If you saw a gaggle of tea-sipping garden enthusiasts spilling out onto Tattersall Drive Mother’s Day morning, you might have wondered what all the buzz was about.
That’s the day landscape designer and QCHCA member Danee Lambourne (Eden Project) led a Pollinator Plant Walk sponsored by the Community Association’s Climate Action group.
Danee focused participants’ attention on planting perennials, including those found in the boulevard gardens she and neighbours have implemented on her street. Pollinator-friendly gardens are easy to plant and maintain given a little fore knowledge like focusing on perennials, advises Danee. Alongside the many cultured perennials identified were some natives including Mahonia nervosa/Oregon Grape, Ribes sanguineum /Flowering Red Currant, and Kinnikinnick which are considered ideal for the native bees.
We depend on pollinators, including two hundred local native bee species, to pollinate most of the foods we eat yet it is widely acknowledged we are paving over and developing the habitat they require at an unprecedented rate.
Every bit counts, reminded Danee as the group ended its morning stroll in a Camas and Garry Oak outcropping on the Cedar Hill Park trail. If we consider the potential our streetscapes and park paths offer as connecting pollinator flight corridors, why wouldn’t we choose to plant pollinator-friendly plants?
What constitutes a pollinator-friendly garden?
FOOD & WATER. Provide pollen and nectar producing plants that bloom sequentially throughout the entire season, especially native plants.
SHELTER. Include nesting habitat for pollinators like bare soil, dried plant stalks and piles of woody materials.
PESTICIDE-FREE. Make your garden pesticide-free, avoiding even pesticide-treated plants.
And the tea sipping? A cup of garden grown tea and homemade cookies rounded out the convivial gathering along with a native plant prize draw with plants donated by pollinator champion Claudia Copley.
QCHCA’s Climate Action group is investigating ways to increase native habitat for native pollinators in our neighbourhoods. If that is something you’d like to participate in, let us know. qchca3003@gmail.com
