Happy Canada Day to you and to this monarch butterfly enjoying common milkweed in a neighbour's yard. First sighting of 2025.
#MonarchButterfly #Milkweed #OntarioNativePlants

Winter sowing sprouts Part 5. All of these little seedlings were winter sown in clamshell containers.

Species:
-hairy beardtongue
-pale purple coneflower
-white wood aster (in only an inch of soil since I must have run out)
-pearly everlasting

#OntarioNativePlants

Photos from my Toronto garden. May 26, 2025.

-Golden Alexander - love this mass of yellow

-Wild columbine - very good shade plant

-Field pussytoes - spreads well by rhizome

-Prairie smoke - frizzy seed heads

What's blooming in your garden?
#OntarioNativePlants

Winter sowing sprouts Part 4.

-Black eyed Susan
-Nodding onion
-Heath aster
-Butterfly milkweed

The green bottle of milkweed was sowed in front of our workshop participants at the winter sowing event at the Bendale Library in January. The seeds were thrown in under pressure and they worked!

For people in Scarborough, ON:

Bendale Butterflyway is welcoming volunteers at Knob Hill Park this Saturday, May 17!

We'd love your help to maintain our three native plant gardens, which are part of our #PollinateTO project.

Regular schedule: Saturday mornings at 9 AM, weather permitting.

Winter sowing sprouts Part 3. Germination means more plants for the garden beds at Knob Hill, for our volunteers, for other community gardens, and for an upcoming seedling exchange with Cliffcrest Butterflyway.

-Lance leaved coreopsis
-Bottlebrush grass
-Purple coneflower
-Foxglove beardtongue

Winter sowing sprouts:
1. Swamp milkweed: Earlier than usual.
2. Zigzag goldenrod and Blue stemmed goldenrod: Goldenrods usually sprout early.
3. Smooth blue aster: Different sowing dates didn't affect germination dates.
4. Golden alexander: Clamshell sprouted a week before the pot.
#WinterSowing

1/2 Our community garden of native plants is looking good for early May! Last year we created three garden beds from scratch in Scarborough, Ontario, and they are indeed alive.

I had thought that the Wild Ginger and Wild Geranium were goners. To my pleasant surprise, they are still with us.

Celebrating my winter sown sprouts! So far I've got germination for:
-grey goldenrod
-prairie smoke
-yarrow
-spotted bee balm
I gave mine a little headstart by putting them on a plastic-covered shelf in early April that I zipped up when it was extra cold.
#WinterSowing #NativePlants

We will shop local and buy Canadian brands the next time we need supplies for Knob Hill Native Plant Gardens.
Less Home Depot and more Home Hardware, Lee Valley, Canadian Tire.
We'll keep supporting Villaci, Native Plants in Claremont, Ontario Native Plants, and Birchcliff Tree Care.
#BuyCanadian

Spent the morning sowing seeds for our Knob Hill Native Plant Gardens. I'm trying to grow Buttonbush from seed - if it sprouts, this shrub will go in our future #RainGarden.

Rain gardens collect and filter stormwater, reduce flooding, and provide habitat and food to wildlife.

#WinterSowing

A few ways to reuse plastic or cardboard when growing plants from seed

-cut up vinegar bottles for #WinterSowing
-add drainage holes to yogurt tubs
-cut strips out of them to make plant labels
-use tea boxes to hold seed packets

How do you reuse what you already have when gardening?
#ReduceWaste

Garden design thoughts
-Masses of plants look more orderly than one-off plants
-Tall, floppy plants look weedy, so chop them in June to make them shorter
-Avoid Common milkweed and Canada goldenrod for small gardens, they're aggressive

Photos summer 2024. Species in alt text.
#GardenDesign

How to prep a plastic bottle for #WinterSowing

1. Add drainage holes
2. Cut bottle in half
3. Add moistened soil
4. Add seeds
5. Label
6. Tap bottle shut
7. Put bottle outside

My video on these 7 steps
youtu.be/ulsM4lmbLsk?...

My video comparing different containers
youtu.be/BK-PAOjQTPI?...

People in Toronto might be interested in Seedy Saturday at Evergreen Brickworks on March 8-9.

5 tips for winter sowing:

1. Protect your pot from animals.
2. Don't bury seeds too deep.
3. Ensure you have weather-proof labels that will stay in place.
4. Don't let seedlings dry out in the spring.
5. Don't overseed (easier said than done).

You got this!

Photos from May 2024. #Gardening

The world is a difficult place; here are some butterflies that visited my garden last year.

-American Lady on pearly everlasting (host plant)
-Red Admiral on purple coneflower
-Question Mark on purple coneflower
-Monarch Butterfly on spotted Joe Pye weed

#PollinatorGarden #NativePlants

I like to use two general types of winter sowing containers:
1. Clear plastic vented containers
2. Open pots
I re-use everything, and people pass me their recycling.
I had put extra snow in the pots. All pots have good drainage holes, so I'm not worried about them getting too much water.

My community group Bendale Butterflyway held a winter sowing workshop to help people grow native plants from seed. It's a cheap, easy, outdoor way to get lots of plants.