Local & Canadian Gardening Sites Canadian Associations Kids & Teachers Too! Sustainable Gardening Biodiversity & Native Plants Miscellaneous

 

Local & Canadian Gardening Sites

 

• Arboretum - You can visit the Arboretum at the University of Guelph for a tour or a walk or catch the annual plant sale. The Arboretum provides environmental education activities and develops and maintains plant collections.
• Canadian Gardening - Featuring one of Canada's top gardening magazines. This Web site includes many topics of interest to the Canadian Gardener - gardening gear, pests and diseases, design and techniques and of course, plants.
• Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System - This site presents data on plants that may cause poisoning in livestock, pets, and humans. The plants include native, introduced, and cultivated outdoor plants as well as indoor plants that are found in Canada. It provides an interactive search.
• City Farmer's Urban Agriculture - What is "political horticulture?" Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture "promotes food production and environmental conservation." Subjects and links include rooftop gardening, recipes and and a large library of resources for the city gardener.
• ICanGarden - A Canadian gardening site with information on a variety of gardening topics including catalogues, seed companies, radio and TV shows, chatlines and links. It also provides and online garden poll and gardeners forum.
• Invasive Plants of Canada - What they are, the conservation and economic problems defined.
• Lawn & Garden Weather Information - Wondering if frost or rain is in the weather forecast for Burlington? Check out the Weather Network's Web site to find out if conditions are ideal for gardening. Garden enthusiasts will find real-time data on Burlington's frost, watering needs, degree of growth, temperature, pollen and insect levels, wind, and more.
• Montréal Botanical Garden - Ranked as one of the largest of its kind in the world, the Montréal Botanical Garden is a veritable living museum of plants from the four corners of the Earth.
• Ontario Gardening - Gardening, gardening tips, gardening articles, pick your own farms, gardening directory and gardening discussion forum.
• Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) - Ontario's premier botanical garden and one of Canada's finest. This site gives you all the information you need for a successful visit either in person, or virtually. It's an extensive site with educational activities, gardening information and science and conservation sites.
• UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research - Consult an expert. Use their online forums to participate in discussions with UBC researchers. The garden contains a world-wide collection of plants from temperate climates, and their site is informative and extensive.

 

Canadian Associations

 

• African Violet Society of Canada - Provides links to FAQs, indexed articles from the African Violet Magazine, photographs, events and an extensive list of affiliated clubs worldwide - including Canada.
• Canadian Iris Society - A harbinger of spring!  Check out regional iris societies and a list of current events and articles.
• Canadian Organic Growers - The National Information Network for Organic Farmers, Gardeners and Consumers. Provides news/events, COG magazine and publications and a library.
• Canadian Peony Society - Peonies are long-lived (over 50 years)! Check out their seed exchanage, events page, newsletter and related sites.
• Canadian Rose Society - A non-profit organization, this site features growing information, coming events and links to worldwide rose societies and sites.
• Composting Council of Canada - A national non-profit, member-driven organization which advocates composting and compost usage. It serves as the central resource and network for the composting industry in Canada and, through its members, contributes to the environmental sustainability of the communities in which they operate.
• Garden Ontario - Visit 277 horticultural societies and gardening clubs in Ontario from the Ontario Horticultural Association.
• Georgetown Horticultural Society - All about the Society, its activities and history. A resource for Halton gardeners.
• Hamilton and District Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society - This local society is a member of the American Dahlia Society and as such has hosted several district and national show competitions, with growers coming from all parts of Eastern Canada and the Northern United States.
• Ontario Daylily Society - Provides a list of Canadian daylily growers, calendar of events and seed sources.
• Southern Ontario Orchid Society - Orchids are easier than you think. Includes a calendar of events, links and a newsletter. 

 

Kids & Teachers Too!

 

• Backyard Magic: the Composting Handbook - The New Brunswick Department of the Environment's easy to use and helpful online course has everything to do with composting and then some!
• Cultivating Canadian Gardens: the History of Gardening in Canada - An excellent website from Library and Archives Canada devoted to the unique history of gardening in Canada. Includes Native agricultural and plant use, pioneer gardening practices and an extensive collection of images and photographs particular to the historical Canadian scene.
• Kid's Valley Garden - Arnprior's delightful introduction to gardening activiites for the younger crowd. A fun, colourful, easy to navigate site for kids.
• School Gardens - Teacher resources and links for school gardens, organic gardening, learning through landscaping, the Boston Food Project, recycling, etc

 

Sustainable Gardening

 

• Audubon At Home - Create a healthy backyard for bird conservation and by planting native species, removing invasive plants, reducing pesticide use, conserving water, protecting water quality.
• Basics of Organic Fertilizers - How the many aspects of organic fertilizers can help improve your soil and all plants.
• Garden Simply - Mainly about sustainable organic gardening for food, this is also a Web site designed to answer the questions about issues surrounding today´s agricultural system and what is happening with our food.
• Sustainable Gardening Tips - Here you will find ideas that you can use in your own environment - regardless of where you live and how much land you have available. These principles apply for large gardens right through to small verandas. 

 

Biodiversity & Native Plants

 

• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - This special place exists to introduce people to the beauty and diversity of wildflowers and other native plants. The Explore Plants section offers a Native Plant Database and Image Center.
• Native Plant Crossroads - Enrich your undertanding of native plants, what you can do, conservation issues, resources and a glossary, from the Canadian Museum of Nature.
• Plant Conservation Alliance - The PCA is a consortium of 10 U.S. government agencies and over 225 non-federal cooperators representing various disciplines within the conservation field. Their mandate is to protect native plants by ensuring that native plant populations and their communities are maintained, enhanced, and restored.
• Seed Germination Database - Hints on seed raising, special seed treatment, sowing times and extensive list of species germination.
• Seeds of Diversity - Canada's heritage seed program.
• Wild About Gardening - Includes how to attract wildlife, gardening programs for seniors, zone maps, gardening calendar and the use of native plants from the Canadian Wildlife Federation.

 

Miscellaneous

 

• Backyard Gardener - A wealth of information on the different gardens and types of plants to grow in them, with designs and plans too. A gardening reference site and hands-on garden information.
• Garden Guides - An online gardening community of bloggers that offers extensive information on pests, plants, gardening tips,seeds and bulbs and more.
• Gardening for Life: Go For Green - A Canadian-based national program that supports the idea of natural gardening including health benefits, use of water, tree planting for home energy efficiency, and avoiding the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
• Gardening Links - From the WWW Virtual Library, this is a mega-list of links on gardening, maintained by GardenWeb.
• Gardening Topics - Articles on a wide range of topics from Colorado Master Gardeners.
• GardenWeb - A compendium of resources for gardeners, including forums on a range of topics. Features gardening tips, a subject directory, a plant exchange and more.
• HortiPlex Plant Database - The HortiPlex database contains plant images and data as well as links to information sources and images. Search the Hortiplex database for plants by common or botanical name.
• Perennial Flower Gardening Tips - Gardening tips perennials is about designing, growing and gardening with perennial flowers, written by gardening author Doug Green.
• Proven Winners - Discover widely available perennials and annual plants. It's a valuable resource for all home gardeners and retailers, and sources are both Canadian and American.