THE DIY PRAIRIE GARDEN

Episode Introduction

In today's episode, The DIY Prairie Garden, we go over a short breakdown of what a prairie is, some unique medicinal and edible qualities of native prairie plants, how to site prep, and what plants and grasses to use in your very own meadowscape.

Host Stephanie Barelman

Stephanie Barelman is the founder of the Bellevue Native Plant Society, a freelance garden designer under the moniker Victory Cottage Gardens, and host of the Plant Native Nebraska Podcast.

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Episode Content

Go back and catch up on old episodes

-PLEASE PLEASE listen to Episode 1 if you haven't already which gives you a primer on what native plants even are, link here

-Episode 2 is also helpful link here

Understand that a prairie is an ecosystem, one that we've killed off

Like the idea of a wildflower meadow? We do too. And Nebraska was naturally a wildflower meadow before the Waltons, Big Ag, and developers had their way. Something like 99% of the original prairie is gone. Very sad deal, and a compelling reason to ditch your lawn for native plants.

Not all prairies are created equal

Different ecoregions, different plants. See here

In short, you have: tall grass prairie, shortgrass prairie, mixed grass prairie depending on geography and subdivisions of mesic prairie, dry prairie, and wet prairie depending on elevation and nearby proximity to water.

Also, prairie ecosystems extend into Colorado, Minnesota, south towards Texas, or even further east into Indiana. There's plants that have residency in different parts of this range and what's wonderful is we can have uniquely beautiful and beneficial Nebraska gardens and what that looks like in Scottsbluff, Lincoln, and Omaha can have slight differences between them.

Our focus: Tallgrass Prairie 

I am obviously bias, hailing from the Omaha area. But you can find links to shortgrass and mixed grass ideas here:

Some of the inspiration for today's chat on tallgrass prairie:

• UNL publication