Newsletter #27 - Summer 2024 |
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Help protect pollinators in Mississauga - share this newsletter with friends and family! |
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Above: Small but mighty, the common eastern bumblebee, Bombus impatiens foragers spend an average of 7.5 hours daily collecting and transporting food from flower patches to their hive in as many as 15 roundtrip flights. Some bumblebee species can carry half their body weight in pollen and even more if carrying nectar! Photo: Jeanne McRight. |
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Dear BB Members and Supporters, This was a summer of growth and success for Blooming Boulevards! Our Board members and dedicated volunteers enjoyed a busy, interesting, and rewarding season, thanks to the abundant rain that kept our newly planted gardens thriving. But we didn't stop there – we expanded our services beyond city parks and residential boulevard gardens. Now, we're reaching out to Mississauga schools, churches, organizations, and corporations, encouraging them to apply for our native plant habitat gardens. If you're a BB member, consider giving back to your community by volunteering. Our volunteers are the heart and soul of Blooming Boulevards. This fall, we're on the lookout for new Board of Directors members. If you're passionate about our vision of connecting neighbourhoods to nature, we want to hear from you. Join us and help shape a city that values the environment and fosters community well-being. Cheers, Jeanne |
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Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known. Take action. Join our efforts to provide habitat for our threatened native bees, butterflies and other wildlife species: Become a member Apply for a boulevard garden |
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Give back to your community Looking for a rewarding volunteer leadership experience? Join our Board of Directors! |
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Our Board of Directors needs 3 new members to join us in developing our exciting new projects and initiatives. We encourage all qualified applicants from across the City of Mississauga and from diverse backgrounds and living circumstances to apply, particularly if you have leadership skills or experience in marketing, communications, fundraising, legal matters, or government policymaking. In addition, we are looking for a new board secretary. We need someone with appropriate experience and skills to fill this key executive position on our board of directors. New directors receive an orientation package and are mentored by experienced board members as they settle in. BB directors are covered by our Directors' Insurance. Are you someone with enthusiasm and a willingness to collaborate with others? If you like to turn ideas into action, we’ll be happy to hear from you. Interested? Let's talk. Please click the button to find out more and to apply. |
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Summer project highlightsThis summer we provided enough plants and support to enable the installation of five school gardens, three church gardens, a new condo garden, a garden for Ecosource, and twenty-one new boulevard gardens - not to mention the many gardens where plants purchased at our plant sale have been installed. That's 9,000 more native plants out there in the world, supporting pollinators and improving the well-being of our urban ecological community. |
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We took time out to play, too!After our big June plant sale, we had a party for our all-star volunteers, hosted by Rita Bloem. After we blew out the candles on BB's 5th birthday cake, we toured Murray and Mary Ellen Moore's beautiful garden. Fun! |
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We are proud of this Rathburn Road beauty |
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One of the four native pollinator habitat garden beds we provided last year for the condo complex at 330-350 Rathburn Road. See how it is thriving! This bed is located just inside the entrance and wows all who enter. |
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Our new school gardens program was successfully launched |
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| | Above: Grade Eight project lead Dora Velkovska and Principal Christine Barnes discussing plans for the new pollinator garden at the school's front entrance. Blooming Legacy: Tecumseh PS's Native Plant Garden Initiative The pollinator garden at Tecumseh Middle School was planned, designed and planted by Grade Eight students and staff with supportive advice, a classroom presentation, and plant donations from Blooming Boulevards. In addition, we provided plants to create these schools' new gardens: |
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"Thanks to your help, we now have a thriving garden that not only beautifies our school but also teaches our students about the importance of native plants and biodiversity. I hope this project will inspire others and that soon, many native gardens will start growing in schoolyards across Mississauga. I look forward to continuing our work together and to seeing more green spaces bloom in our community. Here’s to more planting, more learning, and more fun times!" - Dora Velkovska Read Grade Eight student and project lead Dora Velkovska's wonderful account of the project here>> Interested in a native plant garden for your school in 2025? Contact us - we can help! |
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A new pollinator garden for Ecosource's Forest Glen site |
