Prairie Dropseed Planted IB2DWs - June 2022

Yesterday, I showed the backyard location of one of our two Prairie Dropseed native grasses that we bought at the Morton Arboretum Annual Plant Sale.  Today, (below) is a photo of the location of the other one:  IB2DWs.  Prairie Dropseed - Sporobolus heterolepis - is a 'tough' native grass and ground cover.  That means that this planting works two-ways on my 2022 to-do list.  #4 on the list was to 'enhance the IB2DWs strip' and #5 was to 'fall in love with ground cover'.   This grass (planted as a single grass for now) is close to the driveway and the bluestone chip gravel path:

A few things to note about the photo:  first...the seeds from trees (those yellow things) are flush this season.  Also, if you look closely at the area where the Prairie Dropseed was planted, you'll see A LOT of clay soil.  Related to that clay, if you look at the top left of the photo, you'll see the Chanticleer Pear tree that was replaced and is living in a clay bowl.  This Dropseed is in that SAME clay bowl.   To try to encourage this Prairie Dropseed to thrive here, I took a similar approach to what we did with the Bald Cypress tree:  Using a post-hole digger to break through the clay bowl to try to improve drainage.  That's the reason for all the clay soil on the surface.  This bed hasn't been mulched just yet for the season, but that's coming soon.  

Similar to the Prairie Dropseed in the backyard, this is a lone planting for now:  if this does well here, I'm planning on adding four or five more to colonize the area to the left bordering the backyard path.

The biggest difference between the two locations I've chosen is sunlight exposure.  This one is MUCH MORE full sun than the back.  I'm watching to see how sun exposure affects them.