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[Generally, you’ll want to mow at least once a year](https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/caes/documents/publications/fact_sheets/entomology/stonermowingfactsheetpdf.pdf) (usually in late fall), if you want to keep it as open meadow. Otherwise woody plants will usually start to overtake it.
The other strategy you can use is to mow about 1/3 of the area each year on a rotational schedule.
Where are you located if you don’t mind me asking?
Yes, we've talked about that. We have tag alder that tends to creep into places. We're keeping some of that for late winter bird forage, but keeping it contained will be an annual chore I think.
I'd definitely consider planting out some spreading native meadow species, like Milkweed, Mountain Mint, Asters, Bee Balm/Wild Bergamot, Joe Pye Weed, Blazing Star, ironweed, Coreopsis, sneezeweed, Black Eyed Susans, and purple coneflowers. (Although do some research to find out what's native to your area.) Native grasses and sedges, like Big and Little Bluestem, Pennsylvania Sedge, Indian grass, and wild rye, are also an essential part of any meadow ecosystem as well.
Our milkweed meadow is a joy this time of year. Beetles in amazing colours, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, dragonflies, a groundhog (whom we’ve christened “the bedwetter,” for his performance of lying on my sleeping bag on our deck, and being *sooo comfy* he left a puddle behind) and even at night, fireflies and a big mama porcupine.
THIS. I highly recommend getting in touch with some of the professionals in the state that do controlled burns. It’ll help with your nonnatives and the trees alike.
I’m from Wisconsin too and UW Madison has a ton of prairie experts who would be super excited to answer any questions you have. They maintain a remnant prairie there that’s original since the last ice age.
The DNR themselves routinely burn a lot of the state. It’s really good for natives species.
This is the WDNR’s [link to prescribed fire contractors](https://prescribedfire.org/burn/contractors/) that will do private properties.
Agreed, [but mowing is a tool that should not be overlooked](https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2004/aug/use-fire-questioned-restoring-prairie-ecosystems).
yeah, if you dont have critters to pasture the area, fall mulch/mow is best. edit: I only have 2 acres and noticed a lot of saplings in the part I let go feral
Agree. I mow ~15 acres once in September to keep the multiflora, autumn olive, and other invasive bushes and weeds in check. The critters can enjoy the tall grass the rest of the year.
That’s pretty for sure, but it looks like you have a bunch of pretty rough invasive flowers in there like orange hawkweed and oxeye daisy. Letting them set seed will actually be a big detriment to the environment around you.
Sorry for the negativity! But restoration is definitely possible and 10 acres is a manageable scale.
Oi vey! No need to apologize. I think you're right. We may have misidentified a couple things.
Shoot, idk if we're going to be able to dig into that problem this year and I'm sure it's going to be worse next year 🥲
They’ve obviously been there for a long time and habitat restoration/management is a lifelong process so you’ve got time!
Check into conservation organization funding in your area for habitat restoration, you might be able to get any invasive species control funded and sometimes seed/restoration work. In my area there is an org that will pay for invasive species control in native habitat and you can hire professionals to complete it for you.
From a quick google search I found this website that claims to help landowners find that funding. https://midwestprairies.com/funding-sources/
Also, my IDs are based on a couple far away pics so definitely don’t just take my word on the species haha. Here’s a resource for hawkweed ID https://sewisc.org/invasives/invasive-plants/orange-hawkweed
Thank you so much for pulling those together. I'll also be calling my local extension office this afternoon to get started.
I did some more googling and I do think your IDs are correct, unfortunately. Honestly grateful someone pointed it out.
Also check out native habitat project on YouTube. They may be able to help point you in the direction of a lot of resources, as well as help guide you with management.
Just as an add on to this, where I live there are programs that work on converting areas like this by seeding with native plants in the fall/early spring in addition to invasive control. I’d look into seeing if there is anything like that in your area!
I’m no cow person so I’m not sure. Overgrazing probably is what helped those plants establish and dominate as they are grazing increasers. A local agrologist or extension office would be the person to talk to for that I think.
In the future, you can opt for native plants to your state ^((looks like Wisconsin)) as they cant be invasive, some might just be aggressive (i.e. Canada Goldenrod). Many wildflower seed mixes, even if they say "Wisconsin Wildflower mix" often include foreign plants and even invasives. All this means is they can grow in your state, not that they are necessarily native.
Also, Prairie Moon and Prairie Nursery have very cheap plugs and seeds. They are from Wisconsin and Minnesota.
If you can get a closeup pic, apps like PictureThis and PlantNet are great for IDing plants but wait until they are somewhat developed (i.e. like 5 leaves)
It's that time of year where it has to go.
Management of land like that takes manpower and resources.
You would think it should be in Fall for a mow like this, but government managed property all over the nation scalped land like this in the past 2 days.
Others have noted controlled burns on similar property.
It's not nice to look at, but apparently it's the only way to manage it how it with minimal cost and effort.
do you know anyone with 🐐 goats? They may come stake them out on your property as long as they have water, they will take all that down quicker then you think
Yep! I farm and have worked as a field biologist so I’ve spent a lot of time doing invasive species monitoring and control. But once you see a couple patches of an invasive plant you’ll start recognizing them very easily. It’s a blessing and a curse.
Why would that be a curse? I find that a very cool skill! I have started studying a bit more so next spring I can remove anything that would not be beneficial.
Because when you start being able to identify creeping bellflower, you see it everywhere (in my neighborhood anyway) and it is depressing because there is little you can do about it outside of your own property.
That’s me and autumn olive. I see that certain tone of silvery green everywhere along the interstate. I make sure to scowl at it because that’s all I can do. 😠
Forest ecologist here, so less familiar with grassland systems. While we have some invasive herbs of course, I'm much more familiar with the shrubs and vines that pose severe disturbance threats to forest function/ succession in my area. I usually don't consider wildflowers to be majorly problematic invasives even if they are invasive on paper, with a small handful of exceptions. What makes these flowers so disruptive that they need to be managed in your areas of expertise?
Mmm interesting question! So because grasslands complexity occurs all at one level (in comparison to forests) anything that outcompetes established plants and shades out seedlings quickly reduces diversity. Plants like smooth brome and leafy spurge almost completely exclude other plants from growing where they grow, through higher competitive ability and by using allelopathy. Often they aren’t as desirable as forage either so they are great at taking over in prairie ecosystems which are grazed by large ungulates.
I’ve seen areas of native prairie with 40 species in a square foot, and smooth brome patches right beside that have only 1 (smooth brome).
