Events

Presentation: 

Taking a Nature Pill to Reduce Stress: Building psychological and ecological resilience

Mary Carol Hunter.  Professor Emeritus, Landscape Architecture, U-M School for Sustainability and Environment will be delivering this presentation.

Interacting with nature - taking a nature pill, makes us healthier, physically and mentally. This presentation describes research on the most effective dose of nature under the constraints of a busy and often unpredictable lifestyle. The results can be interpreted for designing gardens and landscapes to better support human mental wellbeing and also increase ecological resilience.

 Professor Hunter's research focuses on the positive value of nature and gardens in maintaining human and ecological well-being.

By using milk jug greenhouses and winter sowing, your seedlings will stratify during winter's freezing temperatures and be ‘cold’ hardy by early Spring! By stratifying and germinating naturally, you will have strong seedlings by spring. They will be ready to plant in the ground directly after the last frost date.

The biggest benefits are it is so simple to do and no space is taken up in your house by racks, trays, and grow lights!

While we plan on having a number of 1-gallon jugs, plant tags, and native plant seeds on hand, please bring your own, if possible, to add to the available resources. Directions to the MBG greenhouse will be included shortly.

Presentation:

Discussion with William Kirst, co-founder of “Adapt” (https://adaptecology.org/), a non-profit that seeks to build a community network that supports the restoration of native plant and perennial food landscapes on small parcels of privately- and publicly-owned land.  Come learn about the work of Adapt and the efforts to rebuild and sustain our connections to the land around us. 

Why Community Supported Ecology? 

We believe that each of us, and each plot of land, is vital to a healthy future. Adapt exists to sustain and promote the connections between people and the land that supports us through community co-creation of native plant and perennial food landscapes. How do we build this connection? What do we stand to gain through it? Come find out!

Through crowdfunding, education, and volunteer effort, Adapt aims to build a community network that supports the restoration of native plant and perennial food landscapes on small parcels of privately- and publicly-owned land where there might otherwise not be the resources to do so.

Co-founder William Kirst started Adapt in 2020 with a vision that each piece of property, no matter how small, can be a space that sustains life. William is a gardener and ecologist with experience and expertise in ecological restoration, native plant landscaping and perennial food gardening. He likes to dive deep into the cultural, philosophical and spiritual implications of our selves as fundamentally ecological beings.

Plant stratified seeds into trays; Then take the trays home to germinate! This workshop continues from the "Seed Processing and Cold Stratification Workshop", which was held on Dec. 10th. In this workshop, you will take pre-stratified native plant seeds and plant them in propagation trays, then take those trays home to allow the seeds to germinate over the next two months.

A second day to plant stratified seeds into trays; Then take the trays home to germinate! This workshop continues from the "Seed Processing and Cold Stratification Workshop", which was held on Dec. 10th. In this workshop, you will take pre-stratified native plant seeds and plant them in propagation trays, then take those trays home to allow the seeds to germinate over the next two months.

Presentation:

Jim Vallem will describe the experience of using goats as part of an ecological restoration project at Thurston Natura Center.  In 2020, goats were introduced to help in reducing weedy shrubs and the area was then burned and planted with native grasses and forbs.  Jim is one of the volunteer stewards in Thurston Nature Center, located in NE Ann Arbor. 

The presentation will give an overview of the nature center, describe the publicity campaign that was mounted to educate the public and raise funds for the project, outline all the work performed, and show before/during/after photos. There will also be plenty of photos and videos of the goats in action. The information presented (plus the written article appearing in the Spring 2023 Wild Ones Journal) will provide valuable information for anyone considering using goatscaping in their own area.

  Panel discussion with Shannan Gibb-Randall, InSite Design Studio, Patrick Judd of Environmental Consulting & Technology, and Bill Schneider of Wildtype Native Plants/Ecological Services. Bob Grese will serve as the moderator.

  Often native plants are considered challenging to use in more formal rather than wilder garden situations. Is this a matter of aesthetics or is it a matter of choosing the right plant for the specific conditions? What strategies help make native plantings more acceptable in formal gardens?

 Come join in a discussion with a panel of three landscape architects, all
knowledgeable about growing and using native plants in their designs.

