Gardeners pretending to paddle a canoe garden with shovels

Ranger Aidan and his merry troop of Homegrown Rangers plant a canoe at Stanley Park in Toronto in 2016. (Photo: Jode Roberts)

What’s brightly coloured, 4.5 metres long and feeds bees and butterflies? The answer, naturally, is a canoe garden.

Residents in Toronto, Scarborough, Thornhill and Markham have planted almost 50 canoe gardens in parks, schoolyards and other surprising places over the past five years. Rather than being sent to landfill, the canoes are retired from marine duty and used as planters, filled with butterfly-friendly wildflowers.

The fleet of canoe gardens was the brainchild of David Suzuki Foundation volunteer Aidan Dahlin Nolan. Aidan was one of the first volunteer “Rangers” recruited through the David Suzuki Foundation’s Homegrown National Park Project in 2013. He was looking for a planting project that connected residents to Toronto’s many “lost rivers” buried beneath the city and its extensive ravine system. He landed on the idea of planting in canoes and quickly began encouraging residents and groups to get planting.

Five years later, Aidan’s fleet of canoe gardens continues to grow. The Homegrown project evolved into the national Butterflyway Project in 2017, and volunteer Rangers throughout the Toronto area (and across the country) continue to be inspired by Ranger Aidan’s canoes.

Canoes. Butterflies. Wildflowers. Three things that many people love, cleverly combined into a fun, awareness-raising project that can be done in virtually any neighbourhood.

This summer, the City of Markham’s fleet of Butterflyway canoe gardens grew to 11 — with a 12th planting planned for next spring. It was a collective effort, harnessing the energy of volunteer Butterflyway Rangers and the generosity of city staff and local groups. The canoes were donated by London-based Nova Craft Canoes. City staff helped with the plantings and will proudly maintain the gardens. Rangers got their hands dirty, planting butterfly-friendly wildflowers. It was all made possible through a grant from the Greenbelt Foundation and Park People, which are keen to connect residents with the urban river valleys that flow through the city.

In Scarborough’s Guildwood Village, three canoe gardens were planted on a pathway between two elementary schools this summer, with help from community volunteers and students from both schools. A canoe was planted at the venerable community hub, the East Scarborough Storefront. The final canoe was planted adjacent to the Native Learning Centre East’s Sacred Medicine Wheel garden, with help from the gardening club at Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate.

Canoes. Butterflies. Wildflowers. Three things that many people love, cleverly combined into a fun, awareness-raising project that can be done in virtually any neighbourhood.

For more information about how to plant your own canoe garden, check out our handy DIY canoe-planting guide.

Stay tuned for more butterfly-fuelled fun in 2019.