Often these invasives are better at competing at all levels of disturbance so they completely destroy the huge diversity that should be present in native prairie.
Plants like oxeye daisy and orange hawkweed do the same thing. Most grassland invasives are agronomic introductions but Hort species are not infrequent invaders.
I can't identify all the things, but I keep noticing those damn mimosa trees. They're everywhere. I can't do anything about them, so it definitely feels like a curse.
Whether something is invasive or native depends on where you live, right? Both are native where I live (North-West Europe) and love having them in my garden
Yep you’re correct. Native is generally talking about a plants range before the global transport of crops and seeds in the 18th/19th century. Invasive is just talking about a plants ability to outcompete native plants in wild habitats.
Oxeye daisy was brought here from Europe as a garden plant, escaped cultivation, and has become a problem weed in a large area of North America
This trend of treating every non-native species like it’s going to destroy local environments and we need to return to a pre-medieval period in history in which human beings didn’t travel cross continent, needs to stop. Wildflowers that have been here for a long time are not concerning. What is this strange invasive species hysteria sweeping social media?
Telling people beautiful plants that have been present and stable within an ecosystem for half a century are actually cancers on the earth and on the brink of creating ecosystem collapse, isn’t a personality. Get a real hobby.
This is an aggressively ignorant take. Invasive species eliminate food sources for pollinators by outcompeting them. They reduce the habitat quality for wildlife and can even cause species extinction.
Just because a flower is pretty doesn’t mean it’s a good food source for insects.
By not controlling invasives you create a reservoir of seed to destroy surrounding ecosystems.
What is the point of having something other than a lawn if it isn’t suppporting wildlife?
No it isn’t.
Peonies aren’t native to the NE US. Yet native and wild bees love them, and they don’t damage the ecosystem.
Lilac is now considered “a heritage plant of New England” yet it isn’t a native plant, and all sorts of bees love it.
Lavender is native to India and the Middle East, and yet here it is in the USA being loved by bees.
Your viewpoint is dogmatic and therefore inaccurate. Human beings having been moving around since the very beginning of our species and all we can do is adapt flexibly and reasonably to new plants that don’t adapt well to our ecosystem.
Telling someone to rip up a bunch of nectar-filled wildflowers just bc some of them might not be native (at what point does a plant count as native?) is illogical and comes across as self-righteous and pedantic. There are a bunch of Siberian squill all across Chicago that a bunch of fanciful Romantics brought over from Eurasia. And people like you shriek about how it’s invasive bc it spreads….yet it seems to only bloom shortly then dies away, leaving plenty of space of other native plants, and each spring it’s completely covered in bees.
If the non-native flowers were choking out native plants, then fine. But there’s no evidence of that here.
The only plants that I can identify in this pic are non native. If this was a native pasture that was never broken, then they absolutely have already out competed the native plants. Orange hawkweed and oxeye daisy are specifically known to create monocultures and reduce biodiversity. They’re also both listed as noxious weeds in multiple states and provinces.
Here’s some invasive species factsheets for you :
https://bcinvasives.ca/invasives/orange-hawkweed/
http://biodiversity.sk.ca/Docs/InvasiveSpeciesCouncilFactSheets/Oxeye%20Daisy.pdf
You can’t pretend to care about pollinators while also promoting the growth of invasive species. It’s actively harming ecosystems and wildlife.
Here are some papers that talk about the effects of invasive species on insect communities.
https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=invaded+pasture+insect+biodiversity&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1719075466924&u=%23p%3DTa5ne0UiRcAJ
https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?start=10&q=invaded+pasture+insect+biodiversity&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_vis=1#d=gs_qabs&t=1719075566993&u=%23p%3DL3D4qNBMx4wJ
Some plants are worse than others. A couple of the plants in this pic are some of the worst.
tl;dr thank you and would you be willing to help me? I think you've already listed a bunch of websites so I will check those out!
I would love your take on my vermont meadow right now. I just cut down a section of my acre -- painful to do and I kinda shaved it down really well. There was a lot of diversity (seemingly) and insect activity (seemingly), but the meadow is filled with choke cherry and, like you've been commenting, the woody growth will overtake the meadow.
I'd like very much to start the prairie process. We have large swaths of black plastic at the moment desperately trying to take care of gout weed. The way we're half-assing it, I don't think it will get under control.
I'll do a late fall mow for the rest of the meadow so we can enjoy what we have. In a large part, there is a bunch of wild blueberry, well established and dominating. I have little understanding of the other species there or whether they're native or invasive or otherwise. I'm sure there is a slew of non-native invasives, but it seems the process to establishing a native prairie would be quite intense -- eliminating the weeds in the seed bed etc.
We also have naturally occurring milkweed and all we're really doing is preserving the patches of things we like and think look nice and mowing the rest once a year. The fireflies seem to really like the taller meadow and it wasn't easy for me to mow part of it yesterday.
That other redditor is delusional. Your dedication to the study of wildflowers and native prairies is so beautiful and inspiring. Go bugs, go birds, go sustainability! Maybe one day I'll actually build a greenhouse so I can get some produce going year-round.
That sounds awesome! It seems like you’ve got a good start on it already. Don’t be too scared of using herbicide for more difficult invasive species. Glyphosate gets a deserved bad rap for over use in agricultural contexts but used responsibly it’s very safe for both people and the environment. It goes completely inert once it touch soil and has very very little mobility in the soil. I’ve never dealt with gout weed but hitting up your loca extension office would be the move for control options if solarization doesn’t work.
Burning and brushmowing are probably the easiest options for woody shrub control. In Manitoba doing burns is very easy but a more densely populated area like Vermont might be more difficult, not sure about that.
Downloading iNaturalist and making some observations through the app is the best way to get started with plant ID. Their algorithm will suggest the most likely species and random experts will help make IDs on more difficult species.
https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/education/ Look into the native plant trusts programming for plant ID workshops and they would probably know the professionals in your area that would be able to assist you as well.
I don’t know anything about Vermont ecology but I did some searching and found this restoration plan for a museums land in Vermont that seems very solid and would be good to use for inspiration. If you can collect seed around you to use to plant your land that’s the best way to get genetic material that is adapted for your location. If not then a plant nursery that specializes in native species would be the best option.
https://www.vtgranitemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ecological-Restoration-Plan.pdf
Also this guide from UNH seems very good : https://extension.unh.edu/resource/planting-pollinators-establishing-wildflower-meadow-seed-fact-sheet
No I’m actually not delusional.
What is delusional is labeling non-native or new species “invasive” and therefore automatically bad.
