What happened to the nursery?

Our little Aylmer village grew quite interested in our micro-nursery project, as Aylmer does in any new business endeavour that isn’t shawarma or pizza (except for Rose Pizza, because their pizza is in a world of its own 🥰).

We got a lot of messages of interest, and offers, and support, asking when we are opening, what our opening times will be, how we will operate, if we have or will have X and Z plant, etc.

We hadn’t quite worked out those details, but felt pretty confident we can wing things for the first little bit, and sort out those details as we went along, all while hoping people would grace us our hiccups the first year. The questions kept coming though, and we realized we really lacked a lot of answers, yes, but there were also more logistics involved in opening our nursery to the public than we had initially considered. Still, we were prepared to find ways to deal with that.

Then things started happening. We were busy, and I’m slow at writing so never did find time to stop and write a blog post, so instead we posted this sudden and unexpected message announcing we are delaying opening to the public until 2026.

So, what REALLY happened?

Some health slowdowns, sure, but also some priority adjustments and reminders, ongoing renovations and unexpected new home projects and then really just everything came to a head. I won’t focus on my health issues because I’ve already explained those and really this isn’t the purpose of this blog, but there was that, along with other stuff, and then the most exciting thing happened..

I grew wings!!!!

Literally…

I got this email to confirm it:

So just like that I became Aylmer’s very own Butterflyway Ranger with the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project. Eeeeekk!

I could gush all day about how exciting this initiative is, and what I hope it can do for our Aylmer community especially, but the project is well documented, and if you’re not familiar with it, you read all about it on the foundation website here:

https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/

So, what about the nursery?

I’ve done a lot of work in therapy to learn to accept my condition and limitations, and though it’s a forever process, I am learning to live and function within my constraints and capabilities, and I had to make a choice. I chose the butterflies.

The nursery can wait, and it will be there next spring, probably a lot more organized and thought through.

Having completed my initial Butterflyway Ranger training, I am still waiting for a package with my official Ranger t-shirt and garden signs, and a proper set of butterfly wings, but I have something far more useful.

I have an in with a certain  “almost” functional native plant nursery on pause, stocked full of hundreds of species of sprouting baby seedlings of QC / ON native plants. Most of these plants are grown from seeds saved from my own cultivated and foraged plants, and I can always save seeds again, and start many of these plants again next winter.

So that’s what’s happening here. We are pausing opening the nursery publicly until 2026.

We have found a couple of amazing organizations to donate our extra vegetable seedlings to, as we feel their mission best aligns with the reasons we started doing this in the first place. I am confident they will find all those  additional 34+ varieties of tomatoes good homes, and we will grow out what’s left.

We will donate a portion of the native plants we intended to sell this year to create new pollinator habitats through the Butterflyway Project, and let some of our other plants grow where they are, in our nursery space, until 2026.

What does this mean for you, dear reader?

We’ll operate the nursery this year in more of a gifting or exchange model.

If you see something in our lists of plants we are growing from seed that interests you, and you don’t think you can wait a year for it, reach out. Send us a message, we’ll try to help you out, if we’ve been successful in growing said plant, or help you find it elsewhere locally.

If you have things lying around you think an “almost nursery” and growing space can use, please reach out as well. We are forever looking for compost and recycled materials, nursery pots, and anything we can use in the garden. Our big wish items are a shade cloth, an old trampoline base or unused car shelter frame. We are also happy takers of old pool liners or black tarps so we can solarize some invasive patches.

Get Involved – Help me Pollinate Aylmer

I will work in my capacity as a Butterflyway Ranger this year to bridge and build connections within our community, and help Aylmer build some pollinator gardens in public spaces, while helping our community learn more about both the beauty and the environmental benefits of native plants, and the pollinators they attract. If you have read my blog though, you know my capacity to do much beyond grow plants to make this happen is quite limited.

My goal, as a ranger with the Butterflyway project, is to help our community build 12 new native pollinator-friendly green spaces. Those 12 spaces are considered a Butterflyway by the Foundation, and each gets their own sign, like this:

I can donate plants to make these gardens happen, but there are a lot of other things to do, I can’t do it alone. If you want to be a part of the Butterflyway Project here in Aylmer, from the beginning, join me and a small but steadily growing group of like-minded Aylmerites in making the first Aylmer Butterflyway a reality!

Any and all levels of knowledge and involvement are welcome. Join our new public Facebook Group “Pollinate Aylmer / Polliniser Aylmer (QC)” if you want to learn more and get involved:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1685895582014616/

#PollinateAylmer

We are just starting to plan a time for a first meeting, and get to know each other. I would love to see you there and meet you in person.

Need a Butterflyway? Or a ranger? Or 2, or more?

🦋 Do you have a community event coming up that you think a Butterflyway Ranger or Pollinate Aylmer would be a good fit for?

🦋 Do you have a public patch of greenspace and permission to plant it? Want to turn it into a pollinator habitat, but you don’t know how?

Reach out… I am hoping we can build a community network in Alymer with collective knowledge, passion and interest to #pollinateaylmer

What about this blog?

Localeaf will remain my personal project, our introduction to country life, your now “slowmo” glimpse of the making of our nursery, and my ambitious and slow-going personal project to undo the expanse of lawn we have inherited, rewild some of it, and use as much of it as possible to attract wildlife and grow food. Watch me do it. Slowly ☺️