Contributors

Kirk Shillinglaw
Kirk Shillinglaw grew up restoring a native dry prairie with his family on a parcel his parents purchased in central Wisconsin- a more modern version of the Leopold family shack. After myriad adventures, including studies abroad and grad school at Duke, he was amazed to find himself back in Wisconsin and working at Prairie Nursery, the seminal company in the native plant and restoration field, not twenty minutes from his family’s land. With Prairie Nursery since 1997, Kirk is currently VP of Sales and Marketing. Kirk enjoys being outside in general, especially with his kids, whether in a stream, a prairie, or their own backyard.

Mary Evans
Mary is the Marketing Specialist at Prairie Nursery and she takes care of all things ‘E’: E-commerce, E-news and so on. Blogging for The Native Plant Herald is an E-xtension of her appreciation for native plants and their unique beauty. She’ll be blogging about converting her Milwaukee yard into a no-mow, native plant environment, as well as creating galleries of native plant photos for your inspiration and enjoyment. Follow her, here: Lawn Reduction Project.

Sarie Doverspike
Sarie grew up on a tiny sliver of land and sandy prairie called French Island near La Crosse, WI between the Mississippi and Black Rivers.  She spent many happy times exploring the sandy prairies surrounding her neighborhood woods amongst the Birdsfoot and Woodland Violets, picking them for Mom (they never did last longer than a few hours… and learned it was a no-no to pick them..)  A musician by education,(Soprano, singing with the Festival Choir of Madison for 25 years), she found her way to the Westfield area by marrying a music teacher/organic gardener husband with 50 acres of oak savannah in which to roam.  The incredible diversity of wildflowers in her own back yard amazed her, including many species growing in the pure beach sand such as Butterflyweed, Rough Blazingstar, Roundhead Bushclover and many others. After a trip to Prairie Nursery, Sarie magically found herself learning at the feet of prairie guru Neil Diboll, (not exactly feet, but across the hall at least).  In the almost 12 years at Prairie Nursery, Sarie loves speaking with her customers and finds she learns something new each day speaking with our customers.