Seed Processing and Listen Garden
It’s December now and you might be asking what sort of work the Friends of Fish Creek are up to when it’s cold out, the days are short, and not much is growing. Well, our work actually continues year-round, and we have the time once field season ends to reap the fruits of our labours – kind of literally! Through spring, summer, and fall, after you see beautiful blooms on all kinds of different species of native plants, those plants go to seed. And we’re out there at plant salvages, in the park, and on land we’ve been given access to by our partners, harvesting those seeds to continue building species diversity within the park. After harvesting, our incredible volunteers gather weekly to help us separate the seeds from the chaff so that they’re easily stored, measured, and perhaps most importantly, planted.
And this year, we’ve got a special purpose for all those seeds we’re harvesting – putting them into the Listen Garden at Bow Valley Ranch – a space for native plants, Indigenous knowledge, and reconciliation. This area has been treated with herbicide to remove the invasive species that cover much of the park and prepare it for the cover crop (annual Plains coreopsis) and native seed mix we’ll apply in spring. After one to two seasons, the Plains coreopsis will die, and the high-diversity native seed mix will emerge from below. To speed revegetation along, hundreds of large, salvaged mature plants like Foothills rough fescue, Parry’s oatgrass, and Western porcupine grass will be planted in the spring alongside the seed mix. The Listen Garden will also feature several “Habitat beds” that highlight Alberta’s diverse ecosystems. Beds on the garden’s west side will showcase alpine/montane, foothills parkland, and Foothills rough fescue grassland ecosystems, merging into the dry mixed grass and badlands ecosystems on the east side of the gardens. These more “formal” gardens will be installed in a few years. Right now, the space consists of contoured pathways – what isn’t currently path will be a home for thousands of tiny native plant seedlings.
You can learn more about the Listen Garden project at https://www.bowvalleyranche.com/iiststiiik or stop by Fish Creek’s Bow Valley Ranch day use area to see the future site of incredible species diversity (and an impressive assortment of blooms once these species reach maturity).
Help us with this and other exciting projects by making a donation or becoming a member today! www.friendsoffishcreek.org.
Site map – regular view
Site map – satellite view
