Naturescape - landscaping for nature

Naturescape

Butterflies and birds, as well as moose and deer, are wildlife. You can provide habitat (a place to live and food to eat) for these beautiful friends. Imagine sitting on your deck or walking outside and seeing beautiful butterflies resting and feasting on the blossoms. And, there’s more.

Naturescape BC is an organization that promotes providing wildlife habitat where you live. It has a website and publishes booklets to help you design your yard or balcony for wildlife.

There are three booklets in the series

·       a provincial guide with specifics on yard design, butterfly garden suggestions, bird house templates and more.

·       a list of plants and animals for the southern interior, our area

·       a list of resources for information

You buy a set from me for $21.00 or order them from the library.

Here are the links to the library for each of the three booklets - Provincial Guide, Plants and Animals of the Southern Interior, and Resource Booklet. See below.

For the Provincial Guide use this link

http://ipac.orl.bc.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1V00741P80U09.1794&profile=hq&source=~!horizon&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!589374~!3&ri=1&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=campbell+susan&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=1#focus

For the Plant and Animal Booklet of the Southern Interior use this link http://ipac.orl.bc.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1V00741P80U09.1794&profile=hq&uri=link=3100006~!221541~!3100001~!3100041&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=3&source=~!horizon&term=Naturescape+British+Columbia+%3A+native+plant+and+animal+booklet%2C+southern+interior+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus

For the Resource Booklet use this link

http://ipac.orl.bc.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1V00741P80U09.1794&profile=hq&uri=link=3100006~!218975~!3100001~!3100041&aspect=subtab13&menu=search&ri=5&source=~!horizon&term=Naturescape+British+Columbia+%3A+resource+booklet%2C+southern+interior+%2F&index=PALLTI#focus

The website for Naturescape is at http://www.naturescapebc.ca/

What you can do to help wildlife is at the bottom of this page http://www.naturescapebc.ca/naturescape/ambassador.htm

To be a member http://www.naturescapebc.ca/naturescape/join.htm

Basic principle – shelter, food and water for wildlife http://www.naturescapebc.ca/naturescape/principles.htm

Order the information kit (or buy same from me locally). I will be in Enderby on May 14 in the park at the annual garden club sale. Buy your kit directly from me. See you there. http://www.naturescapebc.ca/naturescape/resources.htm

I am an official “ambassador” and have a slide show that demonstrates what can be done. Contact me if you want a presentation. shuswapnativeplants@yahoo.ca

Grow Your Own Native Plants from Seed

You can easily grow your own native plants from seed. It’s simple. You just need the right attitude - the patience to wait over a year to get something you can put in the ground and the expectation that you will consider any plant that germinates as a gift, not your right that it should grow.

Here are the steps

1. gather the seed when it is ready (year one)

2. put them (put a few in each pot, not just one) in a pot (or the ground) in some dirt and cover it with a bit of soil and press down. I use the back of my fingers. 

3. Make sure it is open to the natural rain and that the pot doesn’t get hot (I bury mine in bark mulch because they are black and this cooks the roots and dries out the plant, requires extra watering  - just bury it and you don’t have these problems)

4. Water it as necessary, the dirt, not the plant. I sometimes water the bark mulch when the roots are down near the bottom of the pot.

5. Plant in the late fall (year two), around the time it starts to rain a lot. Maybe late September, October, or even November depending on the year.

6. Water immediately after planting – within 30 minutes or less so you don’t forget. This first watering right away is critical. The roots have been disturbed and need help.

7. Mulch deeply all around the plant at least 6 inches out in a circle. This is critical.

8. Water again a few times if needed.

9. You should not need to ever water again. Yes, it is hard to believe. I have the worst gravel soil, right next to the house in the rain shadow on the east but, I watered twice in the fall I planted and then never watered again. If I can do it, you can do it.

Soil preparation.

If you grow ahead you can plan ahead and do soil preparation. Here is my recommendation. I did this so I know it works.

Here is what I did:

·       Picked out the big rocks.

·       Hand ranked to loosen the gravel.

