pollinators – Cosmos and Chickadees

Things are slowing down a bit in terms of gardening, and we started making plans for what we would like to do next year. Gardening is the definition of slow-living, you can plant things but you have to wait for them to grow. Last year we planted some small trees and shrubs from Hardy Fruit Tree Nursery that were around 1-3 feet including a basket willow. I was unsure about how successful they would be as they looked like sticks when we planted them. However, a year later that same basket willow has surpassed me in height, and is inching towards six feet. We also planted wild strawberries last year that didn’t look like they were doing very well, but they amazingly not only survived the winter, but graced us with berries for the first couple of weeks in June (in my excitement I forgot to take a proper photo!)

Last week, a couple in the village welcomed us into their house on a day of particularly loud construction. They have a lovely garden that spreads over a couple of acres. The wife asked me if I would like some plants from her garden as they had begun to overcrowd one another. It was difficult to tell where one plant ended and another begun. From that I learned the importance of considering spacing when planting flowers and other perennials. While areas of our garden appear quite sparse right now, in a few years I imagine the plants will continue to fill out and spread. Even in the past year, I’m amazed to see that bee balm and daisies that I planted have spread by at least half a foot! In that sense, while it is desirable to try to finish our garden as fast as we can, even within a year like Monty Don’s ‘Big Dreams Small Spaces’, I’m learning that it’s a process that will develop over the years. We have decided to think more long term when it comes to our garden, thinking about what we want over the next few years, rather than only thinking about ‘now’.

There are areas of our garden this year that we have decided to leave for now, mainly focusing on annuals like cosmos. With a baby, our time is really quite limited and while the space we have is modest compared to a lot of other folks in the country, it’s a bit overwhelming for us. There are other areas that are currently covered with wild carrot and nettles that we plan to cover with cardboard in the autumn. In many of those areas we planted things that were given to us, that appear dead or dying now – but will likely begin to thrive next year. We hope to work on that garden more in the future. It’s nice to have something to look forward to! It’s also good to avoid putting too much pressure on ourselves by thinking in years rather than days or months. I’m amazed by the progress we have made in our year and a half here, and am excited to see how the garden will change in the coming years.

_{We planted cedar trees that will eventually become a cedar hedge. Because the area will be semi-shade in the future, rather than planting anything permanent we planted some cosmos.}

One change we made in the past few weeks was dig out space for a new garden that will focus on pollinator attracting natives. We ordered some plants from Ontario Native Plants that we look forward to getting including foxglove, echinacea, and Canada anemone. In the meantime we transplanted some delphinium from the back of our house and also planted some phlox moss and wild geranium that we were gifted. It looks pretty sparse right now, and I’m sure that some folks might think us odd for having a lot of clover, and gradually removing our lawn. We put up a sign in the new garden declaring it as pollinator friendly. I’m not sure if anyone will notice our sign, but it would be interesting if some folks begin to look into what that means and decide to make their own pollinator friendly gardens. I’m also considering adding little nameplates beside each of our plants so that folks can learn more about native plants.

We recently put up a nest for solitary bees, which are native bees in Ontario that need some help. I’m still learning the benefits of having bees, but think it’s lovely that by both attracting and helping pollinators we will end up with a more beautiful garden. I noticed that our winterberry tree that we planted last year is currently flowering and attracting lots of little bees!

Finally – another unconventional thing I’ve been doing is waiting more before pulling things out of our garden to see what they might be. We live beside a field of wildflowers so it’s interesting to see that some of the flowers have seeded into our garden. From this practice I have been pleasantly surprised to find wild daisies and primrose appearing! I also found some viper’s bugloss or blue weed in our garden – which is currently blooming all around us. It’s apparently a plant that originally came from Europe but has become naturalized in every province in Canada. I found it interesting that viper’s bugloss appears on both ‘Ontario Wildflowers‘ and ‘Ontario Weeds‘ websites – telling on the importance of different perspectives. While it isn’t from Ontario originally it does seem to attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

I’m happy that the village we live in already has a lot of gardens that appear more wild or natural than what you might see in some other areas. It’s honestly a bit intimidating to do something visibly against the grain, but I have been humbled by the amount of people who have stopped by to compliment our garden so far. I hope we’re able to make it more and more beautiful over the coming years.

Until next time!

The first half of June has been quite busy! We created a new garden and worked on some maintenance. We also put in an irrigation system as a way to be more efficient with the way we use water. Last year, while we installed a rain barrel, we used a lot of sprinklers and hoses to water both our lawn and garden. I found despite my efforts the lawn wasn’t very successful, and as I looked more into it, I realized how inefficient and costly (environmentally, financially) the traditional lawn is. Since then, I spent a lot of time learning about alternative lawns and the no-lawn movement in general – I will make a post about this another time.

One thing I started to pay more attention to this month is all of the beautiful wildflowers in Ontario. Living in the country gives me the opportunity to see a lot more relatively undisturbed nature. I went for a walk with my friend earlier this week in the forest and she introduced me to wildflowers that I didn’t even know existed! I was completely unaware that we have wild lilies and roses.

This year, while working on our pollinator garden, I have had a lot of opportunity to reflect upon native and invasive species. The more I learn, the more I am able to identify when going for walks. About ten years ago or so, when I was studying tea ceremony, my teacher encouraged me to make a journal of the different flowers blooming each season, so that I could become more aware of seasonality. I made a journal for myself where I could see the different flowers blooming, and I recall the experience making me more attune to what was happening in my environment. It’s interesting to revisit this task, and to become even more involved as now I have the opportunity to grow my own garden. While before I enjoyed looking at wildflowers on walks, I feel like now they have taken on a new depth for me, I look at them and think about how they benefit different birds and insects. I think about how (and if) it’s possible for me to incorporate them into my own garden.

I never really gave up my interest in birds, and throughout the years I have watched birds and listened to their calls. That being said, I don’t believe my passion for flowers and plants really came into it’s own until I started creating my own garden. There’s a small meadow beside my house that is full of wildflowers, I’m enjoying cutting some to put in my kitchen, and thinking about how I can potentially propagate or relocate some to my own garden.

Field of wildflowers including red clover, and daisies.

Learning about pollinators (e.g., bees, birds, beetles, bats, etc.) has started to change my perspective on ‘weeds’ as well. I never really understood why something was considered a weed before, but now I’m beginning to create my own definition of it. For me, a weed is an invasive species that chokes out or damages the natural ecosystem. Or potentially a plant that is lovely one place but not in another. For example, I love queen anne’s lace, and think it’s a beautiful flower. However, my side garden is covered in queen anne’s lace, so I’m actively working to remove it so that I can plant more diverse plants. Alternatively, I found some beautiful swamp milkweed and daises in my garden. I didn’t put these there, nature did, but they will be incredibly beneficial to local wildlife.

I love gardening because it’s a hobby I can do for my entire life, and it’s something I can continuously learn from. Every year we make lots of mistakes, for instance, this year we dug holes for lilac trees too close together in an area with almost no sun. We also spread black mulch around our garden, which I learned can be potentially dangerous as the wood can come from suspicious sources like old pallets. That being said, we learned from our mistakes from previous years, and have been continuously building upon our garden. The amount of biodiversity we have this year – after only a year or living here – is incredible. We get different birds almost every day! I’m still working on becoming more aware of the different insects around our property.

Here are some of the plants that bloomed in our garden in the first half of June.