Exeter Library Getting An Early Start on Earth Day This Year With Seedy Saturday

by Bob Montgomery

The Exeter Library is one of several venues in and around Huron County that will be marking the start of Earth Day a little early this year with a Seedy Saturday event.

One of the speakers at the Exeter Library will be Krystal Brideau from Clinton. Brideau says the environment has always been a passion and a concern for her because it was very difficult for one person to make a difference. One person can only pick up so much garbage. She was also concerned about the world that her two young children would eventually be facing. She says she found what she was looking for in the Rural Ontario Institute's Rural Change Makers Program. “I learned that one of the most impactful ways that we can make a huge difference is by planting native plants. Once those native plants go in the ground and once you've added those back into your lawn the pollinators will come and they're at the lower end of the food web, so once you restore them to the ecosystem all of the things that depend on them as food sources will also be replenished into the area.”

Brideau says planting native species can also be effective in driving out invasive species. “For example something that's commonly used in the garden like a ground cover, such as periwinkle, which is a beautiful plant, but it actually originates in Europe and so when it comes over to Canada where it hasn't co-evolved with the rest of our species to keep it in check, there's nothing to keep it in check, so it can out compete our own native plants in gardens and in wild areas as well.” Brideau says she encourages people to plant native plants in their gardens.

The first step in her project is getting the word out about the project, and the community movement towards native planting, and she adds, in order to make planting native as accessible as possible she’s partnered up with the Huron County Library. Anyone who's interested in growing native plants from seed can borrow seeds from the seed library through the Huron County branches.

Any one who wants to learn more about planting native plants can contact Krystal Brideau on her Facebook page, Huron County Backyard Eco System, and they can also learn how they can get involved in a monthly photo contest for people who are planting native plants, and possibly win in a random draw for a gardening prize. The Seedy Saturday event at the Exeter Library will run from ten in the morning until three in the afternoon and Brideau will be presenting at one in the afternoon.