“As we witness the effects of climate change, it’s hard to feel hopeful about the future. Here’s a bit of good news, though. Gardening with native plants is something positive we can do to ameliorate the effects of climate change: increasing native plant habitat supports biodiversity, and biodiversity is a foundation of resiliency. “ (Published in the Toronto Star, July 19, 2021)

Lorraine’s review of Douglas Tallamy’s new book, The Nature of Oaks, was published in the Summer 2021 issue of The Blazing Star, the journal of the North American Native Plant Society.

“Spring hadn’t officially sprung, but the season was warm, and so the annual ritual began. People began to “clean up” the dried stalks and dead leaves protecting the earth. While “tidying up,” people were also throwing out countless insects — a generation of bees, butterflies and other beneficial creatures that spend the winter as larvae, pupae or adults in the rich organic materials we call ‘mess.’” (Co-written with Sheila Colla, published in the Toronto Star, April 19, 2021)

Co-written with Sheila Boudreau, Nina-Marie Lister and Andrea Kirkwood and published in The Pointer, this article calls out the Ontario government and their agencies’ denial of Indigenous rights and First Nations’ interests in Southern Ontario development decisions, and the complicity of the planning profession.

“A meadow might look ‘messy’ and disordered, but whose health and safety does its diversity threaten? The only threat it offers is to an aesthetic of control — the ‘normal’ look of yards and gardens that treat all insects as pests and all abundance as an affront. Are we really still comfortable defending an aesthetic that is rooted in colonial ideas of control? Landscapes that weed out difference and subvert indigenous plants? Surely if the pandemic has one overarching lesson, it is that normal is the crisis.” (Co-written with Nina-Marie Lister), published in the Toronto Star, September 1, 2020)

A pandemic challenge to landscape architects, published in the Canadian Society of Landscape Architect’s magazine, Landscapes Paysages, for a shift in thinking: from creating spaces, to creating and supporting the conditions for communities to express the inherent strengths that exist within them. (Published in Landscape/Paysages, Summer 2020)

“The pandemic resurgence of interest in victory gardens has opened up a crack in lawn and garden conventions. The time is ripe to fill front yards with food, to discover that insects are necessary for pollination, and to see the connections between our gardens and the local ecology.

So, a challenge to gardeners: let’s garden so that our gardens matter:

Let’s grow tons of food. And let’s grow it so it gets to those of us who are most vulnerable and marginalized. 

…let’s grow tons of gardeners who are cultivation activists — people who take up the trowel and dig for the victory that will be in place when there is abundance, opportunity and possibility for all.” (Published in the Toronto Star, May 4, 2020)

“And then there’s the front yard of the low-rise building where Davies lives in Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood. Gone is the lawn, and in its place grows a tree nursery, constructed with permission—and assistance— from the landlord, who is clearly as accommodating as Davies’ roommate is. Made out of salvaged oak boards (which would otherwise have been chopped into wood chips, notes Davies), filled with a truckload of donated soil (‘that’s when it got real!’ he says), topped with hardware cloth to keep those crafty neighbourhood squirrels out, planted with 1,500 acorns, and taking up an area roughly 12 feet by 12 feet, the tree nursery stops passers-by in their tracks. Davies uses such opportunities to explain to all who are curious that his tree nursery is growing oaks to be given away to anyone who wants to share in this effort to restore the urban forest with locally grown, genetically diverse, provenance-verified, heritage oaks.” (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Spring 2019)

“There are more words in this section of [Toronto’s] draft Official Plan about protecting the heritage view of the Etobicoke Civic Centre’s clock tower from the intersection of Highway 427 and the off-ramp of Burnhamthorpe Road than there are about how the imperative of reconciliation might shape, inform and influence the public realm…” (Published in Spacing magazine, Winter 2018/19)

“These trees are legacy treasures, and now, with the rejuvenation of Queen’s Park North, a legacy for the future has been planted and, even more importantly, the health of the new forest prioritized. As Ormston-Holloway puts it, ‘this project is going to be successful if all of the trees survive and if the trees are in better shape as a result of this work.’” (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Winter 2019)

