Notes from the Garden

The first day of spring saw the beginning of The Year of the Garden 2022, a celebration of everything garden and gardening related in Canada.

The arrival of the warmer weather has meant that we’ve been able to get back working in the Windermere gardens. On May 8, Cec and John Mutton and Maggie Knaus and Alex Wood put up our educational signs and a land acknowledgement on the wall of the church, as well as a bird house that a friend of Cec and John made and donated to our garden.

On May 11, we received four cubic yards of high-quality garden mix and we have extended the beds to the east of the side entrance to the church. A selection of native plants has been ordered for early June from Project Swallowtail, an initiative in the west end of Toronto that connects existing urban habitat by helping gardeners plant native plants in private and community gardens, sidewalk medians and balconies.

Windermere’s pollinator gardens are supported by a PollinateTO grant from the City of Toronto.

Early Spring Blooms to Attract Pollinators

Did you know that trees and shrubs produce an abundance of flowers that provide a wonderful source of food for pollinators? Four early spring blooms are: Eastern redbud, pussy willow, red maple and serviceberry. These four native species are among the first to bloom in the spring and offer much-needed early season food for local birds, bees and butterflies. All four can be found in our Windermere gardens although we are still waiting to see if the Eastern redbud survived the winter.

More updates to come as the season unfolds!

Christine Hughes

WUC Council Secretary