Green Venture’s plant subscription box is almost half way through for 2021! We’ve delivered over 130 plants and 100+ local, sustainable goodies to our subscribers since May. This fundraiser has helped us raise funds to support student projects for our upcoming Youth Stewardship and Professional Skills Program. Applications for students to apply will be available later this month – so stay tuned if you know a high school student in grades 11/12 looking for a volunteer opportunity that will connect them with like-minded peers, teach professional skills and first hand experience planning a stewardship project. 

Each month our subscribers receive their native plants of the month and an eco-conscious product from a local retailer in the Greater Hamilton area plus a newsletter in their inboxes detailing the plants, the products and more! So let’s take a peek inside the past 3 months:

Our team carefully curated each month’s box with some of our favourite native plants from Ontario Native Plants and neighbours in Puslinch, Bee Sweet Nature.

Each plant came along with details about how much they enjoy the sun or shade, whether they want their feet wet or dry, the type of soil that makes them happy and how tall they will grow. For the first three months we picked nine species, each with a unique story to tell. Let’s meet the team: 

September and October are great times to plant, so if you’re looking to add to your garden before the end of the year, consider our species from the native plant of the month box. Not sure how or what to look for when shopping for native plants? Check out our native plant guide blog for more tips. 

BONUS – a fall favourite, milkweed, will be available to purchase at EcoHouse! Stay tuned for details.

For the native plant of the month we wanted to support other local, sustainable businesses that are helping keep us green! 

To ‘shower’ our subscribers with the gift of knowledge we selected Michael Albanese’s The Modern Rain Garden. Michael has helped many residents in his role as Green Venture’s RAIN Coach and as the owner of AVESI, transform their yards into spaces where less is wasted, biodiversity is revered, and natural resources are cherished. Want to learn more about rain gardens? Check out our NATURhoods program or talk to a Green Venture team member at water@greenventure.ca. With showers comes soap! To keep our gardeners hands clean we sent everyone a bar of Sage Soap Company’s ‘gardener’ bar from Mrs.Greenways, a sustainable shop in Dundas. 

Next we wanted to satisfy our taste buds with some foodie inspired gifts. This included Abeego food wraps to keep leftovers fresh and reduce food waste, one of the many sustainable swaps you can find at local shops like The Pale Blue Dot. We also knew that talking about food would make our subscribers hungry so we added a coupon for an assorted pastry box from Kitchen Island, an artisanal bakery focused on seasonal, local ingredients to keep your tummy and the earth happy. 

Finally, last month we had to celebrate Plastic Free July with a spotlight on Park Market and Refillery, based out of Burlington with fill up spots around Hamilton, including a pop-up Green Venture hosted at the end of July. Keeping our environment clean, and your home, we picked out some of their must-haves including, a multi-purpose spray in a refillable container, waste-free laundry strips from Tru Earth and a Pure Soap Work’s stain remover bar to keep your clothes looking their best.

We are so happy to have given a spotlight to our fabulous businesses! We’re excited to show you who’s up next!

So let’s leave you how we leave our subscribers each month, with a quote! 

We wanted to inspire our subscribers each month, so we picked a quote each month that captured what we wanted to express that month – check them out:

If you have questions about our Native Plant of the Month Fundraiser or other NATURhoods programming, please reach us at water@greenventure.ca.