We love plants, living things, things that grow and change, making things better. Maybe that’s one thing that links our healthcare life to our homestead life: improving the current status. We do everything we can to make our patients better—to leave them in better condition than they were in when we started. That’s what we want to do with our land.

We want to leave the property to our son in better shape than we found it in, and we want him to remember what we did, how we did it, and what it was like when we started.

We have lots of plans: erosion control; gardens; creek beds; soil improvement; composting; watershed protection; wildlife habitat establishment, restoration, and protection; and many others. Most of that involves plants.

Plants are amazing. Life without medications, monitors, machines, tubes, cords, and drains. Healthcare unplugged. We entertained ourselves teaching our four year old (at the time) what photosynthesis was and how to say it. What a kick it was watching such a small person talk about turning sunlight into sugar. The real kick was having that same four year old teach us what a Pachycephalosaurus was and how to say it in the middle of a mall toy store, but I digress.

A lot of our planned interventions for the property center around plants. We started paying more attention to plants and learning about them. We started identifying them.

We wanted to get the invasive overgrowth after decades of running wild in check, and we wanted to diversify the plant life. If our property is the patient, our prescription is plants—lots of plants.

We learned about native prairie species, savanna species, woodland species, and the overlap among them. We researched favored light and moisture conditions. We examined our property for those same light and moisture conditions.

Quite serendipitously, on the day she brought me that book, we noticed a new blue/purple flower on the property. I had actually packed the book in our bag, so we took some pictures, sat down with the book, and found it.

Nature started the work for us; as we got the invasive stuff out, new species started popping up everywhere. When we began discussing the introduction of seed, we narrowed it down to two mixes. One is a premixed native Iowa prairie seed mix from a local company, mostly suited for partial to full sun. We’re using that seed in areas that are quite open and receive a good deal of sunlight throughout the day. It contains 20 different species of forbs and 10 different species of grasses. Forbs make up one-third of the seed, grasses make up two-thirds.

The second is a mix we make. We order each species in specific quantities, and on planting day we dump all the bags, packets, and envelopes into a 5-gallon bucket and give it a good shake. This mix is made up of native woodland, savanna, and prairie species that thrive in full shade to partial sun. We use it on north facing slopes and under canopy. It contains about 40 different species of forbs and 13 different species of grasses. It’s the same ratio as the other mix, roughly one-third forbs and two-thirds grasses.

This summer has been awesome; we’re seeing more color, more diversity, new plants—some our doing and some nature’s, and less thorns!

We can’t wait to attract more insects and pollinators to our growing habitat. Save the bees!

Many of these plants self-seed. They drop their seed at the end of the growing season, ensuring their species will grow again next season and the season after. What’s more sustainable than that?

Using native seeds to restore our property will not only bring back diverse plant and animal life, but it will also enrich the soil, clean the waterways, protect the landscape, and shelter the endangered. As the years go by, our son will grow, our homestead will grow, and these plants will grow.