Sign Up for July Tour

Please read to the bottom for more information on attending the July tour.

July’s tour differs from previous months in time and location:

Weather: Hot & Humid
Date: Saturday, July 13th
Time: 8:00-11:00AM (note the earlier start, for cooler weather)
Location: Around the I-435 loop

July is peak prairie, and our July 13th Habitat Garden Tour offers three prairie and prairie-type gardens. These are very different from one another, varying in size from eight acres to part of a quarter-acre subdivision lot, and in age from two years old to ten.

What they have in common are prairie plants that thrive in deep soil and full sun. There are the world-famous flowers most emblematic of the Midwest, such as sunflowers. And many special and more unusual species, like Green Milkweed and Prairie Paintbrush. Most importantly, all three gardens vividly prove the principle: If you plant it, they will come.

FIELD OF DREAMS (location: by MCI Airport)

Photos: Kurt Hoeper

Many of us come to native plants via conventional gardening. We fall in love with Virginia Bluebells, or replace our hostas with Wild Ginger. But Kurt is as close to a pure proof of concept as can be imagined, someone who applied theory to a blank slate, and took his yard from zero to hero, in two short years.

Maybe you know a guy who can read a manual and build a log cabin. With native habitats, that guy is Kurt. When he moved to this house in December 2021, the backyard was empty save for an oak tree and a concrete basketball pad. The next year, Kurt read Doug Tallamy. He saw what needed to be done, and he got to it.

Following instructions he found online, Kurt solarized the back of his acre lot. That winter, he sowed the prepared area with one pound of deep soil prairie seed mix from Missouri Wildflowers, for a cost of less than $100. The next summer—boom. He had a prairie. As well as nesting bluebirds, wild turkeys, coyotes, and butterflies of many kinds.

Kurt was hooked. He found more instructions, and dug a pond behind the house, which he surrounded with native rain garden plants. The pond is used by an incredible variety of wildlife: his motion-activated cameras capture turtles, frogs, raccoons, hawks and many other migrating and resident birds. Most recently Kurt has planted a hedgerow of Missouri Department of Conservation berry and fruit saplings along the side property line, to build still more habitat.

This garden is breathtaking, indisputable proof that if you plant it, they will come. Beware: a visit here may inspire you to imagine how much more wildlife your yard can be supporting, just two years from now.

HOA HABITAT (location: north of Liberty)

Photos: Erin Watson

For everyone who says, “Yes, but I don’t have an acre,” this one is for you. Erin lives in a pleasant and typical newish suburban subdivision: quarter-acre lots, curling cul-de-sacs, small and few trees.

Four years ago, during the pandemic, Erin was pregnant with her fifth child while home-schooling her older four children. So she did what anyone would do in similar circumstances: she began a garden.

“I went crazy with the plants,” she said, planting fifty species at a time. With the HOA in mind, she placed recognizable crowd-pleasers like Coral Honeysuckle near the public-facing back fence. She also installed an arbor, fountain, raised beds, fencing and pathways.

With the family now expanded to six children, Erin has many demands on her time and energy, and little opportunity to fuss over the garden. But these structural elements provide order and cues to care that keep both her neighbors and HOA happy.

In fact, in its fourth summer, Erin’s garden is well established, flourishing on its own under the plentiful subdivision sun. New blooms and surprises delight the children — a robin’s nest in the Coral Honeysuckle, hummingbirds on the Red Buckeye, the Buttonbush blooming for the first time this year.

Though its footprint is small, the garden draws a wide array of wildlife, from frogs to cedar waxwings. Erin assigns nature studies in the garden, encouraging her children to watch the primroses open, observe monarch chrysalises and identify butterflies. Three-year-old Elijah can already recognize birds by their songs. This is a garden that enriches the entire family.

PRIME PRAIRIE (location: north of Louisburg)

Photos: Tim Rodgers

Four words: Eight acres, prime prairie.

Tim and Susan moved to this acreage twelve years ago. Susan had long wanted more space than was available around their Overland Park home, and over the years proposed one possibility after another. But it wasn’t until Tim saw this spot, with its woods backing onto a winding creek, that he was willing to take the jump.

Interestingly, Tim’s family made a similar move from city to country when Tim was a young boy. Thus, many of the cycles and chores that came with the land, the brush clearing and pond management and wood chopping, as well as appreciation of the rhythms of nature, were familiar to him.

Tim had long admired a friend’s reconstructed prairie, and soon realized the same could be done on his own new property. In 2014, a custom mix of native grasses and prairie flowers was seeded in the large sunny area along the long drive. This prairie is now ten years old, mature and rich. It is dense with deep-rooted native grasses and broad-leafed flowers, like Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum), which roots down twenty feet and can live a hundred years.

This is a very large area, deceptive in scale. For a deep experience, be prepared to immerse yourself. Bring a camp chair, hat and ice water. Find a spot, close your eyes. Tune in to the sound of summer; a sound rarely heard in our increasingly sterile world—the thrum and roar of millions of insects in a prairie paradise of millions of flowers.

These three gardens are part of our July 13th Habitat Garden Tour.

PLEASE READ:

• Locations: Around the I-435 loop. Unlike our four June gardens, which were within two miles of each other, it is 65 miles between these three locations. While it is theoretically possible to visit all three, it will likely be more enjoyable (and safer) to take it easy and visit any one or two. Carpooling is encouraged!
• Weather: July = hot + humid. The gardens open an hour earlier, at 8:00AM, so take advantage of the cooler morning hours if possible. Be prepared: pack cold beverages, cooling towels, hats, sunglasses, sunblock. Camp chairs and parasols are welcome. Please do not push yourself. Watch for heat stroke and sunburn. Enjoy these gardens responsibly.
• Facilities: Restrooms are not available at the gardens, so map your route ahead of time and make note of gas stations and grocery stores (good places to restock ice and beverages too).

HOW TO SIGN UP

If you’re not already a subscriber, we’d love to have you join us. SIGN UP FOR JULY or SUBSCRIBE TO THE SEASON by making a donation of any amount, according to your means. If you’re already subscribed, simply watch your inbox the Thursday before each Second Saturday, for an email with addresses and garden information. See you in the garden!

WHERE TO GO

The Thursday before each Second Saturday (July 11th), registrants and season subscribers receive an email with garden addresses. Click on the button to download the PDF of in-depth descriptions and key plants.

If you have not been seeing the emails, please note:

• The emails are sent from: Grace@deeprootskc.org
• The subject line will be: IMPORTANT 🌸 July Habitat Gardens 🦋 ADDRESSES & INFO
• If your Inbox has been filtering these emails, please add this address to your contacts so the email does not go to a junk or spam folder.
• If you do not see the email on July 11th, please email Grace@deeprootskc.org ASAP, as it is not possible to respond to phone calls and emails on the day of the tour.

See you in the garden!

WHAT IS A HABITAT GARDEN?

Habitat Gardens are gardens of native plants that provide habitat for birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife.

Every Second Saturday, from April to October, Habitat Garden Tour invites you to three (or more) residential habitat gardens to:

• Experience diverse habitat gardens and the succession of seasonal blooms that support wildlife.
• Meet other gardeners, native plant enthusiasts and wildlife supporters.
• Find inspiration and information to grow your own habitat garden.

MORE INFO

• For Habitat Garden photos and updates, follow DeepRootsKC on Instagram or Facebook.
• For information on upcoming and past habitat gardens, visit org/HabitatGardens.