Pathways with Purpose
Floral Resources Under Your Feet
Just because it’s occasionally mowed and driven on, doesn’t mean it has to be a floral desert. For high-traffic areas in vineyards, orchards and headlands, we offer several multifunctional mixes to fit your farmscape.
Prices listed are based on availability at the time of publishing. Please call for the most current price. Unit of purchase is 50# unless noted.
Pollinator Pathway
Maximize functional biodiversity, reduce mowing, and improve soil quality with our signature Pollinator Pathway. A proprietary mix of 19 hearty and short-statured perennial and annual forbs and two grasses -Pollinator Pathway is a beneficial bug buffet! Flowers include Willamette Valley natives, medicinal and edible herbs and pollinator-friendly flowers designed to tolerate traffic and drought. Grasses are clumping, not running, so they are less likely to wander under vines or trees. For use in moderate to high vigor sites or in alternate-row tillage systems. Supplemental clovers can be provided as desired to enhance N fixing potential. 30% forbs, 70% grasses (hard fescue, chewings fescue). Email for a complete species list. Sow at 1/4” in a well-prepared seed bed in spring or fall.
Seed rate: 25-35 lb/ac.
***Comes in 25lb bags
Price: $13.22/lb
Wine Grape Pathway
Designed to minimize mowing, reduce tillage, enhance beauty and improve pollinator habitat, Wine Grape Pathway is an ideal vineyard floor mix. The two short-statured and long-lived fine fescues exhibit early dormancy, minimizing vine competition and therefore the need for tillage. Turf annual ryegrass acts as a nurse crop, stabilizing soils with quick emergence, dying after year one leaving the fine fescues and flowers. Includes two perennial and two reliably self-re-sowing “nativar” flowers and two clovers, selected for their short stature and attractiveness to pollinators. Best established at ¼” deep into a well-prepared seedbed with a drop-seeder and rolled. May benefit from one early mowing to control weeds. Unlike any other pathway mix available! 70% grasses. Email for a complete species list. Sow at 1/4” in a well-prepared seed bed in spring or fall.
Seed rate: 30-50lb/ac.
Prices: 50-150lb $5.12/lb >200 $4.71/lb >1000lb ask
Picnic Pathway
A simple, grass-only mix for use in vineyards and orchards. Use in alternate rows with any of our other floor mixes or in every row. Turf annual ryegrass emerges quickly in the fall to stabilize soils in year one while the fescues slowly fill in. The fine fescues exhibit the earliest dormancy of all turf grasses, reducing competition and therefore the need for tillage. Creeping Red Fescue is tolerant of low mowing where flail mowing is practiced. Topping out at 12-16” tall, mowing passes can be reduced to 1-2 per year, depending on weed pressure. Heavier sowing rates will result in a thicker stand more quickly. Lighter seeding rates may require 2-3 years to develop a thick thatch. Sow in a well-prepared seed bed in spring or fall. Creeping Red Fescue 50%, Hard Fescue 20%, Turf-type Annual Ryegrass 30%
Seed rate: 50-100 lb/ac.
Prices: 50-150lb $4.01/lb, >200lb $3.79/lb, >1000lb ask
Annual Clover Mix
For those who are wanting to increase the N-fixing capacity and floral resources of their vineyard or orchard floors this mix of three clovers extends the length of time of bloom to up to 5 weeks. Bloom begins with crimson and ends with balansa. Mix into any of our other products or no-till straight into tightly-mowed established vegetation. Rose and Balansa clovers will reseed themselves if management allows. Comes pre-inoculated with N-fixing rhizobia (OMRI approved). Rose Clover 30%, Crimson Clover 40%, Balansa Clover 30%. Seed Rate: 5-8lb/ac oversown, 10-18lb/ac alone. Sow at 1/4” in a well-prepared seed bed or into a tightly mowed stand in spring or fall.
Minimum purchase: 5lb Prices: 5-45lb $3.76/lb >50lb $3.15/lb
Poa bulbosa
A brand-new type of grass, this short-statured species tops out around 12” and has a unique life cycle linked to daylength. This results in very early dormancy, around mid May in the Willamette Valley. The result is a surface mulch that suppresses weeds and holds in moisture June thru Oct, at which point regrowth occurs. Each year the grass self-propagates with below and above-ground propagules, filling in thicker with time. Recommended seed rates: 100-150lb/ac
Min purchase: 50lb Price: $3.08/lb
Under- Vine Seeds
Low-growing and self-regenerating, meadowfoam and Poa bulbosa can be sown under grapevines, between hops vines, at the edges of perennial beds as a “living mulch” or other places where a low-biomass, early dormancy plant is desired. Under-vine application is recommended for high-to-moderate vigor vineyards. Can be sown in the early spring or fall, with best results having been observed when applied by hand after an herbicide application and then topped with an inch of compost.
Meadowfoam
Meadowfoam is a small (8-1"2”), shallow-rooted, white-flowered ‘nativar’ grown in the Willamette Valley for oil seed. It readily reseeds itself and competes well with weeds. Provides early floral resources for pollinators. A favorite hiding place for crab spiders. Extremely well adapted to wet soils. Recommended seed rates depend on the application. For under-vine use, the goal is to outcompete weeds and it is a difficult area to sow, so high rates are recommended: 40lb/sown ac, or 1.5lb/1000sqft (assuming a 3’strip, 333 ft = 1000 square feet). As a cover crop rates can be as low as 10lb/ac.
Price: 5lb units: $4.18/lb, >50lb $3.80/lb
Poa bulbosa
A brand-new type of grass, this short-statured species tops out around 12” and has a unique life cycle linked to daylength. This results in very early dormancy, around mid May in the Willamette Valley. The result is a surface mulch that suppresses weeds and holds in moisture June thru Oct, at which point regrowth occurs. Each year the grass self-propagates with below and above-ground propagules, filling in thicker with time. Recommended seed rates for under-vine use 150-200lb/sown ac
Min purchase: 50lb Price: $3.08/lb