Greenery

The first leaves have appeared on all three of my berms. I sowed two kinds of Bouteloua, buffalo grass and blue grama, ten days ago. I promptly mulched the seeded berms with straw and covered the straw mulch with jute netting. I suspect the leaves are the buffalo grass, as blue grama appears to germinate more slowly (20 days vs. 7-10 days).Now I have leaves of grass poking about two inches above the netting! I have been watering daily (or almost daily), and it took me a week to get all the straw covered so it would not blow away, but the grass looks very promising. I am so pleased. I don’t know which of the two species of short prairie grass has germinated first, but really don’t care.

This is definitely not a lawn. The grass is sown on berms which would be too steep to mow, and I need it not only for green but more for erosion control. While not a tall grass, it will also reduce weeds by shading out the soil (assuming it germinates sufficiently densely).

The sunflower seedlings have much wider leaflets, so wide that they tend to push the netting up instead of poking through the netting. I’ll have to either pull them through (where I want them) or pull them out. Otherwise the netting will look very uneven and not be near the soil where it will help conserve moisture.

Prairie grasslands should be burned every 4-20 years to prevent invasion of shrubs. I’m not likely to do that between houses, however.

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