Sustainable Roots Ecological Restoration

I love this special little patch of Canada Anemone and Horsetail on my local trail 💚

Even though she loves working with plants, Rosemary Hooper really is the animal whisperer 🦋
Here are some shots from her over the last few weeks ✨

Another successful garden from last season 🌸
There’s nothing like seeing a garden flourish, especially when it started out as lawn 💚
Swipe through to see the the progress photos 👉

Catch us at tomorrow from 9-1 🦋
We will have a variety of native plants ready for your pollinator garden 🪴
We love this Toronto market so much! So many great vendors and always a lovely time 💚

We love checking back in on past gardens 🌿
This amazing rooftop pollinator garden was installed last spring with the help of the beautiful and easy to put together raised beds from our friends at 💚
It’s always wonderful to bring some nature into the city 🦋
Swipe through to see the progress of this garden 🌸

First garden of the season! 🤙🌷
Some process pics and before & afters from last week’s garden 🪴
Though it’s too early in the season to see much from most of the plants, we still had some eye candy from the trilliums and prairie smoke 🌸😍

Peak trillium season ft. Newt 🌱🌸

A very nice spring bloom from a rainy hike here in this past week 💚
Meet Cutleaf Toothwort — one of Ontario’s beautiful spring woodland wildflowers 🌿
This native perennial emerges early in the season, before the forest canopy fully leafs out, producing delicate white four-petaled flowers above deeply cut leaves. As a spring ephemeral, it takes advantage of the brief window of sunlight that reaches the forest floor in early spring.
But cutleaf toothwort is more than just beautiful — it plays an important ecological role in Ontario forests.
It is a host plant for the West Virginia White, a native woodland butterfly found in parts of southern Ontario. The butterfly lays its eggs on toothwort species, and the caterpillars rely on these plants to survive.
Unfortunately, invasive Garlic Mustard has become a major threat. Because garlic mustard is in the same plant family, the butterflies can mistake it for native toothwort and lay their eggs on it instead. The problem? The caterpillars often cannot survive on garlic mustard, creating what ecologists call an “ecological trap.”
Protecting native woodland plants like cutleaf toothwort — and removing invasive species like garlic mustard — helps support the complex relationships that healthy forest ecosystems depend on 🍃

And just like that, the bloodroot has finished it’s show! 🍃
Early spring is so magical and so fleeting 🤍

Catching the last few glimpses of bloodroot for the season 🤍🩸