Most of people raised in a western culture have heard of being blinded by love. Others may have actually experienced it themselves. However, not many are familiar with another, very common, form perceptual impairment called plant blindness.
Building Relationships: In good company
You will probably have seen the 3 videos that are now out about urban watershed management and health. They are available on our You Tube channel. Now in the works are 3 videos on urban themes - again, from a scientific viewpoint, one for the kids and one for the public. Thanks to the Potato Growers of Alberta for their collaboration and support of our Film Project ... and this write-up!
It's Your Turn to be SUPERMAN...WOMAN...CHILD ...
(Editor's Note: We are being invaded by a noxious species. It looks sweet and innocent, but Oh-HO!!! what a nasty beast! Major environmental deterioration, loss of beef production, damage to crops. Individual plants can produce over 150,000 seeds PER SQURE METRE. It has an immensely long taproot and sucks the area dry. Literally. You can help. Please bring along your family July 16th from 7-9pm and FIGHT THE INVASIVES!!!)
Here's what Knapweed looks like. It's disguised as pretty. It's effects are devastating.
Its that time again..... the third knapweed pull of the 2015 season is coming up fast!!
I am very excited about this weed pull because it is the site of our most successful weed pull so far. In 2013, we had our first City of Lethbridge weed pull at Elizabeth Hall Wetlands and it was a HUGE SUCCESS.
We pulled out over 50 bags of knapweed and had a super fun time doing it!
Here's where to meet :-)
July 16 2015 Knapweed Pull
Help keep our river valley healthy and diverse by pulling prohibited noxious weeds in the hopes of eradication. Save the Date: Thursday July 16th 7-9pm
Elizabeth Hall Wetlands
Next: Thursday August 20th 7-9pm Location TBA
Next: Thursday September 17th7-9pm Location TBA
Why is Elizabeth Hall Wetland is such a special place - hidden away in the center of the city?
- Elizabeth wetlands was part of the Urban Parks project and was originally called the Oxbow Lake Nature area. 1987 the area was renamed the Elizabeth Hall Wetlands
- Elizabeth Hall was born in England and came to Canada with her family in 1958. She was a Lethbridge City Council member from 1977 to 1986 and during that time she worked tirelessly to ensure the river valley maintained its natural environment during park development. She is also credited with developing the Helen Schuler Coulee Centre, now the Helen Schuler Nature Centre
- Red-winged Black Birds, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Orioles, several varieties of ducks, geese, muskrats, sandpiper, beavers and their dams, spotted turtles, and deer are some of the wildlife you can watch as you weed pull!
Here are some reason I am so passionate about these weed pulls:
Our goal is to work on invasive plant education and awareness. Through this process we can prevent the further introduction and spread of invasive species, and in this case specifically knapweed.
We have chosen to focus specifically on Knapweed control in the Oldman River valley because it is a highly competitive introduced plant that invades native vegetation and threatens the health of our watershed. If left unchecked, the loss to farmers, ranchers and recreational users could be disastrous. It is a prohibited noxious weed in Alberta.
We have chosen a multifaceted approach incorporating the physical efforts of hand pulling, through events like this, and direct herbicide application. The combination of mechanical and chemical methods has been shown to be a great success in the past.
We love our volunteers!
See you all July 16th at Elizabeth Hall Wetlands!!!
Garden Days kicks off on Friday!
(Editor's note: After being inspired at the Garden Days events you'll want to get started on your own yard and OWC can help! We've got the 50 best plants for Southern Alberta, tips on xeriscaping, a photo library of inspiring local gardens and more practical resources on the Prairie Urban Garden Project Page).
What have you got planned for Garden Days? You won't want to miss these events!
A fantastic lineup of activities is set to kick off Garden Days in Alberta and across Canada, this Friday, June 19. In an annual coast-to-coast celebration that always takes place on the Father's Day weekend, Garden Days celebrates Canadian gardens, gardening and environmental stewardship. It's also about bringing awareness to what you do, within and for, your own community.
