Arcadia Neighborhood East
Wednesday, August 26, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
This is an open-house style tour. The garden owners will be at home between 6:00 and 8:00. Stop by in any order you wish.
These gardens are within a few blocks of each other. If you want to tour on foot, you can park on the street near one garden and walk to the others.
The five addresses are below (see also the map linked to the button at above right). You can read most of the gardeners’ stories here, and all the hosts will be at home to talk about their gardens on the 26th.
633 Weaver Avenue
We moved to Kalamazoo in 2004 and bought this house on a corner lot, with its big trees, sloping lawn, and many ornamental beds. We weren’t prepared or particularly motivated to maintain the landscaping in the conventional way with irrigation, fertilizer, and herbicides. Eventually, alarm about climate change and a new interest in birds led us toward becoming more intentional stewards of our land. We started with two pawpaws and a few native shrubs, and in 2021 began converting entire beds and sections of lawn. In an incremental and experimental way, we’ve planted about 2400 plants of 180 species so far. Though there were frustrations, mistakes, and surprises, it’s been a rewarding learning experience for us. We now enjoy the abundance of life here, and plan to expand our native plantings each year. -Paul and Beth
915 Weaver Avenue
I first became the steward of my property at 915 Weaver Ave in 2012. At 32, I was a solo, first time home-buyer, and eager to improve the sparse landscaping on the property. Even though I am an ecologist, I did not immediately think of my home as a place that could be an ecological santuary. I remember that the first plants I put in were traditional bulbs like crocuses and tulips. My thinking in terms of stewardship evolved over time, in part because our neighborhood is so rich in history – including Weaver Ave being a boundary of the Potawatomi Reservation in the 1820’s – and in part because I grew to love the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. In 2013, I started intentionally including native grasses (big bluestem) in my landscaping to help prevent erosion and water from getting into my basement, and from then on I was hooked.
Over the last decade+ I have killed off nine different areas of the lawn and replaced them with different mixtures of native plants. I also run a mini-Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) vegetable garden. Combined, the native gardens and CSA are called Black Dog Gardens, in honor of the two dogs that have been my constant gardening sidekicks. I enjoy tracking plant and pollinator phenology and post pictures on Instagram @blackdog_gardens. In 2025, there were 50 native species that flowered on the property from April to September. -Kathryn
858 Dobbin Drive
Our yard on Dobbin Drive continues to evolve. When we bought the house in 1990, we were drawn to the large backyard that included a woodlot – perfect for raising four young sons. The yard included five Colorado Blue spruces, a Norway spruce, a Douglas fir, a Concolor Fir, many Norway Maples, and lots of cultivated roses and ornamentals.
Many of the large trees were planted very close to the house. The woodlot was full of buckthorn, Asian honeysuckle, English ivy, vinca/periwinkle/myrtle, white mulberry, multiflora rose,…
Initiated by our youngest son, Griffin, in 2004, we began removing invasives and converting the yard to native plants while also decreasing the turf grass. We share the yard now with birds, insects, rabbits, chipmunks, groundhogs, and more. When our grandchildren visit, they appreciate the space, wildness, and beauty of the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Ongoing challenges include deer pressure, black knot fungus, creeping Charlie, ground elder, periwinkle, ajuga, and other invasives. -Karen
919 Dobbin Drive
In our 20-year experiment, we have generated a community of mostly prairie and savanna species. In this fabricated prairie community, we have a gradient of moisture with different species planted along it according to their tolerances. Some of the species disperse around the yard to self-propagate, others never spread and others have gone locally extinct in spite of repeated introductions. In the end, the planting has taught us a lot about just how far plant rhizomes can stretch; however, it has probably been most informative about deer herbivory preferences! -Todd
918 Farrell Avenue
We began our native garden in 2015, shortly after moving to Michigan. The Kalamazoo Wild Ones and a widening circle of helpful enthusiasts (and especially Chad Hughson of Hidden Savanna) gave us lots of advice and were the sources of our first native plantings. The deer promptly ate up those plants from our front yard. Again and again. We tried all sorts of discouragants and repellants, but none worked for more than a few weeks. And we tried various kinds of fencing around patches of forbs and vegetables: which sort of worked but gardening through a fence is such a drag. Then last year, we read a comment by Doug Tallamy in his book “How Can I Help” about a kind of low double fencing that would keep out deer but would also be permitted in a Kalamazoo front yard. So we started out with three foot high fencing, two rows, spaced three feet apart around the entire front yard. That worked for a while, but then the deer started jumping over. We gradually added various height extensions and visual deterrents, following advice about making a psychological barrier, not a deer proof physical barricade.
To our amazement it is working. We haven’t had a deer invasion in months. And after patching a few low entry points, the rabbits don’t get in either. Now we see what our plants look like when they aren’t constantly nipped back. What a revelation. And without all those scraps of fencing around plants, we have the front yard to ourselves (along with the birds and throngs of pollinators, of course). Fortunately we don’t have a neighborhood association to complain about the appearance, and so far the birds and bees are giving us rave reviews.