Lindsay Lohan's latest movie A Prairie Home Companion is the story of the final days of a radio program called "A Prairie Home Companion." In it, Lohan plays the depressed daughter of Meryl Streep. Perhaps if Lohan's character had her very own prairie flowers, she'd have been less obsessed with suicide and more interested in the beauty of nature.
Growing prairie flowers has become an increasingly popular way to add some beauty to the yards of thousands of Americans. In fact, many people are turning to natural prairie flowers because they require a lot less hassle and work than do fancier and more complicated landscaping methods.
Prairie flowers lend a stunning splash of color that require surprisingly little time to grow and maintain. With easy to grow prairie flowers, you can enjoy tall, bright yellow blooms, fiery red flowers, and delicate lavender petals. To add some extra natural beauty, you can include prairie grasses. Once you've gotten them started, you'll spend very little time working on the flowers and much more time enjoying them.
When choosing a sight to plant prairie flowers, look for a place in your yard that is exposed to full sunlight. The quality of the dirt is less important since prairie flowers are capable of growing in almost anything, including clay, sand, a range of acidity, shallow soil, and marshy soils. They can be the perfect answer to those problem spots in your yard that are incapable of supporting a lush, green lawn.
Although you can grow prairie flowers in almost anything, you will need to consider the soil when you choose the type of prairie flowers to grow. Prairies are generally divided into three varieties: mesic or moderately dry, wet, and dry. Mesic and dry prairies have loose soil and good water drainage. Wet prairies are, well, wet. They don't have good drainage and the water tends to remain in puddles after a good downpour.
Another important factor to keep in mind when considering growing your own prairie is your local laws. Some areas have weed control ordinances and may consider your beautiful prairie grasses, which can spread, to be weeds. If that's the case, you'll have to stick to flowers only and leave out the natural grasses.
The first two or three years of your prairie growing experience will be more labor intensive than subsequent years. You'll spend some time weeding since weeds can easily choke out slow growing prairie plants. After your plants have taken root, you'll still need to mow and rake in the spring. Set the blade of your mower between five and eight inches above the ground so that you'll cut only the fast growing weeds and not your prairie plants. The remainder of the spring and summer can be spent just watching your plants grow and bloom.
Prairie flower gardens are really beginning to catch on, so it seems only a matter of time before busy celebrities like Lindsay Lohan will have their own prairie home companions.
Wesley Berry is member of the American Academy of Floriculture (AAF) and President of Wesley Berry Flowers, a successful multi-million dollar floral business that was established in 1946. As a major sponsor of Local-Library.com and LocalSchoolFinder.com, Wesley Berry has worked hard on behalf of improving literacy. Visit Wesley Berry Flowers on the web at www.800wesleys.com.