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Fall 2025 Pop-Up Garden Walk

Saturday, September 6, 1:00-4:00 pm
Public welcome – $5 at the gate

Ann Arbor Farm & Garden has a truly special garden to share with you on Saturday, September 6!

Located near Frains Lake, this spacious property features a plethora of garden spaces, including an orchard, sun and shade perennial beds, a prairie garden, and much more. A dedicated dahlia bed and cutting garden should be bursting with color, while the veggie beds offer their bountiful harvest. A lovely sunroom and tropical specimens will delight houseplant fans, while others may want to stroll through the woods to the lake.

No preregistration is required. $5 admission at the gate (AAF&G members and non-members). No admission after 4:00 pm.

Proceeds will fund Ann Arbor Farm & Garden’s annual grant and scholarship awards for local garden-related nonprofit projects and students.

Visit our event page for the garden location and important parking information. Please download the garden guide for the complete garden description and photos.

Event Details

Sept. 6 Garden Walk Guide

Invasive Species Spotlight: Don't plant this!

Callery/Bradford Pear, Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'

From the Wildflower Association of Michigan Environmental Advocacy Committee:

Callery pear, which includes cultivars such as Bradford and Cleveland select, is a widely planted, medium-sized flowering tree. Callery pear are native to Asia but have been planted as landscape trees for decades because of their showy white flowers that appear early in the spring.

Despite its attractive flowering and low-maintenance needs, arborists and others have had Callery pear on their blacklist for decades. Among tree professionals, Callery pear are notorious for their poor crown structure that results in weak branch attachment and broken limbs following storms.

The Bradford pear tree is a variety of Callery pear cultivated in the early 1950s as a sterile tree. Unfortunately, it cross-pollinated with other varieties leading to the rapid spread and out-competing of native species that we see in fields, along roadsides, and in forests today.

As of 2023, the City of Novi has banned the planting of the tree and three states have banned the sale of Bradford pear trees: Ohio (2023), Pennsylvania (2021), and South Carolina (2024). Other states are taking steps to discourage or eradicate the invasive species. Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina have created "bounty" programs, which offer residents native replacement trees in exchange for the removal of their Bradford pear trees. Several other states are considering similar bans or taking steps to manage their spread, such as Minnesota, Kansas and Missouri.

Great alternatives to planting a Bradford pear include eastern redbud, native dogwoods and serviceberry.

WAMEAC was established in 2024 to educate the public about invasive plant species in Michigan and to offer alternative choices. Our ultimate goal is to enact legislation to ban the sale and trade of high-priority invasive species in our state. Visit the Wildflower Association of Michigan Native Plants page for more information about and useful resources for the fight against invasives.

Help save the Sibley Prairie Nature Preserve! Action needed now!

From our friends at Ann Arbor Wild Ones:

Sibley Prairie Nature Preserve, Michigan’s largest and highest-quality lakeplain prairie remnant, is on the auction block to be sold for development. If that happens, this irreplaceable ecosystem and living historical passageway to our natural history will disappear forever. Bidding to purchase the land closes next Wednesday, August 27. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has committed $1 million toward the purchase of this land, and advocates have organized a petition to our State legislators to commit sufficient additional funds to allow the purchase of the land on behalf of the public and to allow the prairie to remain for the future, and for the future lives it will support.

Sibley Lakeplain Prairie Remnant is a tallgrass lakeplain prairie remnant located in Wayne County’s Brownstown Township. Lakeplain prairies are special grassland communities that exist in the upper Midwest and nowhere else in the world! Lakeplain prairies result from an unusual combination of soil and hydrological conditions left over from the shores of a great glacial lake that existed in this area about 12,000 years ago. Due to these factors, there are many plant species specially adapted to live in this natural community. According to historical records, the remaining natural land is substantially representative of the landscape of southeast Michigan prior to European settlement.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has encouraged conservation organizations to acquire more land in this area because of the unusually large number of rare and threatened plant species still found here. Southeast Michigan Land Conservancy has placed a high priority on protecting high quality lakeplain habitat, focused especially on two sites, one of which is Sibley. Click here for more information.

