NATIVE PLANT GARDEN

The Nature Regina Garden at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum is 30 years old! Help us celebrate by learning to garden with native plants by attending one of our many garden tours or events this summer. Garden care takers are opening gardens to members and the public. The addresses are posted for most gardens, but we ask you register for our home gardens tours.

Nature Regina volunteers and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum nurture a native plant garden at the east entrance to the museum. Since 1994, the garden has been a colourful oasis showcasing the beautiful plants that have grown in southern Saskatchewan for thousands of years.

In 2018, the garden volunteers began an ambitious project to rejuvenate the garden to be a more
biodiverse, pollinator-friendly habitat. The volunteers gain experience identifying and caring for native plants for landscaping while renewing the garden beds.

Whether a person is brand new to biodiverse gardening with enthusiasm to know more, or has
experience to share in creating habitat for pollinators, everyone is welcome to volunteer with us. You can contact us about volunteering at the garden between early May and mid October at natureregina@gmail.com with the subject: Garden Volunteering, or find more information  in
our Event calendar.

The garden is always open for visitors. Discover the wonderfully diverse and constantly changing
community of flowers, grasses, shrubs, bees, butterflies, dragonflies and other interesting bugs living
there. Monarch butterfly caterpillars munch the milkweed plants. Wrens, goldfinches, nuthatches,
chickadees and migrating songbirds take advantage of the forage provided by the native plants and the feeders we put up in the winter.

The plant diversity and habitat at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum - Nature Regina native plant garden is designated to be a:

Monarch Watch Monarch Waystation (in 2014)
David Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway Project (in 2021)
SOUL Greener Greenspace (in 2021)

In December 2021, the Society for Organic Urban Landcare (SOUL) awarded Greener Greenspaces
recognition to the Nature Regina garden at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and to the Peace Garden at Knox Metropolitan United Church along with 24 other public gardens across Canada. In their letter to us, they stated: “The committee particularly appreciated the thought and planning that went into the creation of the site and how thoroughly organic land care principles and practices were integrated. The committee was also impressed by the numerous partners committed to the ongoing care of the garden.” Learn more about SOUL at https://organiclandcare.ca.

Greener Greenspaces recognizes sites that exemplify greener greenspace stewardship. The program
showcases examples of ecologically-focused land care as a means to inspire others across Canada. You can watch their 2022 Ecological Garden Series here:
https://organiclandcare.ca/2022_Series

Find garden events on our Events page, or in e-news and newsletter notices.

Butterflyway Pollinator Corridor
Everyone is welcome to join the Butterflyway Pollinator Corridor project by creating habitat for pollinators in your own garden. As small as one square meter of garden or 2 large planter pots on a balcony is enough to start making a difference for our pollinating friends. By joining with our friends and neighbours to plant purposefully for pollinators in our own private spaces, we can increase the diversity of prairie plants and create more pollinator habitat than in all the public parks put together. Check the David Suzuki Foundation Butterflyway website for ideas on creating your Butterflyway pollinator patch. Visit our garden at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for more ideas on which plants to grow in your pollinator habitat. Visit our garden at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum for more ideas on which plants to grow in your pollinator habitat.