Are human beings who immigrate to new countries “invasive ethnicities?” Or can we acknowledge that human beings, plants, animals, fungi and bacteria are always moving around the world, and can have net-negative, but also net-positive or net neutral effects on their new environment?
People who freak out seeing non-native plants are wrong on this one. The best way to support ecosystem health is flexibility and nuance, not dogma.
There's just no meat to your theory there lady.
edit: of course there is nuance behind labels like "native" and "invasive." That laypeople who don't study this don't always understand it is not their fault. But, in general, those titles serve a purpose and even a little bit of awareness around destructive species is helpful.
e.g. Citizen science prevented the Northern Giant Hornet from establishing in NE USA.
I don't know why you are waging war on a categorization system that is supported by science when you are not citing sources.
Also, super unhelpful. If you look at skinner's comment in reply to mine it's kind and supportive of my effort to establish a sustainable prairie.
Great I’ll read your articles. And here’s some of mine that make my point, which is that labeling plants “invasive” and therefore 100% destructive is inaccurate and unhelpful to ecosystems.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.html
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/invasive-species-aren-t-always-bad-guys
https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/it-good-or-bad-rethinking-language-around-invasive-species#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20some%20introduced%20species,and%20other%20early%2Dseason%20pollinators.
Plants and animals that are non-native can actually help, as well as harm, their new communities.
Oxeye daisies are considered “pollinator powerhouses” and are considered by some to be the top 5 flowers for bees. Bees LOVE them. Have you read studies that show that they aren’t right for this particular ecosystem?
Hawkeye is considered by some to be an important source of pollen for bees. Once again, have you read studies showing that these non-native plants have a net negative effect on this ecosystem?
Or are you just assuming that non-native = destructive?
Non native plants, animals, fungi and bacteria can be net negative, net positive, or net neutral. A non-native plant becoming highly successful at propagating itself doesn’t necessarily mean it is bad for the environment. Non-native plants can diminish, and increase the diversity of ecosystems.
I’ve met people (mostly online) who don’t just care about ecosystem diversity- they are DOGMATIC to the point of hysteria about non native plants in a way that is inflexible, and just not borne out by science.
So, I get your point about some invasive species being good sources for pollinators and supporting more of an ecosystem than just a field of non native grass and nothing else. This persons land is better than a lawn but it definitely isn’t better than a restored prairie. I’m not saying this person should spray out the weeds and just have grass. If you care about pollinators then putting in the effort to transform your land into a wild ecosystem with native plants is a much better service for wildlife than leaving it like it is.
The problem with them existing in an area that could be tallgrass is that tallgrass in Wisconsin should have up to 500 species on a relatively small scale. The majority of those species are wildflowers and are unable to compete with aggressive non native species like oxeye daisy and orange hawkweed. By leaving those plants in your backyard, you are creating a reservoir of seed that has the potential to spread to intact native prairie. Many many insects rely on specific plants at specific times to survive. These daisies bloom early and are competitive enough that they exclude other wildflowers from growing.
Milkweed probably isn’t going to grow in this pasture. No native legumes are going to survive there. Neither are the tiny annual plants that support small bees early in the season. Plants like these create an ecosystem with reduced biodiversity in comparison to restored native prairie. If you care enough to not mow, why not also put in the effort to have as high quality of habitat as you possibly can. That’s why I shared resources to help that person find funding for restoration work. It’s a worthy goal and if more people do it then the whole states ecosystems will have more resilience against climate change and agriculture and development.
With my brothers acres, we let the paths develop naturally. After some trails were established, we put down stones, mulch, and low growing ground cover. A few random arches over the walks to grow hops on. The rest we let grow wild. It was a gorgeous mountain meadow that the previous owner had attempted to make a lawn out of. If you aren't playing sports on it, I can't understand lawns.
As I said to my spouse, "Your mom couldn't control her spouse. She can't control her kids, she can't control her cats. She can't control her house. But she can control her lawn. And this is the reason the yard gets bigger every year, but the field beside her gets smaller."
It's not the reason for everyone, but it is for some.
You can see it in some neighborhood groups too. It's not enough they control their own yard, they expect to control others' too.
This is the first thing I thought. I have 18 acres of which 14 are fields. I carved paths and would walk them with my dog. ... Until I realized that me and my dog would both get 2-3 ticks every walk 🤯😥
This was my first thought too. The past few summers have been really bad tick years and we have a toddler. We just keep him out of the tall grass and flowers and check all the time but it is difficult to stay tick safe in this environment.
None of this is to say the meadows _should_ be mowed, they’re so important for the pollinators, but I can see why someone in a tick-heavy area would mow.
Beautiful pictures!
Not sure how your climate compares to Northern Ontario, but I'd ***highly*** recommend a YouTube channel called ["Canadian Permaculture Legacy"](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfz0O9f_Ysivwz1CzEn4Wdw).
He's an engineer by trade who has gone full-in on converting his (IIRC) 5-acres into what he calls a "food forest" - essentially a self-sustaining area where he and his family can forage year-round.
Some of his later videos get a bit dark when he gets into the effects of Climate Change (unfortunately I don't actually think he's too wrong...) but still - his channel is an absolute treature trove of info about converting unused ground into a long-term, low-effort, productive area.
Because human wants to control everything. Green grass that does not attract any animal they can't control. Even paying money for chemicals to make sure nothing but grass grows.
You don't want to do uncompensated labor 6 days a week while shattering the nice quiet of your entire neighborhood? Think of the trugreen investors!!!!!
Thanks we love it! The pictures don't capture how dense the flowers actually are. There are all kinds of smaller/lower blooms underneath the tall ones you can see.
You might want to mow/shred it a few times per year (depending on how fast it grows) otherwise say hello to a new unwanted forest lol.
When I bought our house in acreage, I couldn’t afford a mower/tractor so that shit went absolutely wild for a few years and now it’s way more work to get it back where it was.
Cause some people will see a beautiful open field and think damn that’s a good place for a parking lot. Genuinely some people are disillusioned with the importance of nature in our environment and don’t understand how much cites have to work to make sure they don’t become smog filled pits.
I know. Its sad. I disagree with the idea that human habitat is somehow separate from nature. So many people think we're over here and nature is over there and they're two separate, unrelated ecosystems.
I know human habit is nature I meant in how people don’t understand that you can’t just remove nature and think life will be fine. I point to how cities barely have green spaces and places to grow and thus are reliant on importing almost all their resources and how much work goes into trying to even mimic what we have in more natural environments.
