What Prairie Grass Should I Plant Near My Pond?
(Pssst, We cover this and a LOT of other prairie things on our podcast, The Prairie Farm Podcast. Give it a listen. You will be glad you did.)
Great question. We have three different answers for you, and we’ll explain each one.
1. Buffalo grass. This is the native grass we have around our pond. It’s my favorite option. It stays short, so you never have to mow it, and acts as a sod grass. So if you want to walk or fish along the bank of your pond, then this is the turf for you. We don’t ever mow ours, but we do spray for weeds every two or three years. The down side, is it is VERY expensive. It’s about $700+/ac to plant.
2. Wildflower/ Pollinator Mix. If you want to fish and swim and play near your pond, this probably isn’t the option for you. But if you want to impress your neighbors… This is the one for you. You can bring color and life, adding food for pheasants and nectar for bees and butterflies for as little as $100/ac. Or you can go all in with hiiiigh diversity and color and ecological benefit for as expensive as you’d like. You definitely still want some grass/sedges in the mix to help hold the soil and add native balance. The down side to this is it’s management exertion. You can’t spray these mixes, so you have to mow the first couple years, then weed by hand as needed. If you have less than .25 acres to cover, then it wouldn’t take more than a few hours a couple times a year, but with larger areas, mowing might be the only option to keep the annual weeds at bay.
3. Prairie Grasses/Sedges. The main benefit is these are a lot easier to manage than wildflowers. With an all-grass/sedge mix you can spray for weeds instead of weeding by hand. We still recommend mowing for the first year and a half, but that’s a lot easier than going in a hand-hoeing a large area. The difference between prairie grass and buffalo grass plots is the height. Prairie grass can be anywhere between 2.5 feet and 8 feet tall, and normally a mix of both. If the ground is wetter/swampier, then you’ll want to be heavy in sedges and water tolerant grasses. If the ground is dry and more of a dike, then you’ll want some sedges, but more Sideoats Grama and Little Bluestem and Prairie Dropseed, which are drought tolerant.
There are other factors, but this cover most of the major ones. If you’re looking for mixes, you can check out some of our pollinator, buffalo grass, or prairie grass mixes here.
You can also find our custom mix builder here. But if you just want someone experienced to talk to, then give us a call. We consult for free.
I hope this helps! Happy conservationing!
