Seeding the soil, Testing the water
On Sunday I headed out to the prairie with my girls. I am trying as best I can to let the wild spaces find a place in their hearts. All of us need the wild. We need to be hot and cold and wet. We need to smell the smells and hear the birds and be scared by something unusual. The temperature reached above 50 for the first time this year that I can remember so I was eager to see the snow runoff and feel the sun.
The drive out there was less muddy on the maintained portions of the road than I expected but way sloppier on the unmaintained. Thank goodness for a Subaru.
Well there was so much runoff you could hear it even amongst the howling winds. We parked in the shelter belt gate on the north end. From there, there is easy access to water coming in from the West, North, and East fields and joining down at the dugout.
Well we were there 5 minutes before my oldest daughter Claire fell into the creek above. She had forgotten that it was a little ravine and just thought it was a snow pile. Needless to say she fell in thigh deep. We all “helped” her by laughing at her and taking her pic.
Seeding the Prairie
Our first actual goal of the day was to plant prairie seeds in 2 test spots. The next 4 pictures are me zooming in for you to the north end of the prairie to 2 spots marked in white. The darker soil is the stand from last year in the prairie.
I say that one of these spots is 10 meters squared and the other is 100 meters squared but I did not have a tape measure. I simply paced off something close to it. They may be closer to 8 meters squared and 64 meters squared. While one child scraped back the duff, the others sprinkled in and stomped in the seed mix.
Each area received the same amount of seeds. This will give us some idea how density impacts the areas. Also one is in the trees and the other is along the water. Hopefully we learn something. The seed mix was:
Nine parts Anise hyssop donated by Lauren Forsch of Sioux Falls
One Part Milk weed donated by Prairie Ally in Luverne, MN
One Part Allium donated by Lauren Forsch of Sioux Falls
One Part Hydrangea donated by Lauren Forsch of Sioux Falls
Two Parts Prairie Mix donated by Steven Fisher of Pilot Mound, MN
Two Parts Dense Blazing Star donated by Lauren Forsch of Sioux Falls
The hope, of course, from seeding the prairie is that we begin to understand what the land will and won’t support. I gathered all of these seeds from thriving plants in our bioregion. I hope that this increases our chances for success as these seeds are climate-adjusted.
Testing the water
We tested the water in 2 spots. Location one had the runoff from the pasture to the west of us. Location 2 had the runoff from the drain tile and pasture to the east of the shelter belt area.
At Test Site 1 we did Nitrate, Ammonia, and Phosphorus tests
25mg/L of Nitrates were measured.
NH3 + NH4+ Ammonia measured <0.15 mg/L
On the phosphorus test I had some help
Our phosphate measurement was 0.5 mg/L.
At Test Site 2 we did Nitrate, and Phosphorus tests. You’ll see my help was really into it.
We measured 10 mg/L of Nitrates
We measured 1.0 mg/L of Phosphorus
Overall our concern for the surface water is in regards to the cattle dugout to the west and manure levels and to with the drain tiles to the east. Surface runoff has plenty of buffer strip between tilled soil and the creek. However, drain tiles skip that buffer strip and drain directly into the creek. We will continue to monitor.
