[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Knife Edge Prairie page.]

Except for some early mowing, the work we did here this year was all done at the end of the season – October and November.  We tried a new scheme – we worked separately, in separate spots, on opposite sides of the prairie.  So we cleared the brush and small trees from two areas, each of us working the way we like best.

3/10/2020

4/11/2020  Marcie photographing early flowers on the point.

4/11/2020  Sand Cress – often the first flowers we see in the spring

5/21/2020  Looking up at the point

6/22/2020  Years ago a friend from up the road gave me seeds of this – Prairie Larkspur – from her prairie point.  They’ve been slowly spreading on our point since then.

6/30/2020  North end of the Knife Edge Prairie with Butterflyweed

7/1/2020 South end of the Knife Edge Prairie

7/1/2020  Knife Edge Prairie

7/1/2020  Knife Edge Prairie

7/12/2020  Knife Edge Prairie — I cut and treated Gray Dogwood and Aspen sprouts here last year.  This year I can hardly see any.

7/19/2020  We’ve started calling this ‘Bramble Corner’.  It’s just where the point starts, at the south end of the prairie.  This started as a thicket of Black Walnut trees and brambles.  We’ve killed and removed the walnut trees, and we’ve been mowing the brambles every spring.  I’ve never planted anything here, so all the flowers have come on their own.  there are more walnut trees to remove along the western edge (to the right in the photo), which would give it more light.

7/19/2020  Farther along the point.  Our property line is in the woods along the left edge of the path.

7/20/2020  Knife Edge Prairie

7/22/2020  Bramble Corner again – with Monarda and Field Thistle

8/4/2020  Knife Edge Prairie with Missouri Goldenrod and Queen Anne’s Lace.  (I pulled the Queen Anne’s Lace.)

9/1/2020  Knife Edge Prairie with Stiff Goldenrod and Rough Blazing Star.  There was less Blazing Star this year than the last few years.

9/24/2020  The Point, looking out over Center Valley – the beginning of fall.

10/6/2020  Here’s the beginning of my part of the fall project – just before I started cutting.  I worked on this thicket of Gray Dogwood, bush honeysuckle, and buckthorn.

10/6/2020  The same spot at the end of that day — lots left to go.

10/7/2020  Path leading out to the point

10/7/2020  The same path looking north – back toward the prairie.

10/7/2020  Here’s Mike’s fall project — on the east side of the prairie.  This was a thick woods of Black Walnuts that I girdled several years ago.  The walnuts died, and started falling down, and bushes – mostly honeysuckle – grew up around them.

10/11/2020  Mike cleared the fallen logs, cut and treated the honeysuckle, and mowed whatever was left.

10/9/2020  Path at the point

10/18/2020  Here’s the end of my project – I cut and treated all the brush, and Mike hauled away the piles.

10/18/2020  One interesting discovery was this spot – a circle about 10 feet in diameter covered with Pussytoes.

11/11/2020  Path from the Cat’s Paw Prairie into the Knife Edge Prairie