Date: May 5th, 2024
Time: 1 to 2:30 p.m.
Where: Fletcher Wildlife Garden
Save these dates!! WPP is back with another set of garden tours – or mini-colloquiums as they have become. We have a great variety of gardens to look at and talk about this season, including a couple of favourites from last year.
We’ll kick off the season with a Jane’s Walk at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. This is the only walk that’s on a Sunday: May 5, 1-2:30 p.m. All the rest will be on Saturdays from 10 a.m. until noon. In most cases the garden owner or manager will be on hand to answer questions about plants, maintenance, and other issues. Many events will include entomologists who can tell us about the pollinators we might see in each case. At one location, we’ve offered to do some work!
Here’s a quick outline. Please watch for details to follow. These tours are free, but registration is required. In each case registration will open 2 weeks before the event. Stay tuned!
May 5 (Sunday) – Jane’s Walk at the FWG. Students from Ottawa U’s bee research lab will be on hand to find and identify early pollinators.
May 25 – Attracting pollinators to a shady yard. We’ll visit a large backyard in Alta Vista that’s filled with native trees, shrubs and plants.
June 22 – The rewards and pitfalls of school pollinator gardens.
July 6 – Planting a network – one plot at a time. Volunteers in Kanata North are slowly transforming sections of noxious weeds and invasive plant species into wonderfully rich mini-meadows, filled with colourful native wildflowers for bees, butterflies, and people to enjoy in the Morgan’s Grant hydro right-of-way.
July 20 – Maintaining a garden at an NGO focused on wildlife. The Canadian Wildlife Federation building is surrounded by native gardens, started in 2001 still evolving.
August 10 – Street gardens and raingardens in an urban neighbourhood. We’ll visit up to 6 gardens along Bank Street and Sunnyside Avenue in Old Ottawa South.
August 24 – Opening our parks to pollinators. A beautiful example of community engagement and determination.
September 7 – Pinhey Sand Dunes butterfly sanctuary tour and optional work session. Our visit to this project was very late in the season last year. This year, we’ll get a better view of the diverse plants in this unique habitat. And some of us will stay to help with some new planting.
September 21 – The pond and beyond. Created as a swimming pool, Brewer Pond has seen many changes, but is now a gem in an urban neighbourhood. We’ll spend some time here collecting seeds for the Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library – and for participants.