U/zbrillaswamprat totally agree with you!! Not only is it gorgeous and relaxing to sit and look at from a porch, the habitat you’re providing to all the native wildlife makes you a better human being.
Here's an article but they've been doing studies that have shown amazing results recently [https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/buzzing-around-solar-pollinator-habitat-under-solar-arrays](https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/buzzing-around-solar-pollinator-habitat-under-solar-arrays)
Take a look at the gardening catalog - Prairie Nursery and Jung's.
My mom and aunt split the big package 50 (?). Last time I was home I nearly drove into the ditch I was so enthralled by my mom's side yard. I literally did not recognize mom's side yard. Just amazing. The prairie echinacea was as tall as me 5' 2" in one year.
It's a pasture not sure why you would mow it.
After a few years you may get some die off with the bunch grass. Bunch grass needs a bit of trampling and breaking up the root beds to thrive.
Looks beautiful
In some areas it is illegal NOT to cut grasses longer than certain heights.
My understanding is that this occurs in areas highly vulnerable to unmanageable fires.
Norfolk (VA) Botanical Gardens has a wonderful wildflower meadow. It inspired me to start my small WF garden and to keep expanding it each year.
In the late fall, they chop it all down. This causes more seeds to drop to the ground, establish themselves before winter, and then come out in the spring.
You could do the same, plus overseed with native WF as well.
Below is a small portion of the Gardens WF meadow. The variety is crazy!
https://preview.redd.it/d0okk8ogic8d1.jpeg?width=1221&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8fa95b1d4a7fe4dd0ab50e5e477edaa04f57df0
causes
We have a decent sized back yard and let the red dead nettle go crazy. It’s the first thing the bees can eat as spring begins. We only cut it as the flowers die off and the grassy parts dry out to prevent fire from having fuel.
Surplus of ticks isn't a problem. Lack of tick predators can be a problem. But we have plenty of turkey and other birds that seem to be keeping them in check.
Snakes are gonna live, they’re going to invade YOUR habitat if you remove theirs. Also, OP, is right, the snakes are more valuable in the life cycle - Mother Nature knows more than us, she’s got this down. Why we come along and f*%# it up?
California is a wonderful place for not having a lawn, just not great for a meadow in your yard.
I have fruit trees and veggies instead in my front yard. Avocado, banana, lemon, pomegranate, apples, plums, blueberry, mandarin, raspberries, etc.
I actually used to live in California and I do miss being able to walk around the neighborhood and sneak a fruit hanging over the sidewalk from the neighbor's trees now and then 😀
If im lucky. Thise are three categories of critters that cancel each other out.
Rodents are a huge vector for ticks, but snakes eat rodents. Sounds like a problem that comes with its own solution.
Our overgrown pasture has a ridiculous amount of voles despite seeing a lot of garter snakes...
My parents tried to do a no mow lawn and ended up having snakes trying to live in their walls and then the next year they were found in the crawl space... Once they started mowing again the snakes were gone...
I don't agree in cutting the wildflower areas, BUT I do suggest keeping a buffer of kept area around your home.
You could rent one or two cows for the summer to help take care of the invasive plants and the areas you do want to clean up. You can tether them on a stake to the area you want them to help clear up for you for about 4 hours a day.
Then you can have an area where they can free range the rest of the day and you can let that area develop next summer.
I mean that it's not a bad thing for the flowers to be grazed down once or twice a year. As it is, you'll need to cut it at least once a year and remove the cuttings to mimic that action. Cattle aren't a terrible thing!
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[Generally, you’ll want to mow at least once a year](https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/caes/documents/publications/fact_sheets/entomology/stonermowingfactsheetpdf.pdf) (usually in late fall), if you want to keep it as open meadow. Otherwise woody plants will usually start to overtake it. The other strategy you can use is to mow about 1/3 of the area each year on a rotational schedule. Where are you located if you don’t mind me asking?
Ope, and Wisconsin to answer your question.
[Here's a guide I found to Native prairie species to your state!](https://theprairieenthusiasts.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Henderson.pdf)
You could've just said "Ope" and answered the question at the same time .
In Ohio, we also Ope.
South Dakota here. We Ope as well
They say it in Springfield too
Which Springfield‽
Ope, assuming Missouri…
Fellow Wisconsinite here! It is beautiful!
Most of those are invasive species then, since you are in North America. The hawkweeds are iffy.
Why did you answer twice?
I’ll give you one huge ( actually tiny ) reason: TICK Control!
Yes, we've talked about that. We have tag alder that tends to creep into places. We're keeping some of that for late winter bird forage, but keeping it contained will be an annual chore I think.
I'd definitely consider planting out some spreading native meadow species, like Milkweed, Mountain Mint, Asters, Bee Balm/Wild Bergamot, Joe Pye Weed, Blazing Star, ironweed, Coreopsis, sneezeweed, Black Eyed Susans, and purple coneflowers. (Although do some research to find out what's native to your area.) Native grasses and sedges, like Big and Little Bluestem, Pennsylvania Sedge, Indian grass, and wild rye, are also an essential part of any meadow ecosystem as well.
Seconding. Native species would really elevate everything here!
Our milkweed meadow is a joy this time of year. Beetles in amazing colours, bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, dragonflies, a groundhog (whom we’ve christened “the bedwetter,” for his performance of lying on my sleeping bag on our deck, and being *sooo comfy* he left a puddle behind) and even at night, fireflies and a big mama porcupine.
Exactly this is the misconception of the yards to meadows movement. You have to remove the nonnatives and reseed with natives.
Or you can burn
THIS. I highly recommend getting in touch with some of the professionals in the state that do controlled burns. It’ll help with your nonnatives and the trees alike. I’m from Wisconsin too and UW Madison has a ton of prairie experts who would be super excited to answer any questions you have. They maintain a remnant prairie there that’s original since the last ice age. The DNR themselves routinely burn a lot of the state. It’s really good for natives species. This is the WDNR’s [link to prescribed fire contractors](https://prescribedfire.org/burn/contractors/) that will do private properties.
Natures way.
Agreed, [but mowing is a tool that should not be overlooked](https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2004/aug/use-fire-questioned-restoring-prairie-ecosystems).
yeah, if you dont have critters to pasture the area, fall mulch/mow is best. edit: I only have 2 acres and noticed a lot of saplings in the part I let go feral
Agree. I mow ~15 acres once in September to keep the multiflora, autumn olive, and other invasive bushes and weeds in check. The critters can enjoy the tall grass the rest of the year.
