Want a free pollinator garden? Blooming Boulevards is now accepting
applications for free boulevard (and right of way) wildflower pollinator gardens
for spring 2022. Mississauga residents are eligible to receive up to 50 lowmaintenance
plants native to the Credit Watershed area. These beautiful,
easy care wildflowers withstand salt and drought and will provide pollinators
with food and shelter throughout the year.
All services – consultation, design, ongoing advice, plants and delivery,
regular monitoring of the garden during the first and second years – are
free.
The gardens have great advantages over grass:
• Easy care: Typically hot, dry, compacted, polluted, windy site
conditions are inhospitable to turfgrass, whereas deep-rooted native
prairie and dry meadow species tolerate and even thrive in these site
conditions. Piles of gritty salty snow? There’s are plants for that! The
trick is to match plants to the site.
• Helps pollinators, controls runoff: Our boulevard gardens help to
conserve our native bees and other pollinators by increasing habitat.
Deep-rooted plants the soil and help control runoff.
• Personal: Homeowners, neighbours and passersby experience the
garden and its inhabitants as part of their daily lives. No special visit to
a park is needed – the garden is at the end of the driveway and is
encountered daily. The immediacy of “up close and personal” gardens
mean that the garden can be enjoyed intimately as it evolves over
time.
• Rewarding, healthy and fun: Gardening on the boulevard is
rewarding, healthy and invites friendly interaction with neighbours.
Plus, beautiful boulevard gardens make walking and biking in your
neighbourhood a pleasure.
Applications and information can be found at Blooming Boulevards: http://
www.bloomingboulevards.org/get-a-garden. If you have questions, you are
welcome to email Blooming Boulevards at info@bloomingboulevards.org.
The deadline for applications is May 1, 2022 or after the 100-garden
maximum has been reached – whichever comes first. It’s best to apply early
to make sure your garden is reserved.
