Source Feed: City of Ottawa News Releases
Author: City of Ottawa - Media Relations / Ville d'Ottawa - Relations avec les médias
Publication Date: April 9, 2024 - 14:33
Roses are red, violets are blue, if you’re planting a garden, here are some tips for you
April 9, 2024
If you love gardening we have a few suggestions.
If you love gardening then you probably love deciding which plants and flowers to buy and where to place them? When making your choices for the upcoming season, we have a few suggestions for you.
If you’re an experienced gardener, then you may already know that certain plants are better-suited to help pollinators or to control rain water. If you’re a considerate gardener, you know which plants are a nuisance to neighbours or can cause harm.
If you are inexperienced or simply looking for new ideas, then read on.
Help pollinators
Don’t tidy up too soon. Many pollinators and other wildlife overwinter in dead plant stems or leaf litter. Delay your spring cleaning until temperatures have risen above 10oC consistently. Leave some areas of bare soil for ground-nesting bees. South-facing sites with well-drained sandy soils are preferred.
Go beyond “no mow May” by converting parts of your lawn to a native wildflower garden or meadow instead, to provide habitat all year long. Traditional mowed lawns need lots of maintenance and don’t provide benefits to native pollinators or other wildlife. By reducing your lawn area, you can reduce your yard’s water consumption and your time spent mowing permanently, instead of for just one month.
To encourage pollinators in your garden, plant native wildflowers, including early and late flowering species, to provide nectar sources and other food for pollinators. If you’re looking for an example, we have a pollinator garden at City Hall. It includes species such as common milkweed, New England aster, wild bergamot, prairie smoke and a variety of goldenrods. Many native trees and shrubs also have flowers that support pollinators – did you know that maple flowers are appreciated by many of our early spring pollinators?
The City Hall garden also features a bee hotel. Bee hotels are different from beehives – they are smaller and provide places for native solitary bees to lay their eggs. Many commercially produced bee houses are now being sold online and in stores, but not all of them are well-suited for our native species. For more information on bee hotels, check out our web page: Pollinators | City of Ottawa
Soak up the rain
Rain gardens are shallow depressed areas that promote the infiltration of rainwater into the ground. They are planted with attractive hardy plants – ideally native perennials – and have loose soils that help rainwater seep down into the ground.
Plants are not just decorative in rain gardens, their roots loosen soils and maintain high infiltration rates. You should choose hardy wet-tolerant plants that can also experience periods of drought.
Some varieties to consider:
- Purple coneflower
- Joe-Pye Weed
- Bowman’s Root
- Mosquito Grass
- Butterfly Milkweed
- Garlic Chives
- Pot o’ Gold
- Little Bluestem
- Woodland Phlox
- There is a list of plants that are not permitted in the ROW
- Only soft landscaping and hand-digging gardens are allowed.
- The garden must not interfere with the sidewalk.
- The maximum plant height is 1.0 metres and 0.75 metres for corner lots.
- Hard landscaping materials such as pavers, riverstone, gravel and planter boxes are not allowed.
- Consumables including vegetables, fruit, herbs, nuts and seeds are not allowed.
- You cannot garden within a ditch.
Calgary City Council heard its last panel at the historic public hearing about a proposed rezoning bylaw on Monday evening, wrapping up more than two weeks of presentations.
May 6, 2024 - 23:56 | Paula Tran | Global News - Canada
Hudson’s Bay Company is pulling out of Regina, announcing it will close its only department store in Saskatchewan’s capital city next year.HBC says in an e-mail that it has decided not to renew its lease at Cornwall Centre in downtown Regina.It says with the lease expiring, the Hudson’s Bay store will close to the public in April 2025.
May 6, 2024 - 22:42 | | The Globe and Mail
According to a report from Zoocasa, the average price of a townhome in Calgary grew 17 per cent over last year to $458,100, which is faster than anywhere else in Canada.
May 6, 2024 - 21:41 | Adam MacVicar | Global News - Canada
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