Post date: May 13, 2016 9:00:29 PM
I have berms on three sides of my house. If we ever get a downpour, these berms will erode. Even watering them by hand I notice erosion. I had earlier planted them with seed that I harvested from California poppy, blue flax, and other flowers I saw blooming around here last Autumn.So I decided to plant them with grass. Not the kind we normally mow.
A friend who has gardened in Gallup, NM, suggested two species of short (vs. tall, so they don’t shad out the flowers) native prairie grasses: Buffalo grass (Bouteloua dactyloides) and blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis). So I ordered seed. [The order of glue grama got waylaid at the vendor so was a month late.] I also ordered jute netting to keep the straw mulch from blowing away. The mulch keeps the see moist while it germinates.
Finally, a week ago, I had everything together, including a helper. I had a seed spreading tool with a bag big enough for three pounds of see (although I had less than a pound of seed). We decided that, given that my berms were not a straight walk and were punctuated with small trees, it would be better to hand sow the seed, which I did. The Buffalo seed is much larger than the grama, so I sowed them separately. I came out even with the larger seed — using the last seed as I walked along the last berm. But I have a lot of grama seed left over. It is much finer than the buffalo grass seed. If it germinates in patches I can easily resow the bare spots.
We used five bales of straw to cover the seed and I used 225’ of 4’ wide jute netting to cover the straw. I did run out of netting so some of the straw blew off then next afternoon when the winds rose to 20 mph. But I ordered more netting (which came yesterday) and had one bale of straw remaining, so yesterday I finished covering the seed and have only a little netting left over.
I have been watering the seed daily for the past week. This should continue for two more weeks on a daily basis. However, if the seed doesn’t germinate soon, it may germinate later when the rains come. Supposedly this prairie grass seed remains viable for years.
While it isn’t grass, I do have two kinds of seedlings all over: black oil sunflower (a variety of Helianthus annuus from my neighbor’s bird feeder last year) and Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis — a native of Eurasia that, once established, is nearly impossible to fully eradicate. It outcompetes native plant species and can reduce crop yields. It forms an extensive root system). The bindweed seedlings are very small, with a pair of leaves 3-4 mm across. The sunflower seedlings are very obvious, with a pair of leaves about 15 mm across. I have been pulling bindweed seedlings, but they are everywhere and not easy to see while I am standing. I don’t care if the sunflowers grow and bloom: they will just attract birds.