This afternoon Pete and I visited Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, an amazing place just half an hour from home. Midewin is the only national tallgrass prairie east of the Mississippi River and contains about 20,000 acres of restored prairie lands and forest. In 2015 bison were reintroduced to the prairie and studies are ongoing about the relationship between grazing bison and prairie health and restoration. Right now in July many of the tall grasses are coming into their own and many, many species of native prairie plants are in bloom. I find it a magical place and one that inspires me to keep at the task of planting prairie plants here on the farm.
It's been just over a year since we planted 1,972 (!) plugs of native prairie plants around the house here at the farm. Most of them survived the first year and first winter and have even reproduced beyond my wildest imaginings. Some bloomed early in the spring but the summer ones are just now coming into their own.
Culver's root
St. John's wort (a shrub)
Rudbeckia (Brown eyed Susan)
Joe Pye weed - this picture doesn't give you an inkling of the height on these plants!
Great blue lobelia
Royal catchfly
Purple coneflower with monarch and rattlesnake master in background
Coneflower with one of my bees
Yarrow
Pokeweed (which we didn't plant - it moved in by itself). This can become invasive but it is just such a danged interesting plant that I can't bear to yank it out. Maybe next year....
Hoary vervain
Joe Pye weed again
And here are a few photos taken at Midewin this afternoon. We didn't walk out far enough to see the bison but will definitely be taking our bikes over for longer explorations soon.
Yellow coneflower just coming into bloom
Beebalm in back, royal catchfly and purple coneflower in foreground
Yellow coneflower
There are many more natives in bloom out in our yard that I didn't photograph today and each variety makes me so happy. Out in the prairie grasses by the creek the beebalm and yellow coneflowers are putting on a show as the tall grasses begin their midseason climb to full height.
But of course we have lots of non-natives around the yard and buildings, too!
Anne's hummingbird garden
A black hollyhock by the barn
Blackberries coloring up!
We plant lots of dill for the tiger swallowtail butterflies. And there are many, many milkweed plants for the monarchs!
The prairie sky was spectacular this evening, too...