Crazy new fall project idea

I think about this front field all the time. It is cut off from the rest of the property by the driveway, so it is a bit of an island. We keep the wild hedges along the road untouched, because we like the coverage from the road and our crazy neighbor’s compound “wall” across the street. (Someday I will take winter pictures showing what they have “accumulated” along the road in front of us - they are super private so no one ever sees them, but I have never wanted to tour a property more to see what the heck they have going on in there.)

Anyway, we have tried unsuccessfully to grow some baby evergreens on part of it. No water, no I protection, no luck. I have designed fruit tree orchards. But we live literally a mile from DOZENS of u-pick orchards. Would it make sense to extend our already tenuous water well and to build the necessary 7’ fences to keep out the deer, not to mention the regular maintenance work this would entail? That answer is a clear No.

The field is just tall grasses, weeds, vole hills. A few things other people would probably call weeds, but not me (eg yarrow and mullein). It’s not at all unsightly to me, it’s very Prairie.

So I thought, well Steve has a rarely-used heavy duty DR mower that cuts through just about ANYthing. Why don’t I have him cut a meandering path through the grassy field, like a little prairie walk? And then why don’t I try to introduce a few native prairie plants here and there along the path to slowly bring in a few pops of color? We could mark the ends of the path with a simple entry (maybe marking the one end on the neighbors’ side could actually finally prevent them from using our property as their parking lot!)

These are plants used in meadow restoration that could work in our desert growing climate. Again, this is NOT a wildflower meadow situation at all! It’s a slightly reclaimed grassy prairie experience:

Western white yarrow - White, tough, rangey, my favorite herbal “weed”, I mean, “plant”

Lewis flax - Airy blue flowers

Sulphur-flower buckwheat - Low yellow flowers and pretty durable perennial

Hairy goldenaster - Yellow daisy-like flowers for a little later-season color

Royal penstemon - Blue-purple flower spikes for an occasional specialty accent

I feel like this is the most potentially invisible but fun project I have thought up in a long time. And the amount of work (and cost) is relatively small - just mow the path and prep a few spots for fall seeding really. I really do love the grassy openness of that field and would actually love to meander through it in the way to the mailbox.

So I’m putting it out there and am about to add it to my To Do Board, so we will see if the project actually materializes!