Events

Presenter: John Blair 

John Blair will bring you along on his journey to both restore his land to original native prairie and create magnificent pollinator gardens on his rural property in Brooklyn. He will also cover the restoration of his wooded savanna and his efforts to bring back to life three natural ponds that had been buried by farmers decades ago. Through John’s beautiful photos, you will get to see this wonderful transformation from hayfields back to lush native prairie habitat, much like what was originally there two hundred years ago!

NOTE #1: Explore John's prairie via his online Flickr photo album:

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBgqHR

NOTE #2: John graciously hosted a tour of his property for Ann Arbor Wild Ones members on July 27, 2024.

Biography for John Blair

When John Blair retired from his automotive engineering job, he knew he would need something interesting to do with his time. He found it when he attended a presentation in the winter of 2012 by butterfly expert Brenda Dziedzic on making a butterfly garden with native plants as the focal point. John got busy that spring creating his own butterfly garden at his Westland home; over the next seven summers, it grew to over 5,000 square feet in size with 130 species of native plants and 38 different species of butterfly visitors. In 2019, having filled all his available gardening space, John moved with his wife, Sheri, to a new home on a nine-acre property in rural Brooklyn, Michigan. There, he is restoring large tracts of land to original prairie with native plants and creating a gigantic butterfly and pollinator habitat! John enjoys giving his inspirational talks and educational tours of his restoration to help others get started with their own pollinator habitats using native plants, which is something that means very much to him!

John’s garden has appeared in “Fine Gardening,” “Michigan Gardener,” the “Detroit Free Press,” and the Garden Answer YouTube channel. He has also authored articles for “Michigan Gardener” on creating pollinator gardens. Over the last ten years, John has given his “How to Make a Butterfly Garden” and “Prairie Restoration Journey” talks to county Master Gardener organizations, Michigan State University, Greenfield Village, numerous Michigan garden clubs, church groups, and Nature clubs throughout southeast and mid-Michigan.

A series of guided workshops in which attendees select seeds they wish to sow for spring planting, add soil to milk jugs with drainage holes and plant the seeds, add water and an identification small stake, and learn how to monitor the jug outdoors until spring 

Video of this presentation on our YouTube channel -  Designing Native Landscapes with Purpose

Presenter: Mike Weis 

A yard can be a self-sustaining, resilient plant community that is both beautiful and interesting. The goal is to make habitat that is both visually pleasing and self-sustaining. Having a good plan is essential. Whether you are wondering how to get started with native plant gardening or have years of experience, this program presents the practical aspects of native gardening. Experienced native plant gardener and designer Mike Weis will take us through the steps in the first garden he ever installed, presenting a slideshow of images of this garden through the years to illustrate how some decisions/methods that were used worked well while others did not.

About Mike Weis

Mike Weis is the owner of the Kalamazoo-based landscape company Dropseed! Native Gardens and Ecological Restoration. He has been gardening with native plants since 2005. Weis also works seasonally for Hidden Savanna Native Plant Nursery and volunteers as an ecological steward for Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy and Stewards of Kleinstuck, where he serves as a board member. Weis is also an accomplished percussionist, composer, and conceptual photographer.

PARKING: Metered parking is available at Matthaei Botanical Gardens; members park for free.

All are welcome to join this free virtual panel discussion exploring the vital roles of native, solitary, and honeybees in pollination and biodiversity. Featuring experts Sam Droege (USGS), Dave Hunter (Crown Bees), and Dr. Lora Morandin (Pollinator Partnership), this event will discuss into the challenges pollinators face, the balance between managed and wild bees, and actionable ways to support all pollinators.

Gain insights from over 90 years of combined experience and learn how to advocate for pollinator habitats through planting native species, participating in community science, and adopting responsible management practices.

UPDATE March 9, 2025: This March 12th event will be in person only. We plan to add the option to join presentations over Zoom in the future; we regret that it is not possible for this one.

