Newsletter #14 - May/June 2022 |
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Help protect pollinators in Mississauga - share this newsletter with friends and family! |
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Above: A May-June favorite: wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis). This beautiful woodland wildflower loves gravelly clay soil with added compost. It's happy in part shade or full sun. The dangling flowers have petals shaped like tubular spurs containing nectar attractive to long-tongued insects and hummingbirds. "Aquilegia" comes from the Latin "aquila", meaning "eagle" since the spurs look like eagle talons. Photo @2021 Jeanne McRight |
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Message from the President Dear BB Members and Supporters, May in Southern Ontario: if we're gardeners, we're grabbing trowels, plants and seeds and getting our hands into the soil. If we're nature-lovers, we're spotting bees, birds, buds, and blossoms and just simply enjoying being outside in the sunshine. It's a time when there are many opportunities to closely connect with nature. Connecting people with nature is what makes Blooming Boulevards tick. It's such a wonderfully rewarding job. With the help of many volunteers, we were able to grow over 7,000 native plants from local seed. Half will be distributed to over 70 new habitat gardens throughout the city. The remainder will be used as part of two collaborative conservation projects in Mississauga, partnering with Parks and Forestry, ACER, and CreativeHub 1352. Whatever is left will be sold in our Plant Sale to raise funds for next year's gardens. GREAT NEWS – ! I'm happy to announce that we have received our first Ontario Trillium Foundation Resiliency Fund Grant. The funds will help us work towards our dream: growing even more native plants to supply larger-scale projects! Hope to see you at our 3rd Annual Native Plant Sale on June 18 & 19! Cheers, Jeanne |
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Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good. - Jochen Zeitz Do more good — join our efforts to provide food and nesting sites for our threatened bees, butterflies and other pollinators: |
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Coming up in June Book Launch: - June 8 - 6 pm - 7:30 pm at the High Park Nature Centre, 375 Colborne Lodge Drive. Hurrah - the launch for Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla's new book A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators is happening! ***Blooming Boulevards' gardens are featured in the new book*** Info/register here>>
Look for Blooming Boulevards booths at these festive events: - June 16 - 1 pm - 3 pm - Ward One Seniors Fair at the Cawthra Seniors Centre, with Councillor Stephen Dasko
- June 18 - Year of the Garden celebration at the Riverwood Conservancy
Special event! Free Pollinator Week Webinars: - June 23 - Webinar Design Your Own Pollinator Garden, hosted by the City of Mississauga - Jeanne McRight, presenter.
- June 25 - Webinar Create a Native Woodland Garden, hosted by BB - Jeanne McRight, presenter. Register here>>
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Love native wildflowers? Yes? Then mark your calendar - you are invited to our 3rd Annual Native Plant Sale!When: Sat. & Sun. JUNE 18* & 19, 9am - 3pm * members only: 9 - 10 am on June 18 Where: 1295 Mineola Gardens, Mississauga Over 40 species of native plants, lovingly raised by our volunteer propagators from locally sourced seeds or divisions. We emphasize species indigenous to the Credit watershed but most are hardy to at least Zone 5a. Most plants will be priced at $3 each. Some special plants will be priced higher according to their size and/or propagation complexity. * Please see our plant gallery for an idea of what may be in the plant sale. This event is our major fundraiser - please come and support our good work. - BYOB - Bring your own boxes.
- Cash and cheques accepted.
- Please park on opposite side of the street.
More info here>> |
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Above: One of BB's new garden stewards this year, Judith Hamilton is ready and eager to experience the world of delights that native plant gardening brings! |
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May, a month of dreams and delights! |
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This event-packed month is always busy for us, but this spring even more so. Why? Because in this National Year of the Garden we decided to do more. And so we enlisted MORE plant propagators who produced MORE plants for MORE gardens this year than ever before! - 28 propagators grew 3,500 plants from seeds gathered by 4 teams of collectors last fall. A proud accomplishment considering that many had never before grown plants from seed.
