Grow Wild YYC

08/11/2026

I’m happy to see a bit of moisture this week and so is the garden! In between the rains the bees have been busy and this bergamot has been buzzing! A great example of things behave differently in the garden than the wild, this plant came from a plant rescue where it would normally have grown a foot or max 2 feet high. This one is at least 3 1/2 feet! I’ve never seen a native one this high! It’s only just begun blooming too which bodes well for the second half of the summer and keeping pollinators including bees and hummingbirds happy 🐝🐝🐝

08/10/2026

This is what a little brown myotis call looks like! We have been seeing a bat or two around dusk doing us a favour and eating mosquitoes (and moths) but I didn’t know what species they were and obviously I needed to know so I bought a bat meter to detect their ultrasonic calls and translate that for me 😊. While standing outside recording I also heard our skunk friend rustling around and disturbing roosting birds. It’s not just daytime biodiversity that the forest provides for!

Little brown myotis were recently listed as endangered under the federal Species At Risk Act (SARA) primarily due to the threat of white nose syndrome. These bug eating powerhouses are also susceptible to urban hazards including outdoor cats and artificial lights. Where some bat species may be drawn to light to get moths, studies have shown little browns avoid the light, potentially missing out on a buffet or needing to forage further and expend more energy to get their calories. So now is not only the time to turn out the lights for migrating birds (nope not too soon unfortunately) but also for our bat friends! ❤️🦇

08/06/2026

Anyone else feeling a little frustrated with their gardens this year? Between the late spring followed by tons of rain, one terrible hailstorm and now hot, dry drought conditions, even native plants are feeling the stress. While some are looking worse for wear, there are still bright spots like this western white clematis. She’s a beast that never fails to grow and flower prolifically providing nectar for solitary bees, ants and even my favorite hummingbirds ❤️

07/30/2026

It’s raspberry time! DYK that Alberta is home to 6 native Rubus species? The most well known of course is Rubus ideaus because it grows well in a lot of conditions and produces lots of fruit! Growing from a spreading root system, the plants send up canes that are not fruit bearing in their first year followed by flowers and fruit the next year. The canes only produce berries for one year so keeping on top of cutting them down will save you some thorns….maybe (word to the wise, shorts, sandals and bare arms are not the right choice for picking raspberries). They spread prolifically and can take over an area quite easily so sometimes some tough choices have to be made about what stay and what goes. Or if you’re me you just let them all grow and then face consequences when trying to get the berries 😂. Speaking of berries, what we call a raspberry is actually a conglomerate of a whole bunch of little fruits called drupelets. Inside each of those fleshy little parts lies a seed safely tucked away waiting to be spread through the landscape.
The flowers are most commonly pollinated by bumble bees and mining bees but honey bees and hoverflies also pay them a visit. They have been far more successful this year than my Saskatoons so looks like everyone is getting raspberry jam again this year! ❤️

07/27/2026

If you google Polemonium acutiflorum you will be taken to a cultivar called heavenly scent. This is how you know it has been altered from its native form because I doubt anyone is describing our native one as heavenly scent! Polemoniums aka Jacob’s ladder has many native forms including tall Jacob’s ladder (acutiflorum) and showy Jacob’s ladder (pulcherrimum). All are beautiful additions to the yard and draw in pollinators but their scent may turn some people off. One species in particular is also known as skunkweed owing to its strong skunky smell. The first year I planted tall Jacob’s ladder next to the deck I spent most of the summer thinking we in fact had a skunk under the deck! Generally, strongly scented flowers are advertising to their desired pollinators with stinky ones being a fly calling card and more sweetly scented ones advertising to moths and butterflies. That doesn’t mean others don’t visit though! Bumble bees and solitary bees are often seen on Jacob’s ladder, particularly with showy being an early bloomer for them. Flowers can be blue or white and make an excellent addition to part shade/full shade gardens ❤️🦨

07/25/2026

Looking for an apt read for these smoky days? I highly recommend Fire Weather. Fantastic book 🔥

07/24/2026

Got powdery mildew? There’s a bug for that! The itty bitty twenty-spotted ladybug is at your service! Using scent cues to find powdery mildew, they have been suggested as a biological control for the fungus. You’ll have to look closely to find them but my golden flowering currant seems to be a hotspot 😊🐞

07/21/2026

It’s but do you think I’ve been seeing moths? Not until today! It helps that police car moths are diurnal making them much easier to find!

07/18/2026

I have been seeing a lot of posts in groups lately asking if something should be pulled with the assumption that if it is not native it should be gone. I am here to tell you no, not native does not automatically mean it shouldn’t be in your space! Is it a non native plant that has the potential to be invasive like creeping bellflower? Then by all means, yes remove as soon as you confirm it! Is it an introduced or cultivated plant that plays nice in the space, doesn’t take over and has value for wildlife like many penstemon plants? No need to remove it! Is it native to other parts of Canada or even North America and could potentially spread here given current climate and landscape conditions like this black eyed Susan? Also fair game.
At the end of the day here are my thoughts on native plant gardens: every native plant in your space adds value for biodiversity. What qualifies as native is a moving target at this point. Did it evolve with native relationships to wildlife that also evolved in North America but not necessarily right here? That’s still fair game in my books as long as it’s not outcompeting sensitive, more localized plants. We are experiencing a lot of changes that are allowing plants and animals to extend their native ranges and that may be a key advantage as climate related changes continue.
At the end of the day, this is also your space too. Does that double flowering rose that is useless for bees give you joy? Keep it. Not everything has to be native and high wildlife value. You also deserve to enjoy this space!

07/16/2026

Check out this awesome new butterfly guide from Nature Alberta! ❤️🦋

🦋We're excited to announce the release of our latest Nature Kids guidebook, all about butterflies!

🐛This handy guide, developed with the help of experts from the Alberta Lepidopterists Guild, will help readers learn more about these beautiful insects, including how to find and identify them.

👉Download it for free and begin your journey into discovering the beautiful world of butterflies at https://naturealberta.ca/nature-kids/