Newsletter #5 - February 2021 |
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Help us protect more pollinators in Mississauga - share this newsletter with your friends and family! |
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Seed pods of Monarda fistulosa (Wild Bergamot) are a ready food source for birds over winter. |
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Message from the President Dear BB Members and Supporters,
We hope you and your family are well and staying healthy during this difficult time.
Many thanks to our outstanding new newsletter editing team: Pamela, Liz, Murray and Peeter. This talented group of communicators will keep you up-to-date with garden tips, events and opportunities throughout the year. |
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Hurrah! Spring will be here soon. Under the snow, our sleeping gardens - and the pollinators that shelter there - will soon awaken. For our dedicated group of propagation volunteers, March means sowing the seeds we gathered in the fall and starting our native plant babies. In late May, these native wildflowers will be donated to our 2021 garden stewards, who will create new pollinator gardens on boulevards all across the city. By summer’s end the tiny spring plants will be beauties covered with blooms, bees and butterflies. |
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Want to join the fun? Now is the perfect time to apply for a garden! Meanwhile, you can learn about native plant gardening in our upcoming online workshops - all free - and join our delight in discovering signs of spring. We are working to support biodiversity. Here’s how you can help: - Sign up/Renew: membership for 2021-22.
- Apply for a 2021 garden! Start early and plan your very own native wildflower pollinator garden. Encourage your neighbours to put one in, too!
- Volunteer to help us collect seeds and grow native plants!
- Register for a workshop and learn more about gardens and pollinators!
- Donate! All amounts will be deeply appreciated and applied directly to keep our garden
- program going.
We hope to see you all again at our events when it is safe to do so. Until then please keep yourselves and your families well.
Happy gardening!
Jeanne
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Meet a Member Doris & Rick Wukasch's boulevard of realized dreams
Liz Primeau
In this issue we introduce Meet a Member, a series that will feature a different Blooming Boulevards member. We’ll find out why they joined our group, how their gardens are growing and ask them to share some tips for success.
This month: Doris and Rick Wukasch, who have a brand-new blooming boulevard that enhances their front yard garden, and last November started 800 native plants in little cups for other members' boulevards. Doris and Rick have been dedicated to nature and growing things since they married 45 years ago. "It's in our genes," says Rick. Read more here >> |
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Why Native Plants? Part 1: Do you like baby birds?
Murray Moore
Do you fill and re-fill a bird feeder in your yard? Yes?
How many baby birds will you see feeding at your bird feeder this spring? (Trick question.) Read more here >> |
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Garden Buzz Your awakening garden habitat
Jeanne McRight
If you left your fall garden in its natural state, native bees will be resting in hollow stems, or spaces between wood and stone. The best part... they're getting ready to wake up!
Read more here >> |
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Education & Outreach News Mark your calendar
Our next online workshop is this weekend - sign up today!
We share our passion for pollinators, plants and people by offering workshops and presentations by expert horticulturists. Upcoming Workshop Schedule - February 27, 10-11am - Wildflower All-Stars for Sun and Shade
- March 20, 10-11am - Low Maintenance Boulevard Gardens
- April 17, 10-11am - Understanding Your Soil
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* Covid-19 update: We will be conducting our winter workshops as FREE online presentations with a question period afterward. Helpful information sheets are available as handouts, and emailed to you on request. |
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| | Membership Annual memberships cost just $10 (single) or $15 (family). These fees provide the resources we need to do our work helping pollinators in Mississauga.
Please renew your 2021 membership today, or apply for your first membership below. | | |
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| | Apply for a Garden Once you've become a member, let us know that you're interested in getting a boulevard garden this year!
Reservations are filling fast! Final Deadline for applications is May 31, 2021.
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| | Donate As a volunteer-run not-for-profit, every dollar donated goes to our work of providing habitat and food sources for native pollinators and animals. We rely on the generosity of donors who care about pollinators, native plants and the environment. | | |
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| | Volunteer Our volunteers make a difference! Whether helping out with propagating plants, working in gardens or more behind-the-scenes jobs in communications or administration, you can have an impact on our neighbourhood ecosystem. Learn about the opportunities on our website. | | |
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Our 2020 - 2021 Board of Directors Jeanne McRight, Founding President Ramona da Cunha, Secretary Mary Jean Kucerak, Treasurer Wayne Cardinalli Angela Jordon Murray Moore Tim Oliwiak Jim Judge, Advisor Communications Jeanne McRight Murray Moore
Peeter Poldre
Liz Primeau
Pamela Sleightholm All photography © 2021 Peeter Poldre
as well as Jeanne McRight |
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