So why go native? The answer is pretty simple. While ornamental garden plants may look nice, they are really lacking when it comes to ecological benefits. Our Minnesota native plants provide high quality habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. On top of this, they also look great and are hardy; requiring no fertilizers or watering….

  Did you know much of the cattail you see growing around ponds, wetlands, and lakes throughout Minnesota is actually non-native and invasive?  In Minnesota, we have both a native broadleaf cattail (Typha latifolia) and an invasive narrowleaf cattail (Typha angustifolia).  Unfortunately, these tend to readily hybridize with one another, producing an aggressive hybrid (Typha…

Love is in the air this month, and we are certainly feeling the love and admiration for the iconic Monarch butterfly.   During the summer of 2021, our work crews were commenting on the noticeably low number of Monarchs in both larvae and adult forms. For instance, we usually have hoards of monarchs in our…

Preparing a project site for planting or seeding is the most important and sometimes the most challenging component in achieving successful ecological restorations.  Site conditions and restoration goals factor into the preparation methods that we employ. Our overall goals are to substantially reduce weed competition, repair areas impacted by erosion, and stabilize sites during vegetation…

As the summer season quickly cascades into fall, our maintenance crews reflect on another season and what made it unique from past seasons. Every year is different and even though these observations are anecdotal, collectively they are interesting and help us understand the systems that we create and manage at Natural Shore. Below are a…

Ah, what an interesting summer it has been. With the pretty much constant heat and humidity, and throw in a relentless stream of smoke from our friends in Canada, it’s been a real challenge to leave the cool AC and venture into the outdoors.   Well, our staff at Natural Shore have been amazingly dedicated,…

  Ecological restoration usually involves detailed planning, long hours dedicated to site preparation, and then time spent in awkward positions, digging holes and installing plants.  On top of it all, throw in a good deal of patience, because it can take time for a restoration project to mature and reach its full potential.  However, the…

This has been a hot, dry, essentially rainless June and much of Minnesota is really feeling the drought conditions. What will July and August bring? Hopefully we will receive some consistent rainfall, but what if this drought continues?   With the unusually dry June, you might have noticed that our lawns and roadside turf areas…

  “Insects are the little things that run the world” -E.O Wilson   Each spring we look forward to the arrival of migrating songbirds in Minnesota as they return to find nesting sites to raise their young. White-throated sparrows, Eastern bluebirds, and a variety of warblers signal that spring has sprung! Let’s take a bit…

  As our calendar year turns over into a new beginning, we all ponder the thought of a “New Year’s resolution”. January presents an exciting opportunity to begin fresh, inviting a clear pallet of thoughts as luminous as a fresh Minnesota snowfall. A great resolution usually involves the opportunity to expand our thoughts and learn…

  As the snow begins to fall and winter finally sets in, our staff pivots from field work and focuses on indoor activities, such as putting the greenhouse to bed, servicing tools, revamping the trucks and organizing the shop.  However, one of the most important cleaning and organizing tasks isn’t about vacuuming the dirt from…

    Well, it was inevitable, but we just received a few inches of that white stuff that is such a part of our hearty Minnesota social fabric. Yes, winter will be soon upon us. In the cities, it was a pretty wet and heavy snow, enough so that our taller prairie plants started to…