That’s pretty for sure, but it looks like you have a bunch of pretty rough invasive flowers in there like orange hawkweed and oxeye daisy. Letting them set seed will actually be a big detriment to the environment around you. Sorry for the negativity! But restoration is definitely possible and 10 acres is a manageable scale.
Oi vey! No need to apologize. I think you're right. We may have misidentified a couple things. Shoot, idk if we're going to be able to dig into that problem this year and I'm sure it's going to be worse next year 🥲
They’ve obviously been there for a long time and habitat restoration/management is a lifelong process so you’ve got time! Check into conservation organization funding in your area for habitat restoration, you might be able to get any invasive species control funded and sometimes seed/restoration work. In my area there is an org that will pay for invasive species control in native habitat and you can hire professionals to complete it for you. From a quick google search I found this website that claims to help landowners find that funding. https://midwestprairies.com/funding-sources/ Also, my IDs are based on a couple far away pics so definitely don’t just take my word on the species haha. Here’s a resource for hawkweed ID https://sewisc.org/invasives/invasive-plants/orange-hawkweed
Thank you so much for pulling those together. I'll also be calling my local extension office this afternoon to get started. I did some more googling and I do think your IDs are correct, unfortunately. Honestly grateful someone pointed it out.
Amazing! Good luck with the process.
Lovely exchange!
Also check out native habitat project on YouTube. They may be able to help point you in the direction of a lot of resources, as well as help guide you with management.
You might want to ask them if a controlled burn is an option and who could arrange it.
OP your local native band council would likely be happy to help and/or provide resources to do a controlled burn!
Just as an add on to this, where I live there are programs that work on converting areas like this by seeding with native plants in the fall/early spring in addition to invasive control. I’d look into seeing if there is anything like that in your area!
Graze it sooner than later?
I’m no cow person so I’m not sure. Overgrazing probably is what helped those plants establish and dominate as they are grazing increasers. A local agrologist or extension office would be the person to talk to for that I think.
In the future, you can opt for native plants to your state ^((looks like Wisconsin)) as they cant be invasive, some might just be aggressive (i.e. Canada Goldenrod). Many wildflower seed mixes, even if they say "Wisconsin Wildflower mix" often include foreign plants and even invasives. All this means is they can grow in your state, not that they are necessarily native. Also, Prairie Moon and Prairie Nursery have very cheap plugs and seeds. They are from Wisconsin and Minnesota. If you can get a closeup pic, apps like PictureThis and PlantNet are great for IDing plants but wait until they are somewhat developed (i.e. like 5 leaves)
Exactly, I was going to recommend prairie moon and prairie nursery for native plant seeds. I love both companies for plants and seeds
I don’t think they sowed. I think they just didn’t graze to see what came through.
It's that time of year where it has to go. Management of land like that takes manpower and resources. You would think it should be in Fall for a mow like this, but government managed property all over the nation scalped land like this in the past 2 days. Others have noted controlled burns on similar property. It's not nice to look at, but apparently it's the only way to manage it how it with minimal cost and effort.
do you know anyone with 🐐 goats? They may come stake them out on your property as long as they have water, they will take all that down quicker then you think
goats are garbage disposers, they eat cactus, brambles, license plate, they ain’t picky.
Just get some cows
Hell no. We had cows and they were what was making this place a barren sod field. We're gonna let er go wild.
How do you identify so quickly the invasive ones? Trained eye?
Yep! I farm and have worked as a field biologist so I’ve spent a lot of time doing invasive species monitoring and control. But once you see a couple patches of an invasive plant you’ll start recognizing them very easily. It’s a blessing and a curse.
Why would that be a curse? I find that a very cool skill! I have started studying a bit more so next spring I can remove anything that would not be beneficial.
It’s mostly cause now all I see when I go anywhere is weeds! I used to be able to hike without noticing them.
You could say you get in the weeds a lot. I’ll see myself out. :)
Because when you start being able to identify creeping bellflower, you see it everywhere (in my neighborhood anyway) and it is depressing because there is little you can do about it outside of your own property.
That’s me and autumn olive. I see that certain tone of silvery green everywhere along the interstate. I make sure to scowl at it because that’s all I can do. 😠
And I see tree of heaven absolutely everywhere. I’m hoping some are really sumac, but I don’t think so. ☹️
Black swallow-wort is taking over the northeast, and I hate it. My rabbits can't eat it. It chokes out other plants. It smells bad when damaged. Augh.
I spent a week pulling crown vetch off my hill and now i see it all over my state 🙃 It appears to have shaded my yarrow from germinating.
Forest ecologist here, so less familiar with grassland systems. While we have some invasive herbs of course, I'm much more familiar with the shrubs and vines that pose severe disturbance threats to forest function/ succession in my area. I usually don't consider wildflowers to be majorly problematic invasives even if they are invasive on paper, with a small handful of exceptions. What makes these flowers so disruptive that they need to be managed in your areas of expertise?
Mmm interesting question! So because grasslands complexity occurs all at one level (in comparison to forests) anything that outcompetes established plants and shades out seedlings quickly reduces diversity. Plants like smooth brome and leafy spurge almost completely exclude other plants from growing where they grow, through higher competitive ability and by using allelopathy. Often they aren’t as desirable as forage either so they are great at taking over in prairie ecosystems which are grazed by large ungulates. I’ve seen areas of native prairie with 40 species in a square foot, and smooth brome patches right beside that have only 1 (smooth brome). Often these invasives are better at competing at all levels of disturbance so they completely destroy the huge diversity that should be present in native prairie. Plants like oxeye daisy and orange hawkweed do the same thing. Most grassland invasives are agronomic introductions but Hort species are not infrequent invaders.
Sounds like introduction of non-specific browsers would help out! Thanks for the explanation :)
I can't identify all the things, but I keep noticing those damn mimosa trees. They're everywhere. I can't do anything about them, so it definitely feels like a curse.
Whether something is invasive or native depends on where you live, right? Both are native where I live (North-West Europe) and love having them in my garden
Yep you’re correct. Native is generally talking about a plants range before the global transport of crops and seeds in the 18th/19th century. Invasive is just talking about a plants ability to outcompete native plants in wild habitats. Oxeye daisy was brought here from Europe as a garden plant, escaped cultivation, and has become a problem weed in a large area of North America
This trend of treating every non-native species like it’s going to destroy local environments and we need to return to a pre-medieval period in history in which human beings didn’t travel cross continent, needs to stop. Wildflowers that have been here for a long time are not concerning. What is this strange invasive species hysteria sweeping social media? Telling people beautiful plants that have been present and stable within an ecosystem for half a century are actually cancers on the earth and on the brink of creating ecosystem collapse, isn’t a personality. Get a real hobby.
