The Conservancy protects and restores thousands of acres of natural areas throughout southwestern Wisconsin–including rare flora, fauna and geological and archeological features. The new truck is especially useful for managing prescribed fire because it has been equipped with a 200-gallon water pump. Now the Conservancy can more effectively restore the fire-adapted native plant communities and the wildlife that depends on them. In the Midwest and beyond this is especially important because of the trend from prairies, savannas and open oak woodlands towards closed-canopy mesic forests–a process called “mesophication.”

Practical matters aside, the truck’s body features some awesome scenes of nature:

Near the right wheel: A peregrine falcon. Some say this amazing bird is the world's fastest animal. Once extremely rare due to the effects of DDT, nesting pairs have been returned to several locations in the Midwest and beyond, thanks to conservation efforts.

On the right panel:The Mississippi River and a Blanding’s turtle. As the aerial view shows, the Mississippi is a mosaic of different types of habitat, from the main waters to the flood- plain forests that receive spring flood waters. The Mississippi is one of North America’s major flyways for migratory birds. Blanding’s turtle (not competing for fastest animal on earth) has become less common over time, in part due to the draining of wet prairies for agriculture.

Near the tailgate: Hoary puccoon with a tiger swallowtail. This plant inhabits dry prairies, which are being steadily lost to fire-intolerant trees and shrubs. You will not find its seed in our catalog because it eludes collectors, its seeds ripening one at a time. Perhaps the mighty peregrine has been presented on the side of a truck before, but this must surely be the quarter-panel debut for hoary puccoon!

Piled seed cleanings before composting.

The pile has gone through heating cycles and has been turned repeatedly.

Seed cleanings after 2 years of composting = black gold!

We won’t use it here because we pride ourselves on providing seed from specific locations and are reluctant to mix ecotypes. The composting should kill most seeds, but we are very particular about what we provide to our customers. As a result, our trash can be your black gold. This compost would be an excellent soil amendment for gardens, fields, lawns, native plantings and potted plants. Any seeds that may have survived the composting procedure are likely to be native forbs and grasses. The area around the composting site is very pretty with lots of Silphiums, Asters and Rudbeckias.

Hoary Vervain and Yellow Coneflower blooming around compost piles from discarded seed cleanings.

Survivors: Rudbeckia seed heads near composted seed on an autumn day.

If you would like compost, we are giving it away on a first-come, first-served basis, so bring your bags, trailers, or trucks and we will load you up and you can spread the wealth.

Plants everywhere continue awakening, though, pushing promisingly above the soil surface, pacing their growth, biding their time until the snow melts for good. Identifying native plants in their early stages is a useful skill to have, one that all of us at Prairie Moon are continually honing. Knowledge of the defining characteristics of seedlings is especially helpful when evaluating the progress of native seed plantings in their beginning years.

The following photos show some of the first harbingers of hope around my house.

Early greeters between a walkway and retaining wall include Tradescantia ohiensis (Ohio Spiderwort), Callirhoe triangulata (Clustered Poppy Mallow) and Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell).

This old cluster of Tradescantia ohiensis, Ohio Spiderwort, begins to green up after appearing brown and withered beneath the snow all winter.

Some of the first flower buds to appear were on this Geum triflorum (Prairie Smoke), beneath shoots of Allium stellatum (Prairie Onion) in a south-facing bed near a house wall.

Transplanted from Prairie Moon stock the previous fall, these Gentiana andrewsii (Bottle Gentian) seedlings shoot up below an older Allium stellatum (Prairie Onion).

More Gentiana andrewsii (Bottle Gentian) appear near some Fragaria virginiana (Wild Strawberry) that creeped down from the adjacent woods.

This hardy volunteer Aquilegia canadensis (Columbine) pushes up each year through heavy landscaping stones.

Tiny seeds of Campanula rotundifolia (Harebell) dropped from a planting at the top of this retaining wall and took root between blocks below. Beautiful plants appear there annually now and have in turn dropped their seeds. Younger plants in the photo below display the characteristic rounded basal leaves that give the species its name.

Eco-Grass, a low-maintenance blend of fine fescues, begins to green up in very cool temperatures. The brown tufts in these two photos are from the previous year's unmowed growth.

Even as it first emerges, its coming purple-blue glory is hinted at by Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells), seen in this and the following two photos.

Polemonium reptans (Jacob's Ladder) provided some of the first green on our prairie hillside.

The only early red hues on our hillside were provided by shoots of Vernonia fasciculata (Common Ironweed), transplanted from Prairie Moon gardens the previous October.

