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Healthy Gardens

Our Native Plant Sale is closed. Subscribe to this page (lower right) to be notified of future sales.

If you are interested in creating or maintaining a healthy garden on your property, Kawartha Conservation can help. We provide funding to support healthy gardens and related projects that improve habitat and water quality across our watershed. Learn more and schedule a site visit to support your application for funding.

New garden guides available

Create healthy, natural, and stunning gardens on your property using our free garden guides. Complete with design templates, species lists, maintenance tips, and more, it's never been easier to create gardens that support pollinators, strengthen shorelines, and absorb pollutants and runoff.

Click on a guide below to download and get started.

Programs and services

Each spring and fall, the native plant sale provides locally sourced plant material for shoreline re-naturalization, habitat creation, erosion control, establishment of rain gardens and low maintenance property beautification.

Native plants are plants are a key factor in achieving a healthy garden and have multiple benefits for your property enhancement projects including:

  • Aesthetic value
  • Habitat for local wildlife
  • Food source for pollinators
  • Filter rainwater runoff
  • Adaptation to local climate
  • Deep roots and soil stability

The Native Plant Sale is now closed. Please subscribe to this page (on the right) to be notified of future sales. For questions regarding the Native Plant Sale, contact Danielle Marcoux-Hunter by email or by phone at (705) 328-2271 ext. 242

Creating a healthy garden

Explore the different types of gardens that you can plant and other things you can do to improve environmental sustainability on your property. 

Garden Guides

Create healthy, natural, and stunning gardens on your property using our free garden guides. Complete with design templates, species lists, maintenance tips, and more, it's never been easier to create gardens that support pollinators, strengthen shorelines, and absorb pollutants and runoff.

Available guides include Native Plant Pollinator Garden, Native Plant Understory Garden, and Low Maintenance Rain Garden. Click on a garden guide below to get started.

Pollinator garden

Pollinators are animals, mostly insects, that transfer pollen from flower to flower, fertilizing plants. Creating healthy gardens with native flowering plants support local pollinators. They're important because they account for a significant amount of our food sources and ecological balances.

See native plants for pollinators for detailed information.

Rain garden / BlueScaping

rain garden is a landscaped depression that is planted with native shrubs, grasses and flowers. It's designed to collect rainwater that runs off hardened surfaces such as your roof or driveway. See the landscape design guide for low impact development and BlueScaping our neighbourhoods for more information.

How it works

A rain garden slows and reduces stormwater runoff by temporarily holding it and allowing the water to soak into the ground. The native plants also help filter the contaminants and sediments that would otherwise be carried into your lake or the nearest water body through the storm water system.

Here are a few things to consider when building one:

  • Proper Location – It's important to identify an area on your lawn where stormwater can be captured, such as near a downspout or even the overflow from a rain barrel, or at an existing depression in the ground.
  • Size - The size and depth of your rain garden is important as it needs to be large enough to manage the amount of stormwater it receives. 
  • Soil Type - Use sandy or loam soils (loam soils are an even mix of sand, silt and clay) as they are porous and allow the water to seep back into the ground at a faster rate. You want to avoid clay soils as they are less porous. 
  • Plants - It is important to choose plants that are native to the area and can tolerate both wet and dry conditions. Certain native plant species have fibrous root systems that grow well in rain garden conditions. Remember to consider whether the species are shade or sun tolerant species.

Shoreline garden

View our shoreline owner's guide to lakeland living to learn how to develop a healthy shoreline garden. Healthy shoreline gardens can make a big difference, and provide many benefits including:

  • Protecting water quality by reducing the amount of nutrients, bacteria, contaminants, and sediments that reach your lake or river
  • Reducing erosion and sedimentation that can impact fish spawning beds
  • Providing wildlife habitat for native species such as birds, dragon flies, butterflies, frogs and fish
  • Deterring nuisance Canada Geese that can make a mess and contribute to elevated E.coli in the water

Shorelines are often called the "ribbon of life” because they're critical to the ecological health of lakes and rivers.

Rain barrels

Landowners can purchase rain barrels from their local municipality, garden centre, or hardware store. Please find information below on how to contact your local municipality to order rain barrels.

City of Kawartha Lakes 
Telephone: 705-324-9411 ext. 2365

Low Impact Development (LID)

Low Impact Development (LID is a practice of mimicking natural processes to protect water quality and associated aquatic habitat. When water runs over land, it picks up every small particle in its path, including pet waste, pesticides, automobile fluids, and cigarette butts. This water, called runoff, can impact our water quality and even our water quantity. Runoff-related problems are only exacerbated in areas with many roofs, driveways, parking lots, roads, and other ‘hard’ surfaces. By undertaking LID projects, we are helping our communities to 'soften' their landscapes to tackle flooding, erosion, and water pollution

Permeable Pavement in Port Perry

Explore our latest initiative along Old Rail Lane in Port Perry, developed in collaboration with the Township of Scugog and RBC Tech for Nature This project focuses on addressing stormwater runoff and enhancing the water quality of Lake Scugog through the implementation of permeable pavement 

Our mission is to combat the adverse effects of stormwater runoff, which can harm aquatic life and water quality by transporting harmful chemicals and sediment into the lake. This innovative project utilizes permeable pavementas opposed to traditional concrete or asphalt Permeable pavement allows water to pass through, preventing flooding and reducing the influx of nutrient-rich stormwater into Lake Scugog, while providing a safe walking space for pedestrians. 

5 key benefits of permeable pavement: 

  1. Natural filtrationpollution is naturally filtered as water passes through the pavement, gravel, and soil layers. 

  2. Flood preventionexcess stormwater is treated on the spot, flowing directly through the permeable pavement, rather than over its surface, preventing local flooding and safeguarding our community.

  3. Water quality improvementcontributing to cleaner and healthier water in Lake Scugog. 

  4. Ecosystem enhancementsupporting vital lake organisms and aquatic life. 

  5. Sustainable landscapingpromoting responsible land use through Low Impact Development (LID) practices.

Grey permeable pavement pathway adjacent to railing looking out over Lake Scugog.


Additional resources

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