Have you ever wanted to get away from all the annoying emails and posts on Facebook as well as the doom and gloom in the news of the day? Well, here is your chance. You can make yourself a garden, your own personal oasis. A place you can sit, work or play while enjoying nature. It need not be big; some people only have a small balcony. Apartment dwellers can perhaps garden indoors in front of a sunny window. For some of you who want to grow your own vegetables, you can join a community garden in your neighbourhood. A local garden club can also offer opportunities to garden with others. The Saskatchewan Perennial Society maintains two gardens at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park and Zoo: the Robin Smith Meditation Garden and the Heritage Rose Garden. They are always looking for volunteers. To take part, all you have to do is show up (with your favourite garden implement, some mosquito spray and on hot days, a water bottle) to a labour and learn session on a Saturday morning, or perhaps join us on Weedy Wednesday to garden in the evening hours. You can check the Calendar on our website for dates and times. All these activities free you from doomsday scrolling, take you away from everyday worries while at the same time benefiting the environment. Let’s make the world a better place, one plant at a time.
Besides reducing stress and anxiety while tending your garden plot, you can increase the benefits to the environment by introducing some native plants into your landscape. Native plants are by and large relatively low maintenance. As they are adapted to the local soil, temperature and rainfall patterns, they often require less water. These plants also benefit native wildlife, pollinators and birds. Before you embark on this endeavour, you might want to do some homework on the behaviour of the plants you want to introduce. Some natives may be too aggressive when grown in the urban garden setting.
As you become familiar with gardening, observe what is blooming in your yard at different seasons from early spring to late fall. Optimally, there should be some plants blooming throughout the year (winter excepted, of course). These plants need not be perennials per se. They can be shrubs, like flowering cherry, plum and apple trees in early spring, Amur maple and Ohio buckeye trees in June, and linden trees in late June. All will be abuzz with life at bloom time. Add other pollinator-friendly (not necessarily native) plants that bloom throughout the year. There are many to choose from, such as bee balm, purple coneflower, helianthus, goldenrod and aster, to name just a few. Many of these provide both pollen and nectar.
If you are interested in attracting specific butterflies, you can provide both their food source, which the adults feed on, and their host plant, on which the adults lay their eggs, and the caterpillars feed on. Providing both host and food plants in your garden will more likely attract the species of butterfly you are interested in. In case of the host plant, you will have to expect some damage on the leaves as caterpillars are feeding.
If you plant it, they will come. With the shrubs and trees in place, you are now creating the perfect setting for birds to invade. Who does not enjoy seeing birds at the feeder or splashing in the bird bath while looking out the kitchen window, sipping on that first cup of coffee? You can enjoy these creatures even more by providing some grasses and other plants such as sunflowers, while Mountain Ash will provide berries for your feathered friends throughout the winter.
To get ideas for this great garden adventure, join some of your local garden clubs for a garden tour. The following events are just some of those I know about:
Saskatoon Horticultural Society – Garden Tour – Saturday, July 11 from 1 to 5 p.m.
Tickets on sale at Dutch Growers and both Early’s locations – $15.
Saskatchewan Perennial Society – Garden Tour – Sunday, July 12 from 1 to 4 p.m. Free
Addresses for all five gardens on the tour will be handed out at the start locations.
1609 Adelaide Street or 106 Harvard Crescent.
NEST – Secret Garden Tour – Sunday, July 19 from 1 to 5 p.m.
Secret Garden Tour passports available from Dutch Growers and Early’s south end.
$25 per passport – In support of Refugee Settlement in Saskatoon.
Honeywood Heritage Nursery – Lilies in Bloom – Sunday, July 19 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Parkside, entertainment by local musicians, artisan displays, wagon tours
Gift Shop to purchase shrubs, lilies and perennials
Admission $10, 12 and under: Free
This column is provided courtesy of the Saskatchewan Perennial Society (SPS; saskperennial@hotmail.com). Check our website (www.saskperennial.ca) or Facebook page (www.facebook.com/saskperennial) for a list of upcoming gardening events.