This cluster of Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot) has begun popping up at the end of a raised vegetable bed. They apparently migrated there from nearby woods. The plants in these two photos appear eager to turn their faces to the sun but unwilling yet to unwrap their leaf blankets. Another plant with more southern exposure just a few feet away already had opened its leaves and dropped its petals.

Distinctive leaf markings lend a delicate beauty to young Hydrophyllum virginianum (Virginia Waterleaf) but disappear as the plants mature.

I recently received a reminder, though, of the importance of looking higher up the food chain to more fully appreciate the contributions of native plant species to wide networks of biological relationships.

The informative and highly entertaining International Festival of the Owls convenes each early March in Houston, Minnesota, not far south of our nursery. Drawing educators, students, rehabilitated raptors and enthusiasts from all over the world, the weekend-long event raises funds for the Houston Nature Center (see below) and strives to “spark a personal connection to owls and the environment we share with them.”

The Houston Nature Center itself is worth the trip to the tiny southeast Minnesota town of about 1,000. Situated on the Root River Trail, a 60-mile paved recreational trail, the center is a gateway to some of the most beautiful areas in the surrounding “bluff country.”  The nature center has attractive native plantings surrounding it and along the start of the trail.  Many of the start-up seeds came from Prairie Moon.  Inside the center, a surprisingly extensive collection of educational displays, hands-on exhibits and mounted animal specimens provides a wealth of information about the natural resources of the area.

Now in its ninth year, the festival was the brainchild of former Prairie Moon staffer Karla Kinstler.  She is the director and naturalist at the Houston Nature Center and the handler and housemate of Alice, a Great Horned Owl, who is an educator bird and the only live animal at the city-run center.

The festival began humbly as a “hatch-day” party for Alice, now 14.  This year’s event had an impressive schedule of speakers and events and live owl programs by the Raptor Center of the College of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Minnesota and Saving Our Avian Resources (S.O.A.R.) of Dedham, Iowa.

The live programs introduced large, receptive audiences to owls of eight different regional species.  One Great Horned Owl showed off its feeding technique, grasping a dead mouse by the head with its beak and turning to display its catch to the crowd before swallowing the mouse whole in three quick, lunging gulps.  The same bird later, prompted by treats, soared silently over the crowd, landing on perches that were moved several times around the auditorium.

A common theme of the presentations was the threat to owls and other raptors that is posed by loss of their habitats due to human development and land-use choices.  The Short Eared Owl was cited as a long-time denizen of prairies and open grasslands.  The replacement of its hunting grounds with row crops and structures has exerted considerable pressure on the species.

I recognized some of the owls as neighbors in our valley and was reminded that our large fields of diverse native plantings help to ensure the diversity of wildlife that we enjoy. In explaining her educational efforts to the audience, Gail Buhl of the Raptor Center articulated a take-home message that applies to all native species.

“It’s important,” she said, “to understand our natural resources so that we know how to explain to others why it is so important to protect our natural resources.”

Wisconsin Wetlands:  Thurs/Fri, February 16-17th, Baraboo, WI

Wild Ones: Saturday, February 26th, St. Paul, MN

Wild Things:  Saturday, March 5th, Chicago, IL

I was looking back through our website’s old blog postings when I noticed my entry about our new rain garden from September of last year.  I thought it would be a good time to give you an update since then.   We have had a fairly wet second season, with many occasions of heavy rain of an inch or more in a relatively short time period.  You have to be fast to even see any standing water in the rain garden basin; it infiltrates and is drawn up by the plants so well.  A  few of the drier species that I put in the bottom basin had too much moisture and rotted but others have grown so thick that there are no gaps. Ours is a fairly low-tech style of rain garden with just a plastic pipe from the downspout to the basin area.  We also leave a few curved sections of wire fencing and some dried blood baits on the outer, drier shoulder section to make it unappealing to hungry deer.

Late last fall and this spring I put in more plants on the outer section.  This spring we did a thorough weeding in the bottom section about twice before it got too thick to need it. We weeded the top section several times and reapplied some shredded bark mulch.  The garden is in the back of our building so it is out of site most of the time but is a break-time destination for some of the employees here; the color and pollinator action are so compelling that we take part of the day to go and check to see what is happening.

The Anemone patens wolfgangiana or Pulsatilla patens, Pasque flower, bloomed profusely this spring and left tiny seedlings as well. I was thrilled by this plant. Every time I went outside and peered into the blossoms I saw a black bee-like pollinator rummaging around the outer edge of the middle of the flower, presumably where the pollen is. I tried to get his picture but he was too fast for me to get a good shot. Last week I added more Pasque flowers grown in pots this summer, and I want to eventually have hundreds around the building to refresh our spirits after winter.

