7:00-7:30 pm Optional Social Time

7:30-8:00 pm Announcements

8:00-9:00 pm Educational Program with beautiful photos and music

My Prairie Restoration Journey

 Return to Master Gardener Association of Wayne County membership meetings on Thursday evening, September 11, to experience a journey to restore a native prairie on rural property in Brooklyn, 70 miles southwest of U of M-Dearborn.

 To fully enjoy this presentation, MGAWC will meet in the auditorium of the Environmental Interpretive Center (EIC). The auditorium is straight ahead and down the stairs or ramp.

 John Blair will cover the restoration of his wooded savanna and how he is bringing three natural ponds back to life after being buried by farmers decades ago. Through John’s beautiful photos, you will get to see this wonderful transformation from hayfields to lush native prairie habitat.

 When John retired from automotive engineering, 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, the garden grew to over 5000 square feet with 130 species of native plants and 38 different species of butterfly visitors.

 In 2019, having filled all his available gardening space, John and his wife Sheri moved to a new home in rural Brooklyn, Michigan, with 9 acres of land that he is using to make more butterfly and pollinator habitat by restoring large tracts of land to original prairie with native plants, creating a gigantic butterfly and pollinator habitat!

Link to view LOTS of pictures of John’s prairie last year. Prairie 2024 | Flickr

 Link to address for U of M-Dearborn, maps, timing for meeting, and parking notes. Monthly Meetings —

 Link to membership form. Become a Member —