If your acre was in crops recently, you are probably in a pretty good situation to prepare for seeding with prairie plants this fall.

The most widely recommended approach would be to spray with glyphosate herbicide (roundup or equivalent) a couple times during the growing season, then seed in late fall. Tilling or fertilizing is not recommended.

The planting will require some attention for the next couple growing seasons, mainly periodic mowing to prevent annual weeds from setting seeds. After a couple years, the prairie plants should be established enough to out-compete most weeds, and you will have your low-maintenance meadow/prairie. At this point, you will want to mow or (preferably) burn on a 2- or 3-year cycle to reinvigorate the prairie plants and prevent encroachment by woody plants.

There are lots of sources for more detailed information about site preparation, seeding, and caring for the new planting. The web site below has links to sources for native seeds and for how-to information. I especially recommend that you read the Wild Ones website.

Good luck and enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful: Landscaping with Indiana natives

We've been working at our own prairie/meadow for several years now.
Here's my perspective for what it's worth:

1. your goal of a low-maintenance planting may be feasible, but for the first couple of years, chances are you'll be spending a fair amount of time (and maybe money too) fighting weeds, correcting mistakes, mowing, studying up, etc.

2. if "low maint" is your main objective, then fire is your friend. You'll want to establish a critical mass of grasses to support good burning. However, you won't really appreciate the awesome potential of a prairie fire until you've seen one getting under way. The first time I lit one, it was almost as if I'd just dropped a match onto a pool of gasoline. SO -- plan to have a good buffer (of turf grass, pond, paths, whatever) between your meadow and your house, outbuildings, fences, etc. Personally, I am really glad I did not agree with my wife to fill our hayfields with prairie because I would never ever want to be on a island inside a sea of burning prairie grass.

There are quite a few seed sources now.
We've bought from Sharp Bros in CO and from Ernst Seeds in PA.
I really like the Ernst web site and their telephone help.

Hi, since it is still spring, you might want to sow some things right away. Buy some wildflower seed mixes and some wild grass seed (they sell them almost any place they sell seeds these days) and walk around with a rake, scratch up a little dirt here and there and sow seeds. Stamp them down a little bit and let nature take its course.

As an organic biased gardener, I would not recommend spraying Roundup several times during the year. Not only is that something you don't want your kids wandering around in, but it costs real money and takes time, and you might be killing some authentic native plants trying to come up from the seed bank that is in your soil already.

Don't know how old your kids are, but you could have occasional 'missions' in the future prairie where you identify a few weeds and then everybody walks around and pulls out those specific things. You don't need to worry about dandelions because once you have a prairie they don't compete very well. Things like mustard (with the yellow flowers, and garlic mustard especially) are what you should pull. I also recommend the WIld Ones websites. Just do what you can in small steps.

My experience comes from developing a prairie in the back of my last yard by converting lawn slowly, and on some property I own elsewhere that was farmed long ago, and continued where I live now. Actually where I live now the prairie was already partly established in my childhood but gets better all the time. It is incredible the biodiversity you get if you just leave soil alone and occasionally pull out evil plants and plant some nice ones.

For a prairie, if you plant actual plants you should water them until they are established. For the seeds I would say rely on Mother Nature. No need to fertilize either. When you have time and money, plant some actual prairie plants. Seed is slower but a lot cheaper, so that is how I always did it, although I will transplant things from one place (wildflowers coming up in the vegie garden for example.) I would advise you to get a book of prairie plants so that when some come up on their own (it will happen in an ex-field) you know what they are and don't pull them out!

There are people on ebay who sell wildflower seeds fairly cheaply (like $1.49 plus shipping for 1000 purple coneflower seeds, etc.) Of course I think those need cold stratification, so best sown in fall.

Good luck,
Marcia

I don't agree with Marcia about the human/environmental risks of glyphosate/roundup, but there is plenty of information available on this topic on this forum and others.

However, I feel that I should warn against the so-called wildflower seed mixes that are sold 'just about anyplace'. Commercial wildflower mixes sold in garden centers and home centers almost always contain lots of aggressive non-natives, lots of annuals (for a good show in the first year), and few high-quality native prairie species. I recommend using quality seed mixes from reputable native plant nurseries, preferably a mix designed for your soil type, from a source located close to where you will be planting. Yes, a high-quality native seed mix will cost more than the 'meadow-in-a-can', but it is important to do the seeding right. If your planting fails because of an inappropriate seed mix, you are in for a lot of time and expense.

Sorry, but there are simply no successes without at least a year of glyphosate (Roundup and the like) applications on old field sites. Without this, the grass weed seeds from a hundred seasons of row crops will simply sprout and shade the small, slow-growing prairie grasses and forbs ("wildflowers"). You can try it without glyphosate all you want, but it will be a failure. I've planted about 40 prairies on virtually every kind of site in the last 30 years, so I've experienced it all. Before Roundup, we had to continually till a site 5 to 10 times in a single season to try to kill off the annual grass weeds (along with the existing quackgrass -- which always recovered and took over). On small sites you can cover an area with plastic or thick mulch and kill off existing weeds and seeds. But on large areas you have no alternative but to use glyphosate.

The very best approach is to have a farmer plant a season of Roundup Ready soybeans (and make sure he sprays three rounds of Roundup, especially a last one in late September or early October). Then, plant in November or December by broadcasting the seeds onto the bare soybean stubble. Unless you have a steep, sloped site where the seeds wash away, this is a virtual guarantee of success. Just mow everything off at 4-6 inches the first year, as there will still be weeds. But in the second growing year, things will really start to take off.

old fields are the worst in regards to 'weeds'.

2 years of spray is better than 1 in an old field. not sure if 3 is better than 2, at some point, u need to work with what u have...

i would agree with Marcia in that one might be killing what is existing and that needs concern. but certainly there is a diff between old farm field and remnants. and im not sure that EBAY is the place to be making good vs evil plant purchasing decisions. lastly, garlic mustard has a white flower and not sure why something so 'evil' tastes so delicious. wonder how much 1000 garlic mustard seeds costs on EBAY?

froggy

Here is a link that might be useful: garlic mustard

spring is exactly not the right time to plant a native seed mix. Most of native plant seed will need cold stratification to sprout, which means the best time to plant is in the fall.

I'm assuming you want native plants. if so...don't buy the commercial "wildflower" seed mixes you see at the big box stores..they contain non-native seed and they're mostly annuals. You'll get 1 year of colour, and that's about it, unless some of it re-seeds. The Dame's Rocket will, for sure.