I'd start with Roundup and then once its cleared of fescue and weeds, seed it with a classic prairie grass according to what height you want and whats appropriate for your part of the country. Forbs can be added according to desired height etc. for a mixed prairie.

Or....a simple swath of grass would be lovely, especially if you have late afternoon sun and a bit of wind for it to sway in. Around here the city has done large swaths like this, all one kind of grass in a median or along a border and I have to tell you, its gorgeous and once its filled in, extremely low maintenance and water-wise. Or they do mixed plantings, for example, a swath of low-growing grass such a blue grama with a swath of Little Bluestem behind that and then a tall swath of Switchgrass behind the Bluestem. If possible, add some well placed big rocks and its really nice. The only maintenance is the annual spring cutting.

Thank you. I really like the idea of a nice tall prairie grass. Would I need to clean off all the dead fescue and weeds before planting with prairie? Also, do I need to fertilize and water it?

No fertilizer. Yea, you'd need to water it if its dry and keep it moist until the seeds germinated and some decent roots set in. Cleanup would be up to you and what you see visually as far as good seed to soil contact is concerned, I'd probably clean out the dead stuff with a rake at least, I'd mow it real low and then apply the roundup, less to clean. I killed an entire a bermuda lawn with roundup one fall, by the next spring there was very little organic matter left but the bermuda was pretty punk back there and it sat all winter.

You can buy bulk prairie grass seed online from various sources, that would be the most cost effective. I've purchased several different grass plants from Santa Rosa Gardens during their sale, they have these in late spring and late fall. The next year I've always had lots and lots of seedlings to fill in other places so thats another way to go if you don't need results all at once. In any case, you can look at their selection of native grasses to get an idea of what type you want. I've also collected seed in the wild from local grasses.

Most of the warm season grasses come up easily from seed in warm moist conditions, in 10 to 14 days or so. The exception is Prairie Dropseed. Its slower to reach mature plant size and the seed needs cold stratification. Its suggested that plants are the way to go unless you want to wait a few years for results.

There are also places online that sell plugs in bulk amounts but usually not to the general public.

Oh and remember the rule for grasses is:

First year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap.

So, its not instant, its a process but well worth the wait and once established, you really have a nice thing going.

What region are you in there, grindstaff?

I'm in Farmington, MO. About an hour south of St. Louis in zone 6a

Long term, watch for tree seedlings, they'll probably be your worst weeds. Just don't them go all season without rogueing them. Course that's true of the other weeds that will eventually emerge too.

I loved my prairie/meadow thing in NE Oklahoma (z7)

The "rule" for dealing with woody species is that fire will take them out. And this is true, so far as it goes. However, repeated burning will also discourage forbs. In time, if you burn enough, you will end up with all warm season grasses. That's OK if that's what you want, but just be aware-this whole prairie paradigm is based on what was supposed to have been in that area "originally", whatever that word is taken to mean-usually prior to European settlement-but in those days, elk, bison, and other large herbivores roamed the land, keeping the grasses in check. Without the big plant eaters, the grasses will take over. So not so authentic after all!

Still can be some nice plantings...and maybe even useful for some wildlife species that require that type of habitat, but the drumbeat of "this is what should be here" is a bit overstated in most cases.

And that, my friends, is my opinion! And my opinion is based on a LOT of research.

so I'm not just throwing seed out to grow if I want a prairie? I'm actually planting grasses from buckets?

Not at all sure what you're asking there. But I can tell you, the usual way to start a prairie planting is to first kill off the weeds that are present. Keep in mind, in this context, an alfalfa field would be 100% weeds, the weed in this case being the alfalfa. See where I'm going there?

Then, after two or more rounds of herbiciding to kill off successive waves of germinating weeds, a mixture of appropriate (for your locale) prairie grasses and forbs would be planted via seed. We tend to do this in late fall, after all chances of germination yet that year have passed. Little tiny baby plants-even of otherwise perfectly hardy species-would be killed off if frozen hard so young in life. For the most part, this dormant fall seeding is done so as to mimic the way nature does it. The grasses mostly don't care when they get seeded in, but many of the forbs do.

Am I getting you any closer to understanding? What was the bucket reference?

wiscon, the going to all grasses problem must depend on where a person lives, moisture, soil etc. I agree with barron. Trees are the bigger weed problem of a prairie or meadow, not grasses and with that maple tree it will be a yearly battle, I hope its not a Silver Maple...but anyway, thats been the typical situation down here. Personally I like predominantly grasses with native annuals and perennials serving as accents but thats up to individual preference.

Who said anything about planting grasses from buckets? If you want faster results, plugs are the way to go although more expensive, otherwise seed is fine.

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Yeah, in a high profile area, I think I might go with (at least some) plugs. That's what I did...to give at least some color in the first couple of years as the plantings matured.

By choosing appropriate perennials, I also found that I got significant reseeding without further planting (I liked that) of my forbs. Echinacea purpurea, liatris pycnostachys, rudbeckias (used several), helianthus (to lesser degree..mainly from clump spread..but not entirely), and OMG the monarda fistulosa (that's almost a pure weed...but has it's own loveliness). I had other things reseed, but those were the ones that spread the most.

The timing of your burn affects the prairie planting greatly. Since I was most interested in forbs, I tended to burn in very late autum/early winter. I would usually first mow (not always) to disperse seed...which would usually be unharmed by the quick passage of the fire (while laying on the moist cool ground). Many of my forbs started growth in late winter or early spring, so I had to burn before spring to not eliminate them (native forbs that I did NOT plant...like anemone caroliniana and delphinium virescens, and some other spring flowering ephemerals, but naturally occurred). A burn in spring will often tend to favor grasses.

Plugs or gallon sized plants are definitely a help, I agree and they are fun to buy. You get a lot of seed from a single plant so I consider it double duty and a good source of seed. If you can trade online, thats a great way to get plants too. Sometimes seed is the only source but I always consider buying a plant as being equal to buying bulk seed and.... I also think of them as wampum for later trades except I've slowed down almost to a stop on that part. In the beginning I got so many plants by trading. Once I started this prairie thing, the habit had a tendency to grow and get a life of its own, it became addictive. I found myself spending hours online looking up species or trying to ID unknowns. I also keep my eyes peeled on the surrounding native landscape and keep baggies handy in the glove box for seed collecting along with scissors for taking cuttings--I wet a paper towel and bag it up to take home to try rooting it.

Speaking of roadside, guess what? The Kansas Lead Plant out back started leafing out today. Spring is definitely and irrevocably 100% here.

The sad thing is that I have a forecast for two nights of 29 (friday and saturday)...I will be using blankets and towels, because I have some stuff that's just too far advanced to take it (imo), esp some exotics that are notoriously frost tender.

Oh to be sure, if it's prairie you want, woody plants will be your bane. I was simply addressing another separate issue-that of eventual grass dominance if fire is your main treatment. These are not mutually exclusive outcomes.