Pollinator patch volunteers needed

OSEAN will be helping Ottawa South residents plant more native plants again in 2026!  Buildilng on our success of the previous years, we will be offering: 

• Pollinator kits of 20 native perennial plants for residents to plant in either a part-shade or sunny garden and in containers

• Individual native perennial plants and seed packages at events across Ottawa South

• Probably also larger kits of 50-100 native flowering perennial plants in 50-plug trays for schools/community groups

We need your help!

We’ll be starting the seedlings for our Pollinator Patch programs under grow-lights again this year so they will be seeding-sized when distributed and planted. Please contact us if you can help out with one or more of the tasks below. Volunteers are needed in the next few months to:

• Clean and sanitize reused containers and plug trays

• Soil prep: moisten potting soil, load pots and plug trays with moistened soil and lightly compress

• Prepare plant labels for pots & trays

• Join one of our seed sewing get-togethers (between March 19 and 31). We’ll sow seeds in pots and attach labels.

• Be a winter-sown seedling steward: taking home trays and placing them in a shaded area outside, where they will be snowed and rained on, and watering them periodically  in spring once the snow is gone

• Be a grow-light seedling steward: take one tray or a few trays home to place under grow-lights if you have room in your own seed-starting set-up, and keep them watered from late March to May

• Be a plant-stand seedling steward: take home a plant stand and grow-lights that OSEAN will provide, and 4-10 trays and keep them watered from late March to May