Our most popular workshop – Design Your Own Shoreline Garden with The Land Between– and now with Watersheds Canada too!

Your shoreline can be natural but also beautiful, while maintaining access to the lake and great lake views. Attract butterflies and pollinators. Help your lake’s fish habitats and water quality. Deter nuisance geese. Increase privacy…All while supporting our healthy ecosystems for future generations. Come to this workshop and take home a custom garden design for your shore using native plants which are tailored to your aesthetic and your needs! Join seasoned experts with over 20 years’ experience in naturalizing, restoring, and designing shoreline gardens across Ontario.

These 3 hour workshops are in a classroom setting. Bring pictures of your shoreline. Here about why your shore is significant to the health of the lake and why your choices are important. Learn about plants, design aspects, lighting effects. Choose colours, heights, areas and more. Landowners can also take part in case studies here, to learn from other examples.

2020 Dates:

Online – Sept 10 and 24th 7-9 pm

In-person (with distancing) – Sept 19th 11 am

Register by viewing our events page

Now too, use the Natural Edge App and Amazing Plant Database to help choose plants for your site.

Workshop topics include:

permits
native plants
increasing biodiversity and functions (pollinators, birds, fish habitat improvement etc.)
invasive species
nuisance goose control
limiting nutrient runoff
erosion considerations
plant species preferences
design aesthetics
step-by-step design

*Please note that erosion control may be discussed at sessions, but erosion control designs will not be developed in these workshops. Instead they will require onsite site visits.

Order our Shoreline Starter Kits!

These Starter Kits are beginner baskets of shoreline plants for specific shoreline soils. See Shoreline Plant Guides and Starter Kits for more details

Book an onsite consultation

Site visits are $250.00 within a 1-hour drive from Haliburton, and they come with 50 free plants to get you started! Book one here

Our Shoreline Garden Workshops have made the news! Read about them in the Muskoka and Haliburton Life Magazine! Haliburton and Muskoka Life Magazine. Shoreline Garden Editorial

Even local groups come to us for advice!

Abbey Gardens shoreline/restoration ecology staff have attended our workshop in Haliburton and took away lessons in deterring geese, soil science and design expertise for public and private sites. Our staff/contractors have designed keystone shoreline gardens and goose deterrent projects for: Halls/Hawk Lake park in Algonquin Highlands; Rivera Park in Lindsay; Big Bald Lake Association; for Mr. Paul McIinnis’ property, president of the Coalition of Haliburton Property Owners Associations (pictures below) frequently showcased publicly as a demonstration site; at Head Lake in Dysart et al and for Haliburton Lake Association’s Public Beach; and many private contractors too…

Before

After

Landowners learn and have fun too!

“I was expecting a dry presentation, cold hard facts, but you added such colour, your enthusiasm was evident, your energy palpable. I thoroughly enjoyed myself! And I learned stuff!!!!” Sharon Petrini, Haliburton County

“Thank you Leora for Saturday’s workshop. My husband and I both found it informative. We came away with some great ideas on how we can both beautify and naturalize our shoreline property.”

“If you have not heard enough praise for the Friday Workshop I will add it was amazing, & I think I learned a lot. It seems my long held convictions of 58 years are being challenged everywhere. The more I learn the more I know I do not know very much!” Terry Goodwin, Haliburton

We look forward to working with you to preserve the health and well-being of your lake and the Land Between bioregion.

For now, here are our Shoreline Garden Handouts and guides to help you get started:

Permit requirements and Good Plants/Bad Plants lists (some nursery stock may actually be locally invasive and out-compete our native plants. They can be hard to remove and hard to control, such as periwinkle, zebra grasses, etc. Find out what native plants are good substitutes). Permit requirements. Good Plants Bad Plants. SG Handouts1
Native Shoreline Plant Guide (native plants for The Land Between region in a chart format. This quick chart/guide is specific to shorelines/riparian areas and gives you an idea of choices that suit your soil types, moisture regimes, and also tells you what attracts pollinators, birds etc.) restoration plants.shores
And you can watch our

instructional video