Hidden Oaks Point – 2020

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

I did two small projects here this year.

I cut and treated invasives and small brush in a strip just below the dry prairie on the east facing hill, leading down into the point that we had cleared a few years ago. The larger trees and brush on the point are gone, but smaller brush and weeds are coming back. By starting clearing at the top, I’m hoping the dry prairie plants will spread downhill.

In late summer I cut and treated all the sumac in the open part of the dry prairie.

I also planted a few plugs of Wood Lily, that a friend grew from local seeds, along the west facing slope of the point.

3/10/2020

3/26/2020

4/30/2020 This south-east facing slope needs work. It has woody brush (brambles, honeysuckle, prickly ash) coming up, and along the edges.

5/7/2020 More of that same hillside – with Hoary Puccoon

5/16/2020

5/19/2020 Higher on the hillside: Hoary Puccoon, Bird’s Foot Violet, Blue-eyed Grass

5/22/2020 Hoary Puccoon

5/29/2020 I planted some plugs of Wood Lily (locally sourced seeds grown by a friend) on the west-facing slope. Several of them bloomed.

5/29/2020 Wood Lily

6/1/2020 West-facing slope with sumac

6/1/2020 Top of east-facing hill

6/1/2020

7/16/2020 Flat top of prairie – Leadplant, sumac, monarda, field thistle

7/23/2020

8/5/2020 Looking down into the weedy part of the south-east facing slope

8/5/2020 Looking closer at the weeds. This top strip is where I cut and treated weeds and brush. In the coming years I hope to keep clearing horizontal strips, working my way down the hill. It helps to work from the top ‘good’ part of the prairie, downhill to the ‘less good’ places. The dry prairie plants should work their way down into the cleared areas.

9/4/2020 Clearing sumac from the main open part of the prairie. I cut and treated each sumac stem.

9/5/2020 This was a thicket of hazel at the top edge of the prairie. It was thick that nothing else grew there, and it was spreading. I cut and treated it too.