Events
Our Facebook Page will be the place to go for up to date announcements. Below are some of our big events. Hope you can come check some or all of them out.
Spring 2024
Native Plant Sale
May 2024 - Native Plant Sale! Similar to our sale last year with a few updates and several new varieties of native plants. You may have seen our information at Harvest Fest, so stay tuned for more information. Head over to our Plant Sale Page for more informatio.
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No Mow May!
No Mow May is, appropriately, a grassroots effort to support native animal species when they begin to emerge from their winter hibernation. By waiting to mow grass until June, we prevent the early demise of the first flowers of spring and long grasses, which provide much needed food in the form of nectar and pollen, and hiding places. Millions of necessary native pollinator insects and other animals rely on spring ephemeral flowers (flowers that are the first to emerge and don't last very long) after a long hibernation as they have used up most of their energy reserves and would likely starve to death. We also avoid directly killing these species (insects, small mammals, and reptiles) with mower blades and disturbing them as they emerge from hibernation.
Spring Ephemerals and other early flowering plants you might find in your lawn:
-violets
-Dandelions
-creeping Charlie
-clover
-speedwell
The general idea is to wait to do the first mow of the season until June 1st, but there are several methods that protect our native Wisconsin insects:
-Not mowing at all until June 1st (or later)
-Mowing just a strip around your lawn to make it look "neater" or just a strip around the perimeter of your house.
-Mowing just your front or just your back yard while leaving the other side to grow.
Benefits:
-Your inaction provides habitat and food for struggling native animals.
-You don't have to mow your lawn!
-You can take the time you would have spent on mowing on maintaing your lawnmower instead.
-Longer grass prevents evaporation which means you won't have to water your lawn.
-Enjoy the interactions of plants and animals from the comfort of your front or back yard.
Though this movement began in the UK in 2019, residents of Appleton, Wisconin soon followed suit and began their own Now Mow May program in 2020. With the help of the city's Common Council and Lawrence University, the city has now adopted No Mow May permanently. Links to a few articles below with more information.
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Appleton Creates National Buzz
Participate in No Mow May as a Citizen Scientist
The American lawn now occupies over 40 million acres which is about the size of the entire state of Wisconsin. These 40 million acres used to be habitat for millions of native fauna who relied on a complex ecosystem. That makes our lawns a perfect place to hope for a better future.
By participating in No Mow May we can utilize our own backyards to begin to support the threatened and endangered species who we share an ecosystem with.
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Fall 2023
Harvest Fest
Friends of North Prairie Native Gardens participated in the North Prairie Harvest Fest September. We talked with many community members about the benefits of native plants and provided a wide variety of educational materials to help them incorporate native plants in their landscapes. We also had a variety of nature-related crafts available made by our volunteers. Several different kits for children to make were available, including origami, insect hotels and pollinator seed pods.
Special thanks to Johnson's Nursery of Menomonee Falls for hosting a Q&A at our booth and donating several native shrubs and trees.
