Photo credits: @NancyFromCanada
A few years the Westboro Beach Community Association successfully reached out to the NCC to create a pollinator garden on Selby Plain at the end of Atlantis Ave. Last summer butterflies, bees, insects, and birds were seen happily visiting our garden.
A pollinator garden is not your typical garden. It’s a delicate ecosystem which provides a home for many insect species such as bumble bees, ants and lady bugs as well as a feeding area for butterflies and birds. The garden is filled with native flowering plants, ones that naturally grow in our environment as well as piles of wood, logs, branches and leaves. It may look wild but the garden provides an area for bumblebee queens and other insect larvae to spend the winter. Birds use these sites too for forage for food and utilize brush piles for shelter from predators and the cold (National Audubon Society).
Volunteers have worked hard to remove weeds and invasive species like Buckthorn and have encouraged native species such as thistle, asters, mullein to grow. We added a generous donation of native species plants from Fletcher Wildlife Garden in 2020 and in May, 50 milkweed seedlings grown through the spring by a neighbour were planted. The Champlain Park Pollinator Garden Committee donated 29 different types of sprouts which are being tended by a neighbour over the summer and will be planted in the Autumn. A large water barrel has been donated so that we can easily water the garden in the summer.
We welcome you to visit the garden. Our volunteers have built a path through the garden so all can wander through and view the plants. A local artist is painting a beautiful sign for the garden and it will be going up soon.
We hope that our Pollinator Garden will encourage you to think about planting a haven for insects and birds on your own property.
Westboro Beach Community Association 