·       Planted by broadcasting by hand the following

·       Field peas (for nitrogen fixation) also called maple peas

·       Oats – seed not feed, less weeds

·       Buckwheat

·       I got all this locally.

·       Let it grow.

·       In the fall, just before I planted, I smothered it with bark mulch.

·       DO NOT TILL THE SOIL. When the plants die they leave little tunnels in the soil for air, etc. I don’t know all the good things but what does nature do? Think about it.

·       I then planted within a day (I was running out of time because I waited to get some growth on the cover crop (oats, buckwheat, peas) which I had planted late in the year, before I smothered it and thus stopped the growth).

That’s it!

Workshops and Tours

I have given workshops on the following topics:

·       Growing native plants from seed

·       Food plants in the wild

·       Identification of native plants in the Shuswap

·       Landscaping for nature with the Naturescape BC slide show

·       Nature walk on my place for plant identification

If you are interested in a workshop please contact me. shuswapnativeplants@yahoo.ca

I am a “Naturescape Ambassador” and have a nice slide show that shows people how they can provide for wildlife habitat in their yard or balcony. I also have the Naturescape booklets (3) that give detailed information on doing this. The cost is $21.00. Contact me if you want one.

Conservation and Ethics

 GUIDELINES FOR NATIVE PLANT GARDENERS

1. Obtain native plants from seed, garden or nursery. Ask vendors where the native plants were obtained. Buy only nursery propagated stock.

2. Use native plants and seeds which have originated in your immediate bioregion. Such plants and seeds are best adapted to the local climate, soil, predators, pollinators and disease.

3. Transplant wild native flora only when the plants of a given area are officially slated for destruction e.g. road construction, subdivision, golf courses. Obtain permission before transplanting.

4. Do not collect seeds for plants from parks, ecological reserves or wildlife management areas. In other places, collect no more than 10% of seed crop from the wild. Leave the rest for natural dispersal and as food for dependent organisms.

5. Use natural means of fertilizing, weed and predator control, instead of synthetic chemicals.

6. Consider planting native species attractive to native fauna, especially birds, butterflies and moths uncommon to your bioregion.

7. Openly share your botanical knowledge but ensure that native species or communities will not be damaged in the process.

      From Naturescape Handbook from Canadian Wildflower Society’s Gardener’s Guidelines

Why Use Native Plants?

WHY NATIVE PLANTS?

Resource list - books about native plants of the Shuswap and native plants in general

Resource List for Local (Shuswap) Native Food Plants

A IDENTIFICATION OF NATIVE PLANTS

1. Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs, Jim Meunick

2. Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Arthur Kruckeberg

3. Mount Revelstoke National Park, Soper

4. Native Plant and Animal Booklet, Southern Interior (Naturescape), Richard Cannings

5. Native Woody Plant Seed Collection Guide for British Columbia, Banerjee (good photos)

6. Plants of the Rocky Mountains, Kershaw, MacKinnon, Pojar

7. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia, Parish, Coupe, Lloyd

8. Propagation of Pacific Northwest Native Plants, Rose Chackulski, Haase

9. Trees, Shrubs and Flowers to Know in British Columbia, CP Lyons

10. Trees and Shrubs of British Columbia, Brayshaw

11. Wildflowers of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Joan Burbridge

12.  The Wisdom of Dr. Mary Thomas, Thomas

B HOW TO GROW/LANDSCAPE WITH NATIVE PLANTS

1. Naturescape British Columbia, The Provincial Guide, Campbell, Susan

2. The Ontario Naturalized Garden, Johnson

3. The Butterfly Garden, Sedenko

4. Redesigning the American Lawn, Borman, Balmer, Geballe

5. The Landscaping Revolution, garden with nature not against her, Wasbuski

6. How to get your Lawn off Grass, Carole Rubin

7. Plants in British Columbia Indian Technology, Turner

C FOOD PLANTS

1. (BC Native Food Guide (interior) Health Canada – availability?)

