Location: Chattanooga, TN
Last winter we covered the area with tarps to kill the grass. Then I scalped the area and sowed native seeds. The first pictures shows what the area looked like in the spring, and then a heatwave came through in July and all the flowers dried up and now it looks like the last picture.
Should I mow this down since a bunch of grass grew back and some more seeds or should I let it do its thing?
by Excellent_Wasabi6983
11 Comments
Zone 7b
It’s pretty!
You should buy your native seeds from Roundstone or somewhere similar – these are not really native (these are more for California)
Yes you’ll need to kill off the grass again. I can’t OD any species so it’s hard to be sure but as the other commenter said, there aren’t a lot of natives present in the first photo so it’s worth trying again with better seed.
Where did you purchase these “native seeds”?
Flowers look great, but they look like something from a generic “wildflower mix” with predominantly non-native species.
New wildflower meadows should be mowed high a couple of times in the first year to keep it managed. Native plants can tolerate this mowing as it replicates natural grazing.
How long was the area covered? Did the time it was covered also include periods of heat? Sometimes if you later disturb the soil after smothering, you can activate the seed bed and invite more weed activity.
You might need a longer period of covering to really kill the grass/weeds. I had good success covering with black plastic from November to May/June in Michigan. after this extended period, the grass was remarkably good and dead and I could plant right into the Earth without additional mechanical removal.
i’ve since learned that this will also kill some of the beneficial things you’d like in healthy soil, so I’m gonna try cardboard and mulch for future smaller areas. Though that would be harder to do at scale.
More.
As others have said these flowers aren’t native to TN. I saw you said you purchased seeds from Amazon and I would suggest not doing that. I’ve seen people get seeds that weren’t what they purchased. Only buy from reputable companies
While Roundstone Seed does sell native seeds, they also sell nonnative as well. Before buying anything use something like the [bplant database](https://bplant.org) to confirm it’s native. If you search a scientific name and it shows as dark green on the map where you live then it’s native
Roundstone is a stellar source for Southeastern seeds, if you want all native get one they specify is all native. Definitely pick up some more seeds and also add some plants from plugs or small pots. Go for three of each species at a minimum. Izel is an excellent plug source. Looks like the Tennessee Native Plant Society has a list of native plant sources in the state [https://tnps.org/more-resources/](https://tnps.org/more-resources/)
That’s what these “wildflower” seed mixes that are so obsessed with cosmos for some reason look like past peak season, unfortunately. A mix of native grasses and other plants that shine through the seasons they’ve evolved to live in will hold more interest through the full year.
Run through the flowers while singing