HAMILTON POLLINATOR PARADISE
  • Home
  • About
  • Certification
  • Gardens
    • Public Gardens
    • Certified Garden Map
  • Resources & Guides
    • Toolkit >
      • Full Toolkit
      • Simple Toolkit
    • Gardening Terms
    • Native Plants
    • Starting Seeds
    • Invasive Species
    • Monarch Awards
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

BLOG

Hamilton Monarch Awards are back!

5/20/2020

2 Comments

 
The Hamilton Monarch Awards--for gardens that nature loves, by gardeners who love nature--are back for another year and we invite you to apply.
Started in 2016 by a group of Hamilton gardeners and activists, concerned about declines in populations of pollinator species, the award celebrates people who create habitat in their yards in support of pollinators and wildlife in general. It recognizes people who create naturalized, sustainable gardens that are beautiful, functional and beneficial to nature.
​Now more than ever, with the critical need for healthier nature, we want to acknowledge the validity of this non-traditional aesthetic, ecological approach. For more about the Monarch Awards and the beginners' award, The Caterpillar Awards, and what it takes to receive an award, click here.
2 Comments

Nature Garden Laboratory

5/1/2020

0 Comments

 
We continue our blog post series featuring Hamilton Monarch Awards' and Caterpillar Awards' winners 2019 in the hope that you too will be inspired to apply this year. In this post, we hear from Deborah Boyd, Caterpillar Award recipient.
​

Deborah has been gardening for over a decade, but really “got turned on to native species plants” a few years ago, after a conversation with Cherish Gamble of the Hamilton Conservation Authority. Coinciding with her concerns at the time about declining Monarch populations, Cherish helped Deborah understand their importance for pollinator health: “That’s how I became passionate; creating habitat that supports all life,” she recalls. “It has become a spiritual experience, hands in the earth, feeding the soil and plants, the whole cycle of life.”
Picture
Deborah's backyard
PictureVegetable garden
Deborah owns three properties in Dundas and considers her gardens something of a laboratory. “Everything is an experiment in the evolution of these gardens," she says. "I plant it here and move it to the other gardens and that’s how I populate them.”
As well as feeding pollinators, Deborah is beginning to feed herself, her family and friends and neighbours with produce from her vegetable gardens. “It’s a community-building opportunity for me.  It soothes my heart and warms my soul.”
Deborah practices permaculture gardening and the idea of “multipurpose plants”--plants that feed the birds and the bees, and us! She is deeply interested in succession planning and maximizing the growing season. As such, she plans to convert her bushes to a “food hedge” of fruit and vegetables around the perimeter of the garden, as well as utilize the space “in an efficient way with foods that grow up,” such as zucchini and cucumbers. She will be starting small, “testing, getting results and expanding further.”  

0 Comments

    Archives

    August 2024
    December 2023
    September 2023
    December 2022
    September 2022
    June 2021
    May 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Home
About
Donate
Contact
Butterflyway Hamilton: www.facebook.com/butterflywayhamilton/
Environment Hamilton: https://www.environmenthamilton.org/
Hamilton Naturalists' Club: ​https://hamiltonnature.org/
  • Home
  • About
  • Certification
  • Gardens
    • Public Gardens
    • Certified Garden Map
  • Resources & Guides
    • Toolkit >
      • Full Toolkit
      • Simple Toolkit
    • Gardening Terms
    • Native Plants
    • Starting Seeds
    • Invasive Species
    • Monarch Awards
  • Blog
  • Contact Us