2. Drink in the Wild, Teas, Cordial, Jams and More, Hilary Stewart (BC author)

3. Edible Flowers, desserts and drinks, Cathy Wilkinson Barash

4. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rocky Mountains and neighbouring Territory, Willard, Terry

5. Edible Wild Fruits and Nuts of Canada, Turner (incl. recipes)

6. Edible Wild Plants, A North American Filed Guide, Elias,Thomas and Dykemen, Peter

7. Food Plants of Interior First Peoples, Turner

8. Guide to Common Edible Plants of BC, Szczawinski and Hardy

8b. Gathering what the Great Nature Provided, Ksan book people

8c. Interior Salish Food Preparation (Lak-La Hai-ee), Surtees (reference copy in Salmon Arm Library)

9. Native Foods ands Nutrition, Health Canada, from Medical Services Branch, Communications      Directorate (nutritional tables)

10. Native Indian Wild game, fish, and wild foods cookbook,

11. The Neighbourhood Forager, a Guide for the Wild Food Gourmet, Robert Henderson (recipes at end of each chapter)

12. Northwest Berry Cookbook, Kathleen Desmond Stang

13. Northwest Wild Berries, Underhill

14. Shuswap Indian Ethnobotany, Gary Palmer

15. Some Useful Wild Plants, David Manning

16. Wild Berries of the Pacific Northwesst, JE (Ted) Underhill

17. Wild Coffee and Tea Substitutes of Canada, Turner

18. The Wild Food Gourmet, fresh and savoury food from nature, Anne Gardon (great food photos)

19. Wild Harvet, Edible Plants of the Facific Northwest, Terry Domico

20. Wild Plums in Brandy, wild food cookery, Sylvia Boorman

21. The Wild, Wild Cookbook, a guide for youing wild food foragers, Jean George

INTERNET RESOURCES

1. borealforest.org

2. 4. http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/ Thompson Okanagan, Natural History, Field Guide – book, Wild Flowers of Southern Interior BC (Royal British Columbia Museum)

3. http://www.evergreen.ca/ Resources, natsive Plants Data Base, Search Nsative Plant, pictures and names

4. google Canadian Wildlife Federation select Wild About Gardening

5. http://www.npsbc.org/ Native Plant Society of BC, newsletter

Violet Creek Nursery - what is it and how did it get that name?

Violet Creek Nursery – what is it and where?

History of Violet Creek Nursery

I started Violet Creek Nursery a few years after I moved here (20 years ago). It began because I wanted shade along the driveway because it was very open there. At first I bought birch trees but only one survived. So, I decided to grow them myself. It would be cheaper but, also, they would belong here because I could use local seed. The seed germinated and I had more than I needed. I started going to farmer’s markets – Salmon Arm and Enderby with the birch trees. Then I tried to grow other things. I experimented with seeding in small pots and in big trays. I spent a lot of time transplanting and repotting using different systems. I was thrilled when I was able to grow many different species – mock orange, ocean spray, columbine, roses and even pussy toes! – a total of 18 different species. I wanted others to know about using native plants so I entered the parades in Salmon Arm and Enderby for a few years.

The Name – Violet Creek Nursery

Violet Creek runs through the property. It starts in the Larch Hills in a bog somewhere close to what the ski people call the “north hub”. It is fed by other bogs called Frodo’s bog and Bilbo’s bog. It runs down the hill into the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve. It then runs south, through my place and then on to the Shuswap River.

This creek has run my life. I have spent a lot of time trying to protect it and the waters that feed it.

At first, it was from Salmon Arm who was trying to put a dam in the Larch Hills. It would have flooded many of the ski trails, mainly in the area of Cottonwood Cut-Off. It would also have interrupted the natural water flow to the Mara Meadows Ecological Reserve. This area is a wetland and home to many special species of plants and bugs. It is so special that it is the only reserve in the province that is closed, legally. You need a permit to go in. It is very vulnerable to damage.

