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• Use a combination of seed and plugs as a good start, as seed is inexpensive but can be slow to show results. (Most seeds take one to two years to germinate, while more expensive, plant plugs are usually one to three years old and produce faster results.

• Seed in early to late spring and in late fall for good results.

• Install plugs and plants by hand. The many different species of prairie plants favor either warm or cool seasons.

• Maintain weed control in years one to four after seeding and planting to prevent competition for water and nutrients. After prairie plants become established, general guidelines should be followed as listed in the maintenance section.

Prairie management techniques include methods to simulate the natural mechanisms that have allowed the survival of prairies throughout time. Grazing, fire, soil disruption, the random nature of such influences and the lack of action can be mimicked or re-created to enhance the qualities of prairies.

The following guidelines should be followed during new prairie management and maintenance:

• Mowing should simulate grazing, reduce some undesirable weed species and biennials by removal of flowering parts before seed set, reduce some invasive or undesirable species by preventing maturation and formation of woody structures, and arrest progression of forest succession.

• Disking should simulate trampling and soil disruption by hooves of grazing animals, help regenerate dormant seed sources within the natural seed bank of the site, loosen the soil for over-seeding with desirable wildflower and grass seed, and improve water and nutrient penetration by eliminating soil compaction.

• Fire and prescribed burning kills woody plants and stimulates germination of many desirable plant seeds. The blackening of soils in early spring speeds warming of soil, often extends the growing season by several weeks and allows for earlier germination of warm season grasses and wildflowers in spring. Fire destroys biennial weeds and annual weed seed sources before they germinate or mature, helps control overpopulations of insect pests and adds nutrients from production of ash.