I'm in the early planning/learning stages of rewilding my ~2.5 acres of land in Central Texas (zone 9a). It's always felt like such a waste of space, and I'd love to turn it into praireland with native grasses and wildflowers. Currently, it's a hodgepodge of grasses and weeds (no idea what types, but pretty sure there's Bermuda, horseherb, among others), but I've kept it mowed regularly throughout Spring/Summer.
My question: It seems like this is the period (Nov-Jan) when I should seed native grasses/wildflowers. Do I need to do a lot of prep work first to remove invasive/unwanted grasses/weeds? Or would I be ok to do a final close mow to 2-3", then run a chain harrow behind my lawn tractor, then seed?
I don't want to burn $1,000 in seed plus the time spent if the seeds won't take, but I also don't want to wait another year of slowly removing unwanted vegetation first if it isn't necessary.
Details, if needed:
- Land is mostly flat, with mostly decent drainage and some rocks in the soil
- There's a small house, driveway, and trees providing shade for 40-50% of the land
- Ideally, after established, this would be low-maintenance; 1-2 mows per year with no irrigation needed besides rainfall
- Bonus pic included to show some of the grasses, weeds, and soil with a hidden friend
by stryder517
1 Comment
I suggest you check out firefly.org. This is a Texas based group helping to restore habitat for them. Fireflies are important ecologically to control pests and things like slugs. Their habitat is also very good for soil health and similar to beetle habitat.
There are a few approaches to establishing native land. One is to simply focus on removal instead of adding plants. There is probably an existing seed bank of native seeds in that area.
Doug Talamy has some great talks on establishing native space. A piece of advice I’ve seen multiple times is something worth considering is a mix of mowed paths to create neat borders and unmowed patches of your native plants.
Mowing kills many of the life the native plants are meant to support and that support the native life of the plants. Also, mowing the native grasses, flowers, etc removes many of the seeds that are meant to feed birds, insects, and other wild life. Leaving them over winter also provides birds food while its sparse.
Also, moths are one of the more ecologically important species to focus on compared to butterflies. They are critical to feeding birds. A single nest of tiny birds can require multiple thousands of caterpillars. So looking up native plants and what they feed are another thing to consider.
This may all feel like a lot, but there are great resources out there that already have much of this figured out.
[https://npsotcentx.org/plant-information](https://npsotcentx.org/plant-information)