Across Alberta, public gardens and groups are celebrating Garden Days with three days of fun activities for all ages in beautiful outdoor spaces. Find out more about what's happening in your area, and check dates and times on the "Activities" schedule at <www.gardendays.ca>
Provincial Flagship Event:
Alberta's Devonian Botanic Garden (5 km north of Devon, on Hwy 60) launched our provincial flagship event in 2014. This year, their Garden Days program opens Friday with discounted daily admission and an evening opera, followed by a weekend that offers a photographer's drop-in morning, a family program of insects and butterflies, sunrise yoga, garden tours and Father's Day BBQ.
Lethbridge:
- Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden is hosting an appreciation day for gardeners with reduced admission, cake and guided garden tours.
- The Galt Museum will serve you complimentary coffee as you browse their native plant garden, south garden and nurses' garden.
- Learn all about trees from an arborist in the guided tour of Fairfield Gardens at the Lethbridge Research Centre.
- Bring your own picnic lunch and find out what's growing at the Interfaith Food Bank's learning garden.
- Join the Lethbridge & District Horticultural Society on their Waterton National Park excursion to admire Alberta wildflowers and to consider their cultivation potential for city gardens.
Waterton Lakes National Park:
- Choose from many botanical-themed activities during the Waterton Wildflower Festival that coincides with Garden Days.
Calgary:
- Take a guided native plant tour of trees, shrubs and flowers in the Canadian Wilds at the Calgary Zoo.
Red Deer:
- Parkland Garden Centre celebrates the home garden with family activities that include food vendors, "Ask the Experts", a course on BBQing with herbs and garden tours.
Olds:
- Olds College Botanic Gardens celebrates its 50th anniversary with garden tours, demos, a plant sale and the launch of a new garden database for staff and visitors.
St. Albert:
- Visit St. Albert Botanic Park for gardening demonstrations, tours and seed planting for children
Edmonton:
- The Edmonton Native Plant Group is hosting two guided tours - one at John Janzen Nature Centre, where you can learn how to grow native wildflowers and pot one up to take home, and another at their native plant demonstration bed at Muttart Conservatory with a gift of free wildflower seeds for visitors.
- Inhale the fragrance of heritage peonies at Fort Edmonton Park and listen to heritage gardeners tell the story of this historic reproduction of a significant Western Canadian peony collection.
- Visit Muttart Conservatory for guided tours of indoor botanical collections in their pyramid glasshouses, as well as orchid talks and a kid's plant discovery corner.
Enjoy the Garden Days celebrations!
June Flanagan
Alberta Spokesperson for Garden Days
June Flanagan is a Lethbridge botanist, environmental horticulturist and author. She has published five regional books, including the local plant guide Common Coulee Plants of Southern Alberta and gardening guides Edible Plants for Prairie Gardens and Native Plants for Prairie Gardens. See June's web site for details, and follow what's in bloom with her on Instagram or "like" her Facebook Author Page:
www.juneflanagan.ca
facebook.com/pages/June-Flanagan/616537095101785
www.instagram.com/juneflanagan
Nature's burstin' out all over!
(Editor's Note: Are you one of the many people who are itching for green in your garden and thinking about what to plant? There are many ideas out there for great gardens, beautiful flower beds - and watching for nature's spring plants. The Oldman recently disovered a nice selection of prairie plant seeds at the Galt museum - and here, thanks to botanist June Flanagan, some tips on what to look for on your spring walks. Remember to plant something for the butterflies - and enjoy!)
You're in for a treat if you head out wildflower hunting in the Oldman River Watershed this week, as warm weather is coaxing buds to break earlier and faster than usual.
Prairie crocus enthusiasts will still find fuzzy flower buds (Anemone patens) emerging from cool, damp areas on north-facing hillsides. And for gardeners, the arrival of golden beans (Thermopsis rhombifolia) is a reminder that temperatures are now perfect for sowing lettuce seeds. 
Keep your eyes close to the soil for cushion plants like plains milk-vetch (Astragalus gilviflorus) bearing white pea-shaped flowers tucked between soft silver leaves, or the very tiny tufted milk-vetch (Astragalus spatulatus) with lavender blossoms.
It's likely you'll see moss phlox (Phlox hoodii) plants pressed against dry ridges and south-facing slopes, smothered with white star-shaped flowers that resemble patches of receding snow, and you may spot the small white daisies of prairie townsendia (Townsendia hookeri) scattered among grassy flats.
