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Grow a Prairie Garden
Planting a prairie garden at home or work is easier than you might think. Follow a few basic principles in planting and you will be on your way to a whole new look and feel in your yard that will be easier to maintain and enjoy. Here are ideas and best practices from the USDA Forest Service - Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.
Specialists involved in restoration at Midewin have pulled together an array of their field notes to share with home gardeners hoping to cultivate a prairie-inspired landscape in their yard.
You don’t need acres and acres of land to get a look and feel of what the native Illinois landscape might have looked like. A few essential plants in your yard will hint at prairie and put you well on your way to a yard of minimal maintenance. Botanist Michelle Pearion and Landscape Architect Richard Short with Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie suggest four plants to jump-start your project and set your dreams of a backyard prairie into motion.
Resources
Birdscaping 101
From echinacea to common milkweed; from New England aster, prairie dropseed and more, there is an array of prairie plants that can create a fascinating personal space that also adds value and purpose.
Field Notes
A few essential plants in your yard will hint at prairie and put you well on your way to a yard of minimal maintenance.
Our Top Four for Growing Your Own Prairie
Little Bluestem
“This wispy grass is considered one of the big-four prairie grasses, but it’s big only in its occurrence on the prairie,” Short said. “Maturing to about two-feet-tall, it’s the only one of the ‘big-four’ (the others are big bluestem, indian grass and switch grass) that can fit nicely into the foreground of most residential landscapes.”
Little bluestem is a blue-ish green perennial bunch grass that grows upright with flowering stalks emerging in July. Little bluestem turns a nice pink-ish to red wine color in the fall and will stick around through winter providing a nice color and textural element to any winter garden.
Prairie Dropseed
“This plant is certainly at home in any natural garden and because of its consolidated form will also work in a formal garden,” Short said. “The fragrant seed head adds to the sensory experience of a garden with a smell that some describe as that of buttery popcorn or cilantro.”
This slender-leaved grass grows in spherical, fountain-like tufts that are typically one- to two-feet-high. Finely textured flower stems extend above the leaves. The leaves are bright green in summer, turning to rusty tan in the fall and winter. Like little bluestem, prairie dropseed will stand up through winter, providing visual interest throughout the year.
Butterfly Milkweed
“Monarch butterflies require milkweeds to live, Pearion said, but butterfly milkweed is not just for butterflies; you’ll enjoy them, too; you not only get to enjoy the bright orange color, you also get to enjoy the butterflies and hummingbirds!”
Butterfly milkweed is a perennial plant that grows two- to three-feet-tall in full sun with medium to dark green leaves. A profusion of clustered orange flowers grows atop the plant from early to late summer.
Wild Quinine
“Some people describe wild quinine as looking a bit like a head of cauliflower,” Pearion said. Wild quinine’s unique flower heads will add a nice texture to your garden. They are quite showy with a mild but pleasant medicinal fragrance.”
Wild Quinine is a perennial plant that grows two- to three-feet-tall with white flowers. A rosette of medium green leaves grow around the base of the plant with a stout flowering stalk with smaller leaves emerging from the center. The stalk branches at the top with small white flowerheads on each branch. Flowers last from June until September.
