Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration

Home
United States
Kalamazoo, MI
Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration

Increasing biodiversity, expanding habitat and connecting green corridors one yard at a time. Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

09/06/2026

My busy Fall installation season begins Tuesday and goes until nearly Halloween but here are some pics from a customer who installed his Dropseed! Native Gardens garden himself yesterday. Looks amazing!!
Some customers choose to have me design and source the plants and then they install the gardens themselves rather than waiting to get on my install schedule, which is typically blocked out six months to a year.

09/05/2026

The Monarchs are feasting on the Liatris in my garden like crazy during the past few days.
I’ll be helping out with retail sales again today at Hidden Savanna Nursery from 10-4 if anyone wants to come by and hit me up with all your burning plant questions.

09/01/2026

The gathering of the fall installation inventory began today with pick ups from Wildtype Native Plant Nursery • Ecological Services and Bendy Stem Farm. There will be at least three more nursery pick ups. Figuring out plant inventory is probably the most complicated part of my job. Thank god my wife turned on to the magic of spreadsheets!
And right after I finished unloading all my plants this afternoon the gawds showered me with, erm…showers!

08/31/2026

I’m heading back to my hometown of St. John, Indiana in October to give a presentation on oak savanna-style gardening for the Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes - Gibson Woods Chapter 38 native plant symposium. If you’re interested in attending you can get tickets here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gibson-woods-wild-ones-10th-biennial-native-plant-symposium-tickets-1987938853625
Here are a couple of slides that I pulled from my presentation to give you an idea of what the hell I’ll be going on about.

08/29/2026

NW Indiana and NE Illinois have done a much better job at preserving the original oak savannas and prairies than Michigan has (to be fair Michigan didn’t have as many to begin with) but southern lower Michigan is where it’s at for Prairie Fens. There’s incredible diversity in these unique ecosystems.
1. Lesser Fringed Gentian
2. Turtlehead
3. Grass of Parnassus
4. Ohio Goldenrod
5. Prairie Dropseed
6. Flattop Aster
7. Rough Blazingstar
8. Swamp Lousewort
9. Shrubby Cinquefoil
10. Virgin’s Bower
11. Swamp Thistle
12. Western Bumble?
13. Some sort of Helianthus
ancient ecosystems are poetry

08/26/2026

I will be assisting native plant shoppers at Hidden Savanna Nursery this Friday evening from 4:00 to 7:00 at their Fall retail opener. Bring me a beer and brat!
The photo is one that I snapped years ago when I accompanied Chad during one of his seed collecting excursions. This one was at a rare remnant oak savanna.

08/25/2026

Here’s a simple combo that provides long term structure to a native plant garden. From ground up: Prairie Dropseed, Cream Wild Indigo, Rattlesnake Master and White Wild indigo. All four look great from May (RS a little later) through Winter. Just pop in a diversity of flowering plants to add color throughout the seasons (I kinda prefer the way it looks right now without the color).

08/24/2026

I had a great hike yesterday with some old mates and their cool kids at Cowles Bog in the Indiana Dunes National Park. It’s pretty astonishing to observe plants that are rare or extirpated in Michigan to be somewhat common just over the border in Indiana.

08/22/2026

Late summer transition into fall is kind of a dull period for native gardens with dry sandy soil. Common Boneset is definitely popping off right now and is a great source for pollinators; however, even though it’s fairly adaptable, it’s basically a wetland species. So if you have really sandy soil, it probably won’t do all that well in your garden. Instead False Boneset (Brickellia eupatorioides) is a more appropriate species for those conditions. It offers really cool bright, white blooms at the end of summer, it’s deer resistant and aesthetically I prefer it over common boneset because it has a more bushier growth habit (not to mention that it is shorter and has a massive taproot of up to 17 feet deep!). It’s fairly rare in Michigan, C-value of 8 and it’s somewhat hard to find in the nursery trade, but Hidden Savanna Nursery occasionally carries it. eupatorioides

08/21/2026

Absolutely stunning Helianthus mollis in my neighbor’s garden. This species is listed as “Threatened” in Michigan and has a C-Value of 9. Very high ecological value as a host plant, pollen/nectar source and seed source for birds. It appears to be deer/rabbit resistant and it’s extremely attractive, especially this time of year when sandy gardens are relatively dull in color. However, I’ve heard gardeners complain that it can be a little too aggressive in smaller beds and that they tend to flop in richer soils. I personally haven’t used this species in projects yet but would like to experiment. Curious to hear anyone else’s thoughts on this plant for gardens.

Address

000
Kalamazoo, MI

Website

https://www.dropseedgardens.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration:

Want your business to be the top-listed Contractor in Kalamazoo?