Native plant garden beds at the Brick Works 15 April 2009
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for native plant gardeners & stewards in Toronto and southern Ontario
Event Calendars
online native plant ID:
- USDA PLANTS Database
- NANPS Plant Database
- Evergreen's Native Plant Database
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Information Network
- Ontario Wildflowers - Walter Muma
- Ontario Trees and Shrubs - "
- Ontario Grasses - "
- Ontario Mosses - "
- Ontario Ferns - "
- Ontario Ferns - silhouettes
- Winter Tree and Shrub ID (& woody ID links) - Josh Sayers
- Andy's Northern Ontario Wildflower Guide
- Trees and Shrubs by eco-district: FGCA
- Ontario Species lists - OMNR NHIC
- Northern Ontario Plant Database
- List of Trees in Canada - Tree Canada
- U of Wisconsin - Stevens Point Freckmann Herbarium
- Silvics of North America - USDA Forest Service
- Plant Database - US Forest Service FIES
- NatureServe Explorer
off-line native plant ID:
- The ROM Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario
- Trees in Canada John Laird Farrar
- Trees of the Carolinian Forest: A Guide to Species, Their Ecology and Uses Gerry Waldron
- Shrubs of Ontario - ROM
- National Audubon Society Field Guide To North American Wildflowers: Eastern Region (Intuitive for newbies. Newcombe's is better for botanists and folks who love keys)
- Forest Plants of Central Ontario
- Toronto Field Naturalists Publications
native plant gardening & naturalization: how to's
- Native Prairie and Meadow Gardens and Landscapes for homes, businesses and institutions - Credit Valley Conservation
- Ecological Landscaping and Restoration Resources
- Planting the Seed: A Guide to Establishing Prairie and Meadow Communities in Southern Ontario
- The New Ontario Naturalized Garden - Lorraine Johnson
- TRCA Healthy Yards Program
- MNR Extension Notes
Local and regional native plant recommendations & inventories
- Evergreen's Native Plant Database and how-to's
- Dig In! - How to source native trees for your area - MNR
- Tree Atlas (by region) - MNR
- Native Tree and Shrub species by eco-district - FGCA
- How to Select and Buy Native Plants - City of Toronto
- Native Plant Lists – City of Toronto Urban Forestry Services
- Site Preferences of Commonly Planted Woody Species in the Toronto Area - UFA
- Plant Species Choices for Natural Gardens in the Toronto Area - UFA
- Tree Species for Urban Plantings in Ontario -UFA
- Planting the Seed - Recommended Species for Prairie and Meadow Plantings in Southern Ontario
- Vascular Plants of Metropolitan Toronto - TFN
- Restoring Natural Habitats - a manual for habitat restoration in the Greater Toronto Bioregion. - The Waterfront Regeneration Trust
- Indigenous plants for Green Roof environments in Toronto - TRCA
- Toronto Botanical Garden Library
Identifying Plant Communities & Landscapes
- Ecological Land Classification for Southern Ontario Manual (in PDF)
- Southen Ontario Vascular Species List (with S ranks), 3rd edition, 2013
- The Ontario Urban Forest Scrapbook 1
- Carolininian Species and Habitats (see their left tool bar)
- The Land Between (McMurtry et al. 2008)
- Forest Vegetation Types - Central, North East and North West Ontario
- Historic Streams of Toronto
- Ontario Rocks: Three Billion Years Of Environmental Change
- Ontario Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) database search
- Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency search
- Bing Maps / Live Maps
- Google Maps
native plant sales & nurseries
Seeds
- Growing Trees from Seed - A Practical Guide to Growing Native Trees, Vines and Shrubs - Henry Kock et al
- FGCA Seed Zones - for people who plant trees
- Planting the Seed: A Guide to Establishing Prairie and Meadow... See: Appendix A & B
- Native Plant Network's Propagation Protocol Database
- Understanding Trillium Seed Propagation - William Cullina
- NANPS - Needs Of Seeds article
- Seeds or Plants? - NPS
- Seed Collecting and Seed Forecasting Workshops - Forests Ontario Ontario & FGCA
- An introduction to restoration genetics
Eco-Restoration Resources
- SER - Eco-Restoration Primer
- SER - Guidelines for Developing and Managing Ecological Restoration Projects
- SER - Ontario Chapter
