Right now our 3/4 acre future prairie is a field of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta). This isn’t the diverse mix of grasses and wildflowers we want our prairie to be in the end, but Black-eyed Susans are playing the role of a ground cover of sorts, competing with weeds while the other prairie plants that take longer to establish themselves get going. For the moment, it is beautiful. And it implies our spring guesses were right, that the prairie planting is going as it should.