Let’s get wild about gardening!

“Let’s talk about the birds and the bees, the flowers and the trees, and the moon up above, and a thing called love”, a song by Jewel Akens that has stood the test of time, just need to add butterflies to the lyrics and you have the perfect song for gardeners to hum, as they get ready to wake up their gardens for spring.

This month the Sooke Garden club invited Claudia Copley as the guest speaker. Claudia will describe the various ways you can attract diverse wildlife through your landscape choices. With just a few simple changes, your garden will be a haven for you, native pollinators, beautiful birds, gorgeous butterflies, and beneficial insects.

Gardener Claudia Copley will be share ideas on creating a landscape that welcomes wildlife.

As a biologist and naturalist, Claudia Copley spends as much time as possible exploring the natural world. Claudia has been employed by the Royal BC Museum since 2004, where she is responsible for the Entomology Collection, which contains more than half a million specimens that are available for researchers from around the world. She is also an avid gardener, particularly vegetable gardening.

With a new perennial garden to plan, one of my all time favorites for spring flowering will be the Cushion spurge, bright yellow flowers that last and last, bringing bees out of hibernation. As well as, those bright yellow dandelions that can be a love/hate relationship for some. Other favorites include forsynthia, phlox, coneflower, bee balm, Joe pye weed, sunflower, lavender, alpine aster; the list goes on and on. As the gray skies of winter slowly drift away, inviting a small glimpse of spring growth and wildlife appearances, it brings optimism and hope.