There’s a buzz in the air about local hero Clement Kent, a York University postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology in York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering and president of the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto.  Kent founded the Pollinator Garden Project two years ago to teach gardeners, members of the public and school children how to create and conserve habitat for pollinators. The success of this project has garnered him the Pollinator Advocate Award of Canada from the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC).  Kent will accept his award at an international conference at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington in late October. Whoo-hoo!

Woman To Woman is a fundraising event for Toronto Botanical Garden, in support of its valuable programming, among which environmental education for over 6000 children a year, many of whom from high-priority neighbourhoods; the highly regarded Edwards Lecture series, bringing world-renowned gardeners and environmentalists to our own backyard; and special projects, such as the upcoming natural playground, the Children’s Garden.

The spirit house at Jim Thompson House and Museum in Bangkok

Those of you who have been following my Facebook posts know that I was lucky enough to be invited by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to visit some of that amazing country’s gardens and attractions. Fresh from that trip, I’m all agog with ideas for adding a touch of Thai to my own garden.

Once I got over seeing beds planted with amaryllis, bromeliads and cycads (okay, the truth is, I never did get over seeing these “houseplants” grounded in the earth…) I noticed that every garden seemed to have a little house on stilts or pillars nestled into a nook or corner. Often built of sturdy teakwood, each house was laden with fresh, colourful floral “offerings” made of marigolds, orchids and roses. Many of these houses held pots for smoldering sticks of incense while others were even fitted with little electrical lights. Our guide Tippie told the story of a recent lottery winner who extravagantly outfitted his garden house with air conditioning!

What was this distinctive Thai landscaping custom all about? Too small (and impractically high) to be tool sheds and too large for bird feeders, it was clear these little houses were important garden structures. They often stood at the end of well-trodden pathways where they commanded a certain amount of attention.

These, explained several guides on the trip, were spirit houses. A remnant of a form of spirit worship that predates Buddhism and that endures to permeate everyday life in modern, religiously tolerant Thailand, spirit houses are meant to placate the gods of the land, and if you care about your property, you’ll take great pains to site your spirit house where it can offer the best protection.

Rituals, often elaborate and involving the help of a Brahmin priest or a monk as well as consultations with the landowners’ horoscopes, guide the placement, colour and design of the spirit house. There are some basic rules: never place one under the eaves of the house and never point it towards a toilet (or “happy room” as our guide Tippie calls it!). Once erected, daily offerings ensue, to charm, entertain and otherwise placate the gods of the land in the belief that contented spirits will bring prosperity, health and happiness to the land and its owners.

Although I might forego the ritual (it’s difficult to find a saffron-robed monk in Toronto), the idea of constructing a spirit house in my garden is appealing. I would gladly bedeck it with offerings in the hope that my lovely double bloodroot will bloom for another season; that the mature tree peony I brutishly moved last spring regains its former vigour; and that the Zone 7 erodium adapts to my Zone 6 garden.

And anyway, a spirit house would be a handy place to tuck away a trowel…

Fresh offerings are bestowed on spirit houses daily and might include anything from traditional strands of marigolds to tiny tuk-tuks to amuse the gods.

Spirit houses can be mounted on pedestals, like this one, or perched on stilts.

A spirit house in a garden just outside Chiang Mai.

For more about mulch, see Mulch, Mulch, Mulch

Non-gardeners just shake their heads when I tell them one of the highlights of a recent pre-Christmas trip to New York (apart from the no-hassle flight on Porter Air…)  was a brisk walk along the elevated park that runs from Gansevoort in the Meat Packing District to just beyond Chelsea Market. I admit, the grass-lined walkway wasn’t bustling, and the wind whipped the bitter cold air into an icy, body-numbing cold, but it made the subsequent lunch at a cosy little Soho bistro all the more warming. And, winter isn’t such a bad time to look at a garden. The ornamental grasses obligingly bent to the wind and you could clearly see the way designer Piet Oudolf wove the plants into the patterns made by the old rail lines.

