Plant Your Own Prairie

You don't need acres of land to help restore our prairies. If you've got a strip of yard or a

pot on a patio, you can plant a piece of prairie right at home.

Patch of pink and yellow wildflowers at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center

Pocket Prairies

Use native bunching grasses and small, clumping sedges to anchor wildflowers and bright shrubs to your landscape. Bonus: prairie plants love dry sunny areas, so they don't need extra water once they are established!

Bumblebee on a common yellow sunflower (Helianthus annus)

Wildlife Habitats

Provide food, shelter, and water year-round with some smart planting choices. A bed of easonal wildflowers, fragrant herbs, and woody shrubs will make the perfect rest stop for native pollinators, migrating Monarchs, and birds passing by!

Straggler daisy or horseherb (Calyptocarpus vialis)

Lawn-ternatives

Between 30-70% of all of the drinking water in Austin is used to keep lawns green. Replace a chunk (or all!) of your lawn with a native grass like Buffalograss or a flowering groundcover like Horseherb. You'll save water and support the local wildlife!

Plant Your Prairie

Native Texas Plant Gardening Basics

Go for Grasses

Tall, flowering grasses make up more than 2/3rds of a natural prairie. Consider planting a few small bunchgrasses like Little Bluestem or Side Oats Grama to feed the wildlife. Some more unique native grasses, like Gulf Muhly and Purple Top, even have pink seasonal blooms.

Layer Up!

From the tallest trees to the shortest grasses, the land naturally provides different layers for wildlife to shelter. Consider planting Spiderwort, Pigeonberry, and Island Sea Oats to recreate a woodland floor under a shade tree like an evergreen Sumac.

Bloom Year-Round

Natural prairies have flowers, shrubs, and trees that all peak in different seasons to provide food and shelter for wildlife year-round. American Beautyberry in the fall, Rock Rose in the summer, and Perennial Winecups in the spring will give you and the critters year-round color!

Let It Be

Allow native plants to complete their full life cycle before you decide to intervene. Aside from a few

seasonal trims and removing some weeds when needed, your prairie garden will do best when left to do its thing!

References:

Guide to Planting Pocket Prairies. from the University of Texas LBJ Wildflower Center

Native Plant Society of Texas

Native and Adapted Plants for Texas Landscapes. City of Austin.