The next step after feeding the soil, was to think about ways to prevent erosion. All of our zones have grade changes meaning we have hills, slopes and low lying areas. We wanted to prevent areas from washing out because there was an absence of understory plants due to the buckthorn.
One of the ways in which we did this, was to mix fast growing annual rye grass in with both a sun prairie mix for the sunny areas, and a shade seed mix for areas with less sunlight. The annual rye would give us immediate results while the other mixes would take some time to germinate and grow.
Here we show our recipe. We combined the C20 with an annual rye and various mixes of other grass seed varieties. We then broadcast spread it by hand over Zones A and C and then watered it all in.
Here is the result. On the left we have the area before applying the regeneration mix. The right side shows results after 4 weeks.
In addition to erosion control, installing a seed mix will also beautify the area as the sun and shade mixes contain both prairie grasses as well as perennial flower seeds.
Without the shade of the buckthorn, we expect to see a lot of sunlight in these areas until the hardwoods we’re planting begin to grow.
“I grow in places others can’t, where wind is high and water scant. I drink the rain, I eat the sun; before the prairie winds I run. I see, I sprout, I grow, I creep, and in the ice and snow, I sleep. On steppe or veld or pampas dry, beneath the grand, enormous sky, I make my humble, bladed bed. And where there’s level ground, I spread.”
Joyce Sidman
