How to Replace Your Lawn with a Native Prairie Meadow
Meadows “are intricate carbon sequestration machinery, and complex water filtration systems. Meadows are art.”
- Northwest Meadowscapes
Grass lawns, along with all the chores, water, fertilizers, and weed killers that go along with their upkeep, have become a normal expected feature of most home landscapes. However, you can reduce your yard maintenance chores and budget while at the same time giving back to the planet by turning some of your land into a native prairie meadowscape. If you are ready to ditch a part of your lawn or finally tackle an overgrown field filled with weeds, there are many landscape alternatives, including native plant gardens friendly to local pollinators or designs with edible features such as vegetable gardens, food forest orchards, and berry patches. Creating a native prairie meadowscape is another low-maintenance and drought-resistant lawn alternative. This landscaping choice has the added benefit of supporting conservation efforts of an important Washington ecosystem that has been drastically reduced by development and agricultural use, resulting in less habitat for many threatened local species.
History of Native Prairies in Washington
Prairies around the Puget Sound were created 15,000 years ago by glaciers, which left gravelly soils perfect for vegetation dominated by a variety of grasses and wildflowers, with a few trees.
The resulting grasslands and oak woodlands were once common in our area, covering 180,000 acres in western Washington. Prairie ecosystems extend from the Willamette Valley in Oregon through Washington's Puget Sound all the way north into southern British Columbia. However, due to the conversion of prairies to farmland and development, only 3% of these original habitats currently remain, and what is left is often degraded and invaded by non-native invasive species. In fact, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, prairies are now considered one of the rarest ecosystems in Washington.
Prairies have been important sources of food and medicine to some local tribes, and there are many conservation efforts underway to honor this cultural significance. The Cowlitz people depended on prairie productivity for their economy. The Coast Salish people utilized periodic burning of the prairie landscape to encourage growth of food and medicine plants like bracken fern, common camas, strawberry, serviceberry, and blackberry.
What is a Washington Prairie?
Prairies in Washington are populated by a variety of grasses and wildflowers with little tree cover and are adapted to moist winters and dry summers. They inhabit well-drained glacial soils and were historically maintained by indigenous peoples with intentional burning to prevent invading trees and shrubs in order to grow food plants such as camas and maintain habitat for game species.
There are two prairie ecosystems in Western Washington:
The more common dry, upland prairie which occurs on deep gravelly, well-drained glacial soils in bottomlands, along valley margins, and lower foothills.
The wet prairie which occurs on clay-rich soils that are saturated to the surface during the early part of the growing season but dry out gradually during the summer.
The Importance of This Ecosystem
The reduction and degradation of Washington’s prairies is unfortunate since their unique geology and typography support a variety of plants and animals, many of which are threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, and some subspecies found nowhere else in the world. The Western prairie’s rocky soils provide the sparse vegetation the streaked horned larks use for nesting, and its large range of microclimates helps butterflies survive a wider range of weather. As a result, this rare ecosystem is one of the highest conservation priorities of the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Unfortunately, invasive plants mixing with native species have degraded and dominated all remaining prairie in Western Washington. Even so, the prairie ecosystem still has huge value to Washington’s wildlife.
South Puget Sound prairies remain important to the conservation of the following species: (this list is directly from the website of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife)
Birds
Butterflies
Oregon branded skipper (Salish Sea segregate)
Mammals
Reptiles
The Benefits of a Native Prairie Landscape in Your Own Yard
A prairie landscape is an economical, low-maintenance way to cover large or unmaintained sites, support pollinators and wildlife, improve soil and water, and can even be suitable for rotational livestock grazing. For the typical homeowner, a prairie landscape can save money on water bills, reduce time on yard maintenance chores, and can be a great option for over a septic drain field. It can also be used for erosion control, preparation for reforestation, or serve as a riparian buffer to protect water quality. Overall, a prairie provides functional benefits to households, businesses, farms, and our natural systems while also providing amazing forage and habitat for mammals, songbirds, pollinators, and all the other meadow wildlife mentioned previously.
How to Create a Native Prairie Meadow in Your Own Yard
If you are considering turning some of your land into a native prairie, be aware that it is not simply an act of letting nature reclaim the space. Unfortunately, invasive weeds will most likely win out over our prairie natives without some initial management to help them along. Therefore, there are some key steps to take to ensure the best chance of this ecosystem thriving on your property.
Step 1: Remove existing lawn or vegetation.
