The burn doesn’t have to be in the spring (natural fires can occur any time, after all), but the prairie does have to have a certain level of dryness in order to burn. Given the UK is a lot wetter than the Great Plains, even the wetter side of them, that could be an obstacle to re-creating a prairie there.
On the other hand, the UK doesn’t have our winds, either, which can make scheduling a controlled burn difficult, and which can also complicate controlled burns (or natural brushfires that get going on their own).
Well, sure - that’s a lot farther west and a lot drier.
Also varies with time of year and how much rain has fallen.
It wouldn’t be quite as difficult as trying to replicate a piece of the Mojave Desert in the UK, but capturing the essence of the Wyoming prairie would probably be harder than replicating the more eastern Tall Grass prairie (which is what they’re doing if they’re using seed from within 50 miles of the Morton Arboretum) is more suited to the abundant moisture of the UK.
Now, the picture you posted is more what I have in mind when I think “prairie”; but as @Broomstick has pointed out, some prairies are wetter than that (and I’m just too ignorant of the habitats to have a good grasp of that). The argument that Wakehurst is going for the Hoosier style seems compelling and makes a lot of sense. Using google earth to nose around the Hoosier Prairie (I’m amazed at how urban it’s location is) I see sections which do strongly remind me of what I saw at Wakehurst…
I’ll take some more photos when I get the chance. I’m toying with starting a separate thread for habitats (there a number of maintained habitats of various sorts round here), as this is getting a bit hijackish. Mea culpa.
We have a landscape architect in the neighborhood, and he is trying to get a prairie going in his front yard. He wanted to mow it, but his wife wanted him to wait (it is in year 1.5) since there are final some pretty flowers (black-eyed susans) in it.
He is having some push back from the city (it of course looks like an unmowed yard (because it is)), which is probably driven by complaints. He says the immediate neighbors are onboard, but I’m sure there are lawn god types who aren’t going to like it. He thinks he’ll be able to make it work - he apparently works with the city on their efforts to get some prairie areas going in some of the larger parks in the city.
Will be interesting to see if he burns it sometime - I’ll have to ask him the next time I walk by and he is out.
Not today, but Saturday morning. Was up early (4 a.m.) to head out fishing. Took the old dog out around 5, was just light enough that I could switch off my headlamp without running into anything. I noticed bats flying, having a good time feeding, and switched my headlamp on, as it draws bugs by the hundreds. Within about 30 seconds the bats figured it out, and I had 25 or 30 of them sweeping by into the light, some as close as 4 to 5 feet from my face…absolutely surreal.
For a lot of people trained to think a smooth, short-grass green lawns are the ideal prairie is an abomination, a “vacant lot”, “weeds”, etc.
We’re slowly getting less of that around here. Quite a few businesses are starting to us grasses and prairie plants for landscaping because of the lesser water and maintenance requirements. Although there is the requirement that it be mowed/cut back along road margins and driveways because of visibility issues when the grass gets high.
Not familiar with people burning something as small as a lawn. At least not intentionally. For that small a space mowing is probably what’s going to be done.
Agreed, but I’d like to see a fire (although the prairie is also much to close to his house to make that in any way safe).
The first day I moved into this house 25 years ago, a different neighbor was actually burning his yard. He claimed it helped the zoysia grass - he hasn’t down it since, so I’m guessing it didn’t actually help or he got a bit of visit from the fire department or city.
Yesterday I did my annual cycle out to check on my violet helleborine microenvironment (for last years report, see post #61). Only one spike this year, but the weather this year has been very odd. This time, now that I have most;y figured out how to do it, here’s a photo of the helleborine in question. Still in bud - it’s been a cold, cold summer. Click on the photo to see the full picture.
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ETA - I finally got around to starting a thread on habitats and microenvironents. Here it is.
We have an area where my gf planted milkweed. She got the original seeds from a monarch butterfly group. It’s not a pretty plant, but we have monarchs.
We have lots of tiger swallowtails swarming our abelia bush. I also saw a light blue dragonfly hanging out at the birdbath - I’d love to get a photo of it, but they are notoriously hard to get since they don’t much like to hold still.
A weasel dancing around a baby bunny urging it to play.
Baby bunny seemed totally taken aback by the the display and was trying to make a break for it. It finally went underneath a car.
This in one of the smaller airport parking lots.
