Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration

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Dropseed Native Gardens & Ecological Restoration

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

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.

08/18/2026

I walked Asylum Lake this morning and I swear every time I visit I’m struck by how successful the long term restoration work has been there. I feel like this is a good goal for folks struggling with invasive species in their woodlands and it’s definitely a model that I look to as we struggle with the invasive mess in Kleinstuck and little Sister as Stewards of Kleinstuck.
Check out these photos. The invasive under story is completely gone, most of the invasive canopy has been removed and even some native canopy trees thinned. As a result, there’s enough sunlight reaching the forest floor for a variety of graminoids to return on their own without seeding. There’s also a variety of ages of high-quality trees, waiting in the wings to succeed the older canopy trees
Structurally it’s starting to look like a high-quality Oak Woodland (thin the deer herd and we’ll be there!), something that we can attain at our preserve by pretty much following what Asylum Lake did… diligent invasive under story removal, foliar follow up, thinning, and ideally…burning. Thanks to Paul Macnellis, Tom Sauber and the Asylum Lake Council for their management. They’ve been able to pull all of these off over the past 10 years with Wildtype Native Plant Nursery at the helm.

08/16/2026

Instagram is full of pretty pictures of beautiful gardens but few of these accounts rarely show the hard part or the failures (I’m guilty of this, too). Not every garden rolls out of bed looking stunning for its photo shoot and not every prep job is simple and straightforward. This post is focusing on the latter.
These photos show a very difficult situation, one that will take a few years (if ever) to achieve ’Gram-able “after” glamour shots. This customer has been battling invasive Bittersweet on this slope for years. First she tried to smother it. That (sort of) worked for a season and then it came roaring back. Next she hired a forester to use heavy equipment to dig it out. That was a terrible mistake as it just poked the beast and created the thickest layer of strangling Bittersweet I’ve ever seen. Worst part though was that this tangled mess created breeding ground for an even worse multi-headed monster - Japanese Knotweed!! Oy vey! My ecologist friend once told me “don’t harass the hopeless, work on an easier target instead.” Well, my customer is determined to fight on so she hired me to do some harassment.
First round of Gly/Tri herbicide was a success but since the layers were so thick I couldn’t possibly get it all. So last week I did a follow up. The plan going forward is one more year of foliar application (most land managers recommend three years) to clear the bittersweet and knotweed. I’ll leave the Vinca now until I’m ready to plant because it’s holding down the sandy soil. After the vinca is gone I’ll plug away with graminoids only. This will allow me to use Triclopyr on re-sprouts without killing the sedges/grasses. Once I’m certain we’ve defeated the invaders I’ll begin plugging in forbs with a mix that is heavy with early successional species. It’s a long-term plan but there’s no shortcuts with this kind of situation as witnessed by the failures of past attempts.

Dave McKinney-Brown what’s your professional opinion on this strategy?

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