In 2007 when we purchased our property, we made a list of things that we felt we were missing as far as key habitat elements.
The top 2 on the list were evergreen trees for thermal cover and Native Warm Season Grasses for fawing and bedding cover.
There were few evergreens and not one NWSG plant.
With only 130 acres to work with, and most of the property being low swampland, we had to be creative in coming up with areas to establish these elements.
We chose an area that had recently been logged and as well as a pond established. The bright red outlines this area...
It is not advised to mix NWSG with evergreen plantings because normally fire is used as a tool to maintain the grasses. Burning is certainly not an option if spruce or pines are mixed in! However, there are still ways to maintain the grasses without burning, such as mowing and herbicides. having only 130 acres, we decided to try it and see if we can make it work!
This is what the area looked like when we started (after the pond was dug)
In the fall right before the first snow, we transplanted a bunch of white spruce from a near by farm.
Then the next spring we frost seeded NWSG in the entire area. We chose to go with Little Bluestem and Switchgrass due to their ability to hold up better in the harsh Wisconsin winters!
Now 2 growing seasons later, this is what it looks like... The Little bluestem does not grow as tall, so we used that inbetween the trees, and used switch grass up on the hill where there were no trees planted.
Little Bluestem is IMO the prettiest grass out there! I am more than pleased with how it came in and am very excited to see how these two habitat elements (NWSG/Spruce) work together to help make a home for the deer using my property!
