Indian Grass Point – 2022

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

This year, besides our usual spring mowing, I cleared out the last part of the south and west sides of the point and did some experiments cutting and treating sumac.

I made steps in the path from the house up to the point – to make it easier to walk, but mostly to stop erosion.

I pulled Queen Anne’s Lace, planted seeds of Rattlebox, Prairie Smoke, Rough Blazing Star, Agalinis aspera, Butterflyweed, and Whorled Milkweed, and planted bare root plants of Violet Wood Sorrel across from the bench.

2/13/2022 East-facing hillside below the point

2/16/2022

3/13/2022 I did some clearing of mostly honeysuckle and raspberries that are invading the prairie from below on the east-facing slope.

3/17/2022 More of the east-facing slope clearing project

3/28/2022 Mike and I cut some of the small oaks near the top of the point.

3/28/2022

4/10/2022 I finished cutting and treating the brush on the tip of the point on the west-facing side. This is before it was finished.

4/29/2022 Now all the brush has been cut and hauled down the hill.

4/29/2022 Looking north along the bottom of the west-facing slope. I did some clearing here too, but didn’t finish.

4/29/2022

5/18/2022 Spring coming to the valley

5/20/2022 Wood Betony near the bottom of the point

5/24/3033 Yellow Star-grass

5/24/3033

5/24/2022 Wood Betony at the beginning of the path up the hill

6/2/2022

6/4/2022

6/6/2022

6/26/2022 Hill’s Thistle

6/30/2022 West-facing slope of the point

6/30/2022 Butterflyweed on the front slope of the point – there are starting to be more plants there, and they’re getting larger.

7/3/2022 Looking down through the restored savanna on the east-facing slope of the point

7/11/2022 Prairie Coreopsis

7/15/2022 Whorled Milkweed

7/16/2022 Prairie Coreopsis and Monarda on the top of the point

7/27/2022 West-facing slope of the point along Western Road – more open now after clearing the thicket of honeysuckle and buckthorn

7/28/2022 Northern Hawkweed along the path up the point

9/4/2022 Late sun on the point

8/23/2022 This is the sumac experiment. I cut and treated about half the stems of medium sized sumac with 10% Milestone in bark oil. I’m curious to see (and so is the DNR) if that kills most of the sumac stems in this area since many of their roots are connected.

9/4/2022 So far many of the sumac shrubs are dying, but not all. Maybe more than one clone is intertwined, or maybe the connections between the stems are different?