How to Plan for Your Fall Native Plantings By late summer, your garden is giving you information that was much harder to see in spring. You can tell which plants became larger than expected. You can see where the afternoon sun really falls. You know which areas stayed damp after rain and which dried quickly.
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How to Let Your Native Garden Fill in Naturally A newly planted native garden often asks something difficult of us. Patience. We plant young perennials, grasses, and shrubs with an image in our minds of the mature garden they will someday become. But in the beginning, there may be a lot of visible soil. Plants
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The Best Michigan Native Vines for Pollinators When we think about adding more native plants to a garden, we usually look down. Where is there room for another coneflower? Could we tuck in another grass? Is there space for one more shrub? But sometimes the most useful growing space in the garden is not beside
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Educational Series No. 6 | Publication Date August 25, 2026 How to Save Native Flower Seeds for Next Year There comes a point in late summer when the garden begins to change its language. The flowers are still there, but not all of them are blooming anymore. Some petals have fallen. Some stems are turning
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The Best Native Plants That Feed Goldfinches There are few garden visitors quite as cheerful as an American Goldfinch. That flash of bright yellow moving between flowers can stop you in your tracks, especially when a goldfinch lands on a seed head and begins feeding only a few feet away. But if you want goldfinches
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How To Create Small Water Features for Wildlife Water has a way of changing a garden. Add even a small amount, and suddenly there is movement, reflection, sound, and often, new visitors. Birds arrive to drink and bathe. Butterflies may stop at damp edges. Bees and other insects need water too, particularly during the hottest
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How to Use Native Grasses in Your Michigan Garden There is something especially beautiful about a garden that moves. A breeze passes through, flower stems nod gently, seed heads sway, and suddenly the garden feels alive in a completely different way. Native grasses bring that kind of movement to a landscape, and yet they are
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How to Prepare Michigan Native Plants for Winter When the Garden Begins to Wind Down There comes a point in every Michigan garden when summer begins to loosen its grip. Purple Coneflowers lose their bright pink petals. Black-eyed Susans fade from brilliant yellow to brown. Blazing Star turns from purple flower spikes to slender stems
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Why Your Native Garden Gets Better Every Year The Most Beautiful Native Gardens Weren’t Built Overnight One of the hardest parts of planting a native garden is learning to be patient. You spend weeks planning. You carefully choose plants that belong in Michigan. You prepare the soil, spread mulch, and water faithfully. Then you step
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How to Prepare Your Garden for Fall Pollinators Fall Begins Long Before the Leaves Change When most people think about preparing their gardens for fall, they picture rakes, leaf bags, and weekend cleanup projects. But for Michigan’s pollinators, autumn begins much earlier. Long before the maples turn brilliant shades of red and gold, monarch butterflies
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