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Native Plant Nursery: Dropseed Native Plant Nursery
Posted on by ridgetownrick
Owner/Proprietor: Riley Grund + Bailey Austin-Macmillan
Address: 1099 Old Milford rd, Picton ON. k0k2t0
Web Site: www.Dropseed.ca
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Dropseed.pec/
Other Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/dropseed.pec/
Every spring I like to do a road trip to pick up the plants I ordered through the winter. Sometimes these trips turn into a 2-day adventure because that rare, hard-to-find plant is only available at a nursery that is many hours’ drive away.
This year, though, I am planning a road trip to check out some new-to-me native plant nurseries, and one of those is Dropseed Native Plant Nursery near Picton, Ontario, in Prince Edward County. (PEC just happens to be in the top 5 of my favourite destinations in Ontario – so I’m really looking forward to going back.) Native Plant Nursery: Natural Themes Native Plant Nursery
PLANT OF THE MONTH: Evening Primrose
Posted on by ridgetownrick
Scientific Name: Oenothera biennis
I have never planted Evening Primrose in my gardens, yet they show up faithfully every year. In fact, this was the first native species to make an appearance before I even got into growing native plants. That’s because the seeds remain viable in the soil for many years, waiting for a disturbance, and when I dug a small patch of earth to plant vegetables shortly after moving into my house, Evening Primrose popped up with their lovely lemony yellow flowers.
Evening Primrose has a very deep taproot, and being short-lived (a biennial), the decaying root helps to aerate and take nutrients deep into the soil profile. The only potential downside to them is that they are a favourite of Japanese Beetles. However, I use that to my advantage because the Evening Primrose brings the beetles to a single eye-level location where they’re easily picked off into a bucket of soapy water. Woodland Anemone
ARTICLE: Of Curves and Optical Illusions
Posted on by ridgetownrick
A few weeks ago I posted on social media that I was going to slow down in the number of articles I posted to my website. This was due to some ongoing health problems and because my schedule has become increasingly busy with talks, book signings and trying to work on Volume 2 of the Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region. There just don’t seem to be enough hours in a day to get it ALL done. I was blown away by the level of support I received over my decision – your kindness has been extremely gratifying – even though it’s made my decision to cut back a tad more difficult.
I asked what it was you’d like to see me continue with, since I could no longer do everything, and one of the suggestions a long-time friend made was that I should write an article about (to paraphrase her) “how I designed my gardens to make them look so nice”. This is an attempt to answer that.
BOOK REVIEW
Book Review 14: Raising Butterflies and Moths in the Garden
Posted on by ridgetownrick
By Brenda Dziedzic
- Publisher: Firefly Books, Second Edition, 2023
- Paperback: 400 pages
- ISBN-10: 0228104203
- Dimensions: 6” X 9”
- Price: $23.44 (Amazon.ca – currently a 22% discount); $22.46 (Amazon.com – currently a 25% discount)
Another great publication from Firefly Books. After publishing my own book with Firefly, I am much more keenly aware of what it takes to put a book like this together, and Brenda Dziedzic and Firefly Books have done a great job with Raising Butterflies and Moths in the Garden.
This book is pretty much 400 pages of beautiful photos of butterflies and moths, their caterpillars, eggs and the plants they feed on. And every butterfly/moth page has a clear North American range map for the species.
Other Random Stuff
Check out the December Jigsaw Puzzle!
