If you want to learn more about pollinator gardening, native plants, or naturalistic design, here are a few of my favourite online resources.
Podcasts
- A Way to Garden: a National Public Radio podcast by New York state gardener Margaret Roach. In the archive, you’ll find many interviews with authors and researchers about pollinators, beneficial insects, birds, and native plants. The Ottawa Public Library has one of Roach’s books And I Shall Have Some Peace There.
- Joe Gardener: This Joe Lamp’l podcast focuses on practical gardening information, but also has episodes on beneficial insects, pollinators, bird gardening, and native plants.
- Native Plant Podcast: a chatty podcast by several native plant landscaping professionals.
- PolliNation Podcast: Interviews with researchers and other individuals working to improve pollinator health and habitat. Emphasis on honey bees. By Andony Melathopoulos of Oregon State University.
- The Bee Report: a weekly roundup of news stories and research related to bees. You also can receive the report by email. Now there is also a Bee Report Podcast with interviews.
- Cultivating Place: a National Public Radio podcast about gardening. Listen to the 5-part series on gardens as healthy wildlife habitat. Pollinator gardening is explored in part 1.
- Field Guides Podcast: Join naturalists Bill and Steve on outings to wild spaces around New York state. Each well-researched episode has a theme. I enjoyed this podcast so much that I was motivated to join the Ottawa Field Naturalists club.
- In Defense of Plants: geared to an academic audience, but I still enjoy the episodes even though I don’t always understand the discussion.
Blogs
- Wild Pollinator Partners blog: This Ottawa-based organization features articles about pollinators, as well as local initiatives.
- The Natural Web: a wealth of information about native plants, insects, and their interactions. Illustrated with beautiful photos. I’ve learned so much here. By a New Jersey naturalist.
- Beaux Arbres Native Plants: blog by nursery owner Trish Murphy. Includes information about native plants and great photos from her display gardens showing plant combination ideas.
- Restoring the Landscape with Native Plants: an early blog by pollinator-book-author Heather Holm with informative profiles of native plants and their pollinators. For more, follow Holm’s Instagram feed called @beesnativeplants.
- Garden in a city: updates from a residential habitat garden in Chicago.
- Toronto Gardens: a fantastic place to start learning about gardens and gardening in Canada.
- The New Perennialist: a Canadian garden writer specializing in the naturalistic design style. Also moderates the Dutch Dreams Facebook group about naturalistic planting design.
- Wild. Here.: an Ottawa blog about nature in our city.
- Accent on Natural Landscaping: about a restored prairie and woodland in Wisconsin,
Facebook groups and pages
Most of my favourite Facebook groups are closed. You simply need to apply, and possibly answer a few questions, to join.
- Biodiversity in our Gardens: Ontario-centred
- Ontario Native Plant Gardening: closed group
- Pollinators and Native Plants: closed group
- Pollinators on Native Plants: a Group for Sharing Observations and Photos: closed group
- Insects and Arachnids of Ontario: closed group. I’ve learned a lot from the photos and discussions here.
- Friends of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden: photos and updates from this restored wild space and display garden within the city of Ottawa.
- Friends of Mud Lake: great photos of birds and other wildlife at Britannia Conservation Area. Mud Lake is my family’s favourite bird-watching spot.
- Wild Ontario: amazing wildlife photos. Closed group.
- View from Connaught Pond: Grant Dobson of Connaught Nursery documents the the plants and wildlife in his restored forest and wetland in Cobden, Ontario.
- Dutch Dreams: a group for designers and gardeners interested in the New Perennials style popularized by Piet Oudolf. Closed group.
- Wild by Design: Ben O’Brien is a landscape designer in Prince Edward County specializing in naturalistic gardens. Shows rare examples of this style using native and hardy plants in our Canadian climate.
- @nativepollinatorinitiative: highlighting the pollinator conservation and restoration projects of Wildlife Preservation Canada.
- @beesnativeplants: photos and interesting information from author Heather Holm
- @amanda.the.ecologist: includes updates from York University bumblebee researcher, Amanda Liczner. During the summer of 2019, Liczner searched for, and studied, bumblebee nests.
The Corner Pollinator Garden and Wildlife Habitat 