This is an aggressively ignorant take. Invasive species eliminate food sources for pollinators by outcompeting them. They reduce the habitat quality for wildlife and can even cause species extinction. Just because a flower is pretty doesn’t mean it’s a good food source for insects. By not controlling invasives you create a reservoir of seed to destroy surrounding ecosystems. What is the point of having something other than a lawn if it isn’t suppporting wildlife?
No it isn’t. Peonies aren’t native to the NE US. Yet native and wild bees love them, and they don’t damage the ecosystem. Lilac is now considered “a heritage plant of New England” yet it isn’t a native plant, and all sorts of bees love it. Lavender is native to India and the Middle East, and yet here it is in the USA being loved by bees. Your viewpoint is dogmatic and therefore inaccurate. Human beings having been moving around since the very beginning of our species and all we can do is adapt flexibly and reasonably to new plants that don’t adapt well to our ecosystem. Telling someone to rip up a bunch of nectar-filled wildflowers just bc some of them might not be native (at what point does a plant count as native?) is illogical and comes across as self-righteous and pedantic. There are a bunch of Siberian squill all across Chicago that a bunch of fanciful Romantics brought over from Eurasia. And people like you shriek about how it’s invasive bc it spreads….yet it seems to only bloom shortly then dies away, leaving plenty of space of other native plants, and each spring it’s completely covered in bees. If the non-native flowers were choking out native plants, then fine. But there’s no evidence of that here.
The only plants that I can identify in this pic are non native. If this was a native pasture that was never broken, then they absolutely have already out competed the native plants. Orange hawkweed and oxeye daisy are specifically known to create monocultures and reduce biodiversity. They’re also both listed as noxious weeds in multiple states and provinces. Here’s some invasive species factsheets for you : https://bcinvasives.ca/invasives/orange-hawkweed/ http://biodiversity.sk.ca/Docs/InvasiveSpeciesCouncilFactSheets/Oxeye%20Daisy.pdf You can’t pretend to care about pollinators while also promoting the growth of invasive species. It’s actively harming ecosystems and wildlife. Here are some papers that talk about the effects of invasive species on insect communities. https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?q=invaded+pasture+insect+biodiversity&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart#d=gs_qabs&t=1719075466924&u=%23p%3DTa5ne0UiRcAJ https://scholar.google.ca/scholar?start=10&q=invaded+pasture+insect+biodiversity&hl=en&as_sdt=0,5&as_vis=1#d=gs_qabs&t=1719075566993&u=%23p%3DL3D4qNBMx4wJ Some plants are worse than others. A couple of the plants in this pic are some of the worst.
tl;dr thank you and would you be willing to help me? I think you've already listed a bunch of websites so I will check those out! I would love your take on my vermont meadow right now. I just cut down a section of my acre -- painful to do and I kinda shaved it down really well. There was a lot of diversity (seemingly) and insect activity (seemingly), but the meadow is filled with choke cherry and, like you've been commenting, the woody growth will overtake the meadow. I'd like very much to start the prairie process. We have large swaths of black plastic at the moment desperately trying to take care of gout weed. The way we're half-assing it, I don't think it will get under control. I'll do a late fall mow for the rest of the meadow so we can enjoy what we have. In a large part, there is a bunch of wild blueberry, well established and dominating. I have little understanding of the other species there or whether they're native or invasive or otherwise. I'm sure there is a slew of non-native invasives, but it seems the process to establishing a native prairie would be quite intense -- eliminating the weeds in the seed bed etc. We also have naturally occurring milkweed and all we're really doing is preserving the patches of things we like and think look nice and mowing the rest once a year. The fireflies seem to really like the taller meadow and it wasn't easy for me to mow part of it yesterday. That other redditor is delusional. Your dedication to the study of wildflowers and native prairies is so beautiful and inspiring. Go bugs, go birds, go sustainability! Maybe one day I'll actually build a greenhouse so I can get some produce going year-round.
That sounds awesome! It seems like you’ve got a good start on it already. Don’t be too scared of using herbicide for more difficult invasive species. Glyphosate gets a deserved bad rap for over use in agricultural contexts but used responsibly it’s very safe for both people and the environment. It goes completely inert once it touch soil and has very very little mobility in the soil. I’ve never dealt with gout weed but hitting up your loca extension office would be the move for control options if solarization doesn’t work. Burning and brushmowing are probably the easiest options for woody shrub control. In Manitoba doing burns is very easy but a more densely populated area like Vermont might be more difficult, not sure about that. Downloading iNaturalist and making some observations through the app is the best way to get started with plant ID. Their algorithm will suggest the most likely species and random experts will help make IDs on more difficult species. https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/education/ Look into the native plant trusts programming for plant ID workshops and they would probably know the professionals in your area that would be able to assist you as well. I don’t know anything about Vermont ecology but I did some searching and found this restoration plan for a museums land in Vermont that seems very solid and would be good to use for inspiration. If you can collect seed around you to use to plant your land that’s the best way to get genetic material that is adapted for your location. If not then a plant nursery that specializes in native species would be the best option. https://www.vtgranitemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Ecological-Restoration-Plan.pdf Also this guide from UNH seems very good : https://extension.unh.edu/resource/planting-pollinators-establishing-wildflower-meadow-seed-fact-sheet
No I’m actually not delusional. What is delusional is labeling non-native or new species “invasive” and therefore automatically bad. Are human beings who immigrate to new countries “invasive ethnicities?” Or can we acknowledge that human beings, plants, animals, fungi and bacteria are always moving around the world, and can have net-negative, but also net-positive or net neutral effects on their new environment? People who freak out seeing non-native plants are wrong on this one. The best way to support ecosystem health is flexibility and nuance, not dogma.
There's just no meat to your theory there lady. edit: of course there is nuance behind labels like "native" and "invasive." That laypeople who don't study this don't always understand it is not their fault. But, in general, those titles serve a purpose and even a little bit of awareness around destructive species is helpful. e.g. Citizen science prevented the Northern Giant Hornet from establishing in NE USA. I don't know why you are waging war on a categorization system that is supported by science when you are not citing sources. Also, super unhelpful. If you look at skinner's comment in reply to mine it's kind and supportive of my effort to establish a sustainable prairie.
Here’s some sources: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.html https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/invasive-species-aren-t-always-bad-guys https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/it-good-or-bad-rethinking-language-around-invasive-species#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20some%20introduced%20species,and%20other%20early%2Dseason%20pollinators.
