Newsletter #2 - Spring 2020 |
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Monarch butterflies love New England Asters! |
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Message from the President Dear BB Members and Supporters,
Thank you for being a part of the Blooming Boulevards Community. Our Board hopes that this finds you and your family well and keeping safe in this challenging time of COVID-19. Until COVID’s risks have passed, we have cancelled all our in-person events until further notice. We're sad about this but the good news is that
although we won’t be gathering in person, Blooming Boulevards is offering gardening videos and online workshops so you can join in on the fun of native wildflower gardening during your sojourn at home. Despite COVID, pollinators still need our help, and we will continue our efforts to provide habitat for pollinators. Here’s how you can help:
Sign up/Renew your membership for the 2020-21 year.
Plant a garden! Replace your grassy boulevard with a native wildflower pollinator garden.
Donate! All amounts will be deeply appreciated and applied directly to keep our garden program going,
Thank you for your support during this challenging time for our organization and our community as a whole. Stay well and enjoy the beauty of spring.
Jeanne If you have a family member or friend who may benefit from the information in our e-newsletter, please share. Our newsletter is posted on our website, and your feedback is always welcome! |
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Our 2020 - 2021 Board of Directors Jeanne McRight, Founding President Ramona da Cunha, Secretary Mary Jean Kucerak, Treasurer Wayne Cardinalli Catherine Fleming Neil Fleming Angela Jordon Tim Oliwiak Jim Judge, Advisor Communications Murray Moore, Newsletter Martha Kantorczyk, Twitter Jeanne McRight, Facebook Thank you! |
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It's gardening season! Seedlings are growing! Gardens Committee Report - Catherine Fleming, Chair |
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Get ready, garden stewards, your plants are coming! We are growing over 4,000 seedlings indoors under grow lights, and over 600 seedlings outdoors in raised beds. Aren't they beautiful? Here's Jeanne busily transplanting native Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa) babies from their cell pacs into repurposed takeout coffee cups. Those long roots need room to grow! The potting soil is ready-made soilless ProMix HP. |
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If your application has been approved: - Contact-free site visits will begin at the end of April. We will email you about when we expect to arrive. We will look at your proposed site, check out the light, soil and drainage conditions, and collect your completed city permit (if you did not already mail it in to us).
- Remove your vegetation - If you wish to go ahead and remove your existing vegetation now while the ground is soft, please send us site measurements and one or two photos of your site so we can make sure it’s an appropriate location.
- Contact-free plant delivery - The free plants will be distributed to our new garden stewards in late May and early June. We will arrange a convenient delivery date with you. You will get up to 50 plants, depending on your planting area size. There will be enough to space the plants about a foot apart in your garden area.
Important! All site visits and deliveries will be done by our expert Blooming Boulevards garden supervisors with strict safety precautions: wearing protective masks and gloves and staying at least 2 meters away from you and others who might be present. Plants and our services are provided to eligible applicants for free. Get the garden application form. Deadline for applications is May 1. We have much to offer our prospective new gardeners: - Preliminary visit to assess your site and select appropriate plants.
- Advice on site prep.
- Up to 50 free plants, depending on site size.
- Planting: between May 23 - June 20. Choice of delivery date (on application form).
- Garden layout and plant pics.
- Free pollinator garden design course at Riverwood:
- Aftercare advice and midsummer checkup.
What our prospective gardeners need to do: - Have a current Blooming Boulevards membership.
- Get/renew annual membership.
- Fill out and submit garden application.
- The City of Mississauga requires a boulevard garden permit. No fee is required for our gardens. Download the City permit.
- Please return a copy of the City permit to us; We will submit to City with a note about the fee waiver. Send to: Jeanne McRight, Blooming Boulevards, 1295 Mineola Gardens, Mississauga, ON L5G3Y5
Looking forward to helping you bee-friend and beautify your boulevard! |
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Mark your calendar Learn online! Education & Outreach Committee Report - Tim Oliwiak, Chair |
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Design Your Own Pollinator Garden Earth Week event! Free online interactive workshop with Master Gardener Jeanne McRight. Scheduled as a Zoom meeting (you get the Zoom link when you register). When: 7 to 8 pm on Tues. April 21 | | |
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Be sure to SUBSCRIBE t o our new You Tube channel's series: Growing Native Plants From Seed - upcoming: transplanting tips, in-garden planting and care, sod removal, seedling vs weed ID, info about plants and pollinators, kids’ gardening ideas, garden tours, collecting seeds and lots more!! Topic suggestions are welcome. | | |
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Tip: How to make your own potting soil Starting plants from seed? You can make your own soilless potting mix. This is great for native plant gardeners who want to increase the size of their gardens. Save the seeds your flowers produce this summer and grow more plants! Here’s how: Use a commercial soilless mix such as the well-draining ProMIx HP (meaning high porosity) or make your own! A soilless mix does not contain any soil, but generally consists of peat moss or coir combined with horticultural grades of vermiculite and/ or perlite and sometimes added fertilizer. A soilless mix is useful for seed germination because it is relatively sterile, porous, lightweight and uniform. These qualities facilitate germination, allow tender roots to grow and make transplanting easy. Using these materials rather than soil allows gardeners to grow healthier plants without the threat of soil-borne diseases. It’s wise to choose a soilless mix based on the plant’s natural habitat. For example, prairie and meadow natives need a mix that promotes good drainage, while wetland natives need a water-retentive mix. Recommended for our plants: an all-purpose mix, good for meadow natives. - 40 - 50 percent peat moss
- 10 - 20 percent ground pine bark,
- 40 percent perlite
- Sand may replace some of the perlite for a heavier mix, good for larger seedlings.
- Lime (only needed when repotting in peat-based mixes) - Potting mix for transplants using sphagnum peat or similarly acidic base material should contain lime at the rate of 1/2 tablespoon for every gallon (1 US gal-dry is equal to 4.40 liters) of sphagnum peat used. Limestone optimizes the pH range between 6.0 (slightly acidic) and 7.0.
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For Blooming Boulevards members, life is never dull! Because we care about our local flora and fauna, we've found a great way to make Mississauga a healthy, sustainable community: we're members of Blooming Boulevards! Member benefits include the opportunity by becoming a boulevard gardener, learn hands-on from experts, forge a meaningful connection with our community, and share in activities for all ages and abilities. |
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Together we can make a difference! We rely on the generosity of donors, which help make our gardens happen. |
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