Glebe Report - Volume 32 Number 6- June 14 2002

2 1 Glebe Report June 14, 2002 FEATURE
Rewards of a wildlife garden
BY RUBY ISAACS
weet, sweet, sweet, I'm
so sweet," sings the
yellow warbler as it
flies around the Fletcher Wildlife
Garden. Relative to the Glebe, it's
on the other side of Dow's Lake
immediately south of the Arboretum
in the Central Experimental
Farm. A small sign with the
silhouette of a heron marks the
entrance along Prince of Wales
Drive.
At the end of a short, winding
road, behind a bright white
building, the model backyard
garden attracts birders, gardeners,
butterfly watchers, scientists
and tourists to a vista of diverse
habitats.
"When I walk in the woods, I
try to identify the native plantsthat's
the fun part," says Dale
Crook. He describes himself as a
civil engineer who lives in the
Glebe and is a bit of a naturalist.
As a Friday-morning volunteer,
he helps maintain the garden and
is currently making sure plants
are more clearly labeled. Walking
past wild ginger and wood poppies,
he may go across the ravine
to try to control invasive species
such as buckthorn and dogstrangling
vine. It's all part of
managing the habitat known as
the woodland walk.
Former Glebe resident Bonnie
Mabee is a volunteer gardener
who wants more plants around her
cottage that are native to Canada.
"I hate watering. It has to be native
and grow without me attend-
ing to it," she says. In her opinion,
songbirds are the No. 1 at-
Photo: Kim Loenhart
Monarch on blazing star
traction of this local backyard
garden. When they occasionally
watch for other wildlife, some
volunteers see rabbits, foxes and
deer.
Once a week, Christine Hanrahan
monitors the bird population
and writes some of her sightings
on the white board in the front
window of the Interpretative
Centre. She is also the Ottawa coordinator
for the second Ontario
Breeding Bird Atlas, which will
be published in 2007. Christine
encourages casual volunteers to
contact her at vanessa@magma.ca
and register as observers of the
nesting habitats of birds in backyards
and neighbouring parks. If
you register as an observer, you
may have your name listed in the
atlas.
On a tour through the wildlife
garden, volunteer Sandy Garland
says that residents with rectangular
lots can get rid of some of
their lawns by digging around the
edges and planting shrubs to attract
birds. Next year, they can
dig a little farther and plant some
perennials that may attract butterflies.
As we spoke, a mourning
cloak butterfly with purplish
black wings outlined with bright
yellow fluttered by.
Standing by the frog pond,
Sandy warns, "If you see a bug,
don't get a spray can. Ladybugs
eat aphids; dragonflies and
praying mantises gobble up bad
bugs. Only about 10 per cent of
bugs are pests. The rest are good
or are in balance and they're not
going to bother you."
In your yard, a monoculture in
the form of a dominating plant
species may be sustaining garden
pests. As a solution, you can easily
invite songbirds and butterflies
into your garden with food,
water and shelter. Simply include
diverse plants of various heights
and a birdbath near trees so
birds can quickly escape from
predators. Then, you may hear the
chestnut-sided warbler sing
"pleased, pleased, pleased to meet
ya" as your reward.
For more inspiration, visit the
Fletcher Wildlife Garden or go to
http://home.achilles.net/ofncfletcher.php3
for a virtual tour.
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