MnScott,

here is my take.
roundup 2x in a year will pretty much kill out ur prairie if that is ur wish.
rototilling = fossilfuels so that isnt so clean. blackplastic is also made up of fossilfuels so that isnt so clean. mowing thruout the year will kill out ur prairie grass but that isnt so clean because of fossilfuels...
heck, kentuckybluegrass by its very nature isnt so clean to the environment anyhow...and im sure ur gonna be mowing it week after week...fertilizing it, weeding it...winterizing it...so frankly, i wouldnt be so worried about the roundup...

froggy

If you were in my area I would come take the prairie sod away for the asking. Maybe a prairie enthusiast in your area would do the same? It would be a shame to let it go to waste.

I would encourage you to keep it. The birds will thank you.

Whenever a person buys a new home, many professional landscapers will suggest that you wait a minimum of one year before you make any significant changes to the landscape. (Go on the landscape forum and ask the question.) You need to get a feel for the property, and what is there and how you are going to use the land. There may be pockets of flowers in the landscape that are not visible at this time of year. Perhaps if you lived with the prairie grass for one or two seasons you may change your mind about wanting to convert all of it to turf grass. The prairies are so beautiful as they change through the seasons, I would hate for someone to make a quick decision without understanding what they have.

Maintaining prairie grass is much easier than maintaining turf grass. Prairie grass needs no watering and you only mow it once a year. You will save yourself tons of time and tons of money if you keep the prairie grass.

The prairie grasses are a part of history. Today less than 1 percent of the land that was prairie exists today. By maintaining prairie grasses on our property, we preserve a bit of history while maintaining great bird habitat.

And if you insist on getting rid of it, I suggest you contact a local native plant society (or maybe a local wild ones chapter) and offer it up to them. Their members would gladly come and relocate it. If you lived close to me I would be there in a heartbeat.

Ditto and Thanks, Joe...
If you must eradicate your native grass in favor of mowing turf, see if there is anyone who may want to take the sod/forbs. There is so little native grass around that it is worth trying to save even if you dont want it. Blessings, Mike

Ditto, and thanks Joe and Mike. Beware of using pesticides to erradicate your mowing-and-watering-free-natural prairie; especially if you have well water; or you'll end up drinking the pesticides yourself.

Also - check out Sara Stein's book, Noah's Garden, to find answers to your questions.

Best wishes!

When you wrote "prairie grass" were you referring to the agricultural forage crop called prairie grass (which isn't native, I think, although I am not sure exactly what species farmers call "prairie grass") or were you writing about a native species of grass, or a prairie which is a mix of grasses and other herbaceous plants?