[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main 3 Finger Valley page.]

This year we mowed the new planted prairie just below Indian Grass Hillside.   This is its second year,  so we’re hopeful that next year we’ll start to see some flowering prairie.

6/15/2018  Here’s the southern corner of that new planted prairie.  It’s the upper part of this section of 3 Finger Valley.  It had ‘old field’ vegetation until we sprayed and planted it in the fall of 2017.

7/3/2018  Mike mowing the new prairie.  He also had to remove some of the dead trees that had fallen into it from our woods clearing project above.

7/3/2018  This is the lower part of the new planted prairie, just as Mike started mowing.

9/13/2018  Along the bottom of the valley is a deep ditch with an intermittent stream that only runs during spring snowmelt, or when there’s a big rainstorm.  At other times it’s thick with ferns, Jacob’s Ladder, Black Snakeroot, Virginia Waterleaf, Giant Ragweed, and Green-headed Coneflower.  This year I also discovered a population of Garlic Mustard.  I pulled or sprayed all the plants I saw.  Beyond the ditch is Tractor Meadow.

9/13/2018  The path along 3 Finger Valley, with the ditch on the left

9/13/2018  One more photo of the ditch with the intermittent stream.

12/2/2018  View north into 3 Finger Valley from the driveway.