The weeds are winning in the Central Avenue median strip between 27th and 37th avenues NE, and the city and Prairie Restorations have their weapons ready for the fourth attempt to establish viable plantings at the site.
Last week, Prairie Restorations workers mowed the thigh-high weeds, at the request of the city, and in a few weeks, as soon there is enough new leaf growth to apply herbicide, they will treat the entire strip with glyphosate – a weed killer commonly known by the brand name Roundup.
The city will amend the soil with sand, and then in the fall the strip will be seeded with native prairie grasses and flowers, according to Ryan Mack, a land management coordinator with Prairie Restorations. This will be the company’s third attempt at seeding the plot.
Roots of the good plant-bad plant struggle go back to the mid 2000s, when the city’s road funds from the state were used to plant trees and ornamental shrubs and flowers in the strip, which is a MnDOT right of way and used to be concrete. The plants died, likely from a combination of a too-steep berm that prevented water retention, the assault of car exhaust and road salt on plants not designed to withstand those conditions, and the lack of funds designated for maintenance, said First Ward Council Member Kevin Reich, who inherited the median project when he took office in 2009.
The plantings were eventually removed, the soil scraped down to a more concave profile, and the community was asked for input on what to do with the strip. With funds that Reich said came from the city’s Department of Public Works budget, Prairie Restorations was contracted in 2012 to establish a native prairie planting – plants that are low maintenance, relatively low profile, and resistant to drought and road salt.
In the first round the median strips were burned to remove dead plant matter to facilitate more direct seed contact with the soil, but no herbicide was applied. That year, the weeds won. Then in the spring after the second round of seeding, there were many fewer prairie plants emerging than expected. Another win for the weeds.
Mack had the soil analyzed. “Some numbers were a little off, but nothing that is extremely concerning to us” he said. He called it a difficult site to manage, with the amount of traffic presenting safety challenges for the crew and the heat from car exhausts adding to what Mack described as the “thermal loading” of the soil, which can spur faster weed germination and vigorous weed growth. Seeds that blow from weeds from nearby properties, as well as a large number of weed seeds in the soil also are factors in making this site so challenging, Mack said.
So why might this round turn out differently? In addition to the herbicide application, Mack said that they will try to address certain conditions that help weeds outcompete prairie plant seedlings. The sand-soil mix that the city will add to the site will be more favorable for the native plants, and the city is going to start a yearly removal of the thick organic mat of leaves and dead weeds that inhibited germination of the prairie plants but not the aggressive weeds.
Mack said that the plan is to seed this fall, likely with a mix of perennial native plants, including little bluestem and side-oats grasses and a few flower species. The specific types of plants haven’t been determined yet, but will be chosen with the characteristics of the site in mind, he said.
Asked if the planting would consist of randomly scattered species or would have a more organized look, Mack said that he and Ron Bowen, the owner of the company, are still picking out the seed mix and figuring out the layout. “The seeding species and requirements for this reseeding project have been left very much open to our interpretation,” he said, adding, “There are costs and benefits of laying out the seed how they appear in nature [intermixed] and a more formal appearance by separating species.”
The company will maintain the median with spot herbicide work, complete site mowing and spot mowing as needed and conduct inspections to be sure that the prairie plants are germinating and the weeds are kept in check.
“We hope to have good strong prairie in two or three years,” Bowen said, after a meeting at the site with Reich and Mack on July 29. Reich said that Bowen is now personally involved in the company’s third attempt to establish the plantings, which, Reich said, will be at the company’s expense, as have been all of the efforts since Prairie Restorations’ first attempt. “We’re in this for the long haul. We’re very determined to make this right,” Bowen said.
Reich said that he felt there started to be progress when Mack replaced the previous project manager and initiated a site analysis and soil study. “He was not taking it for granted that the prairie was just going to win at the end of the day. Something wasn’t quite right, and he got to the bottom of it,” Reich said.
“No one wants this to work as bad as we do,” Mack said. “The city’s patience has been greatly appreciated.”
Below: Although some of the species that will be sown in the Central Avenue median may be different, this native prairie planting by Prairie
Restorations gives a general idea of what the median could look like when established. The grasses and flowers pictured are in front of
Murphy Warehouse Company at 701 24th Ave. SE in Minneapolis. Ron Bowen and Ryan Mack inspect the waist-high overgrowth near St. Anthony Parkway. (Photos by Karen Kraco)
