We did it!!!

First off I apologize for the long pause from the blog. Spring and summer tend to be very busy. Now that we are headed into fall I will have lots more time to write! I want to share one of our biggest accomplishments that we completed in October. A 400 square foot native Michigan garden installation in our community subdivision park!

Before shot of the unused triangle patch of grass in our park.

What started as an idea back last December 2020 finally came to fruition almost a year later. I have broken it down to a quick summary list below.

• 10 months of planning, sourcing, and organizing

• Two truckloads of donated fieldstone (loaded & unloaded by hand!)

• 4 yards of mulch...

This is just a portion of the hard-working volunteers that were present that day!

• 10+ volunteers consisting of neighbors, family, and Adapt volunteers

• Total of 250 native Michigan genome plants, planted into the ground

• consisting of 14 different species

• installation day was 4 hours of hard work…

Look at this beautiful result...

I am extremely proud of this garden and all that it will do for our community! We transformed an unused plot of land into a beautiful native garden habitat using a variety of native genome Michigan plants and trees. It will support our local ecosystem and the people that live here. Our garden provides habitat and food for pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies. It is an amazing focal point to our east park and will be an asset to future generations. The project wasn't fully completed that day.

There was one last important task that we had to accomplish, planting was just the beginning. Education is the key to opening minds to a more rewarding and earth-healing way of gardening and property management. So I set to work designing custom signs for our garden! Two signs were created and installed.

Main sign geared towards adults and older kids

Kid-friendly Sign that faces the playground

The signs are meant to educate and engage all passersby on the purpose and job of our new garden. They were the final pieces to fully complete the community park garden. In fact that very same day, I witnessed one of our new signs at work (our office/desk faces out towards the park). A little girl (maybe 3 or 4 yrs old) and her father playing at the park stopped to read the kid-friendly sign. She was so enthralled by it she pulled her daddy back to view it again! It brought me so much joy to see this because it was a good test that the sign was engaging and relatable to that little girl at a young age. That was the best feeling ever!

To summarize it was an amazing learning experience for me and my family. A HUGE sense of community was created, we met some amazing new people and deepened connections with our neighbors. It wouldn't have been possible without the generous donation by an outstanding organization; Adapt: Community Supported Ecology provided all of the plants,

William Kirst co-founder of Adapt: Community Supported Ecology. Thank you, Billy!

trees, and expertise. These types of donation gardens are made possible by crowdfunding via Patreon. If you are inspired and want to support future efforts like this garden please consider a monthly donation, just $1 per month can make a big impact! Donate here: https://www.patreon.com/adaptecology.

Photo Gallery with additional shots of the garden and below the gallery is a list of plants species that make up the garden.

Species lists:

​Quercus macrocarpa Amelanchier arborea Fragaria virginiana Tradescantia ohiensis Echinacea purpurea Asclepias tuberosa Chelone glabra

Sporobolus heterolepis Allium cernuum Penstemon digitalis Solidago nemoralis Carex muskingumensis Carex pennsylvanica carex tenera