photo: Ben Porchuk
Plant seeds for a healthy planet at home in the Carolinian Zone.
Grow hope at home by planting the right seeds.
Seeds for a healthy planet can be green people, wild ideas, climate-smart yards or native wildflower seeds that have co-evolved over millennia with local wildlife. What you plant at home matters.
What is the most important seed for a healthy planet? You!
So we want to help you grow, starting with 7 fun Earth Acts.
#MyWildZone
Many Indigenous Nations have lived, learned and thrived off this land for many generations.
One Dish One Spoon is an agreement made between Haudenosaunee and Anishinabek nations that states that all the land is on one dish and our nations must share this resource. This has been used for centuries to establish friendly relationships with other Indigenous nations and is still used today to acknowledge our combined duty to the protection and sustainability of the land.
It is imperative that we honour and respect the inherent and treaty rights that Indigenous peoples have held for generations.
Find 10 First Nations communities in the Carolinian Zone and their traditional territories. What traditional territory do you live in?
Give thanks. First Nations are leaders in the Carolinian Zone, caring for our most significant wild places, rare species and seed diversity, continuing centuries of wise stewardship based on Natural Law and planning for seven generations.
Honouring and respecting First Nations is a first step to protecting the Mother Earth.
with In the Zone and WWF-Canada
What wildlife needs to thrive will help you thrive too! Clean air, water and soil. Pollinators visiting your healthy garden shows you are growing a healthy planet.
What do wildlife love most about your yard? Calculate your wildlife value with the In the Zone Tracker. Get Healthy Garden Points. Get free garden guides. Get wild ideas!
Make a garden plan that will help you get more Healthy Garden Points in 2020. (Update your Tracker after planting.) Share your plan with your friends and challenge them to grow with you.
Now, you’re growing Canada's Biggest Wildlife Garden, together!
#IntheZoneGardens
With Your CA
We are very lucky! Southern Ontario is one of the few places in the world that has conservation authorities (CA’s) to protect us from flooding and other environmental disasters with proactive watershed strategies.
My Yard, Our Watershed, Our World
Where does your water go? Start by finding your watershed. Draw a map of where your water flows from your yard to a Great Lake.
What you do in your yard affects drinking water for 11 M people in the Great Lakes basin (you are one). Growing native plants filters water, so your little garden is helping clean water for everyone around you. Every little bit of nature is even more important as the climate shifts to protect our water!
Share your water map and send a public shout out to your CA for keeping our watersheds safe!
What else do CA’s do that you are grateful for? They are the quiet heros of a healthy community.
Every time you thank them, you are also helping to keep the earth safe.
#CAlove #StepIntoNatureAtHome
with London Environmental Network
300+ groups and 3000 gardeners are working together for a healthy earth in the Carolinian Zone.
LEN is just one of many community networks that make it fun and easy for you to help the Earth during a global pandemic. Click on Covid-19 resources and scroll down to find an amazing array of wild activies at home from a Wild Child Outdoor Play group to daily Nature Challenges. You can even grow a Rain Garden or Pollinator Garden. Or build your ecoliteracy with a nature app, on-line course or wild readings.
Try one new wild thing you have never done before with an environmental group. Share your experience with friends. Now you're growing a green future!
#LENlove
Get to know your wild neighbours with local wildlife experts and your favourite pollinator
You live in a land of hidden natural treasures. Sometimes called the “Carolinian Forest”, Canada’s far south ecoregion is much more than a forest. It is one of Canada’s biodiversity hotspots with an amazing diversity of habitats from rare prairie to coastal marshes, dunes and hidden bogs.
Southern Ontario has over 500 rare and endangered species, the most in the nation. The food web in your neighbourhood is full of rare species.
Some might visit your yard if you grow the right plants.
Join our Carolinian Zone ecologists to explore our last remaining habitats and the rare wildlife living near you.
Use the power of food webs to save rare wildlife. First, adopt a native pollinator near you. Then draw its food web including
Share your findings with a pollinator food web post(er).
Now you are saving rare wildlife!
#mywildzone #wildflowerpower #pollinatorpower
with Carolinian Canada
Living in harmony with the earth begins at home. But we can’t do it alone.
It's an all-ages party about growing healthy gardens.
Invite your friends to the party! Share your seeds, stories, art, sightings, questions, wild ideas – whether you are just starting out or are an expert. Get to know people across the Carolinian Zone who care too! Watch for ways to get the right wildflower seeds for a healthy planet. We can do this together!
With Go Wild Grow Wild
Go Wild Grow Wild Green Expo is going virtual in 2020 for 3 seasons, May to December. Watch for it! We are a community of thousands of people, groups and businesses who care for the earth. Together we are growing a healthy planet.
Spark a local green economy and a climate-smart community by trying a ‘new to you’ green product or program and create more ‘green space’ by sharing with friends.
Thank-you for planting seeds for a healthy planet. We hope you enjoyed these activities.
Share your results with us and keep exploring!
to save your wild home all year
and be the first to know when
My Wild Green Home 2020 launches.
Your garden can grow a green future for wildlife and people in your neighbourhood. Get Healthy Garden Points, join our community, explore nature, share your knowledge, help wildlife, and get climate-smart. Count your garden in today and start BEFORE you plant!
