Newsletter #15 - July/August 2022

Help protect pollinators in Mississauga - share this newsletter with friends and family!

Above: Brilliant scarlet cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is a perfect addition to your garden if you can keep it moist, for celebrating Canada's Year of the Garden. Its flaming tubular blossoms attract nectar-robbing short-tongued bees as well as butterflies, but it's a special favourite of the ruby-throated hummingbird. Photo @2021 Mohan Iyer.

Kudos and recognition

by Jeanne McRight

On June 9, we were proud to received a Credit Valley Conservation Friends of the Credit Conservation Award. The award was in the Environmental Awareness category. Deep thanks go to all our hard-working volunteers, members and donors whose ongoing efforts in behalf of increasing and linking pollinator habitat gardens throughout Mississauga are having an impact! Read more about the award and the recognition event here>> 

BB – out and about in June

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: 

We grew close to 8,000 plants this spring! Twenty-eight volunteer propagators helped grow plants from seeds gathered by four teams of volunteer collectors last fall.

Our 3rd Annual Plant Sale was a huge success!

We partnered with ACER, Ecosource and Mississauga Parks and Forestry, providing 2,800 plants that were planted by volunteers in at least 16 parks and municipal gardens throughout the city.

And then we went out to spread the word!

Year of the garden

Plant RED!

Everyone in Canada, including individuals, and those in organizations, schools, churches, colleges and universities, clubs, societies, businesses, and municipalities are invited to Live the Garden Life and Plant Red during the Year of the Garden 2022. 

Plant Red to pay tribute to lives lost, or honour frontline workers during the pandemic. Or Plant Red as an expression of your Canadian Garden Pride in 2022.

Just a few of the many Ontario native plants you can choose for year-round red flowers, fruits, leaves or stems:

• Spring: red trillium, wild columbine, wild strawberry, Jack in the Pulpit
• Summer: bee balm, cardinal flower, pin cherry, wild crab apple, wild currents, red baneberry, red mulberry, red elderberry, Indian paintbrush, spicebush
• Fall: little bluestem, Bowmans's root, Virginia creeper, red maple, black cherry, flowering dogwood, white oak, sweetgum, black oak, sumac. 
• Winter: red twig dogwood

Above: Ruby-throated hummingbirds love nectar-rich, red tubular flowers, and Bee balm (Monarda didyma) is a native favorite. Photo ©2021 Peeter Poldre.

Please post photos and stories about your Plant Red Garden and tag them with #PlantRed and #YearoftheGarden on your social media feeds.

Share your garden. Register your Plant Red Garden at no cost, by submitting a photo of your garden. Your entry will be pinned on the map (by community not exact location) and you will receive a special downloadable Plant Red Garden Certificate of participation.

Coming up in August 

Let's relax and enjoy our gardens! We need a little R& R after our super-busy spring, so we're slowing down a bit in July. Ahhh, the hammock beckons...

But here's an interesting webinar for you toward the end of the month, to get you ready for your fall gardening:

Free Webinar:

• August 20 - Webinar Understanding Your Soil From the ground up - your garden starts with the soil. Learn about your soil's health and how it helps keep your plants thriving. Includes a DYI soil texture test! Handouts available to download! Hosted by BB - Jeanne McRight, presenter.  Register here>>

Garden Buzz

Native garden to-do list: July/August

• Reduce the size of your lawn and prepare the site for planting in fall and/or next spring. Smothering the grass during this growing season will eliminate the work of manually removing the turf. Info here>>
• Weed! Pull out shallow-rooted weed seedlings while still small. Clip off larger weeds at their base below the soil line to avoid damaging nearby roots. This also reduces the likelihood of dormant weed seeds re-surfacing and starting to grow.
• Fill in gaps in 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.  
• Read some of the great native plant- and pollinator-related books that have been recently published. Here's a short list of my favourites (*let me know about yours)!

- A Garden for the Rusty Patched Bumblebee by Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla

- The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy 

- Wasps by Heather Holm (winner of the American Horticultural Society 2022 Book Award)

-  A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future  by Benjamin Vogt.

- The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf

• 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.

Don't have a native plant garden yet? So, what are you waiting for...?

Apply for a 2023 boulevard 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, beautiful, easy-care, conserves water, supports endangered bees and butterflies! - what’s not to love?

Friend or Foe?

Q:    Ok, my pearly everlastings looked healthy earlier but now my plants have fuzzy webs all over them. What do I do?  

