I went to a therapy session right after our most recent Butterflyway planting, still wearing my giant monarch wings and Butterflyway Ranger t-shirt, excited to gush to my therapist about the morning I had spent with some of my Pollinate Aylmer peeps and two classes of kindergarten kids building little pollinator habitats at a local … Continue reading The very personal downward spiral of crumpled butterfly wings
I've been quiet. It's a great feeling, because we've been so busy outside this first spring in our new place, with so many ideas and discoveries and projects, and dirty hands with mud-crusted nails, and if you know me you know that means I am happy. We finally got around to starting one project both … Continue reading A purpose-built (future) rain garden
As our little Facebook group Pollinate / Pollinisez Aylmer prepares to begin planting Butterflyway gardens across Aylmer next week (watch this space), I am so moved and humbled by how we have begun coming together, and what this little group of perfect strangers 6 weeks ago have begun putting in motion. Swamp Milkweed seedlings at … Continue reading Gratitude Post
The quick pollinator shade garden I made last week is doing great. I think I may have cooked some of the really early spring bloomers by waiting so late to plant them, but they are rebounding and will come back next year. Today I checked on them and found a couple of patches of Virginia … Continue reading A groomed garden bed approach to killing my lawn to build pollinator habitat
So I did a thing today. It was a pretty big thing as it was the first time I've planted anything in our new place. As you may recall, or maybe you have no idea and that's okay too, we moved late last fall, and I brought divisions of a lot of my plants with … Continue reading Native shade garden in a day
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 🥰). Some winter experiments heading to the greenhouse We got a lot of messages of interest, and … Continue reading What happened to the nursery?
Every plant we sell is grown locally, from seed, by us, on our own property, here in Aylmer. Most of our seeds are ethically harvested from our own extensive gardens, in Aylmer, or from our cottage in Blue Sea. These are the plants we can claim are truly 100% Localeaf. A patch of what was … Continue reading How Local is Localeaf?
Getting away from my personal life and back to the purpose of this blog, here's an update on our activities and where we are at coming to the end of this short month, and preparing for spring. I don't want to sugar coat anything or pretend we have things figured out because we are soooo far from that, but bit by bit it feels like we are starting to figure out some things. The kids have been amazing through it all.
Why Localeaf? I have a few reasons. Not one of them is extensive horticultural experience or credentials, because really, honestly, I have none. Everything I know about plants and gardening I taught myself, mostly through trial and (a lot) of error. Winter experiments growing rooting plants in fish water I have been growing plants and … Continue reading Why am I doing this? Some TMI and personal shit resulting in a micro-nursery
I've been winter sowing seeds successfully for sever years, and racking up mistakes, learnings and tips from my experiences, as well as those of many others who started winter sowing before me, so by now I'm pretty comfortable with the practice. I found it overwhelming when I started, so I began small, with just a … Continue reading Winter Sowing for Beginners: Easy Steps to Get Started
LocaLeaf 