Overview
- Interest in native plant landscaping is growing rapidly across Southeast Michigan. These plants—adapted over thousands of years to local conditions—require less water, no fertilizer, and provide critical food and habitat for native pollinators, birds, and insects. By choosing native plants, residents contribute to restoring ecological balance and biodiversity, even in urban and suburban yards.
- Many organizations in Washtenaw County rely on volunteers to restore natural areas. Ann Arbor’s Natural Area Preservation (NAP), Legacy Land Conservancy, and the Huron River Watershed Council host events to remove invasives and reintroduce natives. Groups like Wild Ones – Ann Arbor Chapter and the Washtenaw Bird and Nature Alliance also offer educational opportunities and hands-on habitat work. These efforts not only restore landscapes but also build environmental stewardship across the community.
- While native planting is valuable, it isn’t the same as ecological restoration which involves deeper work—removing invasives, rebuilding soils, restoring hydrology, and reestablishing diverse native plant communities. Planting natives at home is accessible, and when done thoughtfully, still plays a vital role in supporting wildlife and ecosystem health.
- Native plant efforts are paying off across Southeast Michigan. Monarch butterflies are returning thanks to milkweed plantings. Native grasses are improving soil stability and filtering stormwater into rivers like the Huron. These plants also help reduce flooding and support wildlife displaced by development. As climate challenges grow, native species offer a low-maintenance, resilient solution for healthier ecosystems.
- The 6th Annual Washtenaw County Native Plant Expo & Marketplace, hosted by the Water Resources Commissioner’s Office, will take place Saturday, June 7th 9am-1pm. It is a key annual event connecting residents with Michigan’s best native plant growers. Vendors like Wildtype, Designs by Nature, and Native Plant Nursery, LLC will offer region-specific wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs. Attendees can also get planting advice, attend educational sessions, and learn how to design native-friendly gardens.
Transcription
David Fair: This is 89.1 WEMU, and we're enjoying the green of spring and certainly look forward to the blossoming colors of the lawn and garden textures of the summer. Now, there are a number of ways to make lawns and gardens look great, and one of those ways is native plant landscaping. I'm David Fair, and I'd like to welcome you to this week's edition of Issues of the Environment. We know, without question, native landscaping is better for environmental and ecological health, and now, it's gaining in popularity. Our guest this morning is Marta Manildi, and she is president of the Ann Arbor area chapter of Wild Ones. And thank you for joining us today, Marta! I appreciate it!
Marta Manildi: Oh, thank you, David! It's great to be here!
David Fair: Now, when it comes to native landscaping, how far do you think we've come over the last decade or so in Washtenaw County?
Marta Manildi: We've come very far! And it's for lots of reasons, and it is a wonderful development. And more and more people are interested, more and more are doing it, and more were able to spread throughout the state and beyond.
David Fair: Sometimes when I say things, I recognize that I may not be painting a mental image for folks. So, for someone who might just be passing by someone's house with native landscaping, what would the difference be?
Marta Manildi: Yeah. Well, for starters, there will be a lot less grass, turf grass, and the plants that they see will look different, a little wilder looking, sometimes taller, although there also are short native plants. The color palette is dotted here and there with really strong colors-- the pink flowering raspberry shrub comes to mind, for example. But a lot of the colors are a little more what I think of as earth tones.
David Fair: Kind of a prairie feel?
Marta Manildi: Yes, prairie is one style of native plant planting. Woodlands are another and marshes. Native plants are plants that evolved here long before Europeans came and co-evolved with the soil and with the insects. And when those mutually successful relationships were established, other animals discovered that they could get food and shelter. By cooperating with these plants and insects. And so, the plants are an integral and related part of everything in the natural environment as it was. In yards, they'll see well-tended, really carefully designed beds of native plants. Often, although in my backyard, I let things go pretty wild, and I just love it!
David Fair: What would be some good examples? You mentioned a few, but what would be other examples of plants, grasses, and flowers that are native to this particular region?
Marta Manildi: Well, the lists are long. And like with any gardening, when people want to plant something, the place you start is with your conditions. What kind of soil do you have? How much sun or shade? How wet or dry is the soil? There are many native trees that are very familiar to people: oaks, birches, poplars, black cherry.
David Fair: What you're saying is there are a lot of choices, and you can kind of design it to your taste.
Marta Manildi: Well, that's right! And I think a way to start to get familiar with the plants is through catalogs from some of the wonderful nurseries that now have come up and we're lucky to have. In Michigan, we have growers who work so hard and produce such beautiful native plants. In Ann Arbor, we had Feral Flora. In Manchester, there's a new retail native plant store that is just opening this year called Michiganense. And up in Mason, Michigan is the oldest, most established native plant nursery in the state, and that is Bill Schneider's Wild Type Nursery. And they all have knowledgeable people who can come out and visit homeowners and walk through and give advice for what would work well in their location. And they have pictures of plants and catalogs of plants.
