Pollinator patch volunteers needed for 2025

OSEAN will be helping Ottawa South residents plant more native plants again in 2025!  Buildilng on our success of the previous years, we will be offering: 

• Pollinator kits of 20 native perennial plants for residents to plant in either a part-shade or sunny garden and in containers

• Individual native perennial plants and seed packages at events across Ottawa South

• Probably also larger kits of 50-100 native flowering perennial plants in 50-plug trays for schools/community groups

We need your help!

We’ll be starting the seedlings for our Pollinator Patch programs under grow-lights again this year so they will be seeding-sized when distributed and planted. Please contact us if you can help out with one or more of the tasks below. Volunteers are needed in the next few months to:

• Clean and sanitize reused containers and plug trays

• Soil prep: moisten potting soil, load pots and plug trays with moistened soil and lightly compress

• Prepare plant labels for pots & trays

• Join one of our seed sewing gettogethers (between March 19 and 31). We’ll sew seeds in pots and attach labels.

• Be a winter-sown seedling steward: taking home trays and placing them in a shaded area outside, where they will be snowed and rained on, and watering them periodically  in spring once the snow is gone

• Be a grow-light seedling steward: take one tray or a few trays home to place under grow-lights if you have room in your own seed-starting set-up, and keep them watered from late March to May

• Be a plant-stand seedling steward: take home a plant stand and grow-lights that OSEAN will provide, and 4-10 trays and keep them watered from late March to May