Prairie Moon Nursery has some really good information on planting wildflower seed. They are also an excellent source for wildflower seed and plants. I included their link below.

I would suggest that you find seed for plants that grow natively in the south-eastern US. I live in the north-east and so can't suggest anything from personal experience. But I'm sure there are other folks here that can suggest some good wildflower mixes/plants as well as sites for more info on plants for your location.

Many of the wildflowers that grow here in the frozen North need winter cold and conditions to break a seed dormancy and so fall seed-planting or winter sowing is required. I don't know if seeds for your location would require that as well.

FataMorgana

Here is a link that might be useful: Prairie Moon Nursery

Before planting anything I would turn the soil over. Maybe adding whatever mulch you have available and letting the soil sit for a season. While some wildflowers may be able to colonize your area good soil conditions would be best if planting seed that you purchase.
While Prairie Moon Nursery is fine I would recommend the website of Wildflower Farm. They have alot of info on planning and preparing for planting of seed/plants. And seed of plants native to your state.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wildflower Farm

Thank you both for the advice.

I have access to my father's tiller and plant to till the land in the next week or two and add some topsoil/garden soil while tilling the ground.

Before doing anything else, I will continue to read up on trying to make an ideal environment for the future garden. I may still sling the seed I bought this year out there with low expectations and perhaps if enough survive, purchase small potted plants to fill in the dead areas next year.

Does this sound reasonable?

John

The birds may go after the seeds.
Another problem is that "wildflowers" aren't necessarily natives. The mix very likely may contain invasive stuff that will drive you crazy when it starts reseeding. It should say on the bag what it contains and the percentage. What are the first few that are listed?

I will check when I get home. I do remember they are labled "North American Native Perennials" and "North American Native Annuals"

John

Please don't let me rain on your parade, but...................I'm thinking it 'might' be better to start off with a smaller 'plot', and maybe have it a bit farther back from the front of your house and the road. The reason being, that it might be hard to attain the look you want without the weeds taking over.

I may still sling the seed I bought this year out there with low expectations and perhaps if enough survive, purchase small potted plants to fill in the dead areas next year.
You could also collect seeds from whatever grows, blooms, and sets seeds this year, besides leaving some of the seed to drop for reseeding. There will undoubtedly be some things that are better growers/reseeders than others are.

Thanks for chiming in chemocurl!

The bare spot will either be converted to grass lawn or wildflowers and I think the wildflower idea is just too neat to pass up! I could make the area smaller still and might end up doing just that.

Just for reference, I have planted around 60 trees around the house but only one small acer triflorum in the corner of the area in question.

This could be looked at as a warm up to the big wildflower project I have in my mind which is to turn our entire septic drainage area into a huge wildflower garden a few years down the road. Even if the current project fails miserably (which is a very likely possibility with me) at least it will give me experience ;)

There are a LOT of Eryngium yuccifolium, Baptisia alba, and some kind of rudbeckia all over the property with some milkweed and goldenrod also. I usually let the flowers do their thing then they get brushhogged. I walk with my son in the field areas and I can't let the grass get too overgrown. There are also some flowers that I have not identified yet.

John

If you meant keep the weeds from taking over the lawn, it is no monoculture of grass out here! What ever seeds in besides crabgrass and johnson grass gets to stay as long as it can take regular mowing.

John

You could probably get a pretty good stand of various Solidago going without too much trouble. I think it would be a toss-up if Solidago and Johnson grass came up against one another.

I have seeds of Baptisia Australis collected in 2011, if you would like to try some....my treat and it is native to your area.

You could Winer Sow them and then set the plants out later. Are you familiar with Winter Sowing? It's easy peasy.

LMK if you are interested.

Sue

I could send Solidago plants later too, if interested (for postage).....like stuff a flat rate box. I think what I have, for the most part is solidago canadensis, also native to your area.

I'll look into the winter sowing this weekend. It looks like I could pull it off with some success.

I would love some Baptisia Australis! The b. alba we have here are so pretty but they get cut down before going to seed. I may talk to the brush hog operator and see if he can avoid a few this spring.

I fear the Solidago might get a little too tall and look a little too weedy for my wife's taste. It looks great along our ditch in the back but I don't think it will pass inspection in the yard. Of course this whole experience will take some getting used to for both of us I'm sure.

My email is available by clicking on my username. You can send me an email when/if you are ready to send the seed. I will pay shipping with paypal.

John

ps - Christie, I haven't forgotten about the seed packages, I just didn't have time to last night after watching the kids.

I fear the Solidago might get a little too tall and look a little too weedy for my wife's taste.
I understand. In my opinion, 'any' wildflower mix tends to look quite weedy, except when the majority of it is in bloom.

It looks great along our ditch in the back
I like it with Veronia fasciculata--Prairie Ironweed which blooms at the same time in late summer and is also native to your area.

I dropped you an email via GW.

Sue

When Goldenrod/Solidago is mentioned, people tend to think of the tall and aggressive species like S. canadensis and S. altissima. But there are other species that are shorter and clumping that can be more suitable for a garden area. In your area, grey goldenrod, Solidago nemoralis, might be one.

That is more the size I would like.

