to cultipack the entire 1.1 acre field. This practice ensure good seed to soil contact, when broadcasting seed, and to adds a stippled rill "washboard like" structure to the soil and field. This lateral structure assists in reducing runoff during late fall and early spring rain events, by slowing/preventing downhill sheet erosion. Note the nice stippled rills in the middle lower photo above.
I fired up my vintage 1958 Farmall 450 tractor and hooked up the vintage Cultipacker to cultipack the entire 1.1 acre field. This practice ensure good seed to soil contact, when broadcasting seed, and to adds a stippled rill "washboard like" structure to the soil and field. This lateral structure assists in reducing runoff during late fall and early spring rain events, by slowing/preventing downhill sheet erosion. Note the nice stippled rills in the middle lower photo above.
Mowing 1st two years
This following growing season will require multiple mowings to control weeds and shading out of the new prairie plants which won't grow over 4 to 6 inches in the 1st year. Mowing height will be progressively raised until the final mowing of the season, which will be about 8 to 12 inches high.
This following growing season will require multiple mowings to control weeds and shading out of the new prairie plants which won't grow over 4 to 6 inches in the 1st year. Mowing height will be progressively raised until the final mowing of the season, which will be about 8 to 12 inches high.
