Make a Difference for Biodiversity by Joining in on this Conservation Movement!
By: Kiyoko (Maurine) Ulrich, Master Gardener
On his website, “Home Grown National Park” (https://homegrownnationalpark.org/ ), Douglas Tallamy, an American entomologist, ecologist and author bestselling author, says,
“Add native plants and remove invasive ones everywhere that we live, work, learn, pray and play….Chances are, you have never thought of your garden—indeed, all of the space on your property as a wildlife preserve that represents the last opportunity we have for sustaining plants and animals that were once common.
That is exactly the role that built landscapes are now playing and will play even more in the near future. Small changes in our own backyards can create a nationwide impact on biodiversity. By replacing lawns with native plants, individuals are helping to rebuild ecosystems, one yard at a time. This can range from a single native plant in a container on a porch or rooftop to a substantial meadow, forest or prairie . “
Inspired by Dr. Tallamy’s Home Grown National Park Project, the David Suzuki Butterflyway Ranger program (https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/) is a volunteer-led movement growing highways of habitat for bees and butterflies across Canada. The yearly recruitment of Rangers typically happens in February. Rangers receive many online resources and free online training from staff and national experts. 1800 Rangers have been trained across Canada since 2017. This year Manitoba Rangers number around 100. Several Manitoba Master Gardeners are Rangers.
Across Canada, from 2017 to 2024, Rangers planted 116,500 native wildflowers and grasses and 3,150 trees and shrubs. They established 7400 habitat gardens and 139 Butterflyways. Butterflyways consist of 12 or more habitat patches in close proximity. Thirteen Butterflyways have been planted in Manitoba.
The organizers of the Rangers are very supportive and encouraging to volunteers. There is no strict time requirement for being a Butterflyway Ranger. You set your own pace. At minimum, a Ranger might attend a few webinars, plant a habitat garden and spend some time on outreach. Outreach can be simply chatting with other people, posting on social media or hosting small events. Larger events could include organizing a planting day or native plant sale, advocating for pollinator-friendly practices in the neighborhood or municipality, or connecting with local groups to recruit others to create habitat gardens. The Rangers say, “Do what brings you joy!”
Guidelines for a Native Plant Habitat Garden
Dr. Tallamy lists four ecological responsibilities of every landscape. It must support food webs, sequester carbon, clean and manage water and support pollinators. Although some non-native plants meet some of those requirements, native plants provide the most support because they evolved together with other native wildlife in a region over many thousands of years.
Pollinator Partnership, the largest organization in the world dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators, recommends the “3 by 3 by 3” rule when planning a native plant area. Choose at least three individuals of three flowering native species that bloom in three growing seasons, spring, summer and fall. Pollinator Partnership offers an excellent online course on pollinators and how to create and protect habitat for them. For information specific to Manitoba on pollinators, pollinator friendly plants, native plant growers, native plant public gardens, and other resources, visit the Bee Better Manitoba website (https://www.beebettermb.ca/).
Millennium Gardens – Community Garden, 260 Douglas Ave., Winnipeg
Chief Pequis Walkway by Henderson Highway
Native Demonstration Gardens
In 2022 the Millenium Garden’s team of volunteers selected a native flowerbed design from Heather Holm’s book “Pollinators of Native Plants”, designed for full sun for bumblebees. Heather Holm is a biologist, pollinator conservationist and award-winning author. Her designs give the dimensions of the flowerbeds, the number of each species needed and the name of each species. Colour-coded diagrams illustrate the placement of plants.
Some of the flowers in the plans were not native to Manitoba so local native flowers were substituted. All the flowers, woodchips and rental of a sod cutter were provided by the Winnipeg Wildflower Project organizers, Nicole Webster and Kelly Leask. The flowers came from Kelly’s Prairie Originals nursery. Our team of Millennium Garden gardeners, plus Master Gardeners, neighbourhood friends, Nicole, and Kelly volunteered and planted 115 plugs from 14 different species. A light layer of woodchips was placed around the plot.
Early blooming flowers in the garden are golden alexander (Zizia aurea), three flowered avens (Geum triflorum), yarrow (Achillea millefolium) and yellow coneflower (Ratibida columnifera). The yellow coneflower is a short-lived, early succession plant and didn’t live past the first year.
Yarrow, wild bergamont, golden Alexander
Summer-blooming flowers are black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) and giant hyssop (Agastache foeniculum). Black-eyed Susan is a short-lived perennial that seeds itself.
Pearly everlasting, wild bergamont, black-eyed Susan
Later-blooming flowers are culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) (not common in Manitoba), Joe Pye (Eupatorium maculatum), New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), meadow blazing star (Liatrus ligulistylis), western silvery aster (Symphyotrichum sericeum) (at risk), and stiff goldenrod (Solidago rigida).
Meadow blazing star, pearly everlasting, stiff goldenrod
We put wire around the asters, pearly everlasting and meadow blazing star because rabbits and voles from the wooded area next to the gardens would love to eat them. No wire was put around the black-eyed Susan and some were eaten. Wire has been removed around some plants as they have become more established and not much weeding was needed last year. Thriving in its third season in 2024, the garden attracted many bees and is very visible to the public as they stroll and bike along Chief Pequis Walkway.
We have planted or protected a dozen habitat patches in the gardens and will register the gardens as a Butterflyway with the David Suzuki Rangers this year. A couple of habitat patches display native plants that can serve as alternative choices for lawns. The first is a patch of silverweed (Argentina anserina) that seeded itself into the lawn. The spot is jokingly called the “Bison Wallow” because silverweed was a favorite food of the bison and was commonly found in bison wallows. The second patch has the native grasses, blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) that grow naturally beside the walkway.
Growing naturally under two bur oaks (Quercus macrocarpa), a Manitoba maple (Acer negundo) and trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) are red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea), prickly wild rose (Rosa acicularis), chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), poison ivy (Toxicodendron rydbergii) and sage (Artemisia ludoviciana). These plants provide soft landings for butterfly and moth caterpillars which are the main food of many species of young birds. In the fruit shrub area, under the Saskatoons (Amelanchier alnifolia), wild ginger (Asarum canadense), silverweed and wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) were planted as groundcovers .
As people stroll by our gardens, they enjoy reading our handmade signs that give information about the native plants and pollinators. Over 80 native species of native plants grow in the gardens and the woods. Please come for a visit to our gardens!
Published: May 2025