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Working together with our partner EcoSource and a team of amazing student and community volunteers, Blooming Boulevards designed and facilitated the installation of a 460 sq. ft. pollinator garden at the Forest Glen Community Garden. This was a Canada Healthy Communities Initiative funded by the Government of Canada. |
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Left and above: Monika Bianco, Ecosource Community Food Systems Manager and Devon Sikand, Ecosource Community Garden Program Lead, with volunteers installing Forest Glen's new pollinator garden. |
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Find the BB gardens in your neighbourhood! Map of our Mississauga garden locations 2019 - 2024. If you zoom in (use the plus sign on the map), you'll be able to see how the gardens are creating habitat "stepping stones" between the parks. The more continuous plantings we are able to create, the more effective the habitat corridors will be. Click on the map to enlarge for more details! |
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Live in Mississauga? Become a BB member, then apply for a beautiful boulevard pollinator garden! We will donate 50 native plants and provide advice so you can create your garden. |
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Upcoming webinar presentations...Interesting, informative, and relevant - We conduct our workshops as FREE Zoom presentations for individual registrants, with a question period afterward. Helpful information sheets for each webinar are downloadable. ***Presentations for groups can be arranged for a fee. Contact us for more information. Four-Season Beauty & Biodiversity Discover how to extend the colour show and textural interest in your landscape through fall and winter with beautiful foliage, striking structure, colourful branches, berries, and seed pods that support the wildlife around you while you enjoy the show. It's Easy! Seed Saving 101 How to determine when various types of seeds are ripe, how to clean different kinds of seed and how to test for quality. Information will be given on proper seed storage so that it remains in optimum condition. Growing Native Plants From Seed Learn how to prepare seeds for sowing, the advantages and disadvantages of different seed-starting mixes and how to make your potting mix. Tips on setting up indoor grow lights and outdoor propagation beds, plus detailed information on overwintering and spring germination and care will be given. |
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Interested in garden design? Then our special guest presentation is not to be missed!Creating Naturalistic Plant Communities We invited landscape architect Aaron Fox to present this FREE Zoom webinar; With the growing recognition of the importance of supporting biodiversity in our gardens and a corresponding shift towards the use of more native plants, does the way we arrange plants in a garden also need to change to support this shift? This presentation will explore how the main concepts of naturalistic planting design can be used to create plant communities that provide both aesthetic value and ecological benefits while supporting as much biodiversity as possible. Aaron Fox is a Canadian horticulturist with in-depth knowledge of native plants who has worked on a diverse range of projects in the private and public sectors over the past 25 years. His main interests include creating resilient plant communities that support biodiversity and improve the sustainability of a landscape, as well as encouraging people to think differently about plants and recognize their importance in the landscape. |
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Meet a MemberNurturing the Love of NatureStory and photos by Heather Raithby Doyle Meet Blooming Boulevards member Jennifer Sanderson, a music teacher who shares her love of gardening and the outdoors with her students at Cooksville Creek Public School. Along the way, the schoolyard gets transformed and the community grows around the project. In this interview, Jennifer shares her thoughts on how she incorporates nature into the school experience. |
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Above: Music teacher Jennifer Sanderson with the Blooming-Boulevards-facilitated pollinator garden at the Cooksville Creek Public School. |
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Here's what Jennifer says about community engagement: Community involvement is key to success. “One of the big lessons I’ve learned is to ‘invite people in' to make decisions. Choose plants that connect with their family, do the activities that connect to their classroom for the teachers, give choice and voice to the kinds of things the kids like to do. Surprise kids with the harvest, and what they can make with the harvest. Invite families, kids, teachers, politicians to see what we are doing and be part of it, share the work, and share the wealth of gardening,” says Jennifer. She also networks with groups like Seeds of Diversity, Blooming Boulevards, Peel Region, the City of Mississauga, Evergreen Brick Works and more. Another lesson learned: It’s time to discard the fear of not knowing enough. “We don’t need a few people doing everything perfectly. We need lots of people doing things the best they can. A little progress in each person’s hands can make a huge difference." Although she retires this year, the seeds she planted - both literally and figuratively- will continue to grow for years to come. Read the full interview and see the photos here>> |
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Did you know? Cooksville Creek Public School is designated by the Peel District School Board as an Eco School. Jennifer credits support from outgoing Principal Laila Culbert, calling her a “waymaker, not a gatekeeper” in helping pursue that designation. The school has held that status for three years, winning the Gold Achievement in 2021-2022, Platinum in 2022-2023, and 2023-2024.
