Solutions in your garden: Increasing resilience with pollinator friendly native flora xeriscaping, and a rain barrel.
Initiation:
Why do we choose the plants that grow in our gardens and on our properties?
My childhood was in a small semi-urban setting in rural Alberta. Each weekend time was allotted to mowing the grass, and sometimes dragging a dandelion weed bar back and forth across the lawn to manage the weeds. Then, of course, when there had been little rain we’d water the dry areas that were going dormant. My parents were not fastidious about their property, I don’t recall any use of fertilizers, mulches, edgings, or any other maintenance. For me at the time, it was all about driving the mower.
A portion of my summers were spent in a more rural setting in northern Alberta, on my grandparents farm. They grew food crops; two vegetable gardens as well as fodder for the small herd of cattle they kept. They also had a small lawn that was bordered by raspberry bushes abutting the house, and a rhubarb patch. I remember my grandmother collecting young dandelion leaves for salads as well as wild strawberries when that field laid fallow. Each was harvested as the season came around. I expect, having lived through the Depression, that virtually all aspects of her property were thought of as resources.
I moved into my first home after having spent a few years in a 27th floor apartment in a densely packed corner of Toronto. The yard was a small square patch each side about 13 feet, in front of the small house, a semi-detached two storey. It was nestled among the tightly built century-old townhouses and semis that define much of Toronto. A large red maple tree dominated the space and the root system limited what could be done with the soil. The yard had been neglected by an elderly owner, either uninterested or no longer able to maintain it. A lawn, along with all the tools required to maintain it, frankly, seemed ridiculous. So what to do with the front property?
When I turned over the soil where little was growing under the maple tree, the neighbours noticed. Several, who would share stories of how many years they lived on the street, had very specific opinions about the plants that I should grow, and how pretty they should be. One brought a tiny hibiscus as an offering, perhaps even a nudge. Luckily, that year I noticed a new section at the local Canadian Tire Gardening Centre that highlighted plants native to southern Ontario. Although it was a very small section it initiated my journey into the broader perspectives of green infrastructure. It offered me a new criteria of what to plant, where, and most importantly, why. Until today, most of my neighbours still struggle with this approach. But it is improving.
Since my initiation, each year has offered new opportunities. Lessons learned through one season provide insight into the next. Each year I added new native species as they became available, mostly from that Canadian Tire. For ground cover between the larger plants I used wild strawberries. There were two advantages: first, they grow fast to fill the spaces to help prevent unwanted plants from pushing up; and second, the excited response from children as they walk by and recognise strawberries in the late spring!
Other species that took well to the space were wild bergamot, wild geranium, wild columbine, black cohosh, and finally milkweed, specifically for the monarchs (see pics below). There were a few other plants that were included in this landscaping project: tiger lillies taken from the back yard, a raspberry bush in memory of my Grandma’s home, and a couple of tulip bunches that diligently popped up every year, having survived from the previous owner.
I also made adjustments to the soil. With the maple drawing so much water, first I added mulch to reduce evaporation, then later a weeping hose for the driest parts of the summer. Finally, I installed a flagstone path to access a table and chairs as the growth of the plants closed in the once open space. However, after more than a decade of growth, it was time to move on.
Growth:
Choosing a space:
A new property using the same approach offered a whole new canvas. But, first, as a blog about building resilience, there were a few aspects of location that needed to be considered as a part of our decision about where to move. As addressed in Food (In)Security in a Changing Climate, hydrological stationarity can no longer be relied upon, so historic weather patterns will be less predictive of future patterns. It is therefore critical to consider the extent of extreme weather the property will be more likely to experience. However, this is a moving target, and one in which we are yet to determine our destination, or have much confidence in how quickly we will transition. Obviously, we cannot plan landscaping around sinkholes, wash-outs, and mudslides, so evaluating a property for such risks is prudent.
Researching the geography of an area before you make a decision may prevent later loss, damages, and frustration, that in some cases, are likely to become uninsurable. Keep in mind that flood plains are based on the historical patterns of extreme weather events, so some aspects of municipal plans and building codes will be out-dated soon, if not already. Buried hydrological infrastructure is another concern. In many cases it is already beyond its life expectancy, and frequently it was not designed for the subsequent developments that came up around it and were integrated with it. It was definitely not designed to manage the climate that is coming. In Toronto the infrastructure also includes buried waterways, which have significant potential to be far more problematic. Expect greater deterioration (Toronto sink holes) in such areas.
Also consider the relationship of the property to the surrounding neighbourhood. With the deluges we’ve begun to experience, even if the property is not on a flood plain or near buried hydrological infrastructure, the flood mitigation designed for the neighbourhood will not be sufficient for the weather we’ll experience. So, for example, if the property is at a T-intersection at the bottom of the street where heavy rains will become a river once the storm sewer is beyond capacity, the property is much more likely to flood.
Adjusting the tap:
Now, back to the canvas. Two of the most pressing factors for landscape resilience are rainfall and temperature. Designing begins with planning the hydrology. Initially, the challenges with rainfall will be periods of way too much, greater volumes of rain over shorter periods of time, interspersed with longer periods of too little. Strategies to collect and store runoff, such as rain barrels and gardens, offer buffers.
Rain barrels are a relatively fast and easy addition to any property, and they can be found at virtually all hardware stores and garden centres. If you live in Toronto and are interested in a more planned and collective approach to the rain barrel, the strategy has been scaled by RainGrid. The collected water can be used for the plants and life on your property during times of reduced rain, reducing your costs and dependence on the city utility.