Even the seeds of Pasque Flower are attractive!

Some of my other favorites were the Asclepias incarnata, Swamp milkweed, and the Hypericum prolificum, Shrubby St.John’s Wort. Both of these plants bloomed for a long time and were covered with flowers and so many feeding insects that the entire area had an audible hum!

One of three Astagalus crassicarpus, Ground Plum, made a neat little pearly “plum” seed pod that vanished before it fully ripened.

There was also plenty of Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Milkweed. I had wondered how well it would like this location but all the roots wintered-over well and bloomed strong except for one. We have lots of Monarchs and Monarch caterpillars and butterflies of all sorts around the Butterfly Weed plants.

New plants that I added last fall as dormant plants:
Aster azureus, Sky Blue Aster, is all budded but not quite blooming.
Aster oblongifolius, Aromatic Aster, has grown well and is just starting to bloom:

Agoseris cuspidata, Prairie Dandelion, grew well, flowered and made lots of seeds.

This spring and summer I have added:
Andropogon scoparius or Schizachyrium scoparium, Little Bluestem, from greenhouse plugs
Baptisia leucophaea, Cream Wild Indigo, from dormant bare root stock
Castilleja coccinea, Indian paintbrush, from greenhouse plugs

Indian Paintbrush greenhouse-grown plugs

Planting Indian Paintbrush plugs in July

Erigeron pulchellus, Robin’s Plantain, from dormant bare-root stock

Robin's Plantain juvenile. Notice the 2 small Indian Paintbrush seedlings on either side of the plant.

Monarda Bradburniana, Bradbury’s Monarda, from greenhouse plugs

Bradbury's Monarda seedling

Next spring I may top off the mulch a bit and then I hope to just enjoy the show, provided we get rain.  I’ll let you know how many Indian Paintbrush make it to bloom.

We have annual, free Prairie Tours each summer.  In this short video, visitors at our August Prairie Tour walk through Prairie Dock, Water Hemlock and Cord Grass.

[Steve at Prairie Moon Nursery] The really tall ones are the Silphium terebinthinaceum; Prairie Dock. That’s the one with the true elephant ear type leaves. The really tall one here with the smooth flowering stems that’s the Silphium the Prairie Dock. Again, it’s another yellow composite flower. Some of the other ones that you will see a lot of…This is kind of interesting this is the Cord Grass (Spartina pectinata), one of the really neat things is the sod from the Cord Grass was typically used for the sod houses out on the prairies. It is a wetland species but I’ve seen it on some of the driest sand species also but just really short, and that speaks to certain amount of diversity too. You’ll see in our catalog these are the dry species, these are the wet species but in a natural environment you’ll see a really big crossover in range on that. Another species that’s quite overstated here now is the Water Hemlock (Cicuta maculata), and that’s of the same family of the Hemlock that Socrates used to kill himself, his was the European Hemlock, this is Water Hemlock, equally as poisonous if you decide to munch on the root but I just would not munch on any of it…just to be safe!

http://www.prairiemoon.com/plants

Here is a list of the plants on sale:

These old fields are sometimes called surrogate habitat because wildlife will use them for feeding and reproduction as they would a real prairie.  This spring we’ve seen a number of beautiful birds on our land, including Northern Flickers and Eastern Meadowlarks.  Unfortunately the plant diversity of these fields is very poor by natural standards.  Introducing native plants attracts a greater diversity of pollinators, herbivores and other wildlife.  To help these native prairie plants compete against non-natives we use fire, the natural disturbance that prairie has adapted to over thousands of years.

Smoke from Smooth Brome is more harsh than the Bluestems and Indian Grass of upland prairies.

Fire removes thatch from the ground and releases minerals. The vegetation quickly responds to the newly available light and nutrients with fresh growth.

Rattlesnake Master emerges from the ashes.

Books and seed are available for sale.

Depending on how many people show up, we divide into up to 3 groups. Each group will tour the same areas.

Identifying seedlings in a first year planting.

Our garden beds.

Up to ‘the ridge’ to look at more plantings.

A tractor ride to one of the fields.

The afternoon ends with visiting of our office, seed storage rooms and seed cleaning facilities.

Bill explains how we clean some of our seeds.

Collected seed lay out to dry. Hanging are species that have already been dried and waiting to be cleaned.

Everything on our tour is optional, you may come back to the beginning area which is right by our spring fed pond and soak your toes!