I’m hoping to start a photo journal of the various plants we have in our restored native prairie fields.  The first 30 acres we converted a few years ago is struggling, the cool season grasses are dominate.  MDC has a plan to try and tip the balance on that field, but like all these projects it will take years.  There is a good diversity in that field (#2 in the photo to the side), but the CSG now represents perhaps 70% of the plant life.  Last spring (2012) we seeded fields 1A, 5, and 3.  Then it didn’t rain for 3 months.  This year (2013), field 1A has really come alive – I suspect it will be the primary source of photos.  Field 5 is really poor ground, but I’m looking forward to seeing what comes up in it.  Field 3 is planned as our ~2 acre forb garden, but we shall see how it does.  Its all northern facing slope, and home to our bee hives.  Although close to the house (that blue patch in the photo at the end of our 900′ driveway) it doesn’t get a lot of attention.

Oh, the header photo for this section is of field 1A, near the road, taken in late June of 2013.  The flowers are purple coneflowers – a very popular and showy native plant. The wide bladed grass just a bit right of center is Eastern Gamagrass.  The trees are across the gravel road on a neighbors property.  Photo’s are compliments of John Murphy, Private Land Conservationist with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

Oh, chances are somewhere between absolutely and positively absolutely that I will miss-identify many of the plants.  Please leave a comment and I’ll fix up the errors.