Some sunny beauties you might discover are yellow prairie violets (Viola nuttallii), and the flat floral umbrellas of leafy wild parsley (Musineon divaricatum). A few yellow bells (Fritillaria pudica) continue to echo the buzz pollination of bees, but many are already setting seed.
To help you identify what's blooming, University of Lethbridge Library continues to host a free download of our local guide to native prairie plants called "Common Coulee Plants of Southern Alberta". The updated edition with photographs and searchable links by flower colour travels easily on your smartphone or tablet. Get your free copy in EPUB or PDF format at <https://www.uleth.ca/dspace/handle/10133/3376> or find more information on my web site.
Enjoy spring!
June
June Flanagan is a Lethbridge botanist, environmental horticulturist and author. She has published five regional books, including the local plant guide Common Coulee Plants of Southern Alberta and gardening guides Edible Plants for Prairie Gardens and Native Plants for Prairie Gardens. See June's web site for details, and follow what's in bloom with her on Instagram or "like" her Facebook Author Page:
The Beauty of Permaculture Blog
(Editor's Note: I bet a lot of people are planning some garden clean-up this weekend. What better time to think about how you can set up your yard to make best use of both soil and water? There is an event TONIGHT!
One of the greatest challenges we face at OWC is communicating to folks that what happens on the land makes or breaks water quality for fish, flora, fauna and folks downstream. These days, we are hearing more and more about permaculture. Thanks to Cristiana for the guest blog posting! Enjoy your weekend read!)
Vibrant Life Eco-Solutions is a local small business that focuses on Permaculture Design, Education, and Soil Enhancement. It strives to both protect nature and enrich the areas of it that we live in to sustainably support humanity.
So many of us enjoy nature. We strive to protect it and in turn take time to bask in the beauty and vitality of Mother Nature. Nature is full of webs of interaction. The study of the interactions of living creatures, vegetation, and their surroundings is Ecology. Healthy Ecosystems are the key to sustaining human civilization as nature provides for all of our needs – food, water, shelter, and warmth.
It is widely observed that when a civilization has crumbled in the past, the condition of their land had been vastly degraded by the agricultural practices used to sustain the people. To take a simplified look - unhealthy nature leads to unrest among the people who faced famine, starvation, and natural disasters. War and disease tend to follow, completing the decimation of the once great civilization.
As the wise Masanobu Fukuoka once said:
"If we throw Mother Nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork."
Out of this understanding, 'Permaculture', the word and the science, was born. It is a fusing of the words "permanent" and "agriculture." Its purpose is to show how to create a Permanent Culture or civilization that lives in harmony with nature, instead of trying to subdue it.
The design science behind Permaculture is essentially Ecology. However, let us insert ourselves and our needs into the picture with Nature. We are no longer the ecologist who, by definition, observes the system from the outside. We are part of it! First, we observe how carelessly taking what we need can impact the system negatively. Then we consider how we can enhance the system and out of the bountiful production of nature, receive what we need to live.
Food production is a huge part of Permaculture, and it is an integral part of our existence. So, let's talk about how we can grow our food sustainably and enhance Nature while we're at it.
Observing Nature in the area you wish to cultivate is very important. We need to find out about the types of plants that grow well, the wildlife that we need to co-exist with, the types of weather and weather cycles that are common, where the water comes from and where it goes, and if there are any harsh factors such as intense sun or prevailing winds that need to be taken into consideration. A common saying is, "100 hours of observation; one hour of work." Every possible aspect has to be carefully considered before starting to alter the natural system.
But don't be discouraged! After the area is very familiar, the design process begins.
The first and most important step is mapping water. Water, where it is, and how we can passively move it through the landscape to nurture our crops and animals is what the whole system is built upon. Roofs are great surfaces to catch water and are largely under-utilized. Thousands of litres per year can be captured, and then the rainwater can be directed into storage or channelled directly to areas that need irrigation.
Areas of the land that are eroding, flooding, or are established waterways need to be identified. There are many methods that can be used to naturally solve erosion and flooding issues, and passively irrigate areas that need moisture throughout the growing season. Once the water management plan is in place, your garden, orchard, and meadow areas should be simple to take care of due to the water being distributed naturally throughout your property without sprinklers or pumps.
