What Is the Best Formula for Watering Native Plants? A Simple Guide to Helping Michigan Native Plants Develop Deep, Healthy Roots One of the questions I hear most often is: “How often should I water my native plants?” It’s an understandable question. After all, many gardeners have spent years caring for annual flowers, vegetable gardens, […]
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Best Native Shrubs for Privacy and Wildlife Beautiful Native Shrubs That Create Habitat, Structure, and Year-Round Interest When most people think about creating privacy in their landscape, they immediately picture a row of evergreen shrubs. It’s understandable. Evergreens have long been the traditional solution for screening views and defining property lines. But what if privacy
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Creating a Beautiful Native Garden with Layers How to Add Depth, Structure, and Year-Round Beauty to Your Michigan Landscape Have you ever visited a garden that felt peaceful, balanced, and effortlessly beautiful? Perhaps nothing in particular stood out. There wasn’t one spectacular flower demanding attention. No dramatic focal point. And yet the garden felt complete.
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Do You Really Need Fertilizer? A Michigan Gardener’s Perspective on Feeding Native Plants Walk into almost any garden center in spring and you’ll find shelves filled with fertilizers promising bigger blooms, faster growth, greener leaves, and healthier plants. It’s easy to assume that fertilizer is simply part of successful gardening. After all, if a little
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The Best Native Grasses for Michigan Gardens Beautiful, Low-Maintenance Choices That Add Movement, Texture, and Year-Round Interest When most people imagine a beautiful garden, they think first about flowers. Purple Coneflowers. Black-eyed Susans. Bee Balm. Butterfly Weed. But one of the secrets to creating a truly beautiful, natural-looking Michigan garden isn’t another flower. It’s grass.
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How to Keep Native Plants Healthy During Summer Heat Simple Ways to Help Your Michigan Garden Thrive Through Hot, Dry Weather Summer has finally arrived in Michigan. The days are longer, gardens are bursting with color, pollinators are busy from sunrise to sunset, and everything seems full of life. Then the forecast appears. Several days
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What’s Blooming Across Michigan Right Now A Seasonal Journey Across the Great Lakes State Nature Notes • Educational Series Published June 2026 Before We Begin… Before reading any further, I’d like to invite you to do something. Step outside. Take a slow walk through your yard, your neighborhood, or a nearby park. Listen for birdsong.
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How to Create a Pollinator Habitat in Michigan: It’s More Than Just Flowers The Missing Piece Many Gardeners Don’t Realize Every garden has a story. Nature Notes helps you discover it. Welcome to Nature Notes from Michigan Garden Design, an ongoing educational series exploring the remarkable relationships between Michigan’s native plants, pollinators, birds, amphibians, and
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The Best Native Michigan Plants for Late-Summer Pollinators By late summer, many Michigan gardens begin to look a little tired. The excitement of spring has passed. Early summer blooms have faded. And some garden beds begin to lose the color and energy they had just a few weeks earlier. But out in nature, something remarkable
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The Best Native Plants for Attracting Birds in Michigan There’s something deeply comforting about a garden filled with birdsong. A goldfinch balancing on a swaying seed head. A chickadee darting through the shrubs. Cardinals glowing against soft summer greenery. When native Michigan plants are thoughtfully woven into the landscape, gardens begin to feel more alive
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