Seasonal Gardening Guide

Click to enlarge                                                   Photographed by Sarah Coulber

“Summer Delights”

Warm breezes tickle my face
Bright butterflies grace my garden
My ears delight in birdsong
Fragrant blooms excite my nose
I devour berries and all fresh things
Summer is here and my senses rejoice!
~ Anonymous

With the warm weather come certain pleasures synonymous with summer—swimming at the lake, barbequing, and enjoying visiting wildlife such as colourful birds and butterflies. One beneficial garden creature, the snake, isn’t always a welcome guest, however, as many people have a strong fear of these reptiles. Our guest column this season shares his extraordinary experiences with a variety of snakes, having transformed his fear of them into fascination and appreciation.

Read about another under-appreciated Canadian creature, the northern leopard frog, in this edition’s feature creature article. Discover how they live and what you can do to invite them to your garden.

The warm season is also perfect for projects around the house and garden…and larger-scale projects such as land restoration. For those of you affiliated with a non-profit group hoping to restore a parcel of land to its natural state in Saskatchewan, read about our feature nursery and how it can help you with your project. While the nursery doesn’t sell to the general public, it is very proactive in preserving prairie plants and has seeds to assist non-profit initiatives.

Our feature garden this season is on Prince Edward Island. Meet Janet Fraser and read about her down-to-earth approach to wildlife-friendly gardening, which is often based on common sense and practicality.

With a growing interest in native plants and drought-tolerant ones in particular, our feature plant—pearly everlasting—fits the bill on both counts. Learn how to grow it in your garden and get ready for the butterflies and bees to come and feed.

As always, we’ve got a new wallpaper for you to download to your desktop for free. This season it is Gaillardia aristata — a colourful prairie plant that is as beautiful to the eye as it is beneficial to the bee (and other pollinators)!

And to help celebrate summer, we’ve got a super summer sale on our shorelines kit. Check out the new low prices available this summer. Proceeds support CWF programs that in turn support Canada’s wild spaces and the wildlife that rely on them.

Enjoy,
Sarah

Editor’s Note: While I have stepped in occasionally to write Wild About Gardening’s seasonal welcoming words, it is with a very heavy heart that I write this edition’s welcome for Maria. Maria MacRae, the mastermind behind most of what you see on our website, in our gardens and in our printed material, passed away on April 11 of this year after a long illness with cancer. She raised the bar for what CWF offers as an organization and we will miss her creativity, passion and brilliance.