Grow With Us projects
To reintroduce native plants into their natural habitats around the area of Fish Creek Park, the “Grow with Us” program at Friends of Fish Creek is a way for community gardens or folk with a rooting interest to have a diverse backyard and grow their own native plants. In this scenario, the Friends’ role will be to provide native plant plugs and seeds.
What does Grow with Us offer?
We are aiming at replenishing the population of native species of plant life within the provincial park, as the whole park has transitioned heavily since Southern Alberta region was settled. Native grasslands are incredibly important to our ecosystem because the plants within these ecosystems can survive better in dry environments. Native grasslands are also adept at bringing in native pollinators, who rely on being able to pollinate non-invasive plant species.
According to a vegetation inventory report from Tannas Conservation Services, less than six per cent of the grassland in Fish Creek Provincial Park have native vegetation. In response, Friends of Fish Creek are trying to restore the ratio of native plant species to a much higher rate — but we need the help of our community to succeed.
How does it work?
Since we are piloting this program, we are taking it upon ourselves to get our plant plugs via salvaging native plants in areas with high traffic or that are undergoing high amounts of development. This method is a more sustainable way of protecting native species as well to have a more diverse collection of plants that commercial nurseries would not have in stock. From there, we will give you the seeds from the native plant to either grow in your community garden or on your own property. We will also provide tips to you and your community on the best methods to take care of the plants. For example, we can let you know what invasive plants to watch out for or how often to water the plants. As the plants that we give you start to flower and make seeds, let us know and we’ll come by to check it out. We will collect the seeds and grow them in our nursery to be used for grassland restoration projects in the park.
Essentially, we are looking to create one big, widespread cycle of growing native plant species to be able to transition them back into the park, where they flourished hundreds of years ago but have been taken over in the time since by invasive species. When you join on with Grow with Us, we will give you seeds at the start of a growing season. Once your native plants have dropped new seeds, we will take those and plant them in our nursey to grow further and eventually reintroduce into the environment where it is native. Then, we will take seeds from the plants that we’ve introduced and give them back to you when the next year starts to repeat the process.
We are so excited about working with local communities to bring back native plant species to the area! With the Grow with Us program, we can provide a way for park-goers and our community partners to collaborate with us to make a difference in our restoration projects from their own home and community in a tangible way.
If you are interested in being a part of this program, please fill in the form below.
