The best time to sow native forb and grass seed is in late fall, really. Perhaps you could buy some already grown plants and stick them in here and there, just to cover the soil and make it interesting for you. Then, this fall, plant your seed mix. april

there are many issues here.

1st, april is correct, one wants to plant the natives in the fall.

but u have open soil for a full growing season is nuthing but trouble. weed seeds are going to collect by the millions. erosion. there is also the issue of the fill itself. my guess is that its loaded up with every nasty weed u can imagine and u wont know its there till 3 years down the road and u will wonder where all this canada thistle and canary reed came from?

what to do, what to do...

1.75 acres is way too much to hand plant live plugs...

if u could grow some roundup ready soy or corn, that would be a great solution but its hard to fit a combine on a 1.75 acre plot in the near city...maybe ur local co-op can offer a solution or a local farmer...

if the soy/corn is out of the question. i think u have a choice of 4 not so good choices.

1 plant in spring and hope for the best.
2 spray what comes up all year w/ roundup and plant in the fall and hope for the best.
3 get urself a drag or a disk and continue to drag the soil thruout the growing year so that nothing persists and u bring up weed seeds that will germinate and get dragged away. then plant in the fall with a very heavy mix of cool season grass covercrop, canada wild rye and such.
4 plant a heavy covercrop that wont persist thru the winter and sow into that late fall.

if i had to pick, it take door #3.

froggy

Froggy is right...door #3 sounds the best. But put yourself some plugs of natives or non-native annuals up near the house so you have something to look at until the fall! April

certainly a fall planting is the best time to plant natives. but heck, if you have bare soil, spring is the second best time to plant. go for it! lots of native plantings are planted in the spring... my brother plants prairies for a living and he plants hundreds of acres in the spring.

if you dont get the natives planted, do plant a cover crop (annual rye is often used) - whatever you do dont let that soil sit bare waiting to plant your natives in the fall. actually your seed mix may contain annual rye or spring oats to get some quick green cover to fill the voids until the slow growing natives fill in.

plugs are generally for those people (like me) who cant wait to see some growth. generally plugs are used for small flower bed type situations and not large acre size plantings. patience is required for native plantings. its going to take a year or two before you will see any flowers and such.

you can prep your soil and seed it like normal grass, except dont fertilize. feel free to water it for help. you may have heard that natives dont need watering - well generally its true but mainly no watering is required after the natives are established. but the first year, while working to get them growing, in a yard area, if practicle, watering will increase your germination rate.

keep your planting mowed the first year to prevent weeds from going to seed. it wont hurt the natives...

check out www.for-wild.org tons of information available about native plantings there.

i have also included a link to the prairie nursery website that has some good reading about site preperation and maintenance for native plantings.

Here is a link that might be useful: prairie establishment guide from prairie nursery

Thanks for all the ideas! Because we have so much bare soil and we are in a new housing development with a covenent, I'll probably go ahead and seed the area with native seeds and a cover crop. Watering won't be a problem, the area that will be native prairie is right in front of our house (yep, got a huge mound septic system right in my front yard) so easy access to water.

my concern with a spring planting would be what kind of soil is there and what lurks in the form of seed bank and live roots...etc. or is it our famous clay?

i guess we will have to wait for the final grade...

and im not sure watering is going to do u any favors unless its clay.

froggy

actually the watering is the other way around... sandy soils are quick to drain and tend to be very dry and benefit from surface watering more than clays do...watering is not mandatory but depends upon what mother nature brings. if mother nature is stingy with the water, you will get a better germination rate and the seedlings (of both weeds and natives) will grow a bit better if watered.

weeds are going to be an issue in any first year planting. young plantings whether sown in fall or spring should be mowed fairly short 3" to 6" to keep weeds in check.

I have to redo about 1 acre or so because we got infested with weeds, thistle mostly. it left about 1/2 inch of seed on the field and i could not get it all off. will mowing help in getting control again????? we did a burn last week end.

burning and mowing thistle will help keep it in check. you need to mow it before it goes to seed. and then follow the mow with a fall burn. 1 acre isnt so large that you couldnt hand remove alot of it. I have attacked a large area by spending 30 minutes a day and working in one area. start in the same area and spend the same amount of time each day. i wear gloves and use a knife and cut it off just below the root crown. eventually you will get it all. perserverance...

Thanks I will give it a try and hope for the best.

We were in a similiar situation and chose door #2. Summer - 2003 - Round up ready soybeans. Summer 2004 - round up 1x + some cutting. Planted Fall 2004. Now we have the drought. Because I am a novice, I can't tell if the situation is very hopeless or not, but approx. 5 acres are very weedy & very dry. Another 3 acres is slightly wetter and looks better (still weeds). Wondering if I will need to start over on part of this property. Thoughts?