Gardening in step with nature

In a recent worship service at Trinity Anglican in Ottawa, Bishop Shane Parker in his homily highlighted the promises Anglicans make within the Baptismal Covenant. After making commitments to serve God and our neighbours, Anglicans are also asked “to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the earth.”  Climate justice matters. And, luckily, gardening with plants that are indigenous to our region may be one way to respond to this baptismal promise.

I can’t think of a better way to be reassured of God’s generative goodness but to walk through a northern forest filled with spring flowers just as the leaves pop out. Across the Ottawa Valley, native plants demonstrate God’s goodness as our forest floors show off yellow trout lilies, mixed with tender violet hepaticas, and, a bit later, hundreds of trilliums. How many seasons does it take for a colony of white bunchberries to slowly spread along a nature trail? As the Creator declared long ago, “It is good.”

Although I’ve searched for Canadian wildflowers in their habitats for years, more recently, I’ve also started growing these plants in my own garden. Many Canadian gardeners are becoming more serious about cultivating plants that are indigenous to the region where they live. Local Anglican parishes such as Church of the Ascension in Ottawa are already actively planting these native gardens. (A local environmental organization maintains an interactive map of native plant gardens, and it includes churches across the region https://wildpollinators-pollinisateurssauvages.ca/pollinator-gardens/). Biologist generally use the terms “native” and “non-native” where non-native species have been introduced to Canada after European contact with Indigenous peoples.

Why does it make sense to grow native species in a Canadian garden? First and foremost, these plants belong here. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love planting annuals like orange marigolds. Probably, I will sneak some into my garden every year until my last breath. However, if our Creator had wanted marigolds to survive -20 C winter weather, I’m pretty sure They could have made that happen! As it is, marigolds die in autumn in Ottawa. Instead, we have been given butterfly weed. It’s a family member of the more familiar common milkweed and has survived harsh Canadian winters since time immemorial. Its complex flowers grow in bright orange clusters, which begs the question: “If we can splash bright orange throughout our gardens by planting butterfly weed, why not walk in step with what the Creator intends to grow right here in the first place?”

Karen McClure is a parishioner at St. Bartholomew Anglican, a master gardener in training, and a member of the congregation’s newly minted environmental committee. She says that native plants support local eco-systems, attract wildlife and enhance biodiversity.

“It’s a way that we as Christians can care for the earth,” she says. “It is a way to make a difference in one’s own backyard.” St. Bart’s has already planted serviceberry bushes in the church gardens and hopes to add more native plants this coming season.

Plants and its pollinators “grow up together” in an evolutionary sense over very long periods of time.

Biodiversity is threated by habitat loss, climate change and other factors. This in turn threatens the survival of pollinators such as butterflies and bees. These creatures are absolutely essential to the future of plants, and by extension, our own future as human beings.

Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Home Nature: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, defines a plant to be indigenous to a region when it “has evolved in a particular place long enough to be able to establish the specialized relationships that are nature.” He adds, “Most of the relationships between plants and animals are highly specialized, and they take a long time to develop.” When plants are moved around the world, like marigolds planted in Canada during summer, these special relationships are broken down.

“Local insects typically can’t eat these [non-native] plants and all the things that depend on those insects disappear as well, because there’s nothing generating those insects,” explains Tallamy. Thus, biodiversity is at risk.

Native plants can meet almost all of a gardener’s wishes. There are low plants (prairie smoke) and tall plants (Joe Pye weed). Gardeners with shady lots can try a shade-loving plant such as zig zag golden rod. And, pearly everlasting will bloom almost the entire season. New England asters, flat-topped asters and certain varieties of golden rods provide colour well into fall without spreading too aggressively.

So, for me, here’s the good news. First, anybody with a little garden, or even a flower box on a balcony, can support biodiversity and our planet by planting some native species.

It’s probably one of the easiest steps a gardener can take to truthfully answer to the baptismal vow, “I will, with God’s help.” Why not help fight climate change by doing what you already love to do? Plant some species that belong where you live. Churches can plant these native plants in flower borders and tell their neighbours that biodiversity matters!

Second, native plants can help us better understand God’s absolute delight in creating all of our world. His love for creation extends to even the coldest, darkest parts of our planet. He gave us butterfly weed and zig zag goldenrod! Nothing seems to speak louder than spring flowers in our northern climate: Joy will find a way. The Light will overcome darkness.

A note about Latin names

In her little book The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, author Robin Wall Kimmerer mentions that the serviceberry, known by the Latin name Amelancier alnifolium, has many other common names, including saskatoon, juneberry, shadbush, shadblow, sugarplum and sarvis. She adds, “Ethnobotanists know that the more names a plant has, the greater its cultural importance.” However, scientists use agreed-upon Latin names to ensure everybody studying plants is, in fact, referring to the same species. If shopping for native species be aware of plants that include pretty sounding names in brackets. For example, a species sold as Amelanchier Canadensis ‘Rainbow Pillar’ is a so-called nativar. It is derived from the native Serviceberry, but has been bred for a specific trait, such as height or other considerations. True native species never have a name that includes marketing idiom.

The Latin names of native species noted in this article in order of appearance:

Trout Lilies (Erythronium americanum), Hepatica (Anemone Americana), Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), Bunchberries (Cornus canadensis), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum), Purple Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum), Zig Zag Golden Rod (Solidago flexicaulis), Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), Flat-topped Aster (Doellingeria umbellate).

Resources

Johnson, Lorraine, and Colla, Sheila. A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition. Douglas & McIntyre, 2022

Need some inspiration?

Plan a visit to Ascension Anglican Church on 253 Echo Drive in Ottawa. Their grounds demonstrate how native plants can create vibrant gardens. Many of the plants are identified with signs noting their common and scientific names.

Where to obtain native plants around Ottawa?

Many local gardening centres will carry some native species. The non-profit Fletcher Wildlife Garden https://ofnc.ca/programs/fletcher-wildlife-garden near The Central Experimental Farm organizes an annual native plant sale in spring. Plants can also be bought at some local farmers’ markets and ordered online from A Cultivated Art https://www.acultivatedart.com/native-plant-store

Nandy Heule is a visual artist who enjoys gardening with native plants. She lives in Ottawa where she was recently received into the fellowship of the Anglican Communion at a moving ceremony presided over by Bishop Shane Parker.