Plant A Rain Garden – Keep our Rivers Clean, One Garden at a Time  

Anyone can plant a rain garden! You don’t need any special equipment—just a yard, a spade, compost, and a few native plants.  Rain gardens are a beautiful addition to any landscape—and keep our rivers, lakes and streams clean!  We’ll talk about the benefits of rain gardens and how to build and plant one at your own home. Rain gardens are for the greater good, and they are practical solutions for basement and yard flooding.   

About Susan Bryan

Susan Bryan created and teaches the Master Rain Gardener class at Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office. The program became a state-wide certification in 2015, and has spread to the Great Lakes western states including—gasp!—Ohio! (a Michigan joke there), as well as to our neighbor to the north, Canada.  Over 2,000 rain gardens have been built by homeowners on her advice by the industrious and spectacular Master Rain Gardeners.  Susan was the recipient of the Ann Arbor Wild Ones Bob Grese Deep Roots award in 2014.

PARKING: Metered parking is available at Matthaei Botanical Gardens; members park for free.

Rain Garden Gallery on Flickr

Public gardens hold tremendous power to influence landscaping norms and inspire change. By showcasing the beauty, functionality, and ecological value of native plants, these spaces help foster biodiversity, advocate for sustainable practices, and engage communities in environmental stewardship. 

This webinar will explore how public and demonstration gardens serve as powerful tools for native plant advocacy. Attendees will learn how gardens move beyond aesthetics to spark action—turning appreciation into engagement and inspiring participants to replicate these practices in their own communities.

We will hear insights from Nicole Machuca, Environmental Social Scientist at the Field Museum, on how public gardens influence behaviors, foster stewardship, and connect people to conservation efforts through research and community engagement. The Wild Ones Capital Region NY and the Wild Ones San Diego (CA) Chapters will share their experiences building native plant demonstration gardens and how these spaces drive community engagement, education, and advocacy. And We'll finish with a conversation exploring how public gardens create a lasting impact beyond planting day moderated by Kelly Kapuzzi, Demonstration Garden Char with the Wild Ones Hocking Hills (OH) Chapter.

PLEASE NOTE: Early start time so we have enough daylight for the outdoor portion of our program.

Presenter: John Metzler

We will start with a slide show in the auditorium and then move outside to Matthaei's gardens to take photos. 

Topics to be addressed include seeing through the lens, lighting, shooting from different angles, e.g., lying on the ground, capturing the essence of the subject, and proximity to the subject.

About John Metzler 

John Metzler is a partner at applEcon, LLC, an antitrust economics firm in Ann Arbor. He got his start in photography sixty years ago with a sister's Kodak Brownie, learned to shoot 35mm on his Dad's fully-manual Minolta Rangefinder ten years later, and switched to digital in 2004. An avid explorer of regional natural areas, John shares his pictures of various natural areas with their stewards to use as they choose. He began learning botany and native plants on Ellen Elliott Weatherbee's WedAm walking botany lectures in 2018, and he then joined the Michigan Botanical Society in 2022.

All of John's pictures are on his website, https://johnmetzler.smugmug.com/.  All are available as full resolution downloads free of charge for non-commercial use.

PARKING: Metered parking is available at Matthaei Botanical Gardens; Matthaei members park for free.

NOTE: This is a hybrid (virtual and in-person) event; this listing will be updated by April 8th with a Zoom link.  

Presenter: Brenda Sattler (formerly Dziedzic)

Brenda's presentation will cover the components of a butterfly/moth garden with native plants, which include sun, planting in groups, locations for host plants, plant arrangements, sunning spot, overripe fruit, a place to puddle, nectar plants, and host plants. The presentation will go into depth about the native host plants that the butterflies and moths use.

About Brenda Sattler

Brenda is the author of Raising Butterflies and Moths in the Garden, 2nd edition, which features 50 North American butterfly and moth species, range maps and more than 550 fascinating photographs showing all stages of each species' life cycle; copies of the book will be available for purchase at this event. To learn more about Brenda, visit the About Me page of her website.

PARKING: Metered parking is available at Matthaei Botanical Gardens; Matthaei members park for free.

