BC Native Pollinator + Bird Sanctuary Garden @ UBC

Sustainable Gardens! Yes please!

You may already know that the best gardens for sustaining the health and vitality of our region and regional species is a native garden. What's a native garden? Well, it's a garden that uses plants, including trees and shrubs, that were here long before European settlers came and brought exotic species with them. Why do we care? Because our native birds, bees, butterflies and other critters have been raised on and evolved to be fed by these native plant species. Recently we have had declining populations in our native wildlife, partly due to lack of their primary food source: native plants.

So I am happy to share with you that I have had the privilege of designing a pollinator garden with 90% native species for a UBC renovation project. Our design was selected as one of the top 4 to be presented to UBC. Check it out here.

I include a list of plants varieties that you can incorporate in your gardens this spring! You will also see their bloom times and which species they feed.

Tree Hugger Or Not, You Care About The Environment, In A Big Way!

If you are anything like most people, and most of you are, you are concerned about the environment in a big way. And you want to do something about it!

You want to contribute, get involved or even build an intervention on your property. But with all the scary news coming at you about drought this and flood that, you are likely overwhelmed and feel that you are too small a fry to make a difference in any way.

You probably also think that something like this should be left to the professionals to figure out and deal with because it's a city issue and what is one homeowner to do? 

Well, the reality is that you are in fact the only one who can make the difference. It isn't as scary as you might think. And the truth is that without you, us professionals, can't make the difference that's needed. 

In our region, the Pacific North West region in Vancouver, the biggest way we can contribute to the environment is to understand rain, it's travel path and it's purpose. 

You see the truth is, that in Vancouver’s current housing construction model, homes are being built with rain water leaders that guide rain into perimeter drains that pass through sumps and into the city’s storm water infrastructure which then streams directly into our ocean.

In today’s housing model, in a time when none of us can afford to waste a single rain drop, rain water has become a waste product with a built in disposal system and you are paying top dollar to dump it.

This DRainscapes video is the perfect little video to watch that clarifies not only the current rain water model for our homes, but also all the ways you can contribute to minimizing the detrimental impact and increase your property value, make it more beautiful and contribute to the social culture of your community. This video is lead by one of my favourite people of all time, Daniel Roehr and the Green Skins Lab at UBC. 

Any Landscape Designer worth their two cents would be happy to work with you and show you how to implement your water management contributions because you and us we are all up to the same thing, we all want our environment to thrive!

DRainscapes, Daniel Roehr + Greenskins Lab, UBC

2017

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

It is our commitment to start an educational monthly blog post to provide you with inspiration, knowledge and tools to apply to your garden.

We will be offering design templates and videos to guide you on your garden transformation.

We are open to discussing any topics you want to know about. We are here to serve you and your needs.