Because I had a water licence on the creek I could participate in the process of the hearings between Water Management (Ministry of Environment) and the city of Salmon Arm. There were four hearings in all, 3 written and one oral over a period of about two years. I did lots of typing on my old typewriter and paid the cost of all the needed faxes at Sure Crop Feeds. After the Deputy Comptroller of Water Rights gave her report, after the two day oral hearing, that denied the dam in the Larch Hills, Salmon Arm filed an appeal to the Environmental Appeal Board. In response I filed a request for the Board to dismiss Salmon Arm’s complaint as having no merit and I applied for costs. What Salmon Arm was trying to do was against the law because there was an order in council that protected the water for the ecological reserve “from being taken, acquired or used under the water act”. I didn’t get costs but, because of the process involved in my request to the Environmental Appeal Board, Salmon Arm finally gave up because of their reading of the legal opinion from the lawyer at the Attorney General’s office. . http://www.eab.gov.bc.ca/water/98wat10a.pdf

Request for costs report http://www.eab.gov.bc.ca/water/98wat10b.htm

I found out, as part of this process, that the top end of Violet Creek had been diverted. So the creek was being starved of its water. It was diverted in 1963 into the Canoe Creek drainage. When I looked at the minutes of the meetings of the water board (at the Museum) for that year I read about a discussion of the need for more water and in a mention of Violet Creek, it read “a day with a bulldozer”. Interestingly, when I read these minutes one month was missing. I wonder what this September meeting said? Without this evidence, I guess someone thought there was no liability to Salmon Arm.

In the report from the Deputy Comptroller of Water Rights she required that this illegal diversion be removed and the creek restored and that Salmon Arm take the lead on this. Salmon Arm did nothing. In fact, they asked for a stay of this order from the Environmental Appeal Board. I decided to free the creek. I initiated a tour in order to make a plan to get this creek restored to its natural flow. I called Salmon Arm but they declined to come. I called BC Parks. They are responsible for the ecological reserve and had participated in the 2 day oral hearing. They sent two people. I also contacted Connie Harris from Shuswap Outdoors who participated in the hearings as my witness. We walked the area to the diversion in the creek. It was a pile of dirt and a trench that went at a 90 degree angle from the creek, along the brow of the slope, through a culvert, and dropped over the slope to Canoe Creek below. Connie and I found this blockage during the winter went we went looking on snowshoes and marked it with a red ribbon. After this tour and discussion of what was needed I made a sketch on a blank piece of paper. I labelled the dirt pile and the need for ‘water bars’ ,gouges in the ditch, so that the water that was in the watershed up the hill remained and was not still diverted to Canoe Creek. I mailed it to the Water Manager in Penticton, McKee and he approved it. A neighbour then phoned around and found a guy with a machine, an excavator to do the work. Someone else called BC Parks and asked if they would pay for it. So, I missed watching the creek being liberated as I was at work. $500.00 did the job. The creek had been starving for almost 40 years. Now it runs free.

I then discovered, to my horror, that there was a woodlot planned (logging) for the area right next to the ecological reserve. Trees would be cut, roads cut into the hillside and messing up the natural water flows. I then found a creek that had been dug up very close to Violet Creek where it goes into the ecological reserve. I reported this. After many trips to the Ministry of Forests office after work (driving from Vernon to Salmon Arm) I was able to get documentation on the woodlot application and approval under access to information. After many letters back and forth and phone calls I filed a complaint with the Forest Practices Board. During this process there was finally a hydrological assessment that was supposed to be done earlier. As part of the compliant process by the Forest Practices Board I was subjected to a “tour” of the woodlot area although my complaint related to policy and nothing could be gained from this tour. For this tour I had to leave work early in Vernon and drive to the Larch Hills. The tour was with 6 registered professional foresters, mainly staff of the Ministry of Forests. During this tour I lost my composure and almost broke into tears when I was peppered with questions by three persons simultaneously. Imagine, little me in the middle of a clear cut with these guys, except one female, surrounded and being grilled. And it was really a policy issue. I do not think that this tour was necessary at all. The result of my complaint was that the Board required certain things to be done that were not. It was a process I regret being involved in. There was a definite lack of competence on the part of the “investigator”. Having worked as an investigator myself, for the Canadian Human Rights Commission, I believe I am in a good position to evaluate.

