Wildscaping in Kingston Ontario

The Project:

Rideau 1000 Islands Master Gardeners is spearheading a community wildscaping project in the Kingston region this summer and fall. They are working with community partners and homeowners to turn front lawns into ecological 'wildscapes' mimicking natural ecosystems as a way to regenerate the health of the spaces where we live and work.

Each yard will be an individual project, suited to the site conditions and working toward a specific theme and goals. Regenerative gardening criteria will be employed on all of the sited and the SOUL Organic Land Care Standard will be the overall guideline. 

The Workshops:

Climate Emergency - Becoming a better landscaper or home gardener by building soil health and applying Regenerative Gardening Practices.

Monday, August 12th 

To set the stage for the project, Regeneration Canada will be hosting a gardening workshop to prepare stakeholders and engage the public in the techniques and climate and ecosystem restoration possibilities of regenerative and rewilded gardens and landscapes. More details here.

Wildscaping: An introduction to ecological plant-driven design

Saturday, September 7th

This workshop is a prerequisite for planting design workshop on the following day

Discover the aesthetic and ecological principles driving the New Perennial movement in naturalistic planting design. Learn about the design practices and methods championed by famed planting designer Piet Oudolf and his peers with an eye to broaden and transform your own approach to planting design, plant selection, installation and maintenance in home-based or community projects.  More details here

The Wildscaping Workshop: Planting Design

Sunday September 8th 10:00-1:00 pm

Join the New Perennialist Tony Spencer in a two-part morning workshop exploring the new fundamentals of naturalistic planting design. In part one, Tony will guide us through the design work of leading figures like Piet Oudolf, Roy Diblik, and Cassian Schmidt to show the evolution of plant-driven landscape design. The second part is all about applying these methods and practices to residential scale gardens with a hands-on workshop to help you grasp the basics with a local spin. Walk away with an understanding of matrix template design. More details here

Planting Day:

The wildscaping of lawns across the city will take place on October 5th. For details and to let the organizers know if you would like to participate as a homeowner by volunteering your yard please register here 

The People Behind the Project:

Read about 'Rewilding My City' by Joyce Hostyn, the Master Gardener who is coordinating this project.

Astrid Muschalla, Certified Organic Land Care Professional and long time SOUL member, has been actively involved with this project as part of her ongoing work to shift how people see a landscape, their relationship to the natural world, and what makes a garden beautiful.

The project team has been approaching city council on this rewilding initiative and are seeking a Councillor and home owner from every municipal ward to partner with a wildscaping coach to work on each private front lawn, to support the transformations of lawns to 'beescaping', ‘birdscaping', edible landscaping (in partnership with Loving Spoonful) , meadowscaping, rainscaping, ‘seedscaping' (in partnership with KASSI)  or whichever rewilding and regenerative theme the homeowner and coach decide on.

Workshop 1:

Climate Emergency - Becoming a better landscaper or home gardener by building soil health and applying Regenerative Gardening Practices

Monday, Aug 12, 2019, 6:00-9pm at Central Library, 130 Johnson St., Kingston

Fee $30

Wondering if you can make a difference in tackling our climate emergency? You can! By changing the way you manage your land and soil, you can become part of a global regeneration movement that is drawing carbon out of the atmosphere, sequestering it in soil and regenerating ecosystem health. 

Our soils have lost over 50% of their carbon. But we now know how to put carbon back into the soil while at the same time increasing biodiversity, and regenerating ecosystem health. In this workshop, aimed at homeowners, landscapers, parks employees, you'll learn about:

• Soil science: Why have our soils lost 50% of their carbon? A brief overview of the chemistry, physics, and biology of soil. Learn how to diagnosis the health of your soil.
• Soil is a living miracle: Learn about the vast network of beings that live in the soil, how they interact to form the soil food web, and their critical role in soil, plant, and planet health.
• Putting carbon back into the soil: Regenerative practices - sequester carbon while improving biodiversity, fertility and yield - including permaculture, composting, minimum tillage, agroforestry, agroecology, cover cropping, and wildscaping.
• Becoming a regenerative consumer: How you can help build, support and contribute to a regenerative future by changing your landscaping and purchasing habits.

Presenter - Antonious Petro

Graduate in biology, community economic development and certified in permaculture, Antonious is passionate about soil regeneration, social innovation and is dedicated to the fight against climate change. He is currently responsible for soil and environment projects at Regeneration Canada and a master's student in soil science.

Regeneration Canada is a nonprofit organization that promotes land management practices that regenerate soil health, in order to mitigate climate change, restore biodiversity, improve water cycles, and support a more productive and just food system. We strive towards this goal by empowering farmers, landowners, scientists, agronomists, horticulturists, community organizations, governments, and consumers to play a role in soil regeneration. Find more details and Register Here

Workshop 2:

Wildscaping: An introduction to ecological plant-driven design

Saturday September 7th 3:00-4:30

Fee $10 

Isabel Turner Branch, Kingston Public Library, 935 Gardiners Rd

Discover the aesthetic and ecological principles driving the New Perennial movement in naturalistic planting design. Learn about the design practices and methods championed by famed planting designer Piet Oudolf and his peers with an eye to broaden and transform your own approach to planting design, plant selection, installation and maintenance in home-based or community projects.

Note that this talk is a prerequisite for The Wildscaping Workshop on September 8th. Find more details and Register Here

Workshop 3:

The Wildscaping Workshop: Planting Design

Sunday September 8th 10:00-1:00 pm

$40 per person, includes a light lunch

764 Meadowood Road, Kingston, ON K7M 5G6

Join the New Perennialist, Tony Spencer in this workshop exploring the new fundamentals of naturalistic planting design. Tony will guide us through the design work of leading figures like Piet Oudolf, Roy Diblik, and Cassian Schmidt to show the evolution of plant-driven landscape design. Find more details and Register Here

Wildscaping Day:

Sat, October 5, 2019

Interested in wildscaping your front yard?

Be part of #rewildmylawn day, slated for October 5th. We're looking for 3 to a maximum of 10 lawns for rewilding. By rewilding, we mean swapping out a grass monoculture with wildscape alternatives such as:

• meadow
• woodland
• edible forest
• foodscape
• rainscape
• birdscape
• tapestry flowering lawn
• sedge lawn
• native wildscape

We are looking for a MAXIMUM of 10 people who:

• believe it's time to replace monoculture lawns with a rich tapestry of lawn alternatives that regenerate our soils, beautify our cities, and provide habitat for wildlife (helping mitigate our climate emergency)
• want to cultivate a deeper connection to place by learning more about gardening in partnership with the natural world
• are willing to purchase the plants for wildscaping their front yard
• interested in their wildscaping story being part of an article or featured in blog posts

If you would like your yard to be one of the project sites, please let the organizers know here