Owner/Proprietor: Baz Conlin

Address: 1274 Lochlin Rd, Lochlin ON

Facebook Page: @haliburton_micromeadows

Instagram: @haliburton_micromeadows

Email: Haliburtonmm@gmaillcom

I have been following Baz Conlin on Facebook for quite a while. I was super impressed with the native gardens he created around his parents’ house in Peterborough, ON. He packed a ton of plants into a postage stamp sized yard on a busy street corner. It was pretty apparent that Baz knew what he was doing with native plants.

So I was really pleased when I saw that he opened his own native plant nursery, called Haliburton Micromeadows, this spring in Lochlin, ON. (I had to look up where Lochlin was – for those familiar with the Haliburton region, it’s just east of Minden, and about halfway between Bracebridge and Bancroft.)

Baz says “The name ‘Micromeadows’ refers to the size of most meadows in Haliburton, which are usually small openings in the forest that provide habitat for pollinators and create diversity in an otherwise homogeneous see of dark forest. These small, diverse meadows can easily be installed in the home landscape to create islands of diversity. We are also a small nursery and our space is limiited!”

As a brand-new operation, Haliburton Micromeadows started with about 50 species of native plants this spring and he is now up to about 80 species of perennials, grasses, and sedges and 12 species of trees and shrubs. He also has a few species of ferns available. Baz was quick to point out that he carries a large variety of grasses and sedges.

Haliburton Micromeadows only sells straight species, sourced from local populations, either from seeds Baz has collected locally, or from local seed and plant suppliers. The only exceptions are Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis) and Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), although he is also considering selling some cultivars of Switchgrass in the future to try and provide a suitable alternative to Miscanthus.

Haliburton Micromeadows is open mainly by appointment/ pre order. They try to have open nursery hours on Sundays during spring and fall from 10-4 PM. On non-nursery days, people can pre order or set up an appointment through email (haliburtonmm@gmail.com). Plant availability is shown on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557178436052).

At the nursery, Baz uses full colour labels that show the flower and ideally the form of the plant, cultural info, watering and soil needs, pH, and whether the plant was sourced/ occurs within 100km of Lochlin or is a southern species or if it is a near-native.

Baz is mostly self-taught when it comes to native plants, but he did study Conservation Biology at Trent University, and he worked at Grow Wild! Native Plant Nursery in Omemee for two summers. He also volunteered with the Nature Conservancy of Canada in the Rice Lake Plains for two years.

Haliburton Micromeadows has supplied plants for the Minden junior horticultural garden.

Baz informs me that, as a new nursery, he is looking to bring beautiful and sustainable plant choices to the Haliburton Highlands and surrounding area. He tries to source all of his plants from local sources within 100km of the nursery in Lochlin. His first season, he says, went great, and he’s hoping to continue to grow and provide more varieties, in particular spring ephemerals, ground covers, shade plants, and quick growing shrubs. Eventually he’s hoping to provide bulk flats of grasses and sedges for matrix gardening as well as emergent pond plants for backyard ponds and wetland restorations. I, for one, will be in the market for those pond plants when he’s got them.

With a background in conservation biology and ecological restoration, as well as entomology (amateur lepidopterist), much of Baz’s work goes towards providing insect habitat and stewarding the land.

If you’re going to be in the Haliburton area, do yourself a favour and check out Haliburton Micromeadows. I’m already planning my road trip for next spring.