- Restoring Nature's Place : A Guide to Naturalizing Ontario Parks and Greenspace - Donna Havinga & Marc Diagle
- Forest Gene Conservation Association
- Restoring Natural Habitats - a manual for habitat restoration in the Greater Toronto Bioregion - The Waterfront Regeneration Trust
- An introduction to using native plants in restoration projects
- Planting the Seed: A Guide to Establishing Prairie and Meadow Communities in Southern Ontario
- A Landowner’s Guide to Tallgrass Prairies and Savannah Management in Ontario
- Why You Can't Buy a Forest in a Can -William Cullina
- Principles and Guidelines for Ecological Restoration in Canada’s Protected Natural Areas. Parks Canada. 2008
- Native Plant Propagation Protocols
- Plant Conservation Alliance (U.S. but excellent info and email discussion list)
- Introduction to Restoration Genetics - PCA
- North Carolina Plant Conservation Program Rare Plant Reintroduction, Augmentation and Transplantation Guidelines
- The Dangers of Transplantation as a Conservation Technique
- Genetic Considerations in Ecological Restoration: An annotated bibliography - Center for Plant Conservation
Volunteer
- City of Toronto Community Stewardship
- High Park - Volunteer Stewardship Program
- Evergreen - Volunteer
- Friends of the Rouge Watershed
- Rouge Park - Volunteer
- Friends of the Don East (FODE)
- The Taylor Massey Project
- LEAF - Volunteer
- Toronto Community Gardens Network - Volunteer
- TRCA - Volunteer
- Riverwood Conservancy - Mississauga
- Nature Conservancy of Canada
- Toronto Wildlife Centre
- PlanetVolunteer.net
job boards
Organizations
- Carolinian Canada
- NANPS
- Tallgrass Ontario
- LEAF
- Ontario Nature / FON
- Evergreen
- Society for Ecological Restoration - Ontario
- Ontario Urban Forest Council
- Field Botanists of Ontario
- Stewardship Network of Ontario
- www.PlanetFriendly.net
- Ontario Environmental Network (OEN) Directory
- Ontario Vernal Pools Association
Invasive Plants
- Ontario Invasive Plant Council (OIPC)
- InvadingSpecies.com - Plants - O.F.A.H. Invasive Species Awareness Program
- Controlling Invasive Species - Fact Sheet - City of Toronto, Urban Forestry
- Strategic Plan for Managing Invasive Plants in Southern ON
- TNC Weeds - Element Stewardship Abstracts
- Fact Sheets - APWG - Alien Plant Invaders of Natural Areas
- Plants to avoid! -- horticultural weeds
- Ontario Invasive Plant Council's Landowner's Guide to Controlling Invasive Woodland Plants
- Global Invasive Species Database - ISSG
- Weed Control Methods Handbook: Tools and Techniques for Use in Natural Areas
- Weeds of Canada & Northern U.S.
- Invasive Plants: A Guide to Identification, Impacts, and Control... Kaufman
- for more please see "Invasive Plants Resource List" post...
- ...or all invasive posts on this blog
visit: restoration sites, native plant gardens, natural areas & remnants
- Ontario's Old-Growth Forests map
- Don Valley Brick Works
- Todmorden Mills Wildflower Preserve
- Don Wetlands
- Toronto Islands: Plant Communities and Noteworthy Species - Varga
- Leslie Spit / Tommy Tompson Park
- Leslie Spit - Friends of the Spit
- High Park
- High Park (Natural History & Restoration)
- High Park (ELC's)
- Nordheimer Ravine
- Riverwood Conservancy - Mississauga
- Baker's Woods (HWY 7 & Bathurst)
- Lost Rivers urban ecology walks (& see their "Streams" links)
- The Rouge
- Helen M. Kippax Wild Plant Garden - RBG - Lorraine Johnson design
- Carden Alvar
- OMNR NHIC - Natural Areas List
- Niagara Escarpment Biosphere - Natural Areas
- U of Guelph Arboretum (see "Native Trees of Ontario" & "Elms" trails)
- Ojibway Tallgrass Prairie
- Ontario Trails Council
for Toronto gardeners
- Free Front Yard Trees - City of Toronto
- LEAF Backyard Tree Program - subsidized native trees & shrubs
- Toronto Gardens Blog
- City of Toronto's Urban Forestry Services
- TRCA Healthy Yards Connection
- Identifying & Controlling Invasive Plants in Toronto - City's Urban Forestry Fact Sheet
- Free Leaf Compost - City of Toronto
- Toronto Private Tree Protection By-Law
- Managing tree pests & disease - Fact Sheets - City of Toronto Urban Forestry
- Is your property regulated by City of Toronto's Ravine and Natural Feature Protection By-law?