The Sibley Prairie Steering Committee, of which the Michigan Botany Society is a participant, has put together a letter campaign targeting DNR officials and lawmakers to bring to their attention the impending loss of the Sibley Prairie. Time is running out. Support from these officials is necessary to assist in efforts to acquire this property for preservation.

The Michigan Botany Society Conservation Advocacy Committee strongly encourages you to participate in this letter campaign via the Action Network link below. Simply fill out your contact information, proceed to "start writing," and fill out an editable field identifying yourself as an interested party to this issue. Then send! The website will automatically populate the letter with a salutation to a preselected list of recipients (i.e. Governor Whitmer, DNR Director) and will automatically add your signature.

Sibley Prairie Letter Campaign

Please consider filling this out as soon as you can! Conservation partners are currently exploring options for the purchase of this land. Feel free to share this link with any other interested individuals.

Saline gardener provides facts and inspiration in new book

How much difference can one person, one yard, one garden club make in rebuilding our natural world? Edith Andersen, a longtime Michigan gardener and member of the Saline Garden Club, has some ideas.

Her recently published book, Rebuilding Nature: Yard by Yard, combines facts about where we stand today in caring for nature, pollinators and wildlife with practical steps that anyone can take in our yards and communities to help reverse some of the harm humans have caused to the environment.

"With practical advice, inspiring stories, and a generous dose of hope, this book proves that the solution to our environmental crisis isn't happening in distant parks—it's growing right outside your door....every yard matters. Every choice counts. And every firefly deserves a fighting chance." (from Amazon description)

Edith hopes to encourage not only garden club members, but all homeowners and gardeners, to see that every effort we make counts. Together, our collective impact can be profound.

Become a Certified Master Composter in Washtenaw County!

Want to transform yard debris and kitchen scraps into a nutrient-rich, natural soil amendment? Identify your own soil profile? Create low-maintenance, low-waste yards? Tour large- and small-scale compost operations? Know how to compost with red worms? Make compost teas? All these topics and more are offered by a range of presenters through the Fall 2025 Master Composter class.

Course Details

Six-week workshop, Tuesdays, Sept. 16 - Oct. 21, 6:00-8:30 pm
Cost: $69 plus optional $10 printed manual fee
Locations: Ann Arbor Senior Center, 1320 Baldwin Avenue, and Leslie Science and Nature Center, 1831 Traver Road.

Meet the Team:

Lisa Perschke, Advanced Master Composter, Advanced Master Gardener

Joet Reoma, Master Composter, Master Gardener, Master Rain Gardener

Marcella Trautman, Master Composter

Chris Simmons, Master Composter, City of Ypsilanti

Ann Broderick, Master Composter

Sarah Archer, Owner, Iris Waste Diversion Specialists and 5-Hearts Worm Farm

Christine Charles, Michigan State University Extension Agent

Joanie Stovall, Project Grow Coordinator, Master Composter

Refugee Garden Initiatives invites you to an evening of storytelling, Southeast Asian cuisine, and community-building in support of refugees.

For more information and to RSVP, visit www.refugeegardeninitiatives.org.

Refugee Garden Initiatives is an AAF&G grant recipient.

Growing Hope's Chefs in the Garden fundraiser features

Ypsi chef Vince Henderson

Don't miss out on Chefs in the Garden, Growing Hope’s signature fall fundraiser—an unforgettable evening of culinary creativity, community connection, and garden elegance.

Date: Saturday, September 28, 2025

Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Location: The Growing Hope Urban Farm, 922 W. Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti, MI

Space is limited—reserve your spot today for a truly meaningful (and delicious) night!

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit

www.growinghope.net/events.

Growing Hope is an AAF&G grant recipient.

Get to know Ann Arbor Farm & Garden!

We’re a welcoming, active group of learners, doers, explorers, and leaders,

passionate about sharing and promoting the many benefits of gardens and gardening with each other and our community.

We raise money for annual grants and scholarships, expand our gardening and environmental knowledge,

and share beauty with others through garden tours and flower therapy. In the process, we create strong social connections and lifelong friendships.

Flowers – Friends – Food – Gardens – Giving

AAF&G members enjoy them all. Join us!

Fall 2025 Pop-Up Garden Walk

Course Details

Get to know Ann Arbor Farm & Garden!

Flowers – Friends – Food – Gardens – Giving

Giving

Membership

Learning

Flower Therapy