CORNWALL, Ontario – Interested in knowing how native plants can help to enhance local ecosystems?
Old Field Habitat Garden & Wildflower Nursery’s Philip Fry will be supplying the answers at the next Science & Nature on Tap series workshop on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at Schnitzels European Flavours, starting at 7 p.m.
With over 30 years of experience in habitat gardening, Fry utilizes these native plants to restore not only the land, but water. He encourages urban gardeners, who feel fenced in by development and time constraints, to give native gardening a try.
“One of the great things about native-plant gardening in the city is that you can see the result quite quickly and dramatically,” said Fry.
Now retired, Fry currently has six hectares to work with.
He began Old Field Garden and Nursery in 1984 as a research project in landscape restoration. At the time, a professor at the University of Ottawa, he was particularly concerned by the progressive destruction of local landscapes as a result of development.
Over several years, Fry has partnered with Raisin Region Conservation Authority (RRCA) to undertake native planting at a variety of local sites, including the naturalized area around the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) centre on the Cornwall waterfront.
A new project that has recently been proposed by RRCA includes the development of a Native Plant Botanical Station at Cooper Marsh Conservation Area.
For more information or to reserve a seat please, call (613) 936-6620 or e-mail kcooper@riverinstitute.ca or visit www.riverinstitute.ca.
This event has been re-scheduled from the session that was cancelled in November.