- Injured Wildlife: Toronto Wildlife Centre (Downsview)
native plant gardens & naturalized yards: awards & certificates
pollinators & other wildlife
- Bumblebee Watch - Dave Barr
- Wild About Gardening - CWF
- A Guide to Toronto's Pollinators
- Bringing Nature Home - How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens - Douglas Tallamy
- Toronto Plant Guide for Attracting Pollinators
- Project CHIRP!
- Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity: With a photographic guide to insects of eastern North America - Stephen Marshall
- Butterfly checklist - Leslie Spit
- Bird Checklist - Toronto Field Naturalists
- Bird checklist - Leslie Spit
- More Toronto Field Naturalists' Checklists (vertebrates, butterflies, other invertebrates and more)
- The Xerces Society for Invertabrate Conservation
- Tracking & the Art of Seeing - Paul Rezendes
- OMNR's Significant Wildlife Habitat - Technical Guide
- FLAP
- Wildlife Species - USDA FEIS database
- Toronto Wildlife Centre
love your watershed
- RiverSides (urban watersheds)
- HTO: Torontos Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers and Low-flow Toilets
- Find your Conservation Authority (& Watershed) in Ontario
- TRCA Watersheds & Subwatersheds
- Don Subwatersheds
- Find Groups by Watershed in Toronto
- TRCA - Protecting our Water
- Don Watcher
- Monitoring the Moraine
- STORM Coalition
- Bring Back the Don
- Trent Institute for Watershed Science
Species at Risk
- Rare Vascular Plants of Ontario - 4th ed. OMNR NHIC, Mike Oldham and Sam Brinker, 2009
- Species Lists, S & G ranks & COSEWIC Status - OMNR
- Vegetation Communities in Ontario. with S & G ranks - OMNR
- COSEWIC - Vascular Plant Priority List
- SARA - Species Search
- How to Report a Species at Risk - OMNR
- Enviro Canada - Species at Risk - Map
- Species at Risk & Conservation Programs - Carolinian Canada
Funding
Courses & Programs
- LEAF - Tree Tenders workshop
- The Naturalized Landscape - U of Guelph Open Learning
- Niagara College - Ecosystem Restoration - Grad
- Temperate Wetland Restoration Course
- ENVS 6119 Eco Rest (GTA Bioregion) - MES @ York
- Certificate in Urban Ecologies - Bach. Enviro Studies - York
- Ecosystem Management Technician – Fleming
- Ecosystem Management Technolgy – Fleming
- Ecological Restoration Honours B.Sc - Trent & Fleming
- Diploma of Excellence in Ecological In Ecological Restoration and Rehabilitation University of Waterloo
- Trent Institute for Watershed Science - Training
- ELC training for Southern Ontario
- Enviro. Certificates - U of Guelph Open Learning
- Seed Forecasting Workshops 2009 - Trees Ontario
- Certified Seed Collector (CSC) / Seed Forecasting Workshop
Scholarships
Gardeners, Arborists, Landscapers & Eco-Restoration Consultants
- Urban Forest Associates Inc. – Steve Smith
- Acorus Restoration - Paul Morris
- Ontario Flora - Claire Ellenwood
- Ecoman - Jonas Spring
- Fern Ridge Landscaping - Sean James
- Natvik Ecological - Mathis Natvik (native plant roof gardens)
- Blue Oak Native Landscapes - Paul O'Hara
- Catherine Siddal Garden Design
- Green Gardeners Community Collaborative Inc.
- Ecological Outlook - Donna Havinga
- Landscape Native – Ben Porchuk - London / Middlesex
- Garden Gnomes - Tristan Iafolla
- How to find an Arborist - ISA Ontario
- Organic Landscape Alliance
- Selecting a Tree Care Company - LEAF
Citizen Science / Monitoring
gardening resources: misc.
The language of flowers...
- Dictionary of Botanical Epithets (the 2nd word / "species" part of plant names)
- Botanical Dictionary - words to describe plants & flowers - botany.com
- Botanical Latin Words Dictionary - botany.com
- OpenKey Botanical Glossary
- Plant Taxonomy Glossary
- Vascular Plant Systematics Glossary
- SmurphBot: List of Vascular Flora of Northeastern Canada/U.S.
