Rewilding My Lot

There is a small area at the back of the garden with a collection of mid-height prairie grasses. When there is fast rainfall, this end of the garden gets water run-off from neighboring properties and my hope is that the deep roots of native grasses will help to retain water in the ground.

Up until this year I had successfully introduced Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Sideoats Grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), and Gulf Muhly (Muhlenbergia capillaris).

The mid-height prairie grass region is triangular in shape. Here are some photos of the whole area.

In November of last year I added seed for Purple Threeawn (Aristida purpurea). This is a relatively short (1-2 feet) bunchgrass that is good for erosion control, and I wrote about the seeding process in this post. Three long bristles (awns) grow from the tip of each flower, hence the name. Here’s a photo of one of the seeds.

I usually have to wait until grasses produce seed heads until I can identify them. So I was pleasantly surprised in July to find at least two clumps of Purple Threeawn. They are in the foreground of the first photo below.

If there are additional clumps, I won’t know until they produce seed heads.