My Space for Life Garden

How do I protect pollinators and biodiversity at home?

Creating a flower or kitchen garden, vegetating a balcony, a wall or a terrace are ways of getting closer to nature. These are also opportunities for taking concrete action to preserve biodiversity as well as attract an array of pollinators.

A diversified landscape attracts biodiversity in addition to triggering numerous collateral benefits and possibly…inspiring the neighborhood. The greener a neighborhood becomes, the easier it is for wildlife (insects, birds or small mammals) to travel from one green space to another. Gardens absorb runoff water and reduce urban noise. They are true little islands of freshness and allow for better observation of the wildlife that we share the city with.

By gardening ecologically and in fostering biodiversity, you become an agent for change. You contribute to the biodiversity protection movement, support native pollinators, and increase the resilience of your living environment. Not to mention the pleasure, the discoveries and the time for contemplation that you treat yourself to.

Why participate in the My Space for Life Garden program?

The Espace pour la vie My Garden program has three features:

1. Simple documentation for creating four thematic gardens, including tip sheets and blog articles written by Espace pour la vie specialists;
2. A regular newsletter packed with information, tips and tricks for developing your green thumb at every stage of the season;
3. Certification.

It's free and open to everyone. The program is open to individual and collective initiatives across Canada.

Choosing a theme garden

Choose the project you like and that suits you best! The layouts suggested for the four My Garden themes allow for support of biodiversity but also for feeding and accommodating a host of pollinators like bees, butterflies and birds.

Based on your natural affinities and the surface area at your disposal, choose one or more of the following theme gardens that allow you to obtain a certification – or choose them all!

• The Biodiversity Garden promotes the cultivation of a diverse flora, especially native plants, in order to attract a wide range of useful fauna to your garden.
• The Edible Garden  invites you to grow a diversity of plants that feed both the gardener and wildlife. The charming, the useful and the delicious all together!
• The Monarch Oasis  will transform your garden into sites of observation and reproduction of these flamboyant butterflies and many other native insect species; 
• The Bird Garden offers a space that will attract birds – a garden where they can feed and shelter throughout the year.

Certification to show your participation

At the end of the season, you can submit your project to our team for certification. This certifies that your garden is ecological and beneficial to biodiversity, as well as highlighting your garden in the gardeners' gallery, where certified gardens are geolocated.

You can proudly display your contribution to the protection of biodiversity!

Since 2013, the My Garden Space for Life program has been offering advice to help citizens green their surroundings, and today represents a community of over 10,000 people.