Pocket Prairie…in progress!

 

One of our ongoing projects is converting this former turfgrass lawn area into a pocket prairie. DEFINITION. Dominated by wildflowers in the winter and spring and grasses in the summer and fall. Pocket prairies take several years to establish, and this guide details the steps we’ve taken and lessons we’ve learned.

May 2025 (2nd spring after planting)

2002: Before

Before the house was demolished, this area was a fading lawn with some St. Augustine grass and some weedy areas. Because of its relatively small size, full sun exposure, and because we wanted to experiment with lawn conversion, we selected this area for our pocket prairie.

Spring-Summer 2003: Bed preparation

After the demolition of the house, we contracted with Seedlings Gardening to install hardscape throughout the garden. Here are the steps we took for bed preparation:

  • Roto-tilled former lawn area

  • Installed solid 1/2” drip irrigation lines spaced 3’ apart

  • Added 2” of compost and 2” of hardwood mulch.

We did not bring in additional soil because we wanted to work with the native rocky clay, a soil type that is poor for lawns, but great for native plants.

Fall 2003: Sowing seed mixes

Here is how we planted the pocket prairie:

  • Removed all mulch from the planting area and added a 1/4” dusting of decomposed granite. Wildflower seeds seem to germinate better in DG.

  • Installed a straw erosion-control blanket to prevent the seeds from washing down the slope. Here, we made the mistake of buying a product from Home Depot, which included what was advertised as a “photodegradable” netting but was actually just plastic. Two years in the Texas sun has done nothing to degrade this plastic crap, and we’re still pulling it out. A better alternative would have been Native American Seed’s Wood Fiber Erosion Control Blanket, which is fully biodegradable and doesn’t include plastic.

  • From Native American Seed, sowed 1 lb of Lady Bird’s Legacy Mix and 2 DPACs of Pocket Prairie Mix, and several 15 sq.ft. packets of annual winecups.

  • Hand-watered the area deeply, twice a week for the first month, then once a week after that (unless it rained).

Rolling out the ill-fated straw blanket from Home Depot.

A neighbor’s chickens came to visit after planting.

January-February 2024: Weeding the seedlings

Learning to identify wildflower seedlings takes practice. If you’re new to it, keep it simple: learn to identify the weeds and don’t pull anything else until it gets big enough to identify. The #1 invader to watch out for is wild carrot (Torilis arvensis, a.k.a. hedge parsley or beggar’s lice). Pulling wild carrot alone will keep you busy. Another common non-native is henbit (Lamium amplexicaule), which may or may not be a weed, depending on your opinion. It blooms early for the bees, and it’s not all that aggressive.

This was a decently rainy winter, so we didn’t have to water much.

March 2024: First blooms appear!

Spring 2024: Wildflower explosion!