[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Cat’s Paw Prairie page.]

This was the second year of the prairie, and we started to see more prairie plants. The best one was Prairie Phlox (Phlox pilosa) – I planted it in all the other prairies but I’d never seen it bloom.

Prairie Phlox in May 2004

There were still a lot of weeds and the prairie plants were pretty sparse. I worry that the corn stubble on the ground may have prevented a lot of the seeds from getting into good contact with the soil.

This is what it looked like in mid-summer.