Over the few months, a beautiful friendship has been cemented between Localeaf (our nursery), Pollinate Aylmer (our incredible group of local volunteers), and Partenaires du Secteur Aylmer (our mentors, enablers, and now partners in helping us bring back the butterflies, fireflies, pollinators and other wildlife in our community). We've grown so much that we found … Continue reading Pollinate Aylmer and our Winter Happenings
Category: Pollinators
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Butterflyway Aylmer (2025 edition)
I've been meaning to write this, but fall is a very busy time for an 'almost nursery', as I'm learning. The incredible people of Pollinate / Polliniser Aylmer, who made this happen, already know about it, so it's been waiting patiently on the back of my mind, behind some last minute planting projects, and life. … Continue reading Everything you ever wanted to know about the Butterflyway Aylmer (2025 edition)
Aylmer Butterflyway Stop #11 – Centre Allimentaire Aylmer
Yesterday Pollinate Aylmer completed stop #11 on the Aylmer Butterflyway, at the Aylmer Food Bank (Centre Allimentaire Aylmer). You can read the details of how we built it, and the plants we planted, but more importantly, we are hoping our community can help. We are looking for dozens, even hundreds, of crochet squares and flowers, to cover up the flimsy fence of the foodbank.
Creating a Butterflyway stop and native pollinator habitat gardens at an elementary school
Preparation We spent a few weeks discussing, planning and preparing for planting a pollinator garden and native habitat at Lord Aylmer Elementary. The kids in the outdoor education program worked hard with their teachers to build 6 raised planters to border their outdoor adventure playground. In pouring rain, their teachers proudly told us, they assembled … Continue reading Creating a Butterflyway stop and native pollinator habitat gardens at an elementary school
The very personal downward spiral of crumpled butterfly wings
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
Gratitude Post
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
A groomed garden bed approach to killing my lawn to build pollinator habitat
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
Native shade garden in a day
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
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 🥰). Some winter experiments heading to the greenhouse We got a lot of messages of interest, and … Continue reading What happened to the nursery?
How Local is Localeaf?
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?










