Volunteer Profile: Adam Bailey

Lawn to Wildflower Meadow: Gardener Adam Bailey Sees the Light and Undergoes a Conversion

By Adam Bailey

Lawns are like an ugly heirloom that nobody wants to throw away. Fortunately, I've never felt constrained too much by irrational social conventions like heirlooms. They don't fit neatly into my pragmatic world view.

I enjoy gardening but became jaded by the fiction that is 'zonal gardening' or plants being sold according to cold survivability, while rather hypocritically being imported from tropical greenhouses from who knows where.  I was looking for plants that mimicked what I saw in nature but I was looking in the wrong places.

I rarely saw birds, butterflies, moths, beetles or bees despite having plants and flowers in the garden. It seems so obvious now why they weren't present, but at the time, it was a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Surely bees love flowers? Why don't they like my flowers? Maybe the bees hate me? And so, I spent my free time feeling a little emotionally vulnerable after constant bee rejection, but I watched and listened, to nature and people, in an effort to understand how I could make a garden space that was inviting for other species; a place for them to call home around our home.

I resolved to transform our garden from an underutilized, grassy space into something that could be beneficial to more than just family bbqs and bio breaks for the dogs. Leaning into nature was a logical step. I have always enjoyed being in nature and learning about it and I wanted to find a small way to give back to it. Six years ago though, this felt like radical, untested fancy.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a recording of Manna talking about native plants on the CBC, which wasn't helpful because it was November and I am quite impatient. "She has native plants and I've been looking for native plants," I kept telling Yolanda (my wife) excitedly!

The following April, Yolanda was so tired of me talking about the CBC video clip that she drove me to Manna at the first available opportunity on a snowy day in Stony Plain, where I got my first native plants. It was everything I had hoped for. Manna had my 'Ark of the Covenant' and I felt like Indiana Jones reaching back for his hat. She had native plants available that grew naturally in the Edmonton area, evolving symbiotically with insects and birds over hundreds of years. "This is so cool", I said to myself.

Author's note: I'm generally introverted and definitely quiet when I first meet people...some may say aloof but they'd be wrong (pragmatism again). Instead of exchanging too many pleasantries, I spend that time looking and listening...trying to learn about them and what they are saying. As such, when I got those first native plants, my outward demeanor probably didn't betray the joy I felt inside. And so, I can forgive Manna for being busy helping other native plant connoisseurs and not noticing the world altering moment it was for me .

In that moment, I was so proud (and rightfully so) knowing that I would be using native plants in our garden that were locally sourced. I hummed the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme as we packed up four small plants and returned to the car.  

And lo, bees visited the plants while they stood potted on the deck waiting to be planted, which absolutely proved me right to myself. I told Yolanda all about it. Repeatedly.

I quickly saw the potential of seriously gardening with native plants and made bigger plans.  A little over two years ago, I got permission from the City to remove grass on the easement beside our house and to plant exclusively native plants. I researched different plant species and designed the space to showcase native plants in a garden setting, from the innocuous plants to the spreaders, and even one that sometimes makes me itch a bit (curse you Yarrow) because Yolanda likes it and she listens to me talk about native plants, like, a lot. I put up signs to reassure the neighbours that I hadn't gone completely crazy and they watched, bewildered, as I set about removing grass, planting things and putting bits of wood in/on the ground.

I got more plants from Manna who was very patient with me as I learned things, stumbled over names and made mistakes. Later, I 'raided' a couple of ENPS sales. I met ENPS members, and appreciatively soaked up their knowledge, experiences and enthusiasm. As time passed, I started growing native plants from seed because it was important for me to understand them more fully.

To date, we have incorporated approximately 130 native Alberta plant species into our garden (120 sourced and native to Edmonton). The insects, birds, small mammals, and occasionally people too, are now interested in the space. It was absolutely a case of "plant it and they will come." The yard is now being used by some creatures, in some capacity, day or night. It is no longer limited to human preoccupations. 

Since incorporating native plants, our garden has been visited by multiple warbler species, Great Horned Owls, hummingbirds, lots of different migratory sparrows, waxwings, a small weasel, a ground squirrel, a fox, ducks, various hawks, Merlins and more. We have had nesting migratory birds for five straight years. We live in a suburb and for me, this was like life in the country made possible by creating a habitat that offered wildlife what they wanted. Native plants are absolutely the bedrock for everything that followed.

We've seen all manner of moths, butterflies, beetles, spiders, bees, wasps and more. We have even recorded two "at risk" species using native plants in our garden, the Yellow-banded Bumblebee and Ashton's Cuckoo Bumblebee. I imagine that there are a lot of species that we don't see, but maybe one day someone will want to do a case study on the ecological importance of native plants in Edmonton's gardens and maybe they might collect some first-hand data from our small conservation pocket. I'd love to see the power of our native plants quantified scientifically and incorporated into Edmonton communities.

These days, our garden is probably 30% sod to 70% trees/shrubs/forbs. I've incorporated logs and drift wood, insect houses, water sources, open dirt patches, fruiting shrubs, and more.  All of that sounds quite normal nowadays because this type of approach to gardening is being championed by many different people and causes. It's not natural but it mimics nature pretty well. We have flowers in our garden from early April to November (or significant snowfall). We have winter interest with seed heads offering a source of food through the snow. Spring clean-up isn't taxing, usually filling one green bin with whatever we don't keep in the yard. I haven't watered the side yard since the native plants were established a couple of years ago. I often stand in the garden looking and listening, always finding something that helps me to relax and refocus. I try to contribute whatever I record in iNaturalist. The neighbours are probably still bewildered by me but listening to bees hum is soothing. On a good day, they drown out some people-made noise. A little regrettably, bees do not hum Indiana Jones theme music but I compensate for that myself.

All the while, I remain deeply grateful for the work of ENPS because without their efforts, I couldn't reap the rewards today. I hope that I can be as helpful in this native plant community going forward.

We are now out of grass fit for conversion (mission accomplished) but I still grow a few native plants here and there. In another life, I may have enjoyed landscaping with native plants in a professional capacity - they don't talk back or complain nearly as much as people do. Instead, I remain an armchair landscaper and sometimes naturalist. I still feel emotionally vulnerable from time-to-time when new species don't visit (I'm looking at you, butterflies). I make loads of mistakes, which are great for learning but rather lame experientially. But it's my garden, so nobody really notices but me. Fortunately, the native plants remain surprisingly tolerant of everything I subject them to.

My new mission is to get more people to see the inherent value of our native plants. I want them to not only consider the importance of native plants in the wild, but also the opportunity they have to establish conservation pockets in their own gardens. It's easy and it's rewarding. My favourite thing to hear from passing kids is "why don't we have flowers and bugs in our garden mom/dad?" I really do hope that it sticks with some of the younger generations. Worst case outcome is that I continue to scatter native plant seeds everywhere and hopefully watch them pop up here and there around the neighborhood while listening to the bees hum.