Welcome to Pollin' Gardens
We are a small nursery specializing in growing plants native to Ontario. Our aim is to increase habitat for insects and birds one home garden at a time.
2024
Pollin' Gardens will be open by appointment only starting in May 2024.
Plants may be pre-ordered via email and picked up at our home nursery.
Link to plant list below is from 2023. The list will be updated as the spring progresses and time allows.
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What's Available? Clicking on the button below will take you to our most current inventory
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Our plants are grown from seed collected from native plants growing in our garden, on the wild spaces of our property.
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Our process is as ecologically responsible as possible. To that end, we sell our plants in our own potting soil mix that limits our use of plastic and decreases our use of peat.
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Prices: $4-$5 with some larger plants or shrubs priced higher. Anyone with a current horticultural society membership card will receive a 10% discount. Cash, debit or credit accepted
NURSERY & DISPLAY GARDENS
Pollin' Gardens mission is to make it as easy as possible for your home to provide habitat for pollinators. We have large demonstration gardens that allow you to see how the plants actually grow. You are free to roam and explore by yourself or Brenda will be happy to give you a guided tour to learn more about each plant species and the insects that use them. Please note that the gardens are private spaces and some paths may be uneven. Touring the gardens is done at your own risk.
About Us
Pollin' Gardens started as a joint venture between myself, Brenda Near, my daughter Jessie and her boyfriend Thomas in the spring of 2021. We wanted to promote growing native plants to local home owners so they could create habitat for bees, butterflies and birds by increasing the biodiversity in their gardens.
We grew and sold many healthy plants in our first year, donated plants to two school pollinator projects and created a pollinator garden at the Uxbridge Historical Centre.
Jessie and Thomas are now on a new adventure, creating sustainable agriculture on their own homestead in Nova Scotia, but I am still here growing native plants from locally collected seeds and expanding my own gardens!
I look forward to meeting you and helping you grow a meaningful garden!
Brenda
P.S. We do know how to spell! Our name "Pollin' Gardens" is a play on the words Pollinator and Pollen.
The Plant People
Brenda Near
I have always loved the outdoors and nature. While studying visual arts at York University, I began a small gardening business, learning as I went. In the early 90's we moved to a 5 acre property near Zephyr, Ontario. Gardens went in almost immediately but it wasn't until much later that I discovered native plants and the benefits they bring to the local wildlife. Now I am hooked on creating gardens that not only look good but ones that are teaming with insect life.
Jessie Pearson
Jessie completed her B. Sc. in biology at the University of Waterloo. She is passionate to the core about saving this beautiful planet and all it's creatures.
Thomas Cornell
Thomas completed his Honours B. Sc. degree in environmental science and ecology at the University of Waterloo. His intersecting interests in citizen science, sustainability, ecology, native plants and their physiology have led him to pollinator habitat gardens as the most practical means to address the ongoing extinction crisis.
Neil Pearson
Neil is Brenda's incredibly supportive husband who is always there to lend a hand with the big jobs, like digging out yet another flower bed, creating our wonderful compost and building things.