Resources

Looking for help on making a naturalized, sustainable garden? We recommend the following sites and organizations.

Don’t forget to check out the Monarch Awards garden scoring rubric. Each of these links opens in a new tab. View the rubric as a web page or as a PDF.

General Info

• Monarch Award Gardening-at-a-Glance (Infographics)
• In the Zone. Certify your garden with Carolinian Canada as they track and measure the growth of habitat in Ontario. Many great resources on this site: https://inthezonegardens.ca/#in-the-zone
• “Becoming an Ecological Gardener” article by Kim Eierman in Connecticut Gardener magazine. Readable and comprehensive.
• Hamilton Pollinator Paradise Project (the PPP toolkit is a top-notch resource) https://www.hamiltonpollinatorparadise.org/
• books to read:
  – “Bringing Nature Home” by Doug Tallamy http://www.bringingnaturehome.net
  – “A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee” by Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla
  – “The Gardeners Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region” Rick Gray and Sean Booth (link to Rick’s blog post about the book)
  – “Pollinators of Native Plants” Heather Holm
• Creating Pollinator Gardens: the Role of Plant Choice and Design with PSU’s Harland Patch. Video on YouTube.

Soil

• Invasive pheretimoid worms (“Jumping Worms” “Snake Worms”)
  – Plant sale best practices along with ID and control information: https://haltonmastergardeners.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/plant-sale-best-practices-stop-the-spread-of-jumping-worms.pdf
  – comprehensive article from Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/CAES/DOCUMENTS/Publications/Fact_Sheets/Entomology/Jumping-worms-in-Connecticut.pdf
  – article on reports of JWs in Ontario / Dundas https://haltonmastergardeners.com/2021/10/07/jumping-worms-are-here/
• Landscape for Life course (check the Royal Botanical Gardens for dates/times of courses): Soil https://landscapeforife.org/soil
• Soil Health ABCs — info on USDA site: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/education-and-teaching-materials/soil-health-abcs
• Soil, Carbon, and Microbes. A ‘lab’ format for students but very readable and comprehensive https://serc.carleton.edu/eslabs/carbon/5a.html

Water

• Water Use: Landscape for Life https://landscapeforlife.colostate.edu/water/
• City of Hamilton Info for Downspout Disconnection (opens pdf)
• How water moves through soil: https://youtu.be/Ph-7tQuIbz4

Plants

• Michael Oldham’s List of the Vascular Plants of Ontario’s Carolinian Zone (Ecoregion 7E)
• Learn about Ecosystems and native plants (Forest Gene Conservation Assoc. https://fgca.net/species-conservation/native-species-learn/
• Network of Nature database (formerly the Evergreen database) multiple filters and comprehensive information https://networkofnature.org/species/
• Native Plant list for garden planning (from April 17, 2018 seminar- Hamilton) https://monarchawardshamilton.org/native-plant-spreadsheet (needs updating but a good start)
• Pollination Guelph’s comprehensive resource pages: https://www.pollinationguelph.ca/resources
• North American Native Plant Society (NANPS) database: https://nanps.org/pc/native-plant-database/
• City of Guelph list of Native Plants and Drought-Tolerant Non-Native Plants https://guelph.ca/wp-content/uploads/droughtTolerant-NativePlants.pdf
• “Is It Native?” article on Halton Master Gardener site https://haltonmastergardeners.com/2021/05/07/is-it-native/
• Keystone plants for Eastern Temperate Forest ecoregion (Mixed Wood Plains ecozone is within this area) Good lists based on Doug Tallamy’s research. Check the recommended species again local lists (Oldham or Network of Nature) https://www.nwf.org/-/media/Documents/PDFs/Garden-for-Wildlife/Keystone-Plants/NWF-GFW-keystone-plant-list-ecoregion-8-eastern-temperate-forests.pdf
• Ontario Invasive Plant Council’s “Grow Me Instead” resources: https://www.ontarioinvasiveplants.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/GMI-Booklet_FINAL-FOR-WEB_May132016.pdf
• Credit Valley Conservation’s Priority List of invasive plants (more current than the list produced by the Society for Ecological Restoration, but essentially they’re the same) This is another must-read for Monarch Award applicants: https://files.cvc.ca/cvc/uploads/2021/06/InvasivePlantsList.pdf
• Winter Sowing Resources (on this site) https://monarchawardshamilton.org/winter-sowing-resources/

Materials and Hardscaping

• Landscape for Life: Materials
• Articles from the Ecological Landscape Alliance

Cultural Practices

• Pollinator Gardens (Seeds of Diversity)
• Resources list from Pollinator Partnership (links) Most US-based, but still useful.

Aesthetics

• 9 Principles Of Natural Garden Design (on “In Our Nature” web site)
• Garden Design Best Practices (The Ecology Center)
• Articles by Benjamin Vogt