General Recommendations
- Have a committed owner who can perform weekly maintenance and enjoys learning the plants.
- Prairie plants require a sunny place and should have sun 80% of day or more throughout year.
- Start with bare dirt that has been weed and grass free for 3 months or more. If you do not prep by killing weeds and grasses in advance, they may take over your garden.
- Provide well-maintained borders, such as concrete sidewalk, flagstone path, or steel edging.
- Remember the adage: Aim to look INTENDED, not UNTENDED.
- Start small, only a few hundred square feet.
- Larger gardens should be subdivided with hardscaped walkway divider paths. Each subdivision should be less than 400 ft2.
- An experienced plant person should review garden regularly.
- Create a design theme for each garden or subdivision.
- Group species together.
- Keep it simple, minimize the number of species per garden or section.
- Use sandy loam if possible.
- Mound some sections.
Garden for Birds, Bees and Butterflies
Ceraunus Blue on Blazing Star
For a sunny mound of dry clay/loamy soil: Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Skyblue aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense),
Lanceleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata), White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida), Sanguine purple coneflower (Echinacea sanguine),
Rough Blazingstar (Liatris aspera), Prairie blazing star (Liatris pycnostachya), Twistleaf goldenrod (Solidago tortifolia),
Gulf Vervain (Verbena xutha), Pineywoods dropseed (Sporobolus junceus), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium)
A Micro-Prairie of Wildflowers
Plant mostly annual and biennial flowers. Use real deal seeds sourced locally from the wild such as Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria), Indianblanket (Gaillardia pulchella), Prairie parsley (Polytaenia nuttallii), Soft goldenaster (Chrysopsis pilosa), Partridge Pea (Chasmaecrista fasciculata), Lemon Beebalm (Monarda citriodora), Foxglove (Agalinas sp.).
Milkweed Patch
Monarch butterfly on Butterfly Milkweed
Mix in various other perennial flowers but dominate with milkweeds. Attempt to create conditions suitable to each milkweed species.
Prairie Pimple Mound
Replicate a prairie pimple mound (small area of slightly higher elevations) and use the plant species typical associated with pimple mounds. These plants are an important part of our natural heritage.
Cheery garden of sunflowers and goldenrods
These prairie plants attract the most insects and birds. Mix Sunflowers and goldenrods in a garden patch—they can be very aggressive, so they need their own space.
Blazing Star Patch
Plant an area of bright purple Blazing Star (also called Liatris and Gayfeather), one of the most popular flowers used by florists.