- Jeanne grew 3,500 plants, to make a total of 7,000 native babies, all lovingly nurtured with water, fertilizer – and dreams of beauty and biodiversity.
- We met our target, with over 70 garden stewards, 2 churches and a school provided with plants for new habitat gardens all across the city.
- Receiving the plants from propagators and distributing the plants to stewards involved a host of dedicated, hard-working helpers: 2 top-notch volunteer managers, 5 plant labelers, a set-up and plant care team and 4 teams of volunteer plant sorters who matched plants to stewards.
HUGE THANKS TO OUR WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS. We couldn't have done this without you! Here's a little video with some highlights - enjoy! |
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Interested in applying for a garden? Please note that garden applications for 2022 are now closed.
We are accepting early applications for next spring's 2023 gardens. - Garden applicants must be current members of Blooming Boulevards.
- We will assess your site, and after your application is accepted, we will provide you with up to 50 FREE native plants so you can create a low maintenance boulevard pollinator garden.
So much better than grass, supports endangered bees and butterflies! - what’s not to love? |
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BB Garden BuzzNative garden to-do list: June Do a "Chelsea chop" in June to control height of some asters and goldenrods such as New England aster and stiff goldenrod. Both can grow quite tall, and pruning will keep them shorter and bushier. See Angela's article below, and Read more>> - Pull out weed seedlings before they get big - careful not to pull your native babies!
- Expand your garden with self-sown native babies, or give them to your friends and neighbours.
- Top-dress around young plants with rotted leaves or compost. Keep this away from tender stems.
- Trim plants if they overhang sidewalks or street.
- Water young plants during drought. New plants need water if lower than top inch of soil feels dry.
- Protect plants against hungry nibblers - rabbits love tender young seedlings! Long-lasting, non-toxic spray repellents (such as Bobbex or Plantskydd) can be effective, as well as wire cages around tasty favorites.
- Learn all about the pollinators in your garden: read Pollinators of Native Plants by Heather Holm.
- Watch for bumble bees and become a citizen scientist. Record sightings here >>
- Get the iNaturalist app for your smartphone to help identify and report sightings of wild fauna and flora.
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Biodiversity Buzz Supporting biodiversity with native plants by Pamela Sleightholm Surrounded by subdivisions, condos, highways and shopping malls – we can sometimes forget that we are a part of a living natural ecosystem. Sunday, May 22 was the International Day for Biological Diversity. Let this inspire you to take a moment to reflect on this city’s biodiversity – the plants, insects and animals that we need for the survival of our ecosystem. |
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Above: A mourning clock butterfly feeding on wild bergamot nectar. After feeding on various trees (elm, willow, and poplar are all acceptable fare) as caterpillars, Mourning Cloak butterflies emerge from their pupae in mid to late summer. They sometimes live as long as twelve months as adults. In springtime, they typically emerge from hibernation before the first flowers are in bloom, and they feed on everything from sap flows to dung to mud, in order to obtain the nutrients necessary for such a long life. Photo by Peeter Poldre. |
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Biodiversity is a term used to describe having a variety of genes, species and ecosystems. Biodiverse groups are much more resilient to stresses like extreme weather, natural disaster, even climate change. These genes, species and ecosystems are interconnected – what impacts one will affect the whole network, but together they can put up a strong front to major change. Blooming Boulevards aims to improve Mississauga’s biodiversity in several ways: |
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1. Improve genetic diversity by providing safe corridors
In Mississauga, we have green spaces that are siloed from one another. One goal of Blooming Boulevards is to connect those large wild spaces with smaller habitat gardens so pollinating insects can connect with other groups, reproduce and improve their own genetic diversity. Click image below to see a full-screen view. |
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- See where 2019, 2020 and 2021 Blooming Boulevards gardens are located throughout the city on this map.
