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Subject: Making a meadow
From: maisonjdv@aol.com (MaisonJdV)
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 99 16:09:51
Message-ID: <MOD$990126.21590@rec.gardens.ecosystems>



I just moved to 4 acres of woodland, about 1/2 of which was cleared when the
house on it was built 7 years ago. The previous owners must have sowed some
grass seed; there is something vaguely grasslike, but it hasn't covered the
entire patch of ground yet. Anyway, I have gotten information from the National
Wildlife Refuge re: Backyard Habitat, and I've been reading other books as
well, and I've decided to transform that space into a meadow.

My questions are numerous and I would appreciate any help, esp. if you are
involved in Backyard Habitat restoration and preservation.

The books all say that the way to transform a "lawn" area quickly is to til it
about 1 or 2 inches down, and then blast it with a herbicide to kill both the
weeds, when they come up, and the remaining grass. I'm not keen on that
idea--at all. It seems incredibly counterintuitive, plus I already have lots of
little creatures and birds around and I don't want to run the risk of polluting
their space. I don't mind doing this slowly, over 3 years or so. What do you
think of just purchasing native wildflower plants and directly sowing them in
the bare patches, around the trunks of my many trees that edge the
meadow-to-be, and so forth, and letting the grass just kind of go? It might not
be particularly pretty for a couple of years, but then, neither is putting down
black plastic, which was the other suggested solution.

I did think of this: how about tilling it, putting down newsprint (unprinted--I
just moved and I have literally boxes full of the stuff), then trucking in some
plain old dirt and letting it all sit for another year? There are scores of
dead leaves around as well. Again, not pretty, but perhaps more effective in
the long run.

Oh, I live in VA, in zone 7. Most of what's on the property is native, at least
as far as I can identify it, which isn't easy when you've only one dead leaf
and a little stick or bark to work from. :-)

Any ideas would be most appreciated. I'm pretty much a novice, but I've got a
lot of energy and a lot of time and stamina. Patience, too. This is home for
the next 30 years or so.

Thank you very much for reading this.
Patti