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Curiously, my wife and I tried to 'cure ourselves' a few years back. We bought field guides, studied classes of wild grasses and such that might be common in th

Curiously, my wife and I tried to 'cure ourselves' a few years back. We bought field guides, studied classes of wild grasses and such that might be common in the midwest. Then we went out over our 80 acres of fallow ground and tried to identify everything we could. We came up with four (4) different plants. The brome grass we'd planted as a cover crop, Queen Anne's Lace, ground cherries and the occasional thistle. That was it. Now, we may still have been 'plant blind' and not capable of recognizing or even seeing anything else. Or, 80 years of monoculture followed by 5 years of letting it go fallow weren't enough to permit much else to grow yet. I don't know.

Loughla 6y ago
Cultivating native species, once they have been eliminated, is actually very time consuming. Cover crops, invasive species, and depleted soil (if it was farmed) all contribute to conditions that favor bad plants over good. Fallow doesn't equal native prairie or woodlands. Fallow just equals empty. You really have to work a lot at it to be able to foster a native habitat, for a few years, then it mostly takes care of itself. Source; farming, self-sustaining landscapes, and harvesting local flora and fauna has been my hobby for 3 decades or so.
hoseja 6y ago
That sounds hard to believe and kinda sad if true.
hshshs2 6y ago
4 species over 80 acres?! I have at least a dozen over a few hundred square feet! Granted I don’t mow/maintain it like a traditional lawn
ageofwant 6y ago
Yes that sounds about right. It takes multiple decades for some semblance of diversity to return to plowed fields. And it will never be the same as before. The soil biodiversity itself is massively degraded. You can speed up the restoration very significantly, assuming that is your plan, by doing mass native plantings and seeding. If you can introduce biochar before or as part of the process the soil biome will also recover much faster. Many resources online for all of this.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  Planted native nut trees and some pine. Seeded some switch grass but it didn't do well. Will burn this summer.
knuthsat 6y ago
We had a similar assignment in elementary school and for some reason the memory of teacher being surprised with the small number of species we found on the grass around school is still in my mind 15+ years. I was so convinced there was nothing there (around 5 different species) and teacher kept grunting in disbelief.
jetrink 6y ago
Have you considered seeding some of the land with native species? My summer job in college was doing wetland and prairie restorations. It is very rewarding to visit old project sites to see species that I planted still growing years later and birds and other animals that have returned to what was once an empty field. Many species can be introduced simply by hand casting seed on the ground. If you want to cover a larger area, you can use an "organ grinder" type device that sits on your chest and is powered by a hand crank. (One of the sites I helped restore was old Meigs Field of Flight Simulator fame, now Northerly Island Park in Chicago. It has been reworked at least once since though, so I don't know if any of my plants remain.)
- ortusdux 6y ago
  My county conservation district has a great native plant program. They have an annual native plant sale with amazing prices. I am picking up an order of 25 mock orange this weekend that I paid $10 for. They also do a 3 week, 3 lecture and fieldtrip course for $25 geared towards sustainable native landscaping.

Loughla 6y ago

Cultivating native species, once they have been eliminated, is actually very time consuming. Cover crops, invasive species, and depleted soil (if it was farmed) all contribute to conditions that favor bad plants over good. Fallow doesn't equal native prairie or woodlands. Fallow just equals empty. You really have to work a lot at it to be able to foster a native habitat, for a few years, then it mostly takes care of itself. Source; farming, self-sustaining landscapes, and harvesting local flora and fauna has been my hobby for 3 decades or so.

hoseja 6y ago

That sounds hard to believe and kinda sad if true.

hshshs2 6y ago

4 species over 80 acres?! I have at least a dozen over a few hundred square feet! Granted I don’t mow/maintain it like a traditional lawn

ageofwant 6y ago

Yes that sounds about right. It takes multiple decades for some semblance of diversity to return to plowed fields. And it will never be the same as before. The soil biodiversity itself is massively degraded. You can speed up the restoration very significantly, assuming that is your plan, by doing mass native plantings and seeding. If you can introduce biochar before or as part of the process the soil biome will also recover much faster. Many resources online for all of this.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
Planted native nut trees and some pine. Seeded some switch grass but it didn't do well. Will burn this summer.

knuthsat 6y ago

We had a similar assignment in elementary school and for some reason the memory of teacher being surprised with the small number of species we found on the grass around school is still in my mind 15+ years. I was so convinced there was nothing there (around 5 different species) and teacher kept grunting in disbelief.

jetrink 6y ago

Have you considered seeding some of the land with native species? My summer job in college was doing wetland and prairie restorations. It is very rewarding to visit old project sites to see species that I planted still growing years later and birds and other animals that have returned to what was once an empty field. Many species can be introduced simply by hand casting seed on the ground. If you want to cover a larger area, you can use an "organ grinder" type device that sits on your chest and is powered by a hand crank. (One of the sites I helped restore was old Meigs Field of Flight Simulator fame, now Northerly Island Park in Chicago. It has been reworked at least once since though, so I don't know if any of my plants remain.)

ortusdux 6y ago
My county conservation district has a great native plant program. They have an annual native plant sale with amazing prices. I am picking up an order of 25 mock orange this weekend that I paid $10 for. They also do a 3 week, 3 lecture and fieldtrip course for $25 geared towards sustainable native landscaping.