The Prairie Project Part 1

For once,  a non-political blog!

Since I bought this little house in Milwaukee last year, I've been thinking about the prairie I want to create in the back and front yards. I want lots of prairie grass and wildflowers.

Yes, I want butterflies, bees, and birds in my backyard!

So today I finished up Part 1 of the Prairie Project. Part 1 consists of covering all the grass I want to get rid of with newspaper, then covering that with a thick layer of mulch. Since there's been no rain lately, I've had to "water" the mulch to keep the newspaper wet. Darryl, my neighbor, gave me some grief this morning, wondering what I was growing in there!

The idea is to kill off the grass while leaving all the organic material intact. I'll likely till all of it together in the fall or next spring. That's the only downside of this process: it takes a few months.

The long term goal is nearly all prairie in the yard, front and back. Now I just need to wait. In the meantime, it's a good excuse to ride more!