Patti Ragsdale

Founder and Executive Director

  • Home base: Happy Apple’s Farm, Tonganoxie, KS
  • Day job: You’re looking at it!
  • Favorite native plant: Lady’s tresses orchids (Spiranthes sp.)
  • Favorite book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Jenni Baxter

Grower

  • Home base: Linwood, Kansas
  • Day job: Growing native plants for Botanical Belonging
  • Favorite native plant: Leadplant (Amorpha canescens)

Annie Robertson

Operations and Administration Manager

  • Home base: Denver, CO
  • Day job: This! And teaching dance.
  • Favorite native plant: Elephant Head (Pedicularis groenlandica)

Our Board of Directors

Melanie Hall

Board President

  • Home base: Olathe, KS
  • Day job: Owner-Agent | Wild Prairie Real Estate
  • Favorite native plant: Aromatic Aster
  • Favorite garden critter: Jumping spiders

Cara Weeks Neuburger

Board Vice President

  • Home base: McLouth, KS
  • Day job:  Art therapist | Sunflower Art Therapy
  • Favorite native plant:  Goldenrod
  • Favorite artist: Joseph Cornell

Pat Wittry

Board Treasurer

  • Home base: Walker Township, Anderson County, Kansas
  • Day job: Interpreter/Translator (Spanish) & School Secretary
  • Favorite native plant: Little bluestem
  • Favorite food: Chocolate

Amy Gordon Ames

Board Secretary

  • Home base: De Soto, KS
  • Day job: Volunteer for groups that inspire her (formerly a family physician)
  • Favorite native plant: Butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
  • Favorite movie: The Biggest Little Farm

Brent Ragsdale

Board Member

  • Home base: Happy Apple’s Farm, Tonganoxie, KS
  • Day job: Business Development Manager with Willdan
  • Favorite native plant: Solomon’s Seal (because the Latin name brings out my junior high sense of humor.)
  • Favorite beer: Crank Case IPA from Blue Skye Brewery (Salina, KS). It’s made from Kernza perennial wheat developed by the Land Institute (and it’s darn good too.)

Andie Perdue

Board Member | Digital Communications Strategist

  • Home base: Rural Lawrence, KS
  • Day job: Non-profit Marketing Consultant & Passionate Prairie Promoter
  • Favorite native plant: Button Blazing Star (Liatris aspera)
  • Favorite: I love animals! I have chickens, turkeys, ducks, donkeys, goats and pigs on my hobby farm 🙂