Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat W.H.I.P. development

I agree. It's starting to look "established".

Great looking. Grass does look like little bluestem. Did you plant any other native grasses. I used EQUIP to establish native grasses & we had a 2 year drought right after I seeded. That was March 2005. Got rain last year & have just now seen a decent stand of Bluestem(little & big). The side-oats & Indian grass did well in spite of drought, but switch grass didn't do very well to date. Don't deduct re imbursement from total as I did on tax form, because gov't check needs to show up on income side & match 1099 . No disclaimer needed as I have no knowledege of such matters other than making multiple mistakes..I planted some wildflowers on my new pond dam this spring.. How long did your flowers take to come up? Again, really beautiful pics..

The warm native grasses are a blend of Little Bluestem , Virgina Wild Rye , and Switchgrass . All the experts warned me to forget about the native grasses the first year, 2nd will be good, and 3rd should be established. So far, it's played out that way.
The forbes were touch and go when first planted due to drought, but the annuals came along well a little later in the summer (see the pics at the beginning of this thread). This second year has been VERY wet and the results are darn good. We had a field of 1.75 ac that did absolutely nothing last year...a total bust. This year, some of the perennial forbes are coming thru pretty well. I haven't yet waded back into it to examine the native grass growth.
Ya know, I'm not really sure if I have had decent switchgrass growth either. Gonna have to look closer....letcha know.

Is the tall clumps of grass in this pic switchgrass?

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There are clumps of this stuff popping up in the seeded areas. The blades stand erect, about 3 ft tall. Each blade is pretty wide. Is it switchgrass, or maybe it's the Virginia Wild Rye...or maybe just another stinkin' weed...?

Side question, Bski. Was there originally some kind of clearing towards the back of that picture, left of the dockhouse? I ask becuse the trees back that way don't have the "chopped the middle out of the woods" look (they have many bountifully leaved lower branches, not trunks mostly naked until the reach the canopy level).

Nope, the area was chopped outta the woods. I think the pic lacks the detail to note the naked bottoms. (this last sentence immediately made me think of Heybud's new neighbor).

Brettski:

I just reviewed the thread, and the place looks great.

A year and a half later, what would you do differently (in regards to species and type of trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers that were planted)?

Have the deer enjoyed what you planted, or have they left the majority of the plants alone?

I would pre-kill all the deer.

THE WILDWOOD FLOWER GREW WILD ON THE FARM AND WE NEVER KNOWED WHAT IT WAS CALLED. SOME SAID IT WAS FLOWER, SOME SAID IT WAS A WEED WE DIDN'T GIVE IT MUCH THOUGHT.

ONE DAY I WAS OUT THERE TALKING TO MY BROTHER AND I REACHED DOWN
FOR A WEED TO CHEW ON, AND THINGS GOT FUZZY AND THINGS GOT BLURRY,AND THEN EVERYTHING WAS GONE, I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, BUT I KNEW IT BEAT THE HELL OUT OF SNIFFIN BURLAP.

I CAME TO AND MY BROTHER WAS THERE AND HE SAID BOY WHAT'S WRONG
WITH YOUR EYES, I SAID I DON'T KNOW I WAS CHEWING ON A WEED, HE SAID LET ME GIVE IT A TRY

WE SPENT THE REST OF THAT DAY AND MOST OF THAT NIGHT TRYING TO
FIND MY BROTHER BILL, CAUGHT UP WITH HIM ABOUT SIX O'CLOCK THE
NEXT MORNING NAKED SITTING ON THE WINDMILL, SAID HE FLEW UP THERE, I HAD TO CLIMB UP AND GET HIM DOWN, HE WAS ABOUT HALF CRAZY.

THE VERY NEXT DAY WE PICKED A BUNCH OF THEM WEEDS AND PUT EM IN
THE SUN TO DRY, THEN WE MASHED 'EM UP AND CLEANED 'EM UP, AND PUT 'EM IN A CORNCOB PIPE.

SMOKING THEN WILDWOOD FLOWERS GOT TO BE A HABIT AND WE NEVER SEEN
NO HARM, WE THOUGHT IT WAS KIND OF HANDY, TAKE A TRIP AND NEVER
LEAVE THE FARM, A BIG OLD PUFF OF THAT WILDWOOD WEED, NEXT THING YOU KNOW YOU'RE WANDERIN AROUND BEHIND THE LITTLE ANIMALS

ALL GOOD THINGS GOT TO COME TO AN END, IT'S THE SAME WITH OUR
WILDWOOD WEEDS, ONE DAY THIS FELLER FROM WASHINGTON CAME BY AND
SPIED EM, AND TURNED WHITE AS A SHEET.

WELL THEY DUG AND BURNED AND THEY BURNED AND DUG AND THEY KILLED ALL OF OUR CUTE LITTLE WEEDS, THEN THEY DROVE AWAY, WE JUST SMILED AND WAVED, SITTIN THERE ON THAT SACK OF SEEDS.

Y'ALL COME HACK NOW YA HERE.

That bad, huh? Well, if you were planning on planting more next year I could help with that plan!