Monday, August 5, 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.
The gardeners’ stories:
9212 South 6th Street
I had my home built 13 years ago on the front acre of my 4-acre property. I started my yard and gardens that fall. Although I started with traditional garden plants in a large bed over builders’ sand around the house, I’ve ripped out and started several beds since then that are mostly native forbs, grasses, and bushes. All the trees and bushes that I planted are native, except for one ginkgo that goes with my Craftsman style bungalow. There are also several large trees which were here when I built the house. The larger part of my lawn is no mow grass since I’ve replaced the traditional lawn with flower beds. This is a registered monarch waystation and is also registered with Homegrown National Parks.
I’ve been a gardener all my adult life, but I’m slowing down at 77. I’m so happy to have had the foresight to plan mostly native gardens as I am able to keep up with them with less effort than traditional gardens. I’ve lost count of the different plants, shrubs, and trees I have on my acre. I am happy to share plants, but “you just can’t have my dirt!” as several friends know. -Ann Klobucar
8448 Keenan Street
We have lived in the Texas Heights subdivision for 10 years this summer. When we moved in, there was almost no landscaping in our yard except for a few hostas and 4 spruce trees. I started out by planting the usual big box nursery plants but began to be more interested in the benefits to biodiversity by planting native plants. I bought a dozen plants in 2018 from Hidden Savanna Nursery in Oshtemo. Our family enjoyed the plants and the insects so much that I started planting a “prairie garden” by our street in 2019 and posting a monarch waystation sign. I then learned about the concept of winter sowing (in the milk jugs) and in 2020, I planted hundreds of native plant plugs all over the place in my existing beds and began the makeover of my yard into certified wildlife habitat. Since we moved in, I have planted over 65 trees and shrubs that are mostly native (there are a few stragglers from the pre-native days), and well over 1000 plugs of native plants that I’ve grown from seed. I have a variety of “garden habitats,” including a woodland grove, shade gardens, and prairie-type plantings, the vast majority of which were all planted in the last 5 years. Every year brings its own set of successes and challenges but I hope my yard can inspire people that you can make an impact in a relatively short amount of time. -Jon Warner