- Plant Latin Pronunciation guide
If you've made it all the way to here, you might also like:
- Botanica North America: The Guide to Our Native Plants, Their Botany, History, and How They Have Shaped Our World - Marjorie Harris
- Ontario's Oldest Native Trees
- An Eclectic Guide to Trees East of the Rockies - Glen Blouin
- The Lorax
- The Forest Shop
- The Culture of Nature - Alexander Wilson
- Anatomy of a Rose - Sharman Apt Russell
- The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession - Susan Orlean
- Adaptation (film based on The Orchid Thief)
- The World Without Us - Alan Weisman
- End of Suburbia (doc.)
- Escape from Suburbia (doc.)
- The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America
- spacing>toronto
- Toronto Public Space Committee
- adfreeblog.org
I'd rather be reading...
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Lone Star Ticks1 year ago
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Long Overdue Update2 years ago
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Toronto Gardens has moved!7 years ago
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update8 years ago
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Modernist Planters, then and now9 years ago
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Doctor Who’s Green Death Maggots!10 years ago
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New path for the Don Valley10 years ago
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News and new developments11 years ago
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Visit from The Great Black Wasps12 years ago
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Followers
About Me
- native plant girl
- Toronto lake Ontario eastern waterfront and lower Don Valley watersheds / Seed Zone 34 / Eco-district 7E-2, Carolinian Canada / Mixedwood Plains. Basking in an intersticial and taking in the holocene.
- I'm an east-end Toronto native plant gardener, steward & volunteer, interested in growing, field-tripping, photographing and reading about GTA & southern ON native plants, natural heritage, public and private gardens / naturalization sites, ecological restoration & invasive plant management. I also have a passion for the community of people I meet along the way & the conversations, info, ideas we swap at the events, sites, conferences, workshops, field-trips, sidewalks, gardens, nurseries & roadsides. But, often my hands are filled with plants & dirt instead of pen & paper (not to mention my imprecise memory for websites and names). So, I'm hoping this blog will help out, as a reference site to useful links & a place to share info, continue conversations & stay in touch. if you have any suggestions about this site, pls email. & pls pass along this site to anyone who might be interested. thanks all & happy planting!
post archives
- books
- Brick Works
- Dog-strangling vine
- events
- Evergreen
- first nations arboriculture
- forest restoration
- funding
- garlic mustard
- how and where to buy native plants
- how cool is that?
- invasive species
- job posts
- milkweed
- Monarchs
- mycorrhiza
- native plant profiles
- natural areas
- Ontario tallgrass prairie
- urban forestry
- urban trees
- volunteer
- wildlife
Quotes
- Acclaimed poet and novelist Elizabeth Smart tells how gardening madness struck her suddenly in 1967 "like a cold or an unsuitable love affair." - Alice Van Wart
- Had I ever, until that moment, seen flowers at all? - Gabrielle Roy
- Now Suzanne takes your hand, and she leads you to the river… and she shows you where to look, among the garbage and the flowers ..they are leaning out for love, they’ll lean that way forever -- Leonard Cohen
- Everyone knows of some sad little place no one cares about that could do with some plants. - Lorraine Johnson
- Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw - Henry David Thoreau
- In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand what we are taught. - Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist
- Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. - Dr. Seuss
- Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. -William James
- To believe that you do not live in political life, is to lie to yourself about your life. - Robin Matthews, poet
- The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces. - Aldo Leopold
- The creation of a thousand forests are in one acorn. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Now when you cut a forest, an ancient forest in particular, you are not just removing a lot of big trees and a few birds fluttering around in the canopy. You are drastically imperiling a vast array of species within a few square miles of you. The number of these species may go to tens of thousands. ... Many of them are still unknown to science, and science has not yet discovered the key role undoubtedly played in the maintenance of that ecosystem, as in the case of fungi, microorganisms, and many of the insects. - E. O. Wilson, 2000
- My own sense is that the immediate work that lies ahead has to do with fixing landscape, repairing its ruptures, reconnecting its parts. Restoring landscape is not about 'preserving' lands -- "saving what's left," as it's often put. Restoration recognizes that once lands have been "disturbed" -- worked, lived on, meddled with, developed -- they require human intervention and care. We must build landscapes that heal, connect and empower, that make intelligible our relations with each other and with the natural world: places that welcome and enclose, whose breaks and edges are never without meaning. -Alex Wilson, The Culture of Nature
