Invertebrates are good for your garden
Invertebrates are vital for a healthy garden. See what they contribute and how to make your garden more attractive to insects of all kinds.
This site is a good reference.
Seed Balls to make and sow
Become a guerrilla gardener this Spring. Make seedballs and plop them into unused areas in your yard or your city.
Don't know what seedballs are? Here are some links:
Heavy Petal
a seedball video
Carol's Place
Corridors for our Wildlife
The Bar Has Been Raised
Douglas Tallamy, an ecologist and author was quoted at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in January, 2015:
“We have to raise the bar on our landscapes,” said Mr. Tallamy, a professor and chairman of the department of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware. “In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators and manage water."
Buyers Beware
The bedding plants that you purchase for your garden may have been treated with Neonicotinoid pesticides -- and you'd never know that you were poisoning bees instead of helping them.
Read about the problem here
Update March 2018: Proven Winners is now NOT using neonicotinoids. Can't vouch for the dealers that grow the plants on to ready them for sale. Ask your retailer if neonics have been used by them or their supplier.
Ball Horticultural Company does not use treated seeds nor neonics in the production of the plants it sells to nurseries.
Avocados and Monarchs
The growing popularity of avocados threatens the winter home of our Monarchs. The growth of avocado sales has Mexican farmers extending the areas planted in avocados. Read why this is a danger to the protected Monarch wintering area.
Mexican avocado trade and Monarchs
Pollinators in Peril
A great TED talk by Marla Spivak
Are we worrying about the wrong bees?
The Living Landscape
Douglas Tallamy has a new book and a new video.
The book is "The Living Landscape." I purchased my copy from Chapters
But the best thing is a free video lecture about helping wildlife in our own gardens.
View the video here
and more from Doug in this YouTube presentation here
Garden for Wildlife
The National Wildlife Federation has a site with great suggestions for creating a
Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Two Booklets for you
First the OHA booklet on planting for bees.
Roadsides
And another booklet on using Rain Barrels
Rainbarrel Booklet
Funding Sources
Search government websites for available environmental programs.
Places to start your search:
Ministry of Natural Resources land stewardship program
Environment Canada has funding for programs and for youth employment
The Story of Change
A little video that calls consumers to action
see video here
HELP!
I'm a victim of thigmomorphogenesis!