NOTE: Exact start and end time and meeting point will be provided by June 1, 2025

Guide: Brooks Curtis

Join Brooks Curtis for a walk in the Bird Hills Nature Area. We will learn how to identify and eradicate many invasive species (spring and woody invasive). We will discuss the restoration successes and the challenges. We will also discuss the history and explore some of the features of the Bird Hills Nature Area. Most of the walk will be on the trails, but there might be an opportunity to go off trail in a few areas. 

Brooks has been a park steward at Bird Hills Nature Area, Ann Arbor’s largest at 146 acres, for about nine years. During that time, there has been a substantial reduction in the number of invasive species due to the involvement of many volunteers and City of Ann Arbor staff support (Nature Area Preservation).

About Our Guide

Brooks Curtis began doing ecological restoration work around 2005 by volunteering at the University of Michigan Arboretum and Matthaei Botanical Gardens. After a few years, he found out about the City of Ann Arbor's NAP Stewardship Workday program, and realizing that they were in worse shape and had the fewest resources, he started focusing primarily on the Ann Arbor nature areas. 

In 2013 Brooks became the Ann Arbor Park Steward for Sunset Brooks Nature Area, which he selected because it is small (7.5 acres) and in very bad shape; he figured that whatever work he did he couldn’t make the nature area any worse. Sunset Brooks Nature Area receives a tremendous amount of stormwater from four different streets and now, after a decade of restoration work, it absorbs most of the stormwater, due to the clearing of woody invasives and the introduction of native wet area plants.

NOTE: Exact start and end time, meeting point, registration information, and program description will be provided by July 1, 2025.

Registration will be required for this event.

Presenters: Ron Gamble and Faye Stoner

River Bend Gardens was established in July 2017, and formally founded by my wife and I in January 2019 as a private botanical garden, aviary, and retreat for our family of five children.

The property was selected for its unique combination of natural features, and is located in Washtenaw County, 15 miles Southwest of Ann Arbor, in the Village of Manchester.  The gardens are situated on 65 acres with a half mile of frontage on the River Raisin, and adjacent to the South and West with the Leonard Preserve, a 259-acre property owned by Washtenaw County’s Natural Areas Preservation, and The Nature Conservancy.

There are twelve gardens that make-up River Bend, with nine natural plant communities, and several glacial features in the landscape from kames, an out-wash plain, to a floodplain that includes a Buttonbush depression.  In addition to the River Raisin, the property includes a 4 acre pond, two brooks, and over 30 natural springs.

Hiking River Bend Gardens offers our guest an opportunity to view a gardener's pragmatic effort at native plant preservation and restoration.  Wayne is happy to share the mechanics of the preservation work and prairie restoration with considerations to methods, successes, and failures.  

River Bend Gardens offers our guests a short walk (1/4 mile) to the prairie and meeting location, or guests may elect a longer hike (3 miles) through the garden on the trails to the meeting location.  While the trails are established, they are not completely groomed, the garden is not ADA compliant, nor is there a restroom present on the property.

Guests who chose the three mile hike on the Garden Trail, presented in yellow on the attached trail map, should arrive at 9:00am at the East Entrance Garden.  You can use 115 Mound Street Manchester, MI 48158 as the GPS address.  There is a horseshoe drive where you can pull-in for parking, or on the shoulder of Mound Street on the north side of the street facing west.

Guests who prefer a short walk to the prairie should arrive at 10:30am at the West Entrance Garden.  You can use 328 River Bend Manchester, MI 48158 as the GPS address.  There is adequate parking off the street on garden property.

In either case there will be someone from the River Bend family there to guide you to the meeting location.  After a discussion and Q&A, the guests will be free to walk the trails and experience the gardens at their own pace.

NOTE: Exact start and end time, meeting point,  and program description will be provided by July 15, 2025.

NOTE: Exact start and end time and program description will be provided by September 1, 2025.

Presenter: Calla Butler

Details coming soon! 

NOTE: Exact start and end time and program description will be provided by October 1, 2025.

Details coming soon! 

NOTE: Program description will be provided by November 1, 2025.

Presenter: Caylen Cole-Hazel

Details coming soon! 

NOTE: Program description will be provided by December 1, 2025.