What Kids Can Do Outdoors

What kids can do on a turf grass lawn:
Toss around a softball of football or Frisbee.
Kick around a soccer ball.
Get bored and go inside.

What kids can do in a prairie with a network of paths:
Toss around a softball or football or Frisbee and search for it among the plants when they miss.
Kick a soccer ball down the paths.
Invent their own running games on the paths.
Play hiding and seeking games with each other.
Play hiding and seeking games with objects.
Have pretend adventures and explorations.
Act out stories.
Sit in among the tall plants to read.
Sit in among the tall plants to play board games.
Sit in among the tall plants to write in a journal or draw in a sketchbook.
Listen and watch for birds.
Find insects and insect eggs and insect chewings on leaves.
Find spiders and maybe even watch them make webs.
Search for different kinds of flowers.
Find different kinds of seed heads and seed pods.
Make collections of nature things.
Find traces of wildlife.
Nap.
Dream.
Imagine.
Learn.
Grow.

Mid August

Indian Grass

Indian Grass

Sorghastrum nutans

Foliage 4' to 5' tall

Flower and seed plume 5' to 6' tall

This plume is in full flower. Each tiny yellow droplet is a tubular flower. They vibrate in the wind.

Prairie Dropseed

Prairie Dropseed

Sporobolus heterolepsis

Foliage is 24" to 30" long but arches for form a mound only 12" to 18" tall.

Flower and seed are airy and 24" to 30" tall on a thin stiff stem.

Grown as a monoculture, it makes a good lawn supstitute, but needs paths through it, because each plant forms a tussock so it is a bit difficult to walk through.

Also called Northern Dropseed

Indian Grass with Forbs

Indian Grass

Sorghastrum nutans

5' tall

Upright form good for landscaping

Bright rusty tan flower head followed by pale tan seed plume.

Compass plant in foreground and tall coreopsis in background.

Prairie Dropseed

Prairie Dropseed

Sporobolus heteroleptis

Foliage 15" to 24" tall

Flower/Seed Stalk 24" to 36" tall

Autumn Grasses

Little bluestem in foreground
Indian Grass in background
Mid to Late October

Prairie Dropseed

Prairie Dropseed
Sporobolus heteroleptis

15" to 18" tall
Turns yellow in fall.
Mound of very fine arching grass with upright light airy seed heads that are fragrant, reminding one of buttered popcorn.
Salt tolerant.
An excellent grass for the edge between turf and prairie garden.

Indian Grass

Indian Grass

Sorghastrum nutans


6' tall

Early fall

Little Bluestem in Fall

Little Bluestem
Schizachyrium scoparium
3' tall
Autumn and winter foliage are a russet color

Big Bluestem against Blue Sky

Big Bluestem

Andropogon gerardii

6' - 8' tall

Indian Grass Field

Indian Grass
Sorghastrum nutans
5' to 6' tall

Big Bluestem

Big Bluestem

Andropogon gerardii

6' - 8' tall

Flowers in early August

Bottlebrush Grass

Bottlebrush Grass

Elymus hystrix

Grows in the part shade under the bur oaks of the savanna

3' tall