[To see photos and stories of this prairie in other years, go to the links on the main Narrows Prairie page.]
The most exciting find here this year was Monarch roosts during the migration. We saw many small roosts one cool, windy day, in trees along the south edge of the prairie. The largest ones had about 40 butterflies.
We mowed again this year to control aspen sprouts – in September, once the Monarchs were gone. We left one small circle of aspen sprouts as a test – I’m going to try girdling them to see if girdling all the sprouts in one area will eliminate them in that area. It would be nice if we could use that method to gradually (it would take years) eliminate them in the whole field.
3/20/2020
5/16/2020 Golden Alexanders
5/23/2020 Wild Lupine, Golden Alexanders
5/29/2020 Wild Lupine, Golden Alexanders
5/29/2020
6/10/2020 Golden Alexanders, White Wild Indigo
7/20/2020
7/22/2020
7/22/2020
7/22/2020
8/6/2020 Prairie Blazing Star – not one that I planted. It must have come from a seed that was mixed in with another species I bought.
8/6/2020 Prairie Blazing Star also comes in white.
9/1/2020 Monarch roost in a tree along the south edge of the prairie
9/1/2020 Monarch roost
9/13/2020 Showy Goldenrod
9/22/2020 This is our test of the effect of aspen girdling. I’ll girdle them next spring and see what happens.
9/22/2020 Mowing for aspen sprouts; the unmowed areas have no aspens.
9/23/2020 Purple asters – mostly Sky-blue Aster
10/7/2020
10/9/2020 Our test plot