midwest natives

[aqh88]

I'm renting land that includes a 40acre field set aside for wildlife but it hasn't had anything planted on it in 20+years and I think all they did originally was plant in clover and alfalfa. There's a bit of clover left and other than that it's thistle (not entirely a bad thing but getting excessive) and some kind of stemmy low growing weed that I've never seen before and nothing seems interested in. Then the field ends at 10-20acres of healthy woodland. I see more wildlife finding food on my lawn and gardens than in the field. Lawn being the area I'm willing to mow and more than 10acres with as much wildflower as grass and multiple native grass species. My stepdad who wants his nice manicured lawn of whatever engineered perfectly uniform grass variety has a heartattack when he comes to my property.

The person that manages the field doesn't want to replant the whole field and takes about 4months to give permission just to mow but I am allowed to plant anything I want anywhere I want. First I'm looking for some hardy natives that will hopefully spread and crowd out the junk that nothing is willing to eat. 2nd my largest garden backs right up to the edge of this field so I wouldn't mind extending it a little and growing some more interesting natives that might not spread so well. At least it will give a little more variety to the field even if it is a small section.

Currently I'm mostly trying to encourage native bees but there's a future plan to start introducing quail. It may require replanting large portions or at least multiple overseedings of the field before it would be ready for that though. I'm told quail did live here 8years ago, there's 80acres total to work with, and a huge pheasant population on part of it so it seems possible if the land were improved again.

[rainbowgardener]

Hi - I'm not sure from your description if your field is sunny or shady (since it sounds like it backs up against a woods, at least some could be shady). If sunny, then you'd be thinking about prairie natives, nectar and seed plants, some native grasses. Native prairie grasses include big and little bluestem, side oats grama, blue grama and others. Nectar plants would include milkweed (butterfly weed), blazing star, lobelias, monarda/bergamot, anise hyssop, Seed plants would be of course sunflowers, purple coneflowers, the thistles you already have, goldenrods, black eyed susans. (and these are just some of the commoner ones to get you started). You can see this would be beautiful as well as attractive to birds, butterflies,bees (they adore the hyssop), and other wildlife. Plant some dill, fennel, or parsley for swallowtails to lay eggs on.

If shady, you can do a woodland, shade garden with shrubs for nuts and berries, as well as some nectar and seed plants.

[The Helpful Gardener]

First get to know your local ecotype; how does this space fit the surrounding environment? Then assess current assetts; what IS that low growing weed? (could be quail food; until we know what it is we shouldn't mess around with it). THEN when we are starting to see what IS there, we need to figure out wht additions can be safely made to attract our target species. To do that we need to know everything about that species...

[url]https://extension.missouri.edu/explore/miscpubs/mp0903.htm[/url]

Perhaps contacting your local conservation commission or land trust meetings and raising this topic would be valuable. I have had experiences with both groups and find them to be populated with involved, knowledgable people who genuinely care about wildlife, have done this sort of work numerous times, and have a good handle on methods and resources...

RG's list is a good one in general, but you don't live in general. You would be best served to find out something about Iowan wildflowers; while this isn't definitive, this fella takes great pics and he has captured a lot of your states best...

[url]https://www.primefocus-iowa.com/Wildflowers.html[/url]

Thi isn't as showy but by time of year so you could plan succession...

[url]https://www.butler-bremer.com/web/hmschult/iwindex.html[/url]

Sorry I'm a few days late with this, but ask your forestry nursery in your state what they have on hand; in CT we can get good deals cheap as landowners on seedlings. Your state nursery just had an open house...

[url]https://www.iowadnr.gov/news/09apr/april25.html[/url]

but this could be a valuable assett too...

And don't knock mowing; it can be very beneficial and at the right time of year it can have very different effects. Mowed in spring we favor the grasses, mowed in fall we favor the forbs. If you can't burn, mowing is the next best thing. If you have contacts at the fire department and can get a burn in on the field, much the better, but you are late for this year to favor the grass, so maybe next year...

Seems I've given you a lot to think about, but this is a big task and there are lots of things to think about here. Reinforcements couldn't hurt...

HG