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2. Plant a variety of native plant species to support a diversity of insects
Insects are the very foundation of our ecosystem’s food web. They provide pollination services for our own fruits, vegetables and other flowering plants. But they’re also a food source for baby birds, amphibians, fish and reptiles that all play a role in the ecosystem. Without insects, there couldn’t possibly be enough food. And since so many insects depend on specific plants, without those native plants, there couldn’t possibly be enough insects. Right: Goldenrod is a keystone species, critical to the survival of migrating insects. Photo ©2021_Peter Poldre |
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3. Promote plants that improve the ecosystem services required by all living things
Our ecosystem provides many services that we need for a safe and healthy city. Water filtration and absorption, decomposition of organic waste, pollination and erosion prevention are all incredibly valuable services that our ecosystem does for free. Having evolved in this zone, native plants play an essential role in many ecosystem services that improve the wellbeing of all living things. They are deep-rooted to provide stability and structure to soil, withstand drought and absorb water. They’re also important for soil microbes involved in decomposition to cycle nutrients back to the environment. They provide shelter and food for all creatures, including humans. All of these factors play a role in our ecosystem, supporting a diverse network of organisms that also play a role in ecosystem services themselves. Learn more>> |
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Elizabeth Underhill with the native plants she bought at last year's plant sale for the Bradley Museum's Pollinator garden. |
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David and his family ready to plant their BB native boulevard garden, 2021. |
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Planting native plants does so much more than creating a pretty pollinator garden, they’re essential to the functioning of our entire ecosystem, food supply and biodiversity. All important factors as we approach the realities of a changing climate. It may not seem that we can do much with our limited spaces, but adding native plants to our gardens or balconies can pack a punch. This spring, add a few more native plants to your space! See photo gallery here>> |
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My life as a propagator by Sheila Cressman It all started in the autumn of 2019 when I attended two seed gathering workshops with Jeanne McRight at Hancock Woodlands and Jack Darling parks. She spoke about how easy and enjoyable it was to propagate your own native plants. Jeanne arranged a letter of permission from the City of Mississauga to collect a few seeds from certain species of wild native plants in several municipal parks. So I gathered seeds from black-eyed Susans, New England asters and Virginia mountain mint, then stored them in my fridge with the vague idea that I would be doing something with them. I learned how to process and stratify the seeds at a later workshop, and having invested all that effort into these seeds, I figured I had to see if they’d actually germinate. Below: Sheila with some of the native plants she grew for BB garden stewards. Sheila says, "I am by no means a gardening expert, so it was a revelation for me to think that I could produce native plants for my own use, rather than spending several hundred dollars each season at a garden centre for ornamental plants that probably started their lives in a lab." |
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Early spring rolled around, and with a mild push from Jeanne, I headed to Bustan’s in Toronto, where I picked up some lights for the new shelving unit I had just acquired. The lights can be a bit of a challenge, but with some guidance from both Jeanne and Wayne, everything was set up just a couple days before the first pandemic lockdown began. I was thrilled and amazed when the first seedlings germinated just a few days later. With daily attention and by following the simple directions Jeanne provided, I was able to produce dozens of plants for both Blooming Boulevards' stewards and for my own boulevard garden. |
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I have now completed three seasons of native plant propagation, and have produced over 400 plants, all in my cold basement. Left: Sheila's garden in its first year. In its second year, she added plants she grew from seed. |
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Here are my top 5 pieces of advice for anyone who wishes to follow the same path...Read more>> |
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Invasive Plants, Be Gone!by Heather Raithby Doyle What are invasive plants in Ontario? People know that invasives are bad for the environment but have no idea why. If you'd like to learn more about invasive plants and what you can do to help our forests, here are some places to find good info AND an opportunity to actually get out there and accomplish something!...Read more>> Below: Pictured at Adamson Estate forest, the invasive garlic mustard. Photo ©2022 Heather Raithby Doyle. |