Summary of Forest Practices Board complaint http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/publications.aspx?id=2956&terms=mara+meadows

Full report Forest Practices Board complaint http://www.fpb.gov.bc.ca/IRC96_Approval_of_Harvesting_near_Mara_Meadows_Ecological_Reserve_near_Salmon_Arm.pdf

Then there was the fish rescue in the drought year of 1998.  The creek was drying up as it went through my property. Only pools were left and there were fish in them. I called for help from Turtle Island Earth Stewards who had a group of summer students. I also called the radio station and told them about the fish rescue. This was during the time that Salmon Arm was trying to get the dam in the Larch Hills so people knew about the importance of Violet Creek. The next door neighbour offered to let us come on his property to rescue the fish in the creek there, too. Yet, he was removing huge amounts of water above this and drying up the creek because he was irrigating his pasture as he had a water licence!

There are other things but these are the main ones. So, you can see that the creek has truly run my life.

Buy Native Plants - order form

ORDER FORM  -  NATIVE PLANT LIST FOR THE SHUSWAP

Violet Creek Nursery                                      

Barbara Westerman                                         

Box 35, Grindrod, BC

                                     

V0E 1Y0

(250) 838-6101 

Send an e-mail to shuswapnativeplants@yahoo.ca for a copy of this list.               

All plants are grown from seed taken mainly from my property, in dirt with some bark mulch, no fertilizers in one gallon pots. Cost is $8.00 per pot. Free replacement within one year on the condition that I have the plant you need.

Order by the summer of this year (so I can get the seed) for planting the following fall (2012). Remember, you are buying roots not tall tops. Everything is grown from seed for genetic diversity and ecological suitability.

                                                                                                           

Amount	Common name (scientific name)
TREES
	Paper Birch (betula papyrifera)
	Trembling Aspen (populus tremuloides)
	Black Cottonwood (populus balsamifera, trichocarpa)
	Bitter cherry (prunus emarginata)
	Cascara (Rhamnus purshiana)
	Douglas maple ( acer glabrum)
	Mountain alder (alnus incana)
SHRUBS
	Saskatoon (amelanchier alnfolia)
	Redstem ceanothus (ceanothus sanguineus)
	Red-osier dogwood (cornus stolonifera)
	Hazelnut (corylus cornuta)
	Columbian (red) hawthorn (crataegus Columbiana)
	Black hawthorn (crataegus douglasii)
	Oceanspray (holodiscus discolor)
	Oregon grape (mahonia aquifolium)
	Mock-orange (philadelphus lewisii)
	Chokecherry (prunus virgiana)
	Baldhip rose (rosa gymnocarpa)
	Nootka rose (rosa nutkana)
	Wood rose (rosa woodsii)
	Prickly rose (rosa acicularis)
	Red raspberry (rubus idaeus)
	Black raspberry /blackcap (rubus leucodermis)
	Willow (salix)
	Thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus)
	Blue elderberry (sambucus caerulea)
	Red elderberry (sambucus racemosa)
	Black elderberry (sambucus Canadensis)
	Soapberry/soopolallie (shepherdia anadensis)
	Mountain ash (sorbus sitchensis)
	Snowberry (symphoricarpos albus)
	Highbush cranberry (viburnum opulus)
	Red twinberry (lonicera utahensis)
	False Box (pachistima/paxistima myrsinites)
	Black twinberry (lonicera involucrate)
FLOWERS
	Showy aster (aster conspicus)
	Columbine (aquilegia Formosa)
	Pearly everlasting (anaphalis margaritacea)
	Fireweed (epilobium angustifolium)
	Lupine (lupinus sericeus)
	False solomon’s seal (simlacina racemosa)
	Canada violet (viola canadensis)
	Yarrow (achillea millefolium)
	Heart leafed arnica (arnica cordifolia)
GROUNDCOVERS
	Kinnikinnick (arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
	umber pussytoes (antennaria umbrinella)
	Field pussytoes (antennaria neglecta)
	Wood strawberry (fragaria vessca)
	Blue leaf strawberry (fragaria virginiana)
VINES
	Scarlet trumpet honeysuckle (lonicera ciliosa)
	Blue clematis (clematis occindentalis)
	White clematis/virgin’s bower/traveller’s joy (clematis ligusticifolia)