Our 20 acre property borders a remnant beech-maple forest to the South and contains a 5 acre emergent marsh wetland. A low sandy knoll borders the wetland and grades into the loam soils to the North. Aerial photographs from the 1930’s show that the wetland was partially drained and used as a pasture while the rest of the property was farmed in field crops. Sometime in the 1970’s, the fields immediately bordering the wetland were abandoned and began the process of old-field succession. The 10 acres to the North was farmed through the 2003 season with the exception about 1.5 acres in corners and wet areas that were left to natural succession.

Next, I began compiling a list of prairie-savanna species that historically occurred in Ingham County. To do this I compared available lists of southern Michigan prairie plants to individual species range maps in Michigan Flora (Voss 1982) to determine which were most likely to have been native to Ingham County.

Finding sources of native Michigan genotypes was relatively simple in that very few commercial sources supply them and most are members of the Michigan Native Plant Producers Association. I obtained species and price lists from Michigan Wildflower Farm which produces a wide selection of Michigan native plant seed and from Wildtype which lists ca. 300 species available as rooted stock in plug trays, quarts or gallon pots. While more expensive than seed, the species diversity available from Wildtype cannot currently be duplicated in seed alone.

From these lists I developed a planting plan to suit the varying soils and moisture availability on the site. While the entire site could be planted with one seed mix and let nature take its course, specific seed mixes matched to microsite characteristics have several advantages. First, they allow one to more closely mimic the natural composition and diversity of the desired plant communities, creating a more natural looking reconstruction, Second, by only planting a species where it has the best chance for survival allows expensive seed to be utilized most efficiently. My small 8.5 acre site varies from areas that contain standing water for much of the year, to moderately dry sandy soils. To increase the diversity of the final reconstruction, I developed four basic seed mixes to match the dry, dry-mesic, mesic and wet-mesic areas of the field. Then added specific seeds or plug stock to selected sites within these areas to create naturalistic drifts of particular species.

Because prairie plants differ widely in their physical and ecological characteristics, it is imperative to seed species at rates that ensure effective establishment. I found the chapter on designing seed mixes by Neil Diboll in The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook to be the best description of this rather complex art. In short, I developed seed mixes that fit my site and were as diverse as my budget would allow. One of the things that you will quickly find out is that native plant seed can be frighteningly expensive! A partially filled grocery bag containing all the forbs to seed 8.5 acres cost more than my first car! The grasses are only slightly less expensive but at least they are measured in pounds.

Each seed mixture was designed to contain at least 6 pounds of grass seed per acre and a total of about 30 seeds per square after foot forbs were included. Seed for these basic mixes was purchased from the Michigan Wildflower Farm. The final mixes were supplemented with seed I had collected, and by additional seed donated by generous and interested friends. Finally, for specific plants not available or difficult to establish from seed, I purchased plug material from Wildtype.