Natural Garden News from Grounded – April 19, 2025

April 19, 2025

Inside this edition of Natural Garden News

Humanity’s world
If you want a Grounded garden…
It’s a win-win when we follow nature’s calendar
Transform your shoreline, transform your legacy
Using disturbance in your landscape
New here? Start with these articles
Today’s recommended reading
Today’s VIP (Very Important Plant)
It starts with one plant
Lucas House Diary
Today’s eye candy

I hope you enjoy the newsletter! If you have any questions or feedback, please reply to this email.

Simon Payn
Grounded

Email: hello@groundedgardens.ca
Web: groundedgardens.ca

The waiting game

The Grounded team gets ready for spring. Photo by Meg Kannan on Unsplash

I feel like a kid waiting for the summer holidays to start.

That’s because April likes to fool us. One day it’s sunny and we can see spring around the corner. The next, snow is back.

Nature seems to be in a holding pattern, too. The ferns are green but they’re squashed against the brown leaves.

We know of course that in a few weeks, all will go a bit nuts. That’s spring in the Highlands for you: we wait forever and then it’s all over in a flash.

At Grounded we’re poised to get working. When May rolls around, we’ll be visiting prospective clients looking to install a landscape this summer, and we’ll be doing prep work on the gardens and shorelines to get them ready for planting. Then, around May 2-4, the plants will start arriving and we’ll be at it like gangbusters.

Meanwhile, we wait.

Simon

If you want a Grounded garden…

I’m currently booking garden and shoreline installs for 2025 and 2026.

My pipeline is filling up, but I still have space for summer and fall installations.

We start by having a quick call to see if it makes sense for me to come look at your site.

Learn more

To see some of my recent work, please see this page.

How it’s a win-win when we follow nature’s calendar

Working with the seasons helps us create landscapes that are as beautiful to nature as they are to us. Read more.

Transform your shoreline, transform your legacy

Your actions create ripples – both in your lake and in your community – as others witness what’s possible when we work with nature rather than against it. Read more.

Good mess, bad mess: Using disturbance in your landscape

Whenever we do something in our landscape, we cause disturbance. But is disturbance good or bad? The answer depends on what we want to achieve. Read more.

New here? Start with these articles

Native plants and natural gardens 101

Links to my most important articles. Read more.

Myths about native plants and natural gardens

I hear a lot of myths. Here’s the reality. Read more.

All about shorelines

A look at shoreline naturalization: why it’s important and how to do it. Read more.

Today’s recommended reading

Hey – I live here! Why it’s important to leave some stems standing in your garden. (And when and how much to cut them back.) Read more.

Not the only flower: Dandelions provide some early season nectar… but there are much better alternatives. Here are some ideas. Read more.

Start here: Natural gardens pioneer Doug Tallamy on the four things you can do to make your landscape more ecologically sound. Read more.

Building for life: Homes or nature? Why not both? Read more.

Moving south? Wondering what the climate will be like here in 60 years? Find out at this website. (Search for either Lindsay or Peterborough – they’re the nearest places.) Read more.

Get the free guide

I’ve updated my guide to natural gardens in Haliburton County and surrounding areas.

Download here

Now booking garden and shoreline installs

If you’d like me to come and look at your garden or shoreline, please contact me.

Learn more

Today’s VIP (Very Important Plant)

I’ve put together some information “cards” about native plants. These are plants I use in my designs.

Today let’s look at Buttonbush.

It starts with one plant

This video explains a lot of about motivates us here at Grounded. There are solutions to our environmental problems. We just need to implement them.

Here, we’re doing out bit. As we say: it starts with one plant. Will you join us?

Please share me!

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Lucas House Diary:
April 19, 2025

With the snow all gone, it was time to survey the damage winter has done. The garden isn’t looking pretty right now, which is to be expected. So I gave it a haircut. Read more.

Today’s eye candy

Did you know that when mosses first appeared around 470 million years ago, they began breaking down rocks, creating the first soils, and altering Earth’s atmosphere by sequestering carbon dioxide?

Looks like they’re still at it today, here in the Highlands. They look pretty, too – some much-needed greenery.