Late summer, Reset
Sometime in late June was the last time we saw rain for a very long time in Houston. In fact, the summer was a historic one: the hottest and driest on record. At Prairie Plots, there is no irrigation, but the many of the plants seemed to hold up. They were of course affected by the drought: most noticeably, nothing grew. As mentioned in previous posts, ragweed remains a major challenge at the plots as is Bermuda grass.
In an attempt to manage the aggressive ragweed and Bermuda grass, we decided to make a few changes. With the help of Rice Grounds and the support of Rice Architecture, were able to:
Change over the mow paths into mulched paths by herbiciding the Bermuda grass (we rarely use herbicide, but in this case it was necessary to suppress the very aggressive Bermuda grass, exclusively in the pathways) and mowing the grass as short as possible. Cover pathways with organic, heavy-weight paper barrier and burlap; to be layered with mulch, compost, and then planted with turf alternative, Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora)
Hand pull ragweed in plots. This was a major task that required a lot of muscle, but we accomplished this surprisingly quickly. We removed the ragweed to minimize spreading the seed or small plants
Mulch the plots. In order to suppress the Bermuda in the plots, we layered about 3-4 inches of mulch in the plots, careful to work around existing, desired plants.
Pause to watch the solar eclipse!
