Why I Oughta...

I bought and planted a couple of Prairie Dropseeds ( Sporobolus heterolepis ) in the Spring of 2022.  They're highly sought-after from all kinds of gardeners - native folks, new perennial movement people, even more formal gardeners.   And they did...nothing.  Like..nothing. They looked like a short clump of Kentucky Blue Grass that was out of place in a garden bed.  That's how they looked in their first year (2022) and their second year (2023).   This Spring, I cut everything back to the ground and suddenly...the Prairie Dropseed is showing itself with a lot more growth and a bunch of seed heads.  Here, below is the one that I can identify - IB2DWs.  Looks lovely: I can see the appeal in these now.  Can they be divided?  I hope so.

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...

Back in late April, I brought home two Prairie Dropseeds - a native grass - from the Morton Arboretum Arbor Day Plant Sale.  I first 'got to know' Prairie Dropseed from Roy Diblik's YouTube videos where he calls it both by the trade name (Prairie Dropseed) but also the formal name of Sporobolus heterolepis.  I decided to NOT plant the two grasses together - despite knowing that's one of the 'gardening mistakes' that I've made over time.  I decided to stick one in the front yard (more on that later) and one in the backyard bed that you can see below.  I planted it between the border and the urn in a spot that is mostly bare right now. I'd like to plant MORE of these in a little colony here, but my thought is to try with one, see how it responds to this bed this Spring/early Summer and then buy more (hopefully...in plug form) up at Northwind this Summer.   I'm considering this as a version of groundcover, so that helps me continue to check the box on...