Rain gardens are a more integrated approach to the collect and retain concept, built into the landscape as green infrastructure. A one-quarter inch rainfall, over a roof size of 1,000 square feet, equates to about 150 gallons of stormwater. Therefore, planning a suitably sized area for the rain to collect can greatly delay and slow run-off during substantial rains. The rain being contained within the landscape also increases the volume of water within the soil helping to mitigate for those longer dry spells.
The Living Building Challenge, one of the most rigorous standards for sustainable buildings, considers the rain that falls on a building and the property as a resource to be effectively managed. While it lies outside of the scope of this article, it is worth noting. Both the value and potential damage of water will be ever more important to consider during design.
Turning down the thermostat.
The second factor of resilient landscaping is temperature, and for plants in Canada temperature impact is experienced mostly as extreme heat. If the rain collected in the first step is slowly integrated into the soil increasing the moisture, it will provide a degree of relief through evaporative cooling. This will be the inherent process if a rain garden has been incorporated.
Further strategies can be employed by both the choice and positioning of plants. Native species are not only adapted to the climate, including the current extremes, but they are also adapted to their plant community. This includes relationships not just between the individual plants, but with the entire dynamic ecosystem, from the microbial and mycelial network in the soil to the insects and pollinators. This is a big communication system with feedback loops. Positioning plants in your space offers an opportunity to leverage nature further. Tiering taller trees over bushes, followed lower down by shrubs, with a layer of ground cover and organic materials at grade. This stratification substantially reduces heat stress and direct evaporation while increasing evaporative cooling. This is the reason that the temperature in a healthy forest is much lower than in a clear-cut area!
Since my initiation to the native plant section of the local Canadian Tire, I’ve discovered and explored more options in southern Ontario. If you prefer to grow from seed yourself, a few places are offering native plant seeds for your region. The first place I bought seed from was Wildflower Farm. Resources such as the North American Native Plant Society can be useful to develop ideas. For those who prefer to buy seedlings or more mature plants many of the garden centers in the Toronto area, like Fiesta Gardens and Sheridan Nurseries, have a section on native plants highlighting their benefits and the circumstances under which they’ll thrive.
My favorite resource is Ontario Native Plants. I get to do all my research and ordering from the comfort of my computer. They provide a platform that allows me to choose plants by type, then favourite ones by soil type, moisture levels, and the amount of direct sunlight they need per day. They give details on the height of mature plants to aim for better tiering, and also provide great information about the pollinators that thrive on certain plants and how they support bird species of the region. Similarly, they offer insight about a plant’s suitability to stabilize slopes, manage droughts, or grow well in a rocky outcrop. Finally, they ship their plants out as seedlings, carefully packed in boxes (see pics below), which means I don’t need to rent a vehicle to make purchases. Each of the last three years I’ve placed an order early in the spring that ships out in May.
These strategies have turned a small front yard into a completely new space. When we first arrived there were only a few struggling plants. After each rain, with a steep grade drop, the sidewalk would be littered with mulch, dirt, and other organic materials. To slow the runoff I created three small levels of terracing; two were stabilized using rocks found on the property, the third resulted by removing soil to just a couple of inches below the grade of the sidewalk (see pics below). This eliminated the debris filled runoff and allowed for greater rainwater retention.
Planting began with a handful of wild strawberries along with cedar mulch, again, for initial ground cover and to reduce evaporation. Next, for a visual border with the neighbour, taller grass, big bluestem, was planted. They are known for deep roots that not only store carbon in the soil but also help them manage through periods of low rain. Then, milkweed and butterfly weed, as well as prairie smoke, were planted to stage down the height of the plants toward the lower lying area. Nearer the house I planted New Jersey tea, known for fixing nitrogen into the soil, which should grow to form a hedge in the years to come. I also added a few other flowering plants for interest: cardinal flowers, wild columbine, along with another grass species, little bluestem. All of these have arrived by courier, carefully packed by the staff on Ontario Native Plants (see pics below).
Flourishing:
Our backyard has been a longer conversation. First, as with many Toronto properties, I discovered the soil was littered with bricks and concrete left over from past renovations, neatly tucked away or partially buried. Within that debris, however, a large number of paving stones were recovered that’ll be great to reuse. Now that a lot of soil remediation has been done, I’m in conversations with RAINScapeTO, consultants and contractors specializing in these projects, to finalize the details and schedule its completion.
The history of the lawn in North America, and how it has reached ubiquity, is very interesting. The consequences of the lawn industries are surprisingly significant. Typically, we pay to install an irrigation system and for water consumed, we pay for cultivar species and for the regular fertilizers and herbicides to control them. We focus on manicured grass that requires machines and fuel for regular cutting, mulching, sacking or blowing. Finally, at the end of the growing season, we remove all the organic materials (leaves, twigs, and cuttings) leaving a near sterile environment for the dormancy of winter. This feeds industries whose products contaminate the environment in multitudes of ways, from algae due to nitrogen in our lakes to two-cycle leaf blowers - more polluting than gas-powered pick-up trucks!
The alternative is to use native plants, well supported by the local environment, and plan the space to make the best of the rains. Simply choosing plants that are most amenable to the type of soil, level of moisture, and the lighting conditions changes the narrative. They will need some attention for a few seasons, but within a few years there will be a flourishing garden with little input and very little maintenance that will help support all the pollinators of your community. As the climate shifts, some of the plants will struggle, but changing to ones that are better suited is relatively easy.
How we spend our dollars, our time, and our energy on designing, planning, and maintaining a property are ultimately reflections of our values and our identity. If you invest into regenerative aspects of your property then a regenerative ecosystem will be the return. Invest in an abiotic, synthetically derived, emissions contributing system, and that will be the ongoing outcome.
I seek out and support industries that are regenerative, use them to lower my footprint, and I advocate for them. Strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon can have positive cascading effects on other environmental issues, as is exemplified in landscaping.