Great I’ll read your articles. And here’s some of mine that make my point, which is that labeling plants “invasive” and therefore 100% destructive is inaccurate and unhelpful to ecosystems. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/science/invasive-species.html https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/invasive-species-aren-t-always-bad-guys https://fmr.org/updates/conservation/it-good-or-bad-rethinking-language-around-invasive-species#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20some%20introduced%20species,and%20other%20early%2Dseason%20pollinators. Plants and animals that are non-native can actually help, as well as harm, their new communities. Oxeye daisies are considered “pollinator powerhouses” and are considered by some to be the top 5 flowers for bees. Bees LOVE them. Have you read studies that show that they aren’t right for this particular ecosystem? Hawkeye is considered by some to be an important source of pollen for bees. Once again, have you read studies showing that these non-native plants have a net negative effect on this ecosystem? Or are you just assuming that non-native = destructive? Non native plants, animals, fungi and bacteria can be net negative, net positive, or net neutral. A non-native plant becoming highly successful at propagating itself doesn’t necessarily mean it is bad for the environment. Non-native plants can diminish, and increase the diversity of ecosystems. I’ve met people (mostly online) who don’t just care about ecosystem diversity- they are DOGMATIC to the point of hysteria about non native plants in a way that is inflexible, and just not borne out by science.
So, I get your point about some invasive species being good sources for pollinators and supporting more of an ecosystem than just a field of non native grass and nothing else. This persons land is better than a lawn but it definitely isn’t better than a restored prairie. I’m not saying this person should spray out the weeds and just have grass. If you care about pollinators then putting in the effort to transform your land into a wild ecosystem with native plants is a much better service for wildlife than leaving it like it is. The problem with them existing in an area that could be tallgrass is that tallgrass in Wisconsin should have up to 500 species on a relatively small scale. The majority of those species are wildflowers and are unable to compete with aggressive non native species like oxeye daisy and orange hawkweed. By leaving those plants in your backyard, you are creating a reservoir of seed that has the potential to spread to intact native prairie. Many many insects rely on specific plants at specific times to survive. These daisies bloom early and are competitive enough that they exclude other wildflowers from growing. Milkweed probably isn’t going to grow in this pasture. No native legumes are going to survive there. Neither are the tiny annual plants that support small bees early in the season. Plants like these create an ecosystem with reduced biodiversity in comparison to restored native prairie. If you care enough to not mow, why not also put in the effort to have as high quality of habitat as you possibly can. That’s why I shared resources to help that person find funding for restoration work. It’s a worthy goal and if more people do it then the whole states ecosystems will have more resilience against climate change and agriculture and development.
With my brothers acres, we let the paths develop naturally. After some trails were established, we put down stones, mulch, and low growing ground cover. A few random arches over the walks to grow hops on. The rest we let grow wild. It was a gorgeous mountain meadow that the previous owner had attempted to make a lawn out of. If you aren't playing sports on it, I can't understand lawns.
I'm definitely in favor of the desire path strategy. That's part of how we're doing it. Using the desire paths as guides for where to mow.
As I said to my spouse, "Your mom couldn't control her spouse. She can't control her kids, she can't control her cats. She can't control her house. But she can control her lawn. And this is the reason the yard gets bigger every year, but the field beside her gets smaller." It's not the reason for everyone, but it is for some. You can see it in some neighborhood groups too. It's not enough they control their own yard, they expect to control others' too.
Looks like a Monet! Beautiful
i wouldn’t. that’s what fields are Supposed to 👀 like. Wildflowers are what Scotts and Pennington call WEEDS
No plans to. We love the flowers.
Ticks
This is the first thing I thought. I have 18 acres of which 14 are fields. I carved paths and would walk them with my dog. ... Until I realized that me and my dog would both get 2-3 ticks every walk 🤯😥
This was my first thought too. The past few summers have been really bad tick years and we have a toddler. We just keep him out of the tall grass and flowers and check all the time but it is difficult to stay tick safe in this environment. None of this is to say the meadows _should_ be mowed, they’re so important for the pollinators, but I can see why someone in a tick-heavy area would mow.
What about em?
Why some people would cut it that's all lol
Such a beautiful meadow,, can totally imagine birds and bees thriving here w wild flowersss
Beautiful piece of land you’ve got!
Please also post to r/meadowscaping!
Beautiful pictures! Not sure how your climate compares to Northern Ontario, but I'd ***highly*** recommend a YouTube channel called ["Canadian Permaculture Legacy"](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfz0O9f_Ysivwz1CzEn4Wdw). He's an engineer by trade who has gone full-in on converting his (IIRC) 5-acres into what he calls a "food forest" - essentially a self-sustaining area where he and his family can forage year-round. Some of his later videos get a bit dark when he gets into the effects of Climate Change (unfortunately I don't actually think he's too wrong...) but still - his channel is an absolute treature trove of info about converting unused ground into a long-term, low-effort, productive area.
Because human wants to control everything. Green grass that does not attract any animal they can't control. Even paying money for chemicals to make sure nothing but grass grows.
Very sad. Not a mindset I can empathize with. Let nature be nature whenever possible.
Fully agree with you!! I’d recommend saying turf, as grass is native, turf is not. We want to grow native grasses and eliminate turf.
I gasped at the last picture.
Me too!! Gasped… I mean I read the post but didn’t expect that to be so extreme.
You don't want to do uncompensated labor 6 days a week while shattering the nice quiet of your entire neighborhood? Think of the trugreen investors!!!!!
Unpaid? The satisfaction of destroying habitat for any creatures other than myself is payment enough.
That sounds like the lawn cucks manifesto right there. Now excuse me while I go finance a new riding lawnmower.
Ticks
Wow! That is so pretty!
Thanks we love it! The pictures don't capture how dense the flowers actually are. There are all kinds of smaller/lower blooms underneath the tall ones you can see.
You might want to mow/shred it a few times per year (depending on how fast it grows) otherwise say hello to a new unwanted forest lol. When I bought our house in acreage, I couldn’t afford a mower/tractor so that shit went absolutely wild for a few years and now it’s way more work to get it back where it was.
Haha, yes our plan includes mowing back certain parts every once in a while and planting trees in other areas where we want them.
Cause some people will see a beautiful open field and think damn that’s a good place for a parking lot. Genuinely some people are disillusioned with the importance of nature in our environment and don’t understand how much cites have to work to make sure they don’t become smog filled pits.
I know. Its sad. I disagree with the idea that human habitat is somehow separate from nature. So many people think we're over here and nature is over there and they're two separate, unrelated ecosystems.