Rainwater Capture, Filtration, Storage, and Passive Irrigation System Designed and Built by APEX Permaculture Inc.
One of the biggest differences between Permaculture methods and Conventional methods is how the vegetation is arranged. In modern farming and gardening, straight rows and large areas of one type of plant are the normal planting format. However, this is contrary to Nature, which does not tend to plant in rows or have areas that contain just one species of plant. Diversity goes a long way to reducing pests and disease. Thus, the Permaculture way is to plant in Guilds.
A Guild is any group of plants that benefits one another. Companion planting figures into this concept but is not the summation of it. There are benefits to having different heights, different rooting styles, and plants with different purposes all growing together. A guild does not have to contain all of the aspects illustrated in the image below, but this is the ultimate Guild – The Forest Garden.
The Forest Garden is one of the finest expressions of enhancing nature so that humans can harvest food and wood for fuel and shelter. While this is the ideal way to plant, it may not always be practical. A kitchen garden with annual vegetables and herbs along with a separate area dedicated to fruit and trees with less diverse undergrowth can also be great ways to practice Permaculture style planting methods.
The most important keys in Permaculture planting are to encourage diversity, grow plants with multiple functions, make use of both vertical and horizontal space, and encourage pollinators and beneficial creatures to frequent the area.
Another big difference between Permaculture Methods and other gardening methods is to "chop and drop" instead of weeding. Contrary to popular belief, not all weeds are your enemy! They always perform some sort of function in the area they grow in. For example, dandelions grow in compacted soil that is low in Calcium. Their deep tap root both loosens the soil and brings minerals up to their leaves which crumble onto the ground at the end of the season, and become part of the topsoil.
"Chop and drop" is simply cutting the foliage at ground level, then dropping it around your plants. By chopping the weed foliage before it seeds out you prevent an infestation, but you also allow the weed to perform its function in the system. In this way you also increase the organic matter of the soil and add to the mulch layer that protects and nurtures the microorganisms that make the soil nutrients plant-soluble. So, not only is "chop and drop" less labour intensive, there are multiple "wins" when you handle your weeds in this manner.
You can also do this to plants that are growing too large or you can intentionally grow plants that will be "chopped and dropped" such as comfrey. Comfrey is a bio-accumulator, which means that it grows deep roots and brings all the amazing minerals that are deep in the soil up to its leaves. Then when you "chop and drop" the comfrey, you create a nutrient dense mulch for your other plants.
There are numerous methods used in Permaculture that are based in science and common sense. The way that these methods are tied together into a self-sustaining system is what sets them apart and earns them the title of Permaculture. Permaculture strives to create a web or closed system based on the example that Nature sets for us. There is no waste in a properly designed ecosystem - there are only inputs and outputs.
A very simple example system is growing a garden. You need to enrich your soil with compost or worm castings. You harvest food and along with it, some excess plant matter. The excess goes into your compost or worm bin.
Repeat. Let's say you have an infestation of slugs because your soil is moist and has a lot of organic matter in it from handling your water efficiently, chopping and dropping, and building up the protective organic mulch layer. Well, one option is to get a pet duck. The duck gives you eggs and eventually meat and it eats the pests in the garden and creates manure and nutrient rich water which can be used to fertilize the garden. The Permaculturist creates an interactive web, just like Nature, to solve issues and to create an efficient, vibrant, bountiful, and healthy system.
This is the beauty of permaculture. It is the beauty of nature and the pursuit of a vibrant life.
If you would like to learn more about Vibrant Life Eco-Solutions you may visit our website, here, or our Facebook Page, here. Any inquiries can be emailed to: c.hill@VLESolutions.ca
Check out our Events, Products, and Services and learn more about Permaculture and Vibrant Life Eco-Solutions. We will be happy to help enhance the Nature that surrounds you.
We are hosting an evening talk: Water & Earth: Issues and Elegant Solutions, this Saturday, April 11th, 6 - 9:30PM, at the University of Lethbridge, that will reveal more about how Permaculturists manage water and correct or prevent issues from occurring with some really interesting landscaping techniques. All are welcome. Hope to see you there!![]()
Cristiana Hill
Vibrant Life Eco-Solutions
403.894.4887
