Burn it. The native grasses will thrive, the annual weeds will be suppressed. You will be replicating the local prairie burns of thousands of years. You may actually double the biomass of the native grasses. A burn will be the best possible management tool you have. Do it.

Thanks, John. Burn it is.

Check with your County Extension, you might need a permit to do a prescribed burn. VH

Jim, if you've never done a burn before, I'd recommend more than just getting a permit. Talk to extension agents, read as much as you can, and have plenty of water, not to mention the local fire department, standing by. You'd be amazed at how easily a prairie fire can get out of control if the grass is too dry or if the wind comes up. I speak from experience. I lit a part of my prairie in February 2000 just to see if the grass was dry enough to burn (we'd just had several days of rain), and ended up with the entire acre burned by the time the fire department arrived - it also burned a section of my neighbor's wooden fence, resulting in rather frosty relations with them. Since then I've left the grasses, wildflowers etc to overwinter, then mowed to ~3-4" in March. With adequate rainfall, the mulch is pretty much gone by mid-summer. Yes, a burn is probably better, but it's also very dangerous. Don't do it until you are absolutely sure of control and safety.

Blue gramma and buffalo grass are both rather short. If the area is surrounded by mown turf, burning should be no problem.

But (for you and others) if the area has tallgrasses and is not bordered by a wide (15-20 ft) mown turf or other fuel break, then yes, you need expertise. I'm an Ohio Certified Prescribed Fire Manager, and I do a dozen or so prairie fires each spring. Unless you know what you are doing, things (in tallgrass areas) can get away quickly.

Nonetheless, a burn is the best way to manage a warm season grass area.

I have the same situation on an acre meadow of native wildflowers and little bluestem planted in Dec. of 2002 and started up last year, 2003, only to be taken over by crabgrass. I mowed it short repeatedly, possibly harming the wildflower starts. Question: The dead crabgrass is very short now. Should I also burn, or would it harm the wildflowers starting. If so, when?

If you can burn this spring, do it. A burn stimulates both native prairie forbs ("wildflowers") and the good grasses.

I'd back off on the mowing a bit this year. Can you see any little bluestems this winter? They will be an obvious russet-red. If you can, good. These will take off this year, especially if you can get in a March or April burn.

But if you don't see any little bluestem seedlings, you may not have any. Short crabgrass is of no concern. The only concern is annual grass shading of the sun-loving grasses and forbs. So learn which are your little bluestems and which are the crabgrasses. Mow only if the annual weed grasses get so dense that you can't see the ground. If you can see bare ground, enough sunlight is getting to the prairie species and they will eventually rise above the weeds.

Thanks for the responses. I did burn the area along my lane about 3 weeks ago, leaving a small test strip unburned just to see what would happen. The burned area is now greening up quite well, and no weeds have showed up yet. As for the test strip, nothing was happening, so last night I raked up the crabgrass and burned it. Doesn't look like anything is coming up underneath it, except for a mouse nest, and our cat made short work of that. Should have burned the entire area. If nothing comes up I will reseed, I plan on putting in more areas of the buffalo grass/blue grama mix anyway. Next year a burn will be done on the whole thing. Live and learn!

Remember, these native prairie grasses don't really begin to grow until soil temperatures reach at least 65 degrees F. So be patient. In a few weeks things will really begin to pop.

The burning allowed the sun to help warm the soil.

Follow up - it's been a little over 2 months since we burned the grass, and the results have been great! The burned areas have come back thick with the buffalo grass and blue grama. In the thickest grassy areas no weeds have shown up yet, and it's quite a site! The grama is now seeding out and is about 12" tall, and the buffalo grass shoots are flowering. There are still some weeds coming up, but they are having a difficult time where the grasses are the thickest, and we're taking care of them as they come up.

The areas where we didn't burn (see the other posts) are struggling, even the areas where we raked and burned later are coming along slow. Where the crabgrass mat is the thickest, nothing is coming up, even the weeds are having tough time penetrating. I'll be reseeding the worst areas this weekend. Next year the whole thing gets burned! Thanks for all the advice along the way!