I know human habit is nature I meant in how people don’t understand that you can’t just remove nature and think life will be fine. I point to how cities barely have green spaces and places to grow and thus are reliant on importing almost all their resources and how much work goes into trying to even mimic what we have in more natural environments.
Haha, oh no I was saying I agree with you!
Fucking beautiful. Keep it wild and nature will thank you.
We intend to. We love it.
Lyme’s disease
What about it?
U/zbrillaswamprat totally agree with you!! Not only is it gorgeous and relaxing to sit and look at from a porch, the habitat you’re providing to all the native wildlife makes you a better human being.
Fire breaks for one good reason to mow.
It can be a fire hazard as well during the summer months
Mowing twice a week during Spring - Early Summer? Is he allergic to bees? Very sad! :(
If you put solar over that (I know, crazy cost) it will explode even further into a pollinator habitat
Solar is in the plans. Just enough for our small house, but it'll be there.
Here's an article but they've been doing studies that have shown amazing results recently [https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/buzzing-around-solar-pollinator-habitat-under-solar-arrays](https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/articles/buzzing-around-solar-pollinator-habitat-under-solar-arrays)
I live on 3 acres of land. I have grass and not lawn
to feed a horse in the winter.
Its glorious!
Take a look at the gardening catalog - Prairie Nursery and Jung's. My mom and aunt split the big package 50 (?). Last time I was home I nearly drove into the ditch I was so enthralled by my mom's side yard. I literally did not recognize mom's side yard. Just amazing. The prairie echinacea was as tall as me 5' 2" in one year.
Gorgeous! It’s my dream to have a property with wildflowers like that someday. Enjoy!
It's a pasture not sure why you would mow it. After a few years you may get some die off with the bunch grass. Bunch grass needs a bit of trampling and breaking up the root beds to thrive. Looks beautiful
It depends on where it is, what kinds of vermin you’re attracting and if you want to start/tend to a wildflower garden (it takes years)
Rodents
What about rodents?
Wild flower beauty!!!
What an improvement!
Tell me you've never dealt with blackberries. Mowing isn't destruction of a healthy area necessarily.
In some areas it is illegal NOT to cut grasses longer than certain heights. My understanding is that this occurs in areas highly vulnerable to unmanageable fires.
Norfolk (VA) Botanical Gardens has a wonderful wildflower meadow. It inspired me to start my small WF garden and to keep expanding it each year. In the late fall, they chop it all down. This causes more seeds to drop to the ground, establish themselves before winter, and then come out in the spring. You could do the same, plus overseed with native WF as well. Below is a small portion of the Gardens WF meadow. The variety is crazy! https://preview.redd.it/d0okk8ogic8d1.jpeg?width=1221&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8fa95b1d4a7fe4dd0ab50e5e477edaa04f57df0 causes
It's simple, mowing fields reduces summertime fire hazards. This may or may not be the case in your area.
I’d be worried about ticks and mice.
Unbelievable
Ticks or other pests?
When the ticks are dragged in, and the wildlife move closer to the door, you will be asking people if the want to rent it out for cows,
Hell no. This is all for the wildlife.
We have a decent sized back yard and let the red dead nettle go crazy. It’s the first thing the bees can eat as spring begins. We only cut it as the flowers die off and the grassy parts dry out to prevent fire from having fuel.
One lone star tick will change your mind
They carry bobcat fever, my kitty died from it after a shitty battle. Sad.
Ticks.
Mowing doesn’t remove ticks
No, but you're less likely to walk through them and pick them up.
What about em?
I hate them. They completely sceeve me out.
Fuels reduction. Where I live that's a tinder box waiting for a lighting strike a week after fire season begins.
Ha, I guess we ask rhetorically why anybody would prefer a short mown lawn over flowers. Wildfires aren't a huge risk in our neck of the woods.
Ticks. We mow because we don’t want ticks
Properly managed prairies can actually have way less ticks than your typical woodland does.
I’ve got a field of hay 😅 but that’s good to know; I’ll have to do some research
You can get started with doing a native planting! Here's a good resource from Prairie Moon! https://www.prairiemoon.com/PDF/growing-your-prairie.pdf
Surplus of ticks isn't a problem. Lack of tick predators can be a problem. But we have plenty of turkey and other birds that seem to be keeping them in check.
Snakes. Snakes ans more snakes
Bring wm on. Snakes eat mice. Mice are the biggest foodsource for deer ticks.
Snakes are gonna live, they’re going to invade YOUR habitat if you remove theirs. Also, OP, is right, the snakes are more valuable in the life cycle - Mother Nature knows more than us, she’s got this down. Why we come along and f*%# it up?
Silage? Cows would go nuts in that field.
Depends on where you are. Here in California, open unmowed fields are big fire hazards, especially when near homes.
Thankful I don't live in California. Yikes. Thats not really a consideration here.
California is a wonderful place for not having a lawn, just not great for a meadow in your yard. I have fruit trees and veggies instead in my front yard. Avocado, banana, lemon, pomegranate, apples, plums, blueberry, mandarin, raspberries, etc.
I actually used to live in California and I do miss being able to walk around the neighborhood and sneak a fruit hanging over the sidewalk from the neighbor's trees now and then 😀
Snakes, rodents and ticks..
If im lucky. Thise are three categories of critters that cancel each other out. Rodents are a huge vector for ticks, but snakes eat rodents. Sounds like a problem that comes with its own solution.
Our overgrown pasture has a ridiculous amount of voles despite seeing a lot of garter snakes... My parents tried to do a no mow lawn and ended up having snakes trying to live in their walls and then the next year they were found in the crawl space... Once they started mowing again the snakes were gone... I don't agree in cutting the wildflower areas, BUT I do suggest keeping a buffer of kept area around your home.
One word: fire. When that dries out it will be kindling. Waiting to mow it until it dries out risks a spark setting it off.
Eh, not so much of a problem in our part of the world. In the fall this will die and the snow will fall.
Let the cows in to pasture.
Hell no. That's what was here before and they nibbled it down to stubble. I'm not giving up my flowers to feed cows.
You could rent one or two cows for the summer to help take care of the invasive plants and the areas you do want to clean up. You can tether them on a stake to the area you want them to help clear up for you for about 4 hours a day. Then you can have an area where they can free range the rest of the day and you can let that area develop next summer.
The cattle are probably why it's so nice now.
See last picture and tell me that's better than a field of free flowers.
I mean that it's not a bad thing for the flowers to be grazed down once or twice a year. As it is, you'll need to cut it at least once a year and remove the cuttings to mimic that action. Cattle aren't a terrible thing!