A:    Rejoice! The fuzzy webs are made by American Lady butterfly caterpillars  who, after hatching, use silk and leaf fuzz to create these protective “tents,” usually at the ends of flower stalks. The caterpillars shelter in their cozy tents during the day and come out at night to eat, in hopes of avoiding their major predators: hungry birds (caterpillars, when consumed as food, are a quite rich source of protein (they make up one of the most abundant sources of protein on the planet). Look for them at dusk. The plants will quickly recover and your garden will be full of these lovely butterflies – if the caterpillars' survival strategies have been successful. 

Below: American Lady Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) nectaring on Virginia mountain mint. Photo: Dan Mullen, Flickr.

Q:    My tick trefoil's leaves look like swiss cheese but I don't see any insects on them. What's causing these round holes?

A:    Leafcutters bees  (Megachile xanthosarus) have been busy!  They are pollinators of legumes, cranberries, blueberries, and wildflowers. Showy tick trefoil (Desmodium canadense) leaves are thin and smooth - perfect for leafcutter bees.

Meet a member

Murray and Mary EllenMoore

Story and photos by Heather Raithby Doyle

After years of buying native plants and placing them wherever there was room in the garden, Murray and Mary Ellen Moore decided to go all in. They hired a landscape designer who specializes in native plants, and who helped them transform their Mississauga backyard into a native plant oasis.

The 1950’s shrubs, grass and non-natives are gone. Now, native plants and shrubs rule, along with two paw paw trees, and a newly created pond and bog. Mulch paths bend around the garden, dotted with sculptures and seating areas. It’s hard to believe this lush green space, both restful and intriguing, was created one year ago. Read more >>

Biodiversity Buzz

Canada milkvetch, a native legume

Story and photos by Pamela Sleightholm

Astragalus canadensis is a native plant in the pea family. Dozens of creamy white tubular flowers bloom for two to three months in the summer. It tolerates dry and wet soils and thrives in sun or part shade.

Right now, the Canada milkvetch in my garden is about 100cm tall and covered with bumblebees, whose long tongues are able to reach into the long flowers to extract nectar. Butterflies, hummingbirds and other native bees are also attracted to its blooms. But one of milkvetch's other interesting characteristics, like all members of the pea family, is that it is a nitrogen fixer.  Read more>>

A look at plant/insect partnerships

by Pamela Sleightholm and Jeanne McRight

We’ve all seen the beautifully blooming butterfly bushes at the nursery and the zinnia, roses, and sedum that are covered in bees in the summer. Still, there may be even better native plant alternatives just as beautiful.

Above: The beautiful spicebush swallowtail butterfly is native to south Mississauga. Below: Spicebush swallowtail caterpillars feed only on spicebush (Lindera benzoin) or white sassafras (Sassafras albidum). Without those host plants, we do not have the butterfly. Photo: Colleen Prieto

What do native plants do for pollinators that ornamental species don’t?

During their 350 million year co-evolution, many native plant and insect species have developed relationships that benefit one or both species....Read more>>

Butterfly and moth adults need nectar plants. Their caterpillars need host plants!

Pollinator gardens not only can provide nectar for butterflies and other insects, but also will help to support the caterpillar stage of butterflies and moths if you add their native host plants. Native host plants are the plants where butterflies and moths lay their eggs. They’re important because those plants are what a new caterpillar will start to eat after it has hatched. Ontario butterfly host plants for your garden. Get list here>>

Why Native Plants?

Why do pollinators need help anyway?

by Pamela Sleightholm

Image source: Pollinator Partnership Canada

Creating habitat with native plants is the best way to help pollinating insects.

We’ve read the news and understand that they’re essential to our existence (about one-third of the food we eat depends on insect pollination). 

But why do they need help in the first place?

Five main factors are having a huge impact on pollinators - habitat loss, pesticides, parasites and pathogens, invasive species, and climate change - each of them reducing their numbers and health. And when a species is weakened by one factor, they are much more susceptible to the others. Read more>>

Year of the Garden

Call for Volunteers 

Above: BB Volunteers Doris and Mohan help care for plants during a busy day of plant pickups by our new garden stewards.

• Seed collection volunteers (fall)
• Photographers, writers and publicists (year-round)

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.

• Committee volunteers (seasonal)

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! 

Join our Board of Directors!

We want to add two members to our Board of Directors and encourage expressions of interest from our membership. If you would like to join our lively, active and interesting board, please contact Jeanne at info@bloomingboulevards.org  for more information.

Attention BB garden stewards

You're invited to be part of 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. Group experts are available to answer your questions. Share photos, observations, tips and questions and learn together in this private members-only group!

Join the Blooming Boulevards Garden Stewards Facebook Group here>>

 Sit back, relax and enjoy your summer!

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.