Alice and Rachel plant bulbs in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard’s pollinator garden

After two stewardship sessions this October we have completed the planting of our bulbs for this year. About 8 volunteers planted the 500 bubs which were generously donated by The Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation. We received 3 different types of daffodils (Fortune, Geranium and Hawera) and lots of Scilla siberica.

We were also blessed with a gift from the  Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The TCRA had some extra pollinator plants that they donated to our park which was perfect for us since we needed to fill some empty spaces in our pollinator garden. The perennials, which came from the native plant nursery Grow Wild,  included Black-Eyed Susans (Rhudbeckia), Foxglove Beardtongue (Penstemon digitalis), and Bee Balm (Monarda). Thank you to TRCA staffer Randi Shulman for thinking of us.

As for our hardy crew of volunteers, we all did a great job. Deserving special accolades is Alice, our youngest volunteer (pictured above with her mum Rachel) who learned to gently place the bulbs in the 8-inch deep holes that her mum, Rachel, dug. Alice joined our group way back in 2010 when she was just 10-months old as you can see in the picture below. It’s good to see her thumb is getting greener and greener. You’ve come a long way kid!

Alice helps her dad water trees in Ben Nobleman Park in 2010