Here's a lesson that cost Keith Horn and the Illinois DNR a serious headache, and it's one that a lot of people trying to establish prairie from scratch get wrong.

Keith owns Horn's Prairie Grove Land and Water Reserve just outside of Ramsey, Illinois, a 50-acre property with 665 native species and the largest intact Southern Till Plain Prairie in the state. He talked about his restoration experience on a recent episode of the Prairie Farm Podcast, and one part of that conversation deserves its own attention.

When Keith worked with the DNR to establish his ten-plus-acre restoration prairie back in 2004, they planted the big structural grasses, big bluestem and Indian grass, right along with everything else from the start.

"They put the big grass in with right away," Keith said, "and it almost overtook it. You had to do some fall burns and knock it back. And now it's much better, but they was almost starting to debate if they was gonna have to redo the whole thing."

From one of the most experienced prairie restoration organizations in Illinois, on a project with ideal native soil underneath it. It almost went sideways because of seeding sequence.

If it can happen there, it can happen on your project too.

Why Big Bluestem and Indian Grass Are So Aggressive

Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) are the signature grasses of the tallgrass prairie. In a mature, diverse stand, they're beautiful and ecologically essential. They're what give a true tallgrass prairie that six to ten foot wall of grass in July and August. They support skipper butterfly larvae, provide nesting cover for ground birds, and produce seed that feeds sparrows through winter.

The problem is what they do before that mature balance sets in.

Both grasses are highly competitive once they get going. Switchgrass, big bluestem, and Indian grass are moderately easy to establish and need two years before they can really be hayed or grazed, according to Missouri Extension, but once they hit their stride they push hard. In a young restoration without the checks and balances of a fully developed plant community, the big grasses can run right over the forbs and shorter species you were counting on.

Illinois Extension puts it plainly: "Seeding in a little often goes a long way. If you desire flowering plants in your restoration, establish those for a few years before adding in the grasses."

That's the thing most people miss. The advice to plant wildflowers and forbs first isn't just aesthetic preference, it's about giving the more delicate plants a fighting chance before the heavy hitters come in.

What a True Prairie Does Naturally

It helps to understand how this works in an undisturbed remnant prairie. The plant communities there didn't all establish at the same time. What you're looking at in a remnant is thousands of years of competition and balance. The forbs, sedges, short grasses, and specialty plants got established, found their niches, built their soil relationships. The dominant grasses like big bluestem fill a structural role in that community but they aren't running the show by themselves.

In Keith's remnant prairie, he has over 70 grass species. Big bluestem and Indian grass are the dominant tall grasses, yes, but they exist alongside Elliott's bluestem, side-oats grama, Eastern gamma grass, purple top, switchgrass, and dozens of others. That diversity creates balance. No one species takes over because there's genuine competition across the whole plant community.

When you start a restoration from bare ground and seed everything at once, you're not recreating that competition. You're handing a few aggressive species a blank canvas and hoping for the best.

The Better Approach: Sequence Your Seeding

The practical fix is to break your restoration into phases.

In year one and year two, focus on your wildflowers, forbs, and shorter, less aggressive grass species. Plants like purple coneflower, rattlesnake master, prairie blazing star, wild bergamot, compass plant, and prairie dropseed. Let these establish. Get some root development going. Build the plant community layer by layer.

Then, in year two or three, come in with the big structural grasses. Big bluestem, Indian grass, and switchgrass can be added once the rest of the community has had a chance to get its footing. At that point, they'll fill in as a dominant canopy species the way they're supposed to, rather than steamrolling everything smaller.

This approach aligns with how native prairie developed naturally, and it's what Illinois Extension recommends specifically for restorations where flowering plants are a priority.

If you're managing an existing planting where the big grasses have already gotten ahead of everything else, Keith's experience gives you a clue there too. Fall burning knocked the dominance back and gave the rest of the community room to recover. Fire is a management tool, not just a one-time event. The role of fire in cycling nutrients back into the soil and reducing woody competition is well documented, and it applies equally to keeping overly aggressive grasses in check within a young restoration.

A Word on Seeding Rates

This connects to another common mistake, and that's using too high a seeding rate on big bluestem in particular. If you're seeding for a diverse prairie planting rather than a grass stand, err toward the low end of the range, half a pound per acre is plenty. More seed does not mean more diversity. It usually means more competition for everything else.

This is part of why working with someone who knows what they're doing makes a genuine difference on these projects. It's not just about which species you pick. It's about the ratios, the timing, and the sequence. Get one of those wrong and you can end up with a grass monoculture instead of a prairie, even if every species on your seed tag is technically native.

The Good News

Keith's restoration prairie recovered. It took work and some additional burns, but it came back. The forbs came in, the diversity improved, and now it's a functioning complement to the remnant prairie next to it. The DNR and Keith got there in the end.

But wouldn't it have been easier to sequence it right from the beginning?

If you're planning a prairie restoration and want to get the seeding plan right, Hoksey Native Seeds can help you think through species selection, timing, and rates for your specific site. A little bit of planning on the front end saves a lot of fire, frustration, and almost-do-it-overs on the back end.