Experimenting with native species in small spaces
Honeybee on butterflyweed (Photo by NCC)
Earlier this summer, a group of Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) Leaders in Conservation visited St. Williams Nursery & Ecology Centre in Norfolk County, Ontario, for a tour of the nursery's impressive facility. With several years of...
Keep your garden Canadian, eh?
Blue flag iris (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
Many of the plants we have in our yards are not native to Canada. In some cases, these non-native plants are invasive and can intrude into nearby natural areas or affect the growth and spread of native species. In most cases, native plants provide...
Bombs away...Seed bombs, that is!
Volunteer throwing seed bombs into experimental test plot at Conservation Volunteers event in Alberta. (Photo by NCC)
Do you have a patch of hard–to-reach garden space? What about an exposed piece of earth that you’d like to restore to native vegetation? Or perhaps you are simply looking for an enjoyable, hands-on activity for you and your family to...
13 tweetable facts about pollinators
Bee on flower (Photo by NCC)
Nature has always been a fascination of mine, sparking numerous moments of wonders and awe. Like the time when I first learned about how bee orchids are designed to entice certain pollinators leading to pseudocopulation - that blew my mind! As the...
Three things I've pledged to do for nature this Earth Day
Val Deziel distributes a flat of wild rye for planting (Photo by NCC)
To celebrate Earth Day I’m sharing three easy activities I’ve pledged to do for nature this year: Plant with purpose I recently moved to a (relatively) quiet suburb of Toronto, into a house with a backyard! Which, as I’m sure...
The forgotten art of gathering wild food
Oyster mushroom (Photo by Jim Tunney, Mushroom Observer, Wikimedia Commons)
As I delve deeper into my own journey as an organic gardener, I come across many interconnected subjects that pique my interest. The art of foraging is just one of them. Historically our ancestors gathered food locally for both edible and...
Urban composting: Nutrient-rich soil for your garden helps wildlife too
Compost (Photo by Kessner Photography, Wikimedia Commons)
Supporters of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) are always working towards healthier land and increased biodiversity. And much like me, many people want to know how their daily lives can be friendlier to their environments. Perhaps one of the...
Nature's bright ideas
Crocuses in spring (Photo by CBT/NCC staff)
Fall may be a time of endings — the end of summer, the end of the field season, the end of the veggie patch for another year. But as leaves begin to fall and nature turns dormant, it's also a time of planning for new beginnings — and...
Urban gardens and conservation
Flowerbed (Photo by Bengt Nyman, Wikimedia Commons)
Usually when you hear about land conservation, it usually refers to the conservation of places that are still “wild” — meaning they haven’t undergone any large-scale urbanization. However, we often forget about urban...
Bring bees back to your garden
Bee pollinating a cherry tree (Photo by Jaimee Morozoff, NCC staff)
A few weeks ago, my mother texted me a photo of a shallow bowl with some rocks that she had set up beside her flowerbed. I didn’t have a clue what it was, and I told her as much. “It’s for my bumblebee,” she replied....
