Designing a Pollinator Garden

In this presentation, John Blair will bring you along on his journey to create magnificent pollinator gardens on his rural property in Brooklyn, Michigan. He will also share all of the important design elements needed for you to create your own successful butterfly garden including plant selection, use of native plants, preparation and selection of your site and various other important steps that will bring butterflies and other pollinators to your garden!

When John Blair retired from his automotive engineering job, 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. John got busy that spring creating his own butterfly garden at his Westland home that over the next seven summers grew to over 5000 square feet in size. In 2019, having filled all his available gardening space, John and his wife Sheri moved to a new home in rural Brooklyn, Michigan with about 9 acres of land which he is using to make even more butterfly and pollinator gardens as well as restoring large tracts of land to original prairie with native plants. John enjoys giving his inspirational talks to help others get started with their own butterfly gardens and creating more habitat for pollinators. In addition, John gives educational garden and prairie tours each summer and hosted over 400 visitors from seventeen different clubs and organizations last year.