Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration

Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration Increasing biodiversity, expanding habitat and connecting green corridors one yard at a time. Based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

It’s a bit difficult to show in photos just how much this garden glows right now. I installed it last year and the combo...
06/17/2026

It’s a bit difficult to show in photos just how much this garden glows right now. I installed it last year and the combo of the seasonal blooms and the homeowner’s glass sculptures just light up this corner lot.

Sometimes I get the questions… “Why so many plants, it seems like too much for this space? Won’t they just fill in on th...
06/15/2026

Sometimes I get the questions… “Why so many plants, it seems like too much for this space? Won’t they just fill in on their own?”
There are a few reasons why I like to install on 1’ centers.
1. Faster establishment. “Nature abhors a vacuum”. If you don’t fill in the gaps, the weeds will do it for you. You want the garden to establish quickly to out-compete the weeds and so you won’t have to replenish mulch every year.
2. Layers - both physical and temporal. Matrix-based planting techniques require a lot of plants to accommodate succession of blooms, plant behavior and niches. This gets a little complicated - ya gotta know how/when a plant likes to shine and how/when it goes dormant.
3. Aesthetics. A designed plan with a vision that is installed at the same time has a more intentional appearance and a cohesive structure
4. Loss is less noticeable when you plant dense and diverse. In nature there are no guarantees. Not every plant is going to survive, it’s just the nature of nature . There are so many factors that we know and don’t know working for and against young, vulnerable plants
5. Lower costs. This seems counterintuitive since we’re buying so many plants but if you purchase full plug trays instead of individual pots your price per plant drops in half or even more.
6. Other factors that I don’t have space for include propagation, various root structures of different species and plant lifespan

The garden in these pics was planted last October and it’s filling in nicely with the 1’ centers approach. Even under those 7-gallon White Oak and Ironwood plantings I have Phlox pilosa on 1’ centers inside those deer-exclusion cages.
Not every species should be that close but since I’m typically working with shorter-growing species meant for oak barrens, oak savanna, oak woodland habitats this spacing is appropriate. If it were a garden modeled on a tallgrass prairie with rich soils those plants are more dense and tall so you wouldn’t want to crowd them in that tight in a small garden bed. Joe-Pye, Rosinweed, Wild Bergamot, Big Bluestem, Cupplant, Ironweed, etc would be more like 18” or even 2’ centers.

We have the best Wild Ones chapter in Kalamazoo Area Wild Ones!Such a great day yesterday in the Coloma dunes at a stunn...
06/14/2026

We have the best Wild Ones chapter in Kalamazoo Area Wild Ones!
Such a great day yesterday in the Coloma dunes at a stunning residence. Thanks to Kirsten and Marc for being such gracious hosts and allowing 40 strangers to wander around your spectacular property and for keeping us fed and hydrated. The gardens are amazing but the remnant Southern Mesic Forest was awe-inspiring.
I’ve had the pleasure to work a bit on these gardens but really it has been something that the two of them have dedicated their lives to for over a decade. We need more land stewards like Kirsten and Marc, for sure!
I just wish I took more pics of their gardens. I was too busy yapping me trap!

Installation at my third Norman Carver house of the season. There are quite a few homes from the famous Mid-Century Mode...
06/13/2026

Installation at my third Norman Carver house of the season. There are quite a few homes from the famous Mid-Century Modern architect in Kalamazoo but unfortunately most of these super exciting buildings have ultra drab landscaping that dulls the luster of the property.
The areas that I installed yesterday at this yard were previously super thick with Vinca Vine and Norway Maples. Now in its place are 700 native plants with 31 different species of sedges, forbs, shrubs and understory trees. After multiple Norways were removed the existing indigenous canopy is a glorious mix of older White Oaks, Pignut Hickory and the most majestic Black Oak I’ve ever seen. The reclaimed understory now matches these savanna beauties as well as the elegance of the architecture.
Here’s the playlist…
Allium cernuum - 38
Agastache foeniculum - 25
Amelanchier arborea - 1
Antennaria neglecta - 25
Aquilegia canadensis - 60
Aronia prunifolia - 6
Asclepias tuberosa - 38
Aster macrophyllus - 19
Aster sericeum - 7
Campanula rotundifolia - 38
Carex albicans - 38
Carex eburnea - 38
Carex pensylvanica - 50
Carex swanii - 38
Carex woodii - 38
Coreopsis lanceolata - 16
Cornus alternifolia - 3
Diervilla lonicera - 10
Dirca palustris - 2
Echinacea purpurea - 19
Geum triflorum - 19
Hypericum prolificum - 10
Ionactis linarifolia - 9
Liatris aspera - 38
Liatris cylindracea -19
Penstemon hirsutus - 19
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium - 7
Rudbeckia fulgida - 19
Solidago ptarmicoides - 38
Veronicastrum virginicum - 19
Viola pedata - 16

