Indian Grass Point – 2018

[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Indian Grass Point page.]

We mowed the flat top of the prairie in the spring, and Mike weed whacked sumac on the east and west facing slopes in late summer.  I also did some cutting and treating of brush on the slopes.  The open area is getting larger all the time, and more prairie plants are showing up and blooming.

1/18/2018

 

1/18/2018  Looking back into the savanna

 

1/19/2018

 

1/24/2018  View from the road – Indian Grass Point is the point in the middle.  It’s easier to see the bluff prairies in the winter.

 

1/24/2018  East-facing hillside above the garage

 

2/21/2018  The south-facing hill is much more open near the bottom – the dead birches are starting to fall.  We still haven’t gotten to the thicket of small oaks near the top of the point.

 

4/21/2018

 

4/29/2018  This is some of the east-facing slope where I cut brush – mostly raspberries and small honeysuckle and prickly ash.

 

4/29/2018  Looking down through the trees on the east-facing hill

 

4/29/2018  Looking south toward the point after spring mowing

 

4/29/2018  More raspberry cutting.  This part of the east-facing hill was thick with raspberries, and not much else.

 

5/5/2018

 

7/1/2018  Prairie Coreopsis and Harebell on the point

 

8/19/2018  East-facing slope of the prairie point

 

8/19/2018

 

8/29/2018  A friend gave me some Hill’s Thistle plugs that he’d raised from seed.  I planted them on the cleared hill, just above the house.  They all grew, but this one grew faster and larger than the rest.

 

He also gave me some plants of Prairie Lily that he’d been raising inside for several years.  Two were even blooming.  I planted them on the sunny part of the hillside, and covered them with wire cages to protect them from the deer.

 

9/2/2018  Gray Goldenrod on the point

 

9/2/2018  Top of the west-facing slope

 

9/2/2018

 

9/2/2018  Looking down through the trees on the east-facing slope

 

9/8/2018  This is the west-facing slope.  I girdled the birches in 2008, and cleared brush over the next few years.  I’m still doing clearing work as it continues to recover.

 

9/2/2018  More of the west-facing slope

 

10/28/2018  Indian Grass Point with the house below

 

10/28/2018  Indian Grass Point is in the center, lit by the sun

 

11/2/2018

 

12/10/2018  Looking from the prairie north into the savanna

 

12/14/2018