Showy Tre Tickfoil in seed- Later in the summer TGPB will gather these seeds to be resown in the spring. I'm not sure why TGPB thinks these seeds need help spreading- they are small furry triangles that stick to everything and in a month I'll be picking them off of our clothes and carpets.

Lobelia, some just starting out and one in full bloom. These plants were rescued last summer from a roadside ditch just before the power company sprayed the area. They like a little more moisture than our prairie provides so TGPB planted them just at the edge of the prairie where the drain pipe from the roof empties. So far, they seem to like it.


Big Blue Stem- This is a volunteer. Big Blue Stem is native to this part of the country so it's not surprising to find it growing here. Because our little piece of prairie is so small and Big Blue Stem is so large (8-10 feet tall) we seeded with Little Blue Stem (4-5 feet tall) which is native to the more western, drier part of the country but we are happy to have this specimen.

Above: Leadplant

The prairie has gotten more colorful in the past week. There's a lot of Bergamot, much to the delight of the bees, and the Purple Prairie Coneflowers are getting ready to bloom. The Showy Tickfoil is bigger and healthier looking than it was last year and has many more buds.

Below: Black Eyed Susans

These big healthy Purple Prairie Clover are not in our little piece of prairie altho' the GPB wishes that they were. The Clover and the Purple Coneflower below are at one of the nature preserves in the area. There's also a lot of Bergamot this year, much to the delight of the local bees.



In our own yard, the Leadplant is in bloom and both of the Lobelia that the GPB transplanted last fall are healthy looking. The Rattlesnake Master is still blooming and there are a few Black Eyed Susans, a Yellow Coneflower and a Pink Yarrow (an alien but since it is the only one it is being tolerated). The Prickly Pear Cactus is done blooming and the Prairie Primrose is just about finished blooming.

The Butterfly weed is doing well this year, a couple nice size patches and several stand alones. In the back there is one patch that is darker than the others, not just the flowers but the leaves. The Coreopsis is sparse (not surprising the way the finches pig out on the seeds) but there is lots of Black-eyed Susan. The asters particularly liked the fire and are coming up strong.

Right: The Rattlesnake Masters have come back strong.

Left: The prairie grasses and plants look green and thick but if you look closely you can still see the burned plant material

This picture was taken about 3 days after the burn and shows the vegetation that remained. The paths are deer paths across the yard.

Spring Burn 2010 Last summer we did the paperwork and got the permissions for a burn. We had hoped for a fall burn but it didn't work out. A week ago the young man from Blue Heron Ministries came and mowed and raked the area between our little piece of prairie and the woods. Then this morning Nate called and said they were on their way over to burn. It was done quickly. Perhaps a bit too quickly. I had my camera all ready to take lots of pictures but then I got busy talking to a neighbor who had come over to watch and when I looked back at the yard they were just about done. Two men: one with a canister that squirted fire (that's a technical description courtesy of the Grand Poo-Bah) the other beating the burned area with what looked like a truck mud flap (minus the silhouette of the sexy lady) attached to a broom handle and a large container of water on the back of an Arctic Cat. Within an hour they were done and the sky clouded up and the cold rain started. Now the sun is out again and the burned area is covered with birds; a half dozen cardinals, robins, a couple of bluebirds, some wrens and, of course, pigeons (which folks in the country call "mourning doves" but us city people know a pigeon when we see one). I am surprised at how much vegetation survived the fire, little stalks of yellow sticking up in the middle of the black areas. We are looking forward to what will come up this summer. With the burn as stimulation, we should see plants we haven't seen for a while.