Tallgrass prairie is one of the most endangered ecological
communities in Canada--less than

1% of the original tallgrass community remains

intact in Manitoba and Ontario. Fifty to 80% of the
original mixed-grass prairie and inter-mountain

grassland communities of Canada have been

lost to farming and development over the

past hundred years.

TIP

To determine what meadow and prairie plants

are native to your area,consult a field guide,

such as Peterson's or Audubon's, or contact a
field naturalist group.

Along with their beauty, one of the main

benefits of meadow and prairie gardens

is that they are easy to care for. After

you've done the preliminary, admittedly

hard work of eradicating weeds, your
meadow or prairie garden will require

relatively little maintenance work.

(Reality check: except for continuing

to weed as unwanted plants pop up.)

Soil Preparation

Preparing a weed-free soil bed in which to grow your meadow and
prairie plants is the single, most important job in the life of your
garden. The work you do now to get rid of weeds will pay off in the
long term with reduced weed growth. One thing you won't need to do in
the prairie or meadow garden is to supplement the soil with nutrient-
rich amendments such as manure. Native meadow and prairie plants are
adapted to nutrient-poor soil, so you don't need to add fertilizers
either. Save your time and energy for working on the weeds!

There are many different ways to prepare a weed-free soil bed, and
the methods you choose will depend on the size of your garden. For
smaller gardens, you can either pull out weeds by hand or smother
them with a thick layer of newspapers or plastic left on the plot
over a season. If you're converting an area of lawn to a meadow or
prairie garden, you'll need to dig up all the grass with a spade or
pitchfork, or you can rent a rototiller. For large areas (an old
field, for example), use a rototiller or tractor-pulled plough to
turn under existing vegetation; after this, weed seeds in the soil
will germinate, so you'll need to use a tractor-pulled disc to kill
them. This process can be repeated, perhaps even throughout one whole
growing season, until few weed seeds are left to germinate in the
soil.

Planting a Meadow or Prairie Garden

You can use either seeds or seedlings to plant your garden. Count on
about 10 pounds of seed per acre (4 to 5 ounces per 1,000 square
feet) or about one seedling per square foot. You can broadcast seed
in the late fall (the seeds will then go through their natural
dormancy period over the winter and germinate in the spring) or you
can broadcast them in spring (but only if the seeds have been
stratified first).


Seedlings can also be planted in the spring or fall. Keep young
plants well watered as they're getting established, and be careful
not to cultivate around the newly planted seedlings--you don't want
to disrupt their roots.

Seeds or Seedlings?

For a large area, it's much cheaper to use seeds.
Seedlings, though, will produce showy blooms faster than seeds, and
your meadow will look well established by the second year after
planting seedlings.
A good compromise between budget and patience is to use a mix of
seeds and seedlings--while the seeds are getting established, the
seedlings will be putting on a flowery show.

Meadow and Prairie Maintenance
Vigilant weeding is the main gardening maintenance chore in the
meadow and prairie garden. Pull up weeds before they go to seed.
Meadow and prairie gardens also respond well, with vigorous renewed
growth, to mowing. Cut plants to about 6 inches in the early spring
or late fall.

A Burning Question