One of the many picture-perfect views in the Redwine garden

8. Private Gardens
The story tours of private gardens are a real treat of any Garden Writers Symposium, and the 2009 symposium in Raleigh was no exception. These tours offer a chance to see the best gardens of the region, to talk with the garden-makers and to discover new plants, plant combinations, and design ideas. Here’s a photo gallery of some of my favourite private gardens. 

 The Redwine Garden: Texture, Plant Combos and Picture-Perfect Views

Side entrance to Redwine garden in Raleigh.

A handsome euphorbia grows in front of a soaring mirrored screen in the Redwine back garden.

Corkscrew vine (Vigna caracalla) grows up the side of the house in the Redwine garden.

The Yoest Garden: A Wildlife Haven

Upper terrace of the Yoest garden

The berm that skirts the verandah is packed with colourful flowers to attract birds, bees and butterflies.

The Yoest garden features many whimsical details.

An inviting bench in the Yoest garden.

Lush flowerborders flank the upper level lawn in the Yoest garden.

The Stevens Garden: A Lakeside Garden with Classical Influences

The pergola overlooks the lake at the Stevens garden.

Swans visit the dock at the Stevens garden.

The view from the upper terrace of the Stevens garden.

Simple elegance -- a gardenia floats in a birdbath in the Stevens garden.

The native plant garden at North Carolina Botanical Garden is the closest example I could find to demonstate Weaner's garden design philosophy which relies on plant communities to express the rich beauty of native landscapes.

6. Natural landscapes for the real world

Larry Weaner, a landscape architect based in Glenside, Pennsylviania, opened his talk on “Breaking the Rules” at the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh with a story about how Native Americans were this continent’s first ecologists. Among their sustainable practices was the deliberate division the carex plants growing in meadows so that what the natives took from the plants for weaving and other handicrafts never depleted the source. These First Peoples also burned leaves under oak trees to destroy acorn larvae that would otherwise mature to infest an important food source.

From these two stories, Weaner’s philosophy of natural landscape design unfolded through breathtaking photos of his company’s projects, including meadows and woodlands in country, suburban and city gardens. Based on the idea that plant design should follow the patterns of the landscape and seasonal plant cycles, Weaner uses plants that have adapted to the specific conditions of the site. Simply put, he plants wetlanders in marshy spots and prairie grasses in sunny locations with poor soils. It sounds logical, but how many garden designers are doing this? Not many, I think. And that’s because to be successful, it takes time – often more than five years – to see the results, and it takes the knowledge drawn from many disciplines – from ecology to architecture – to be successful. I hope Weaner is thinking of writing a book, I want to know more about how to create such beautifully natural landscapes.

Pitcher plants and nodding ladies tresses at North Carolina Botanical Garden

Meanwhile, maybe I’ll grow a mini-landscape using a community of plants in a large container – I’ve always loved pitcher plants, and on this trip I discovered Nodding Ladies’ Tresses, which like the same conditions as sarracenias. Hmmm, another project for next year…

The front garden at Montrose

4. Montrose
Some of you old-timers might remember the Montrose Nursery mail order catalogue, which folded in 1993, while others of you may know about owner Nancy Goodwin from her many books, but both the Gardens of Montrose and their tender were a complete and pleasant surprise to me. On the grounds of this 19th century historical property are beds filled with colchicums (in full bloom when we visited at the end of September), hellebores (a reason to return in springtime) and brash tropicals, colourful annuals and unusual perennials and trees. With vistas galore, this garden was a treat to photograph, but our time here was all too short.

Entrance to the back garden at MontrosePhotogenic vistas abounded at MontroseA flowerbed hugs one of the outbuildings at Montrose

Photogenic vistas abounded at Montrose

The view from a side entrance to the back garden at Montrose

A flowerbed hugs one of the outbuildings at Montrose

Here are some of my favourite gardens from the 2006 tour (much too long ago — time to visit again!)