It is going to be fun collecting seed in the middle of pastures around the house this year! There is usually a lot of good stuff in fence rows beside several golf courses I play at. Within arms reach of course, I don't trespass (unless I hit a ProV1 OB).

John

First, the $10 bags of seed that you get at the big box store is going to be disappointing and not meet your needs. I would suggest that you get a premium mixture from a quality native plant source like Prairie Moon or Prairie Nursery. Both have online catalogs and ordering. And yes, these seed mixes are much more expensive, but it will last for years and be beautiful.

The seeds in the cheap bags at the hardware store are not always native, many of them are annuals, or short lived perennials, some are even considered invasive species. After a few years the plots turn into a weed patch.

I would NOT turn the soil. The main concern with bare soil is weed control. Turning the soil will bring buried dormant weeds seeds to the surface and encourage them to sprout.

Your instinct to plant natives on this soil is a good one, because the natives can thrive in soil conditions like this.

If there is anything growing there right now, I would consider a pretreatment of roundup to kill it off. If nothing is growing right now, I wouldn't add herbicide. I would do this at least two - four weeks before seeding.

I might consider adding a thin layer of compost or topsoil, or topsoil and compost, before seeding, just to help get the new plants started. Once established they won't need any soil amendments. They will break through that clay just fine.

After seeding, I would cover the seed with a straw mulch. And then water it regularly throughout the first growing season.

As the plants grow, mow them. Set the mower at your highest setting and keep it mowed throughout the first growing season (or two even). The mowing keeps weeds from going to seed and encourages the native plants to establish roots, instead of top growth.

After the second (or third year) you can let the plot grow and then hand weed out the plants that are weeds. The natives will have developed enough roots to out complete the weeds. Hand weeding helps keeps the annual weeds from going to seed.

If you buy the plants from Prairie Nursery or Prairie Moon, they will have a similar, more detailed planting directions.

Good luck. The birds and butterflies will thank you for it.

Very nice write up, thanks =)

Tilling the land would definitely be the hardest part so skipping that step would be OK with me. I am going to bring in a couple truckloads of topsoil and spread it around in the next couple of weeks.

John

If it were me I would definitely add some milkweeds, blueberries and huckleberries. Maybe some chickasaw plums as well. The butterflies like the milkweeds and the shrubs will add some density and variety without being overly large. The fruits are good too.

Hummingbirds like scarlet sage.

In my wildflower garden I have scarlet sage, swamp milkweed, coneflowers, California poppies, Indian blanket, plains coreopsis, Joe Pye weed, marigolds, and phlox.

I scattered the seeds all at once and moved them around once I could identify what they were. I put the tall ones like the coneflowers, and milkweeds against the house wall and the short ones in the front of the bed.

I have 20 gayfeathers going into the area. Any other good performers besides daylilies I should add?

Since your seeds were labeled as "North American Natives", it seems like they surely must be natives. Hope so! Usually when you see mixed seeds at a box store, they say "wildflowers" rather than "natives". You may get some plants that you don't like but I think you should go ahead and plant them. You'll undoubtedly get some that you DO like.

Orange Butterfly Weed (asclepias tuberosa) is hard to beat. It blooms a long time, attracts butterflies and shows up well from a distance. That one may be in the seed mix that you bought as well as purple coneflowers which I never tire of. Rudbeckia hirta and gaillardias are nice too. Your mix may also contain a lot of plants that won't tolerate hot summers very well.

I would love to have a wildflower meadow but have gotten the impression that it's one of those things that's not easy to do successfully, and I've just never tried. I did plant a long mixed shrub/perennial border along one side of our property several years ago and haven't done a very good job at keeping the weeds out. I enjoy it immensely though. I love gardening/wildlife etc. If you're doing it only to save time mowing, you definitely may be disappointed. Otherwise, there's no harm in trying. If your wildflower garden doesn't work out the way you want, you can always collect free seeds from your favorites and start over.

Just my opinion but - Since you're in an area of new homes and you may be pressured to have a tidy yard, I think it would make the area look more intentional and attractive to put a section of split rail fence or picket fence across the front to separate it from the rest of your yard. That way your snooty neighbors won't think you're just being lazy about mowing. : ) I would also leave several feet of mowed area between your house and the wildflower patch to make it look neater and so you can easily walk from the front of your house to the back without having to spray yourself with Off every time to keep the ticks and chiggers away.

Opinion again - I think you would appreciate having a couple mowed paths through the middle to make it easier to get from one side to the other and so you can see what's growing. Ticks don't hang out in mowed grass nearly as much as knee or waist high areas.

Planting shrubs might make it more difficult to maintain. Maybe some others will give you opinions on that. I have trouble with invasive vines, undesirable trees, poke, poison ivy, etc. coming up around my shrubs close to the base where it's hard to remove them. What I think you had in mind is a prairie type area that you can just mow down once a year. Right?

All good points, thanks Christie. This area is about 15' from the house so it will not interfere with going to the front and back yards.

And yes, I am going for something that will grow all year, then be cut to normal the last mowing of the year.

John

Silene regia is another one that I really like. It has bright red flowers, blooms a long time and is attractive to hummingbirds. It's easy to start from seed but so far I can't get the darn things to survive after I transplant them. I'm on my third try growing them from seed I saved from my mama plant.

My first reaction to the google images was "Oh wow" I do like those alot!