 According to the National Association of Realtors, planting native plants can create beautiful and distinctively “green” curb appeal; which in turn, which in turn can increase it’s resale value and decrease it’s time on the market. 

  For our May presentation, Ann Arbor Wild Ones President Marta Manildi, and Patrick McVeigh, Realtor and Manager with Reinhart Realtors in Ann Arbor, will discuss ideas for native plant gardeners who are selling their home and want to attract a buyer who will continue the "living landscape" approach to gardening. 

  Marta and Patrick will offer practical suggestions that draw on common native plant gardening practices and on Patrick’s understanding of what works with home buyers, and what doesn’t.  Learn how to pass on your gardening legacy.

Sale of a wide variety of hard-to-find perennials and native plants, as well as annuals, trees, and flowering shrubs. Master gardeners on hand to answer questions. Bring a wagon or box to hold your plants, if you’d like. 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (or until sold out), Monument Park gazebo, Dexter. Free admission. 673-9100.

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests.

The Native Plant Expo & Marketplace (NPEM) offers one convenient location to shop for Michigan native plants from several Michigan native plant growers, learn how to establish and maintain native landscapes and connect with companies specializing in planning native landscapes for residents in Washtenaw County and the surrounding areas. 

* This event was external to Ann Arbor Wild Ones.

Matt and Bob will give tours of their yards in the Virginia Park neighborhood of Ann Arbor.  Both their yards are constantly evolving.  Bob has been working on his yard for over 30 years while Matt’s is much more recent.  We will also look at Bob’s recent efforts helping neighbor Kathy Schroeder to bring more native plants into her yard. 

Matt is the founder and owner of Feral Flora and is extremely knowledgeable about the use and care of native plants.  Bob is past president of our Wild Ones chapter and is retired from the landscape architecture program at UM and is the former Director of Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum.  
 

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests.

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests.

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests.

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests. All embers are encouraged to bring guests who might be interested in landscaping with native plants.

This tour will be shared with the North Oakland chapter! The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes. The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests. All Wild Ones members are encourage to bring a guest(s) who might be curious in landscaping with native plants.

We've re-scheduled the tour of St. Joe's nature areas, including Shanghai Prairie for Wednesday, August 23rd at 6:30 pm.  We'll again meet in the picnic pavilion north of the hospital complex.  Will Jaquinde and John Metzler have kindly agreed to join us on this tour.  

Here are directions:
Follow the McAuley Drive around the hospital complex to the north side of the main hospital.  There will be a sign that points to "Emergency" towards the hospital and "Child Care Center" to the north.  Turn there and take an immediate left towards the picnic area (service buildings are at the end of the picnic area parking).  Park here and walk over to the picnic pavilion from where we will be beginning our tour.  We'll walk both through the prairie (known as "Shanghai Prairie") and woodland areas along the bluff.  Dress for walking through tall grass (I would suggest long pants and possibly a long-sleeved shirt) and bring bug spray if you would like.   Attached is a map of the location where we'll meet.

Update: The September A2WO Meeting is Canceled, due to the sudden illnes of the program's presenter. We'll try to reschedule this presentation for a future date.

In our September meeting, Brad Ruhfel to give a combination lecture/workshop on basic botany and plant identification. Brad has been reviewing commonly used apps and will tailor the program to what skills/knowledge is useful for using those apps without deep botany backgrounds.

We’re going to try to have a variety of plant specimens on hand for folks to try dissecting/identifying plant parts and using apps to identify.

Ann Arbor Wild Ones will have a table at this event. Stop by and chat!

Stroll local exhibits and learn innovative ways to live sustainably and take climate action. Dozens of nonprofit, governmental, and other exhibitors will be on hand to answer your questions. Find resources and communities for sustainable action, including: the circular economy, solar technologies, green transportation, plant-based foods, climate resiliency, environmental education, clean water protections, and energy waste reduction.​

The goal of Member-to-Member garden visits (aka Show Me-Tell Me), is to allow members to share experiences, ideas, and challenges with maintaining native plants in our landscapes.

The location of the member hosting these visits will be shared privately with the A2WO members and invited guests. If you are a A2WO member, please invite a non-member as your guest to the event!