Spring Emergents

We chose not to conduct another prescribed fire this year, instead allowing over winter cover crop plants (mostly Prairie Wild Rye, Elymus canadensis) to grow and compete with the ragweed. The wild rye has been doing very well in managing the ragweed in certain areas. And the frogfruit we planted at the plot borders has survived and is growing, hopefully enough to outcompete any encroaching bermuda grass.

We need to remulch the paths at some point we manage to get a critical mass of wood chips from the campus; but for now we are continuing to pull ragweed in areas where there are large patches. Mostly it seems to be minimally affecting the southeast plots that were previous overtaken and is more of a nuisance in the northwestern plots.

As spring continues, we’ve been carefully monitoring all of the growth: lots of volunteers (primrose, geraniums, alliums). There is an interesting patch of what we think is Swamp Sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius) that seeded a lot last season. The Texas Coneflower (Rudbeckia texana) is doing very well and spreading successfully and some of the Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) is not only growing very large in the places it was transplanted or planted, but has also seeded well in areas. Students and community members have come out on several occasions to help us pull and bag up lots of emergent ragweed and it’s been a exceedingly pleasant time to work outside before the summer descends.