The no-mow zone, pollinator beds, food garden, food cycling program, seed saving, and cooking from the garden are just some of the initiatives that helped the school gain accreditation. And there are many others: Kids build pollinator hotels and bug snugs. Painted signs decorate the fence to educate about the value of pollinators.
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Garden Buzz Native gardener to-do list: September |
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Do some garden planning. Where can you tuck in a few more native plants? Is this the year you plan a boulevard garden? Take our Creating Naturalistic Plant Communities webinar to get design ideas! Plant a tree. First choice should be a native keystone species (oak, maple, willow, birch, sumac, cherry), and make sure you give it a good start by planting properly. Remove invasive plant species on your property Credit Valley Conservation and The Ontario Invasive Plant Council websites have useful resources, and check our blog article here. Get the iNaturalist app for your smartphone to help identify plants and wildlife, and report sightings of wild fauna and flora. Read a book on native plant gardening, biodiversity conservation, or pollinating insects. Recommended for fall: The Gardener's Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region by Shaun Booth and Rick Gray. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America's Bees by Joseph S. Wilson and Olivia Messinger Carril. Order seeds! Now is the time to start collecting seeds for fall and winter sowing. Most seeds we offer are locally collected from open-pollinated plants adapted to Ecozone 7E-4 (south Halton-Peel region, Burlington to GTA) and indigenous to southern Ontario.
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| | Please check out our Facebook post for more information, updates, and the link to our current stock. |
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Our 2024 Blooming Boulevards Native Seed Sale is now open! Fall is a great time to direct sow or start winter sowing containers. It is also time to stock up if you are planning on starting them inside this winter or next spring as they will need to start cold stratification in a few months. Not sure how to grow from seed? Attend our free webinar Growing Native Plants From Seed on September 21st! |
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Seed collector volunteers neededThis is a fun learning activity open to all BB members and their families. This fall will be our fifth season training small groups of volunteers by going on native plant seed collection field trips to permitted sites. Expert instruction and guidance during the sessions. Children six and over are welcome with adult supervision. Seeds will be used to grow plants for our 2025 gardens!
When: three sessions 10 am - noon, from late Sept to late Oct., usually Saturday or Sunday. Schedule depends on dry weather and seed maturity. Where: Guided field trips to selected Mississauga naturalized areas, with landowners' permission. Seed collectors: get details & apply here>> |
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Thank you! Blooming Boulevards is deeply thankful to have the support of the City of Mississauga and our community partners: the Riverwood Conservancy, the Mississauga Master Gardeners, the Cloverleaf Garden Club, ACER, and Ecosource. 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 2023 - 2024 Board of Directors Jeanne McRight, Founding President Sheila Cressman, Secretary Mary Jean Kucerak, Treasurer Wayne Cardinalli Aranya Iyer Murray Moore Pamela Sleightholm Communications Jeanne McRight Pamela Sleightholm Heather Raithby Doyle Saundra Hewitt Photography (unless otherwise noted) Jeanne McRight Strategic Advisor Douglas Markoff Financial Advisor Mary Furlin |
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Blooming Boulevards is an incorporated Ontario not-for-profit organization and a deeply grateful recipient of Community Grant funding support from the City of Mississauga. |
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