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Let Your Garden Come Alive
LEARN•LEAP•LOVE•LIBERATE
A pollinator garden with native plants brings joy, wonder and awe
Native plants and wildlife have co-evolved and developed symbiotic relationships to create a complex and miraculously intelligent system of life. By matching the right native plants to the place you care for, you provide food and shelter for many creatures, and will see biodiversity unfold in front of your eyes.
Your pollinator garden not only increases biodiversity but also draws significantly more carbon into the soil and allows the soil to soak up astonishingly more rain. Therefore, it counteracts climate change and biodiversity loss and brings hope.
I help you unlearn and learn quickly in a fun and eye-opening way. By reconnecting our shared human memories of stewardship to the marvels of self-healing natural systems, you will enjoy a lavish garden and rediscover fascinating beauty - including your wild side - in no time.
Workshops & Zoom Calls
Workshops provide personalized hands-on learning in groups of 3-5 people.
We meet in a comfortable, clean setting for about 3 hours.
More Services
Save time and money - tap into my experience
Soil Workshop
Work with nature and improve your soil in one season!
Have you ever wondered how wild ecosystems sustain themselves - how plants thrive and are resilient? Have you ever wondered how your soil is fairing - how you can help nature restore her health in the City?
Bring a soil or compost sample, and we will examine the soil's biology under a microscope. You will watch the action in your sample on a big TV screen and learn how the different soil microbes work together to feed and protect your plants.
Each workshop will cater to the group's interests, questions, and goals.
Gardeners coming together always create a beautiful community, so we had extraordinary times in our Winter Seed Workshops.
Weekends or evenings
$ 45 per person
After you have expressed interest, I will contact you to arrange a convenient date. We work and learn while enjoying a cappuccino, cup of tea, or coffee in a spacious, clean, and cozy meeting room in the Kingston Road and St. Clair East area.
Disclaimer: After experiencing the life in your soil, you will never see the world with the same eyes again.
Free Zoom: Grow Native Plants from Seed
Organized by the David Suzuki Foundation's Seed Sitters Project
hosted by Colleen Cirillo and Dorte Windmuller
Seed Workshop
Learn how to grow your own native plants successfully
In this workshop, you will find suitable plants for your garden conditions and learn different methods to grow these plants from seed. We will sow some samples, and you can choose more seeds from the list below that will thrive in your garden to take home.
Back in November, 2024
$ 45 per person
We can also talk about:
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Hostplants for butterflies and pollen specialist bees and the takeaway for our gardens.
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A step-by-step plan to create a beautiful pollinator garden by next summer.
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The importance of living soil and soft landings.
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Beneficial garden maintenance practices for insects, soil, birds and all wildlife.
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Increase vegetable yields with native plants and how to implement them in a vegetable garden.
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Native plants for container gardening on a balcony or terrasse.
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Practices to improve your soil, its water retention and fertility.
Nora, Toronto
Thanks for a fun and very informative afternoon! I learned so much.
Jen, Toronto
Thank you, Dorte, for organizing! I am so happy I made some new friends and got all the seeds I need.
Ruth, Toronto
I wanted specific advice to be confident to get started and I got all my questions answered.
Comments from workshop participants
Thinking of Creating a Beautiful Pollinator garden
GET AN
IN-GARDEN CONSULTATION
AND FAST-TRACK YOUR SUCCESS
A Pollinator Garden is a Feel-Good Garden
Go on a vacation right in your garden.
Experience the sweet scent of vanilla, luxurious colours and outrageous colour combinations, a relaxing soundscape, long bloom times and always someone visiting, if bee, bird or butterfly.
I can help you choose plants that will thrive in your garden conditions and get you started successfully.
Low maintenance since native plants are adapted to our climate:
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Less watering once the plants are established and planted in the right place
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Less weeding
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Less mowing means less noise & pollution
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No fertilizer need
Financial benefits:
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A beautiful pollinator garden increases curb appeal
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Better pollination increases the yield and quality of your vegetables, fruits and nuts
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Deeper root systems lower flood risk
Brings back biodiversity:
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Contributes to conservation efforts
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Beneficial insects and birds create a balanced and vibrant ecosystem
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Heals the soil
Climate change solution:
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Help to restore the natural water cycle
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Sequesters more carbon than lawns
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Less fossil fuel inputs from the purchase of plants to their maintenance
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Greater cooling effect
Health benefits:
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Stress relief
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We are hard-wired to enjoy a deeper connection to the natural beauty and processes
By creating a pollinator garden using Ontario native plants, you allow life to unfold again how nature intended it: exuberant, beautiful, and full of intelligent relations.
A Pollinator Garden benefits everyone!
Butterflies in my Toronto Pollinator Garden
Ever Wondered Which Microorganisms Are in Your Compost or Soil?Find Out With A
Biological Soil Exploration
GET SOME FUN PICTURES OF MICROORGANISMS WORKING IN YOUR SOIL OR COMPOST
What You Get:
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400 x magnified digital pictures of microorganisms in your soil/compost.
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Information about the function of the organisms in your soil with an easy-to-understand explanation of their role in your garden.
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Information on which microorganisms are missing and the implications.
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Simple to follow techniques to improve your soil.
Nutrient Cycling is Key to Fertile Soil!
The soil must be alive to be the foundation of a healthy and low-maintenance garden. Living organisms like Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoa, Amoebae, and Nematodes are crucial for nutrient cycling, meaning providing plants with enough of the proper nutrients at any time. Fungal hyphae in symbiosis with plant roots can make your garden more self-sufficient. As an extension of plant roots, the symbiotic fungal networks make plants more drought-resistant and fungi, as chemical wizards, will supply the plants with the required nutrients. It turns out that the traditional chemical soil tests and determining the pH of soil don't provide the information that is needed for a holistic garden approach.
As a powerful climate solution, fungi store carbon longer and in higher concentrations in their hyphae in the soil than plants in their tissue. Even in your garden, you can create conditions to promote the underground network of fungi through less - but more thoughtful - maintenance practices, and you will help to counteract climate change. As a side effect, the soil chemistry will change, bringing your garden into a more advanced successional state which will not allow weeds to dominate.
POLLINATORS· SOIL·NATIVE PLANTS
Inspirational Presentations
About Dorte Windmuller
I am very passionate about solutions to counteract climate change and biodiversity loss and concerned about the effect on human mental and physical health caused by alienation from nature. I have been studying native plants and their associated fauna, soil, and societal norms for the last four years. Science and traditional Indigenous knowledge offer powerful and often straightforward solutions to these daunting problems of our time. I have gained practical knowledge through the experience of converting my garden into a pollinator paradise, organizing community volunteer work and sharpening my observation skills. We are in a time when positive environmental change gets embraced exponentially. I am excited to take you on this journey. This experience often sets people on fire or, as the elders say, wakes up the blood memory to reconnect, act and ultimately inspire others again.
Now is the Time to Grow Your Garden From Seed
IT'S FUN AND EASY