- Firstly what does conservation mean? It is not merely the saving from extinction… this is important work but it is only part of the problem. You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself. – Gerald Durrell
- Invasive species are the second biggest threat to wildlife and plants worldwide. Habitat destruction is the first. - E.O. Wilson
- "We stand to lose our natural ecosystem, all our native plants, everywhere in the Great Lakes Basin and southern Ontario." - OMNR NHIC Community Ecologist Waysel Bakowsky, when asked about the threat of Dog-Strangling Vine
- Our native insects [and the birds and other wildlife who feed on them] will not be able to survive on alien plant species - Douglas W. Tallamy
- Ecological restoration is more than protecting what exists; it is actively intervening to restore a historic ecosystem that has been damaged. – Donna Havinga
- That which gets you better may be something completely different from that which keeps you better. – Thomas A. M. Kramer, MD
- At times it may be necessary to temporarily accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good. -Margaret Mead
- We still need conservationists who will attempt the impossible, achieving it because they aren't aware of how impossible it is. - David Brower
- Lost causes are the only ones worth fighting for. - Clarence Darrow
- It is not for you to complete the task, but you must begin. -Talmudic saying
- Education is less about the acquisition of knowledge than the loss of illusion. - Joseph Campbell
- I predict native plant gardening and restoration will continue and expand as our access to nature decreases. One reason for this growth in use of native plants reflects our cultural urge to restore and recapture what is lost. - Linda McMahan
- The ravines are to Toronto what canals are to Venice, hills are to San Francisco and the Thames River is to London. They are the heart of the City’s emotional geography, and understanding Toronto requires an understanding of the ravines. -Robert Fulford, Accidental City
- You learned them and where they stood in relation to each other; and then you filled in the details working from these known marks, General to particular. Everything had a name. To live fully in a place all your life, you kept aiming smaller and smaller in attention to detail. – Charles Frazier
- “Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods."
- People in suburbia see trees differently than foresters do. They cherish every one. You are talking about a personal asset, a friend, a monument, not about board feet of lumber. - Roger Swain
- Why are plant names changing so much? In the art of plant taxonomy, the “splitters” have largely regained influence, after a period of several decades in which “lumpers” were generally in the ascendancy, at least in North America. The result is a large number of name changes in plants. - Alan S. Weakley
- I have spent my life in the intimate world of infinitesimal things. Patrick Lane, There is a Season
- You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet. - Hal Borland
- We are so fond of being out among nature, because it has no opinions about us. - Nietzsche
- After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on -- have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear -- what remains? Nature remains. - Walt Whitman
- Il faut cultivar notre jardin. - Voltaire
- Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. -Robert H. Schuller
- In some realms of nature, shadows and darkness are the places of greatest growth. - Henry Jackson Van Dyke
- Nature never did betray the heart who loved her. - William Wordsworth
- The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now. - Proverbs
- Keep planting. It all helps. - Donna Havinga
- I need to plant something. - Steve Smith, Urban Forest Associates Inc., in the dead of February
- A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the community; and the community includes the soil, water, fauna and flora, as well as the people. – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
- Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away... Few that fell trees plant them; nor would planting avail much towards getting back anything like the noble primeval forests. -John Muir
- As exotic ornamentals leap the garden fence and out-compete the native plants, many creatures are starving to death because they did not evolve with the exotics and simply can’t eat them. …"I’m not trying to recreate the ancient ecosystem," said Mr. Tallamy. "That is gone. I’m trying to create biodiversity."
- Volunteers are the backbone, heart, and soul of the restoration movement. And whatever the eventual results of their labors may be, working to revive damaged ecosystems is transforming and strengthening their relationship with the rest of nature. -William K. Stevens, Miracle Under the Oaks
“When we’re on our knees, rooting around in the soil … what we’re learning are the fine, specific details of our home place, the things that make it unique. …This alertness is, I think, the key to finding a way to live on this earth with spirited wonder and mindful humility –necessary approaches if we’re to begin the crucial work that is ahead: the work of healing the planet. We need people to connect with their home places and learn about them and understand them and see and feel and know what they’re doing to them, and what’s happening to the earth. We need stewards and nurturers and people who care. We need gardeners." -
1 comment:
If this were a private residence, Toronto's bylaw officers would charge it under their tall grass and weed ordinance...as they often do when individuals implement similar landscapes.
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