Native Gardening in Ontario
Check out the video from the Nature Conservancy of Canada on planting native plants.
Great resources!
Here are some fantastic resources from the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. If you are looking to plant native flowers, trees, or prairie plants in the Stratford area, these resources will be a great start! There are also resources on invasive plants and butterfly larvae host plants.
Douglas Tallamy and Nature’s Best Hope
This is a summary of a video posted on YouTube by Doug Tallamy, an entomologist and author of Nature’s Best Hope. You are nature’s best hope. There are millions of specialized interactions in nature. For example more than half of insects are pollen specialists. That means they can only access pollen from one particular family
Trees for Bees
Friends of the Earth have published a poster titled “Trees for Bees”. Check it out!
Sources for native plants near Stratford
Interested in purchasing native plants? See that attached document (revised from the earlier version) for a list of “local-ish” sources for native plants.
The importance of keystone species
If you were told that beaver, bees, an oak tree and a purple sea star were keystone species, you might wonder, “What does that mean?” Simply stated, this means that each of these species fills a critical niche in its ecosystem which no other species can. This makes them vital to the function of the
Kiss the Ground
I recently watched a documentary called “Kiss the Ground ”. The basic premise is that by healing the soil we can heal our climate crisis. The story asks us to honour natural processes versus chemical processes. Soil damaged by chemicals and excess tillage gives off carbon dioxide whereas healthy soil sequesters carbon dioxide. Poor land
Book review: The Suburban Micro-Farm
The book by Amy Stross, published in 2017, is a treasure trove of useful tips for busy people who would like to grow some of their own food. With more people moving to the suburbs (about 50% of Americans now live in suburbs), the impact of converting lawns to small micro-farms would have tremendous impact
Book review
Lawns into Meadows: Growing a Regenerative Landscape by Owen Wormser Owen Wormser is a landscape designer who specializes in regenerative landscaping based on his study of horticulture, permaculture, organic agriculture and ecology. In his recent book Lawns into Meadows published in June 2020 he provides a practical guide for homeowners to convert their lawns into
Butterflies as Bellwethers of Climate Change
I am sharing material about butterflies coping with climate change, taking facts from an article titled “Soft-winged Sentinels”, written by Madeleine Finlay, published in New Scientist Magazine, July 11-17, 2020 edition. New Scientist is based in the United Kingdom. Any omissions or errors in the following are mine. L. Glover Butterflies are cold-blooded animals and