HOMEOWNERS' ASSOCIATION
Johnston, Iowa
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2010 Ashton Pointe
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Praire Information

 

Inger Lamb Hired
The board has unanimously approved the hiring of Inger Lamb from Prairie Landscapes to renovate the associations prairie conservation area. We recognize that the conservation area has not lived up to our aesthetic expectations so we are excited about the knowledge and expertise that Inger brings with her and we are looking forward to the improvements she will be able to provide to our prairie area.  If you are not familiar with Inger or her work you can learn more about her at http://www.prairielandscapes.com/

or at http://picasaweb.google.com/Prairie.Landscapes.of.Iowa.LLC. 

 

click here for Prairie Photos!

 

Prairie Conservation Update - 12/28/2011 (Email from Inger)

Mowing is probably the easiest way to go.  The company that was going to do the burn was "too busy" to get things rolling.  If they can get organized that would be a good thing to do (burn) but until then, mowing will work.

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Prairie Conservation Update - 08/17/2011 (Email from Inger)

A crew will be out pulling mare's tail and doing a general run thru the Ashton conservation area sometime this week - now that it's rained a bit it should be a little easier to pull them up!

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Prairie Conservation Update - 07/12/2011 (Email from Inger)

Things are looking better.  Lots of flowers, life is good.  Having said that, I'm not happy to see every one of them.  The site is now a funny blend of plants left from previous work, and those that I added.  They break into tiers of desirability:

  1. Plants left from before I was involved that I don't want in there (examples: queen anne's lace, yellow and white sweet clovers, Canada thistle, ragweed).  Note, ragweed isn't that big of a concern relative to the prairie, it will die out when more competitive species get established, but it's going to create allergy concerns when it blooms.
  2. Plants I really wish weren't there but we will live with at least for a while (examples: bird's foot trefoil, brome, red clover).  It would take a lot of hours labor to get them out.  Red clover & alfalfa may die out on their own.  Brome we can hope to set back with fire since there is still a lot of it.  Might also use some grass selective herbicide on it in the fall.  The trefoil we might work on after we get the first tier addressed.  It's pretty but does like to spread a lot.  It is not native.
  3. Plants that are not native but are showy and probably won't cause problems (examples: Shasta daisy, chicory, European phlox).  Some concern about the purple coneflower since it's not native this far north, really only to N Missouri.  It may succumb to weather extremes, leaving holes in the stand and it may just get unhappy looking (especially if we have a hot weather drought), but it sure looks nice right now.  Shasta daisy can be very invasive in some situations, but seems to be barely making a show at the moment and something to watch in the future.
  4. Plants I put in last year (examples: long-headed coneflower, black-eyed susans).   These are cover crop species showy .  Soon partridge pea will also join in.

Last week a crew out there two days, for a total of 24 hours of labor, sprayed more Canada thistle, trimmed the heads off some that was setting seed, and sprayed one patch of poison ivy.  They got all the sweet clover and a start on the ragweed.  They are available tomorrow (Tuesday), to go out there again to go after the giant ragweed, especially now that it has rained.

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Prairie Conservation Update - 07/06/2011 (Email from Inger)

Yes trees are always popping up, and unfortunately not wanted ? no shade in prairies.  She is also concerned about the stuff that wants to drop seeds i.e. sweet clover, queen Anne?s lace etc.  Trees can be worked on almost any time including the dormant seasons, but will look for these particular trees and see if we can get them taken care of soon.  Inger will have about 4 people out on Thursday the 7th in the morning to treat the sweet clover, Canada thistle, queen Anne?s etc.

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Prairie Conservation Update - 06/19/2011 (Email from Inger)

We got out to your prairie yesterday, I had a crew of 3 with me.  The guys pulled yellow sweet clover but did not get it all.  I will ask them to come out again next time it rains.  We also weeded the pocket flower beds, many nice plants coming up, especially the purple milkweed, what a pretty plant.

 

Lots of black-eyed susans beginning to mature so there will yellow flowers to help keep everyone happy.  Many other seedlings too, nice to see, and lots of Missouri primrose blooming.  And the wildlife is enjoying it, dicksissels were singing like mad, it was very cool.

 

Lots of bromegrass, more than I like to see, suppose there is/was quite a seed base for that.  It will take a hit from a prescribed burn, probably a better use of your funds that trying to manage it manually.

 

I treated a few patches of Canada thistle that is one we do not want to let get away from us.  It was hard to find and I am sure I missed some.  When I get back I will look for it again, by then it will be blooming and much easier to find.  The chemical I use (Milestone) is most effective right at bud/flower stage so it is good timing.

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Prairie Conservation Update - 04/26/2011 (From Inger)

It appears to be doing pretty well .

  • The little beds running along the pathway have good plants coming up that look great.
  • These include large-flowered penstemon, tuberous Indian plantain, prairie coreopsis, and prairie spiderwort.
  •   Based on that I expect the butterfly milkweed and other species that remain dormant will also make a good show once the soil warms up.
  • Many seedlings in the larger areas, most far too young to ID but can tell there that at a minimum are a lot of black-eyed susans (a good thing).
  • While the cold weather holds back the warm-season species for the time being, it is good for some seedlings to establish.
  • Still some non-native grasses that need to be treated which is not a surprise considering the amount we started with.
  • Red clover much reduced, a good thing.
  • Did not see any thistles but these could be still dormant.  We did work on them a lot last year, so expect the population to be greatly reduced.  

Management:

  • Need to trim back last year s vegetation in pathway-edge flowerbeds.
  • Continued effort to reduce non-native grasses needed.
  • Monitor for thistles, treat as needed.

Recommendation:

  • Re-assess once everything is up and spring cleanup is done by end of May.
  • Need to schedule walking tours.

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Prairie Conservation Updates (from Inger):

11/16/2010 -   Mowed on Tuesday November 16 to 6-12 inches tall.

 

09/30/2010 -   In Inger's expert opinion its coming along fine.  There are New England asters, Maximillians sunflower and black eyed-susans blooming, and nice large clumps of switch grass, Indian grass and big blue stem which would only be getting started at best.  The container plants look well established. The annual weeds will die out due to inability to compete w/natives.   Spot-mowing could be done along the trail but not the entire site to keep the cost down

 

09/30/2010 - Paper Inger wrote about problems caused by bad seed mixes: http://prairielandscapes.com/images/papers/meadow%20in%20a%20can.pdf 

 

08/29/2010 - A date is in the works to set up a walk through the prairie area with Inger.  The intent is to allow her the opportunity to educate those in attendance of what is truly native Iowa plants and what is not, as well as cover what we can expect to see in the future.  

 

07/06/2010 - On July 1 the board met with our priarie Specialist, Inger Lamb, on-site and toured the prairie area.  Inger walked us through the planting process and answered all of our questions.  Inger assured us that dispite its current apprearance, the prairie plantings are progressing nicely and should start to produce some initial flowering towards the end of the month.  nger reminded us that it will take about 2-3 years for the plantings and prairie to reach full maturity and that we are currently in the "ugly duckling" stage of that process but it will gradually develop into a self sustaining, visual attraction that we are trying to achieve.

06/07/2010 -Everything that wasn't native was mowed, and will be sprayed out as it tries to recover.  All the conetainer plants have been planted a long the path. They will grow rapidly with all this heat and rain .