Green Venture hosted a Spring Celebration at Laidlaw Memorial United Church. Read about this event!
What happened at our Spring Celebration: Learning, Community, and Indigenous Knowledge
On April 27th, Green Venture hosted a Spring Celebration at Laidlaw Memorial United Church. This outdoor gathering near the church gardens explored the Low Impact Development features, including what kinds of plants are in the rain gardens, and different permeable materials available for walkways and driveways.
This event expanded on Green Venture's mission of reducing stormwater runoff through green infrastructure and urban green spaces and echoed our commitment to listening and amplifying Indigenous environmentalism in our local community.
Event Highlights:
Attendees learned how to design a rain garden, collect rainwater, and had an opportunity to deepen their connection with local Indigenous knowledge. It was an exciting day of community learning and celebration.
The day began with Gail Whitlow and Michele Dent, Indigenous leaders who walked participants through a tobacco offering to the gardens.
Image 1: Indigenous Speakers Michele on the left and Gail on the right. Image 2: Michele is giving an opening speech. 
Image 3: The left photo shows participants receiving tobacco from Green Venture staff.
Image 4: On the right, participants are placing tobacco on the plants at Laidlaw Church gardens.
Images 5 and 6: Lunch offerings including Strawberry Juice, 3-Sisters Soup, Corn Soup, Bannock and salad.
Gardens Tour (LID Features)
The gardens were installed by Green Venture in partnership with Laidlaw Memorial United Church and community members in 2024. The project transformed over 2000 sq feet of lawn, pavement, and concrete into space for rain gardens, a permeable pathway, a rainwater harvesting tank, and 500 plants, including trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and grasses. Read more about the project here.
The rain gardens are meant to absorb and filter rainwater and runoff from the downspouts. They are filled with a variety of native flowering plants, shrubs and the parking lot rain garden includes a river birch tree (Betula nigra). A garden of this type should maintain a shallow bowl shape. The rain garden was filled with well-draining soil, and has been mulched with shredded hardwood mulch, which is what we recommend using for rain gardens. Compost can be added to these gardens but is not required.
Image 7: Jessica Gale, Green Venture staff, leading a garden tour, Image 8: Laidlaw Memorial Church Gardens
Curious to know what plants are located here?
Here’s the list of selected plants found in the gardens, listed by Botanical Name - Common Name.
Evergreens
- Thuja occidentalis 'DeGroot's Spire', Degroot's Spire cedar
- Thuja occidentalis 'Little Giant', Little Giant cedar
Shrubs
- Cornus sericea 'Kelseyii' - Kelsey dogwood
- Diervilla rivularis 'Summer Stars' - Bush Honeysuckle
- Hydrangea quercifolia 'Pee Wee' - Pee Wee Dwarf Oak Leaf Hydrangea
Perennials
- Allium 'Millenium' - Ornamental Onion
- Anemone sylvestris - Snowdrop Anemone
- Anemone x 'Honorine Jobert' - Honorine Jobert anemone
- Aquilegia canadensis - Eastern Red Columbine
- Asarum canadense - Wild Ginger
- Aster novae-angliae 'Grape Crush' - Grape Crush New England aster
- Brunnera macrophylla - 'Jack Frost' Jack Frost bugloss
- Chelone glabra - White Turtlehead
- Cimicifuga racemosa 'Atropurpurea' - Black Snakeroot
- Dryopteris Filix-mas - male fern
- Echinacea 'White Swan' - White Swan coneflower
- Matteuccia struthiopteris - Fiddlehead Fern
- Penstemon 'Onyx and Pearls' - Onyx and Pearls Beardtongue
- Physostegia virginiana 'Crown of Snow' - Obedient Plant
- Polystichum acrostichoides Christmas Fern
- Rudbeckia fulgida 'Goldsturm' Goldsturm - black eyed Susan
- Solidago danslitlem 'Little Lemon' - Little Lemon goldenrod
- Thalictrum 'Black Stockings' - Black Stockings meadow rue
- Tiarella 'Fingerpaint' - foam flower
Grasses
- Carex pensylvanica - oak sedge
- Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Piglet'- Piglet fountain grass
See a few photos below!
Participants also had the opportunity to learn about permeable materials
A representative from Romex provided a demonstration and showed off a few examples of permeable materials and how they work.
Will we see you at the next event? View our event calendar to see what is coming up!
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