Last year, not knowing we were moving, I transplanted trillium from patches of forest onto our property. What with building the house, in 1991, my parents lost quite a goodly number of natural plants moving topsoil around. Over the years a few trillium popped up. I could see a pink lady slipper once every few years, but the neighbours, with untouched land had far more of these beautiful ecologically sensitive plants. As folks in cottage country remake a property to have it look as if they are living in the city, they destroy natural biomes.
dad's daffies
It broke my heart as the neighbour began filling in the frog pond. Birds, bees, frogs, bugs, minnows, turtles, heron, all depend upon this system. In a way, I was happy to leave. My parents had planted hundreds of daffodils, periwinkle, crocus, and built gardens. I was loathe to leave their toil.
in my parent's frog pond in Muskoka
Happily, I have found a frog pond on our new (Sept., 2010) property. Well, 1/4 of it sits on our property. With the adjacent landowner putting in a road, the land is natural and vacant, I am worried about what will happen.
Daffies and iris on their way
Lilac leaves are
Fabulous trillium
More joy: apparently, a man named Oswald Love and his wife, built our house in 1978 or so. They used the flat, sedimentary limestone to build pathways and stonescapes, through gardens. I have found many of the plants I so dearly loved in previous gardens: trillium, periwinkle, asiatic lily, peony, daffodils, crocus, as well as some plants that would not have survived in the cold of Muskoka.
I planted some lilac, bridal wreath spirea, Rose of Sharon, and I will miss them blooming. Good thing there are many lilac on this property. But my special place, the frog pond.
Our land earns a benefit of being left natural. We get a tax break because we are beside a protected bog, a 'provincially significant wetland', and we haven't developed the land. Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program:
This tree, a majestic pine, went over in the big storm.
Shallow roots, 6' across, didn't hold it in the bog over the clay.
20 Dec 2010 ... The Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program (CLTIP) is designed to recognize, encourage and support the long-term private stewardship of outstanding natural features.
I guess the way people want to build the world over is to level everything out, fill everything in, and start over, wiping out tons of plants and habitat in the process.
Last year, not knowing we were moving, I transplanted trillium from patches of forest onto our property. What with building the house, in 1991, my parents lost quite a goodly number of natural plants moving topsoil around. Over the years a few trillium popped up. I could see a pink lady slipper once every few years, but the neighbours, with untouched land had far more of these beautiful ecologically sensitive plants. As folks in cottage country remake a property to have it look as if they are living in the city, they destroy natural biomes.
Good thing there are many lilac on this property. But my special place, the frog pond.
20 Dec 2010 ... The Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program (CLTIP) is designed to recognize, encourage and support the long-term private stewardship of outstanding natural features.
2 comments:
I guess the way people want to build the world over is to level everything out, fill everything in, and start over, wiping out tons of plants and habitat in the process.
You have a beautiful setting there. Nature pulls out all the stops in spring, or maybe it just seems that way because we are so, so ready for it.
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