WHO WE ARE
I grew up surrounded by nature and gardeners. My dad's parents were avid gardeners. My mom's parents were dairy farmers. As a kid, my parents always had the largest vegetable garden in the neighborhood (and they still do). My mom has always been the one to carefully catch bugs in the house and carry them outside rather than squish them. My dad taught me how to trench compost in the vegetable garden and grow oak trees from acorns. While all of their neighbors were burning leaf piles in the fall, they would rake them into an enormous pile to create leaf mold compost for the garden. I spent summers at grandma and grandpa's farm chasing barn cats, foraging for berries, splashing in the creek, and picking off the leeches afterwards. Growing things and caring for the land is in my blood.
A few years ago, I read Dr. Doug Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home. It opened my eyes to the critical need to replace ecologically dead lawns with biodiverse food webs anchored by native plants. I was hooked. I began to introduce native plants into our small urban Wauwatosa yard. It started slowly. That first summer I bought and planted the only 2 native plants that I was able to find at the big local nursery, a Wild Strawberry and a Pale Purple Coneflower. I went on to read the rest of Dr. Tallamy's books, and every book that I could find on the topics of native plant gardening, pollinator habitat, land and biodiversity restoration.
Unable to readily locate native plants in local retail outlets, I began purchasing seeds online from regionally local suppliers so I could grow my own. I learned about cold, moist stratification needs which led me to discover the milk jug winter sowing method. I found myself elbow deep in soil, planting seeds in my basement in January. Again, I was hooked.
I sowed SO many seeds that winter, which predictably germinated into more plants than our yard could support. My wife helped me to create a post on marketplace, I popped a sign in the yard, and the backyard nursery was born. My hope was to find happy homes for all of these plants I had grown, and maybe recoup some of the cost of nursery pots and potting soil in the process.
The response was overwhelming. The morning of the plant sale I went outside to find cars parked around the block. People drove from as far away as Illinois in search of native plants. People flocked to the backyard nursery, searching for native plants as I had searched the year prior. I was flattered and encouraged by every single visitor and I relished in every connection I made that day.
During the summer of 2025, I had the privilege of attending Wisconsin Master Naturalist training led by the Land Restoration School at Mequon Nature Preserve. I received my certification as a Wisconsin Master Naturalist alongside an inspiring group of individuals. This experience deepened my resolve to promote native plant gardening and the ecological restoration of urban and suburban landscapes by making native plants accessible to all.
There are a lot of amazing people doing incredibly meaningful work in this field. Every interaction I’ve had has strengthened my commitment and my passion to pursue this goal. My wife Sarah, and our two children are the foundation of this endeavor. They give me the support, patience, love, and encouragement to do this work. I often find myself referring to Root Down Wisconsin as “we”, because without them, this would not be.
Root Down Wisconsin is more than just a small business. It's a passion. It provides an outlet for my art, a love shelved for decades under the weight of real world commitments. It gets me outside in the dirt during the warm months and it fuels me during the doldrums of Wisconsin winter. Most rewarding of all, it connects me with others who see the value in adding native plants to their landscape, people working to restore land, to restore biodiversity, people who care for wildlife. To all who have been even a small part of this journey, thank you. I hope we fuel your passion for this work in return.
Andy Plamann owns and operates Root Down Wisconsin, an urban native plant nursery located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.