David Fair: This is Issues of the Environment on 89.1 WEMU, and we're talking with Wild Ones Ann Arbor Area Chapter President Marta Manildi. We're talking about native landscaping and its benefits. And when we choose native plants, how are we helping boost balance and biodiversity?
Marta Manildi: Great question! Insects look for native plants--the plants they evolved with--that feed them and provide habitat to them. Birds find those insects, and they also eat from the trees berries. Butterflies put their cocoons on the leaves of these plants, where they eat when they hatch. So, there is this interdependent relationship that actually supports the entire terrestrial food system. They also put long, deep roots down into the soil. They clean the water. They drive it back into the watershed. And many places, like Ann Arbor's own Buhr Park, wet meadows have been installed. And that was started in part because there was a terrible water runoff problem. The neighbors were getting flooded. And the plantings in that park, which has now been picked up by the city that is using them in all their drainage ditches, all of that helps control water runoff. Generally, you have less grass, so you're not mowing as much. You're not putting down pesticides. They cool our climate. They absorb heat and, along with carbon, put that into the soil. It's a hugely regenerative, stable environmental system that benefits everyone from the smallest insect up to human. But it's also, I think, worth noting, especially for people new to this, the wildness of it can look a little scary. That humans find such respite among these plants and beauty and your sense of style and how you garden. And I'm a gardener going way back. I used to do all the conventional things, and I loved it. I was attached to those plants. But over time, as you look and learn and live with these native plants, your sense of what's beautiful changes and deepens.
David Fair: I love that personal connection in relationship to this kind of native planting, but I'm curious and want to harken back to something you said: ecological regeneration. That's very important, but is there a difference between that and ecological restoration?
Marta Manildi: Oh, great question! Yes, there is! Restoration, which is done by some wonderful groups in our area, land trusts and maybe the stewardship network or NAP, Natural Areas Preservation. They are essentially trying to restore what was there before. Michigan had a long history of timbering and then farming. And so, the original native plantings disappeared from view, but we have a lot of information about the history of areas, and many native plant seeds still reside in soil. And there are ways that they can reconstruct what was there before. For Wild Ones, we're just wanting native plants where there haven't been any in living memory, mostly in suburban places, for example, and urban places, where we've gone toward lawns and imported plants. So, we're interested in native plants because they do restore what's fundamental, which is ecosystem stability and diversity--biological diversity.
David Fair: Once again, our conversation with Marta Manildi continues on WEMU's Issues of the Environment. Marta serves as president of the Ann Arbor area chapter of Wild Ones, which is dedicated to educating and advocating for biodiversity throughout the Huron River Valley and surrounding areas. We've been socialized into this world of manicured lawns and curated gardens, and, in some cases, where there are homeowners associations or restrictive local ordinance, we've been regulated into it. How is Wild Ones and like-minded organizations overcoming those barriers?
Marta Manildi: Education advocacy and collaborative action. So, we're getting the word out. But for anyone starting, we also emphasize we're not asking people to check re-landscape their whole yard in something completely new to them. Start small, start gently, and find a native plant you like that you think will grow there. Put in a tree, and put a little bit of native herbs underneath the tree. See how you like it, live with that for a couple of years, and take it from there. Every plant that gets in the ground--every native plant--is helpful. The other big project that we've been excited about is our pocket forest in Buhr Park, called the Buhr Park Pocket Forest Project. And we partnered with two other organizations: Citizens Climate Lobby and the Buhr Park Children's Wet Meadow Project. Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation has given the project enormous support as well. We planted up 2,500 square feet in Buhr Park, which had been just grass, and we built a small forest. You can go out and see it. It's just beyond the ice rink there. We used, I think, about 80 volunteers, including children and young adults, to build that forest. It's small, but it's going to grow!
David Fair: Well, you mentioned that starting small is perhaps the best way to get underway. The Washtenaw County Native Plant Expo and Marketplace is coming up in a matter of days--on June 7th, to be specific. For those interested in learning more and perhaps taking that first step into the world of native planting, is that a good place to start?
Marta Manildi: That is a great place to start! Wild Ones, along with all the other groups that are in this native plant world, will be there!
David Fair: Marta, thank you so much for the time and sharing the information today, and I appreciate the conversation!
Marta Manildi: Oh, thank you so much, David! I appreciate it too!
David Fair: That is Marta Manildi, the president of Wild Ones, the Ann Arbor area chapter. And to learn more about and to purchase native plants, simply stop by the 6th Annual Washtenaw County Native Plant Expo and Marketplace. It's hosted by the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner's Office and will be held at the Washtenaw Farm Council grounds on Saturday, June 7th from 9am until 1pm. For more information and to access the Issues of the Environment Archive, stop by our website at WEMU.org. I'm David Fair, and this is 89.1 WEMU FM Ypsilanti. Celebrating 60 years of broadcasting from the campus of Eastern Michigan University!
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