On Tuesday morning, 27 May 2025, and as introduced by Keith Jones, we welcomed Master Gardener, Kevin Kavanagh, owner of South Coast Gardens as our Guest Speaker. At our hybrid (ie live attendance at R83 with zoom remote attendance) session, he spoke to us abut a wide-ranging list of currently topical initiatives related to the plant and wildlife conservation movement taking place in some of our back yards. Much talked about, he provided a most useful on-line resource ... BirdGardens.ca ... to help us in our own garden considerations.Web Site: http://www.southcoastgardens.ca
Kevin Kavanagh is the owner of South Coast Gardens and Consulting, a small nursery and landscape design business in heart of Ontario’s ‘Carolinian zone’. Although an avid gardener for much of his life, Kevin spent most of his early career in the field of nature conservation working for organizations such as The Nature Conservancy of Canada and World Wildlife Fund Canada. Kevin’s long standing interest in North American native plants began while conducting field studies in the diverse eastern forests of Carolinian Canada, the Appalachian Mountains and the U.S. southeast. Today, Kevin gets great satisfaction from growing and introducing customers to plants that provide benefits to pollinators, birds and other wildlife.
Kevin holds a B.Sc. (Hons.) from McGill University, a M.Sc. from York University and several years of post-graduate research in Botany at the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Grand Erie Master Gardeners and Niagara Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society. Kevin has authored several book chapters and articles celebrating Canada’s wild places and the rich plant life of Ontario’s Carolinian zone.
