Ann Martin doesn’t grow a polite garden.
Her yard on Wellington Street is bursting with native plants — towering woodland sunflowers, Canadian goldenrod, turtleheads, closed bottle gentians, asters… even the few inches spared for grass are interspersed with strawberry plants.
“It’s a little rambunctious,” Martin said with a laugh, while giving FlamboroughToday a tour of her yard.
Her garden, which rules the majority of her front and side yards, and large pockets of her backyard as well, is home to goldfinches, bumble bees, sparrows, toads, turkeys, longtail weasels, leopard frogs, praying mantis and a host of butterflies — all drawn to the diverse species of native plants.
“Everything supports something,” she said, adding that a lot of her plants will support migrating birds over the next few months.
To some, Martin said, her natural garden may look unruly, but hours of thought and research have gone into which plants and trees will benefit the environment and its inhabitants the most.
“Black cherry trees, they are one of the keystone trees,” she said, pointing to one of eight newly planted trees on her property. “The oak tree will see 550 different types of insects. These ones are right below them and they will feed 400-and-some-odd different types.”
Natural gardening efforts earn accolades
That is why her garden has been recognized with multiple awards for its ecological benefits and contributions to the watershed.
She won the 2019 Hamilton Monarch Award for her natural garden. This year, Martin was awarded a Hamilton White Trillium Award. Next month, Martin will have another award to add to her collection, when she receives the 2024 Halton Watershed Stewardship Award.
While Waterdown is in the city of Hamilton, it is also in the Halton Watershed, and Martin’s rain garden — a natural, native plant garden with a low lying area to collect water runoff — helps clean the water that goes back into the ground.
Martin said her rain garden purifies whatever runoff comes into it, and returns it to the groundwater, and from there, the lake.
“It’s all gone in 24 hours,” she said. “Mine doesn’t pool at all.”
And with stormwater fees coming in April 2025, Martin said it may be a good time for others to consider using their gardens for good — to absorb more and support more wildlife, even if it means losing your neat lawn.
“People plant polite little gardens,” Martin said. “Nature doesn’t plant them that way. Things grow in clusters, and if you have a cluster, it’s easier for the pollinators because they don’t have to travel.”
Martin will accept her Watershed Stewardship Award at Fifty Point Conservation Area on Oct. 5.