“Finally, and most significantly, Crosby stresses the importance of ensuring that Indigenous people have a voice in all organizations and businesses. ‘Be guided by Indigenous people,’ he advises, noting that there are no shortcuts to this process. ‘First Nations must be at the table,’ and that means hiring Indigenous staff and doing outreach to build meaningful relationships.” (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Fall 2019)

“But the biological feature of lichen that has brought us all together on this early spring day in an old Hamilton cemetery is that lichen does not thrive in the presence of air pollution—in particular, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxides. This makes lichen a useful biomonitor to infer ambient air quality. As McMaster professor George Sorger found, areas with a high lichen presence have better air quality than those areas with low lichen presence. The project Lichen in the City has hosted a number of workshops in six Hamilton neighbourhoods to introduce community members to lichen identification. These citizen scientists then engage in lichen monitoring to gather a baseline of data that can be replicated in the future to assess changes in air quality over time.” (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Summer 2019)

“While scientific training can dim the potential to see magic in the world, for Beresford-Kroeger it has clearly heightened her innate respect for mystery. ‘Trees are more complex than we are,’ she notes. ‘We don’t even fully understand how transpiration works.’ Reverence for the unknowns of nature doesn’t mean that Beresford-Kroeger isn’t certain about our current realities: ‘We’ve taken down too much forest,’ she states simply, and her life’s work is to repatriate lost species in order to replant the planet— something she has termed bioplanning—as a ‘foundation of resilient sustainability.’ (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Winter 2018)

“ ‘I was having a great day,’ says Doreen Nicoll, ‘until I got home and saw the notice on my door.’ The notice, dated June 28, 2018, was from the City of Burlington and directed Nicoll, who has lived in the house for more than twenty years, to remove the milkweed from her front-yard garden or the City would remove the plants for her and give her a bill.” (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Winter 2018)

“There’s a town in Belgium and another one in France that offer residents free backyard chickens — not because people are clamouring for better omelettes or happier hens, but because these towns are trying to manage their kitchen waste in a way that doesn’t overburden already bulging garbage dumps. These towns recognize that chickens are compact, two-legged, live composters that turn food scraps into rich, nutrient-packed garden fertilizer.” (Co-written with Adam Dirks, published in the Toronto Star, February 26, 2018)

“ ‘Native plant gardening is getting to be a bit more popular,’ says [greenhouse technician Kyle] Williams, who points out that three-quarters of the species used in a conventional border planting at a nearby community centre are indeed natives, such as switchgrass, little bluestem, bearberry, and serviceberry. In an effort to demonstrate the ornamental potential of indigenous plants, Williams has created a small garden bed at the greenhouse entrance. As well, he plans to talk with community Elders and learn the Ojibwe names of plants, furthering the educational value of his work. (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Winter 2017)

“It’s also a park that acknowledges First Nations involvement with the site. The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, represented by former elected chief Carolyn King, participated in the consultation process and were instrumental in directing the park’s iconography and features. For example, carved into the granite walls framing a ravine-referencing pathway are moccasins, part of a province-wide initiative spearheaded by King called the Moccasin Identifier Project, which was officially launched at the opening of Trillium Park. Nearby is a boulder carved with an exhortation to ‘walk gently on the land.’” (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Winter 2017)

“Bissonnette had been teaching courses on healing gardens for the general public for a number of years when he realized that he could modify the materials for specific populations: ‘Reclaiming the Sacred was created partially out of concern that there was little available in terms of long-term therapeutic options for adult survivors of sexual abuse. While there are certainly community resources for these people during the first few years of their healing journey, there isn’t much to offer them in the long term.’ He began by connecting with the local Windsor chapter of the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre and consulting with survivors and therapists; in the fall of 2016, he launched the first workshop, which took place over five sessions. (Published in Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly, Winter 2017)