I was following the instructions from Prairie Nursery for planting prairie seed. They recommend mulching it with marsh hay or weed-free straw, which I couldn't find in the area. I went to several local traditional (non-native) nurseries and all they had was reed canary grass hay. I had read it was considered invasive, but they didn't know anything about that (people I've talked with at regular nurseries don't seem to know much about things like this.) I called Prairie Nursery and they said that I should definitely not use the reed canary grass hay, because it will contain seeds and the grass will out compete the prairie plants. So, the closest thing I could find was shredded leaf compost from Herman's Landscape Supply. Prairie Nursery said that should be OK to use. I calculated that I'd need 5 yards to cover 1500 square feet at 1" depth. Moving all this to the back was a long 8 hour day of really hard work. The idea is to protect the seed from the birds and keep it in place over the winter. The seed will break dormancy over the winter and hopefully start sprouting next spring. I mixed it in with annual rye grass as a nurse crop. Of course, I've never done this before so I'm not sure exactly what to expect!