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Native Garden Design My Chelsea Chop experiment By Angela Jordan I am a third-year owner of a flourishing Blooming Boulevard. The second year I was both amazed, and if I’m honest, slightly concerned at how tall my goldenrod and blue asters grew. After all it really was only the second year! Quite coincidently I happened upon an article on the Chelsea Chop, getting its name from the famed Chelsea Flower show which takes place in late May. This is also the time recommended when one would chop.The name "Chelsea Chop" sounds harsh to most of us gardeners as we all dislike chopping anything, but have no fear, I found out it’s a good thing....Read more>> |
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Left: How to do a Chelsea chop - Use sharp, clean secateurs to cut back the stems of perennials such as asters and goldenrods, making a sloping cut just above a leaf joint. Below: Angela's garden in its second year. |
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Take Care of Your Soil Backyard Gardens; Recycle that Refuse!By Diana Westland, Mississauga Master Gardener Organic matter returned to the soil replenishes nutrients, and improves or restores soil structure. It also feeds organisms that are food for many beneficial reptiles, birds, and mammals. Kitchen and garden waste, with natural recycling methods, can be converted into organic rich compost. Direct applied mulches can include shredded leaves, partially composted materials from compost piles or bins, green cover crops tilled back into the soil, or kitchen scraps, such as coffee grounds and crushed eggshells. Read all about making your own compost here>> |
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Organic waste can be added directly to soil. Assuming there is a healthy soil biome, the organic matter will eventually breakdown. However, microorganisms consume nitrogen when digesting organics. Direct application can deplete nitrogen necessary for growing plants. Organics containing green or fibrous matter should therefore be added in the fall. The material will continue decomposing over dormant periods when temperatures are above freezing without competing with plants for nitrogen. Photo: Marty Baldwin |
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Year of the Garden Call for Volunteers |
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Above: One of 4 volunteer teams who helped sort plants for our new garden stewards' pick up on May 21 & 22! Photo ©2022 Jeanne McRight. |
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- Photographers, writers and publicists
Do you have experience with fund raising initiatives? Please get in touch - we need help getting the word out as we increase focus on developing and extending our programs this year. We are looking for people with leadership skills and enough free time to help with seasonal garden and outreach committee activities. It's an exciting time to get involved in our growing organization! |
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- Board of Directors volunteers
We want to add two members to our Board of Directors and encourage expressions of interest from our membership. Please contact Jeanne at info@bloomingboulevards.org for more information. |
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Attention BB garden stewardsYou're invited to join our garden steward Facebook group! This is a group just for you! Now all Blooming Boulevards' garden stewards, BB volunteers and member native plant growers can connect with each other. Share photos, observations, tips and questions and learn together in this private members-only group! Join the Blooming Boulevards Garden Stewards Facebook Group here>> |
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| | Become a member Annual memberships are just $15. Members get early-bird privileges at our annual plant sale, opportunities to volunteer, eligibility to apply for a garden. Join us/renew today! | | |
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| | Donate We deeply appreciate your generous contributions and put them to good use - they go straight into expanding our garden and education programs. Thank you! | | |
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Thank you! - Blooming Boulevards is thrilled to have the support of the City of Mississauga, the Riverwood Conservancy, the Mississauga Master Gardeners and the Cloverleaf Garden Club.
A huge thanks to all our members, volunteers, supporters and donors who continue to help us provide habitat to pollinators and protect the wild plants and animals that share our urban neighbourhoods. We can't do this without you!
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Our 2021 - 2022 Board of Directors Jeanne McRight, Founding President Sheila Cressman, Secretary Mary Jean Kucerak, Treasurer Wayne Cardinalli Angela Jordan Murray Moore Pamela Sleightholm Communications Jeanne McRight Pamela Sleightholm Heather Raithby Doyle Sheila Cressman Diana Westland, Mississauga Master Gardener Photography (unless otherwise noted) Jeanne McRight |
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Blooming Boulevards is an incorporated Ontario not-for-profit organization and a thankful recipient of funding from the City of Mississauga and the Ontario Trillium Foundation. |
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