Site Managers’ Top Takeaways

Site Preparation: We found that the three herbicide treatments didn’t kill the weeds as effectively as we’d hoped; we were told to expect 3-4 sprays, so it’s possible the field needed an additional treatment for maximum effectiveness. It was somewhat difficult to coordinate with the farm contractor, and we weren’t able to prioritize timing with weather and weed regrowth conditions as much as we would have liked. 

For future projects we’ll consider repeated tilling; in areas where that’s not an option, we’d like to set aside both a larger budget and a longer time horizon for site preparation. We plan to explore treatments like controlled burning (repeated over several years), organic herbicides, and perhaps Foamstream™, a patented technology that uses boiling water to kill existing vegetation but isn’t yet available in our area. 

Plant Sourcing: Our usual wholesale nursery could only provide about half the hedgerow and hilltop plants, so we found two more nurseries to work with. Once we took the initial step of branching out from our usual source, we were actually surprised at the number of species available locally, although we still see a huge need for more nursery propagation of these pollinator plants! We were also pleased that we could find “restoration size” plants for most of the species, which are smaller and less expensive than “landscape size”. 

Seed Sourcing: We had a smooth experience working with Prairie Moon. A few species were unavailable, so Prairie Moon removed them from the mix. This decreased the overall seeding rate slightly, so for future projects we’d be sure to request that the quantities of other species are increased to fill any sourcing-related gaps. 

Compared to past meadows we’ve seeded, the recommended mix had a much larger number of species, in order to support the project’s full list of at-risk pollinators. This diversity, and the rarity of some species, made it very expensive. Newcomers to large-scale meadow installation might consider starting with a slightly less diverse mix that includes some more common species known for their reliable germination - a seed company like Prairie Moon can advise on this.

Seeding the Meadows: When the bag of meadow seed arrived, we were shocked at its tiny size - it was hard to believe that amount could really cover 13 acres! We’re glad we went with a native seed drill, and Monarch Vegetation Services was easy to work with. Since we seeded the cover crop at the same time in late October, we were concerned the wheat might not germinate; but it sprouted and grew about 2” before the first hard freeze. 

Planting the Hedgerows and Hilltop: We had no way to water after planting, so we timed the planting for the day before a predicted rain event - but the rain didn’t come for ten days. We’re glad we planted in the fall, as plants were already entering dormancy and temperatures were cool; ten days without rain after planting in spring or summer would have been much worse. 

We had to make a few changes to the location and layout of each planting based on soil, rock, and slope conditions of the field. The hilltop in particular had been overgrown with invasive plants for most of the summer. When these were removed, we found that the hilltop was basically a pile of boulders, not suitable for planting - so we shifted the planting and path area down the slope. When planting according to a design drawing, it’s important to stay flexible and adapt to real-world conditions. 

Deer protection: Since the field was previously used to grow corn, the local deer are used to spending time in it; we expected deer browse on our plantings. We protected trees and shrubs in the hedgerows with wire cages, which will need to be hand-weeded. Still, we noticed deer browse on the un-fenced perennial plants within a week after planting. For future projects like this, we might consider fencing the entire hedgerow - this would protect perennials as well as woody plants and allow easier weeding within the larger fenced area.