Sod can be cut into strips with a shovel and removed. Alternatively, an easier and possibly more effective way to remove vegetation or grass is to mow it very short and then block it from all sunlight by covering it with a tarp, black plastic, or thick cardboard. The light exclusion cover should be left in place for at least a few months (ideally even up to a year!) to kill off existing vegetation. Fall is the best time to seed your prairie so you can take advantage of the fall rains instead of needing to irrigate your new planting (although there are some options for seeding at other times of year if irrigation is available).
Step 2: Rake or till soil
Once the unwanted vegetation is dead and the soil is dry, remove the covering and till the soil or rake away the dead thatch. It is recommended that you plant your seed immediately into “scorched earth” conditions, meaning that there is no competing vegetation. However, if you do not plan to plant right away, be sure to mulch the area with wood chips, shredded bark, or shredded leaves to prevent soil erosion and to keep weeds from sprouting until planting time. Some suggest a summer cover crop like buckwheat can be planted to crowd out unwanted weeds if there is a delay between vegetation removal and planting. In this case, harvest the mature crop, then till or spade again during hot, dry weather and seed just before the fall rains. Whatever method you choose, your meadow or prairie will be most successful if you begin with smooth, weed-free soil.
Step 3: Plant seed
Note: Be sure to select seeds that are native to your local prairie landscapes.
All native seed mixes are best planted outside in the fall when cool weather and fall rains aid germination. If you are not fall-planting, you should “cold stratify” your seeds in a refrigerator for 2 weeks prior to planting, as well as irrigate after planting.
At planting time, mix your seed mix with an inert material to increase its overall volume and ensure even dispersal. This could be a plant-based cat litter, vermiculite, sand, corn meal, or dry non-clumpy soil. Try to add at least 2 to 3 times more inert material than seed mix. You can also include iron-phosphate slug bait to reduce damage from invasive slugs (considered safe for people and pets, and is organic-approved.)
Once mixed, the seed can be hand-spread (like chicken feed) directly onto the soil surface. Northwest Meadowscapes recommends that you “divide your materials into at least two equal batches. Spread one batch over the entire planting area while walking back and forth. Then scatter the second half over the entire site again, walking back and forth, this time perpendicular to your first paths. As you do this, it’s a good idea to shake the mix periodically to ensure the seed remains evenly distributed in the mix.”
Note: Some specific species benefit from pre-soaking seeds (don’t soak seed mixes; only if buying separate seed species) or even being grown out as transplants before planting in the ground (blue-eyed grass, springbank clover, camas, Douglas aster, checkermallow, showy fleabane, sea thrift, milkweed, irises, and columbine).
FAQ
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Be sure to select seeds that are native to your local prairie landscapes. As an example, for a Pacific Northwest prairie, Blacklotus Landscaping sources seed from Northwest Meadowscapes. Their prairie seed mix contains:
Annual Wildflowers 16%
Globe Gilia (Gilia capitata), Farewell to Spring (Clarkia amoena)Perennial Wildflowers 14%
Self Heal (Prunella vulgaris), Western Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Large Camas (Camassia leichtinii), Riverbank Lupine (Lupinus rivularis), Wooly Sunflower (Eriophyllum lanatum), Showy Fleabane (Erigeron speciosus)Native Grasses 70%
Roemer’s Fescue (Festuca romerii), Tufted Hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa), Meadow Barley (Hordeum brachyantherum), Blue Wild Rye (Elymus glaucus), California Brome (Bromus carinatus), Red Fescue (Festuca rubra), Prairie Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha)
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The first three years of a meadow or prairie garden require the most maintenance in the form of periodic mowing to control weeds and allow desired plants to dominate. Once it’s established, your prairie meadow will only require an occasional weed inspection and mowing once a year. From the second year on, mow your meadow annually late in winter or early in spring before the next year's growth begins.
Note: Although many homeowners are realizing the benefits of replacing lawns with wildlife-friendly alternatives, "weed" ordinances can lead to issues over more natural-looking landscaping. Therefore, research your local ordinances to find out what local laws are in existence, share your plans with your neighbors, and possibly start small to see how you and your neighbors like the prairie look. -
Visit the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to learn more about volunteer opportunities and other ways to get involved in your community around native prairie conservation. There you will find an extensive list and links to ways to take action, places to visit to see prairie conservation in action, and fun events to learn more about this important ecosystem, including Prairie Appreciation Day, which takes place each Spring.
Final Words
Whether you are a household, business, or farm, you can be part of the native prairie conservation movement around Washington state by turning some of your yard or unused acreage into this culturally significant and ecologically important habitat. It is a great option for those seeking a lower-maintenance, drought-resistant landscape that gives back to our native species.
