Partnership with Sustainable Landscape Solutions Creates Natural Beauty

When we bought our home near Cedar Rapids in 2010 we had a vision to transform the yard that had been sprayed and manicured by its former owner into a wondrous place, brimming with natural beauty and fascinating wildlife. It would be a delightful yard with prairie and savanna wildflowers bouncing in the breeze, and goldfinches and swallowtail butterflies winging over. We sought to create natural beauty.

 

 

We have years of ecological restoration experience. Rich had been restoring prairies and oak savannas since 1975 in his position as executive director of two nature centers.   Like Rich, Marion is an inspired naturalist and a labyrinth expert. Together we had managed our former home for diversity, but the new property offered more space.

Beginning almost immediately, we planted prairies in portions of our front and back yards and worked with Linn County Roads to restore prairie in the nearby road ditch. This helped hold runoff water that could percolate into the ground.

Fortunately, we have experience managing fire. Rich is a former US Forest Service Hot Shot (wild firefighter) and we’ve used prescribed burns to help nurture the prairie.  Burning has helped us resurrect native plants and wildlife.

 

 

 

 

 

In their largest prairie Marion crafted the Phoenix Harmony Labyrinth. This is a five-circuit, dual-entry path to the center where people can enjoy a bur oak and be surrounded by prairie grasses and forbs. She welcomes people to play and encourages anyone wishing for moments of contemplation to visit and walk its curving paths between blooming prairie plants.  Her labyrinth is listed on the international labyrinth locator registry.

How Sustainable Landscape Solutions
Helped the Pattersons

We needed help with our newer projects. “We wanted to transform a hilly patch of our front lawn into a prairie rich in wildflowers and fewer tall prairie grasses. The site was a long-established conventional lawn composed of exotic grasses,” said Rich. “That’s a challenging environment to establish prairie. I’ve established prairies on lawns before by broadcasting seeds and following up with prescribed burns. But, it’s a slow process. We wanted to speed up restoration and needed help killing the turf and preparing the soil,” he added.

In 2020 we hired Sustainable Landscape Solutions to do the prep by first spraying the existing turf and later working the soil. Pattersons took it from there and planted a seed mix they purchased from Pheasants Forever. It’s called their Leopold Mix and contains seeds of 82 species of native prairie wildflowers.

Patience

It takes prairie time to mature. A year after planting we had a few blooms. The next year a few more. In its third year, it began to look like a prairie, and by its fifth growing season, the area was a magnificent spread of colorful flowers fluttering in the summer breeze.  Alive with bumblebees, butterflies, and other insects, it was rich with life.

Next Steps

Four years later we decided to pursue a different sort of property upgrade. The 2020 Derecho did a job on a cozy nook next to the garage. “We wanted to transform a weedy nook south of our house into a delightful place to sit on cool spring and fall days where the sun would warm us.  We worked with Virginia Hayes of Sustainable Landscape Solutions to come up with a patio plan that allows us and our visitors to sit and enjoy our thriving natural landscapes.

Patience, Again

Multiple rains delayed the project as Sustainable Landscapes worked diligently to catch up on already scheduled, and now rain-delayed projects. The new patio was crafted in July 2024. “It’s an example of how our company was able to work with homeowners to create a vision and gorgeous yard. Pattersons had much restoration knowledge but we’re happy to help people less experienced transform their yards into areas of natural beauty,” said Sean Pearl of Sustainable Landscapes.

Now, in early autumn, the nook is coming together nicely and we look forward to sharing it, the yard, and the labyrinth with others.

A Little More About Labyrinths

The Patterson’s labyrinth is created in a tallgrass prairie but these can be built in many ways, including in formal landscaping.  “Many are made of bricks or pavers that enable a walker to negotiate the winding pathway,” said Marion. “Ours has a wide grassy path with borders of prairie grasses and forbs that change seasonally.” Labyrinths are structures with a path that winds to a center. Each time walkers follow the path around the center is called a circuit.  Walkers find that the winding path slows down their minds and they can settle into a more relaxed space.  Because of the natural setting, many walkers comment on how they recall times in nature as youth.  Patterson is available to help landowners create labyrinths.

Blessings of the Changing Landscapes

We welcome visitors to our Winding Pathways website and to see our prairies.