From October 16 to 18, the tiny town of Bala celebrated its 25th anniversary of the annual Cranberry Festival. Why cranberries in Bala? Well, it seems that this area of Muskoka is filled with acidic marshes and wetlands that are so ideal for cranberry-growing. Like most first-time visitors, I trekked out to Johnston’s (Est. 1952) for a tour [...]
9. BirdCam
“Look at the birdie!” has never had more meaning. While roaming the exhibit hall for new gardening products at the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina, I found a great bird-watching gadget. The Audubon BirdCam actually lets you capture images of the birds that visit your backyard feeder. This weather-resistant outdoor camera [...]
Who would have thought that a lecture on plant pests and disease would be one of the highlights of the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina? Here’s why Jim Chatfield’s talk ranked #3 of 12 great things I found at Raleigh.
3. Jim Chatfield
Got diseased or buggy plants? Who you gonna call? Ohio State [...]
I should know by now that gardening life rarely leads us down a straight and narrow path. But a cooking show, and a healthy one at that? But that’s exactly where my gardening friends, Carol Cowan, Carol Gardner and Lorraine Hunter and I wound up. Last week, W Network’s Healthy Gourmet, televised on the VIVA channel, taped its [...]
The semi-annual Journees des Plantes at Courson, just outside Paris, draws plant nerds from all over France, Europe and North America — including me! In May, 2009, three and a half days of pouring rain tested the mettle of both visitors and exhibitors alike. But muddy ruts a foot deep and tractors pulling cars out [...]
Did you miss Canada Blooms this year? Are you from out of town or out of country and have always wanted to see the show? A fabulous video of Canada Blooms, 2009 is now available online:
Jeff Lowenfels travelled all the way from Alaska to Canada Blooms to dish the dirt on soil to Toronto gardeners — and I’m glad he did. His lecture on Wednesday afternoon was all about mycorrhizal fungi, protazoa, nematodes and bacteria. Yes, I’ve heard about these micro-organisms but never in such an entertaining way. Somehow, he [...]
10. Attend a Garden Show
Nothing takes me out of winter and into spring than a trip to Canada Blooms. This year’s show features more than 24 gardens, an expanded marketplace and special speakers, including Jeff Lowenfels from Alaska who’s talking about organic gardening and Cornell University’ Dr. Robert Raguso with a lecture on the relationship of [...]
Dragged myself out of bed for day two of the set up of Canada Blooms. Delivered lots of plants, watered containers and checked out the gardens in progress. My favourite so far is by Hobson Landscapes. Entitled Urban Pioneer, it features a contemporary sugar shack which should have been surrounded by sap buckets, but unfortunately, [...]
On day three, everything comes together — somehow. My day started out helping plant daffodils and lay mulch in the Bienenstock Natural Playground where kids can have fun learning about soil. There are stations for making birdseed balls, a tree-painting area and a log full of worms (yes, those yucky, icky but wonderful creatures that [...]
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