It’s Penstemon season!While Roycey and I were on our morning walk today we passed by five gardens that I’ve installed in...
06/11/2026

It’s Penstemon season!

While Roycey and I were on our morning walk today we passed by five gardens that I’ve installed in the last couple years and all of them were blasting out the Penstemon digitalis at high volume (“this one goes to 11”).
In SW Michigan we have two native Penstemons - hirsutus, which is shorter and found in drier sites and digitalis, taller and typically in richer soils. Both are pretty adaptable so I often use them together because their blooms overlap for about a week (hirsutus just finished blooming in these gardens). They both occupy that blooming transition when the spring flowers have ended and before the summer plants pop off. I also love them both because herbivores tend to leave them alone and they also look structurally interesting after they’re done blooming. And of course, the bumblebees go crazy for them!

I checked in on a garden that I installed last October and it’s filling in faster than I expected. This was previously a...
06/10/2026

I checked in on a garden that I installed last October and it’s filling in faster than I expected.
This was previously a hedge of invasive Barberry, Honeysuckle, and Burning Bush, etc.

I have very little experience with large seeding projects. I prefer to work with live plants but sometimes the area is s...
06/09/2026

I have very little experience with large seeding projects. I prefer to work with live plants but sometimes the area is so large that it’s cost-prohibitive to plant plugs. Such was the case with this customer who really threw me into the fire with my first seed project. Not only is it a fairly large area but it’s a (very) high visibility front yard in a fairly conservative (landscape-wise) neighborhood. This made me nervous but she’s very committed.
The fine folks at helped me customize a mix of relatively short species with a heavy dose of forb percentage. We added some non-native annuals for first year color (POPPIES!) and I beefed up the early successional plants and dialed back the graminoids. I cast the seeds just before a snowstorm last December and bowed to the seed gawds. May looked bleak but today’s inspection revealed some optimism. We shall see, we shall see.

Yesterday’s installation was for a front yard garden that I want to keep low and bright, just like the entrance of the h...
06/09/2026

Yesterday’s installation was for a front yard garden that I want to keep low and bright, just like the entrance of the house itself.
361 plants, 23 species
Allium cernuum - 19
Amorpha canescens - 3
Antennaria neglecta - 25
Aquilegia canadensis - 33
Asclepias tuberosa - 19
Blephilia ciliata - 38
Baptisia bracteata - 5
Campanula rotundifolia - 19
Carex eburnea - 25
Coreopsis lanceolata - 5
Echinacea pallida - 19
Eragrostis spectabilis - 19
Geum triflorum - 19
Ionactis linarifolia - 19
Liatris aspera - 19
Liatris cylindracea - 19
Lupinus perennis - 19
Pycnanthemum tenuifolium - 15
Rudbeckia fulgida - 5
Ruellia humilis - 19
Solidago nemoralis - 5
Sporobolus heterolepis - 19
Tephrosia virginiana - 7

This garden is a year old. There are a lot of sunlight niches in this relatively small yard. Plant species go from full ...
06/08/2026

This garden is a year old.
There are a lot of sunlight niches in this relatively small yard. Plant species go from full sun to full shade in only a few steps. Eventually the Ironwood, Musclewood, Bayberries, Pagoda Dogwood and Spikenards will get dense enough to function as a privacy screen from the busy road.

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