Wild Life Friendly and Pollinator Supportive Garden
After over 10 years of working in my garden along traditional lines, e.g. vegetables, flowers, fruits and a grass lawn, I realized that things needed to change (including not having to dig in my late 70’s!) Given the changes that we face, I looked at creating the above.
I found an expert, I call him my Landscape Architect, who developed a superb design which included over 100 plants in 50+ species, almost all Canadian Nativars. That was the easy bit given that a) we are in Brampton (brick clay anybody?), b) the house we purchased back in 2010 had been a rental and one group had covered much of the garden with stones for their dogs (no more mud in the house!) and c) there was little evidence of investing in improving the garden. At this stage, I was introduced, by my Landscape Architect, to Marcus Kotyk and Fern Ridge Eco-Landscapes – for which I am genuinely grateful.
Marcus and his team set out on 3 specific improvements, which work together to create a delightful result. First, improve the soil (clay and stones). Second find and obtain the plants, I have little experience of this. Third, plant them. I did much of this for smaller plants but the really challenging items were planted by Marcus and team. As well as many other difficult plants, this included a Red Oak which can support 400 species of Lepidoptera.
All this was done quickly. The Landscape Architect said do not do it all at once as the complexity goes up fast, so we did this in 4 seasons – Summer and Fall in 2022, and Spring and Summer in 2023. Already the plants are driving ahead. For example, the Red Oak is twice as high as when Marcus and team planted it.
Last fall, the quality of Fern Ridge’s work was very clearly demonstrated by the pollinators – a key objective. To quote our Landscape Architect, watching a video in Fall 2023, “WOW! That’s amazing activity…and variety too! Warms the heart!”
P.S. We already have Wildlife Friendly Certification.