January, 2010
In This Issue:
Mark's Choice Product of the Month
Canada Blooms
Green Living Guide
2010 Perennial Plant of the Year
Amaryllis Care
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‘What lies behind us
And what lies ahead of us
Are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
R.W. Emmerson
Happy New Year!!
I can’t believe that we are talking for the first time in the new decade of the new century of the new millennium… it will be a while before we can say that again!
I must say that I am very excited about the year ahead…. Let me summarize for you here:
 We are planning some big changes to www.markcullen.com that will make it more ‘user friendly’.
www.markcullen.com will feature a new ‘podcast’: a 20 minute long ‘radio show’ with a format that will look much like this: Q&A, interview with an expert in the field of gardening, timely tips ‘that you can use’ precisely at the time of each podcast and a look ahead to the content of the upcoming show. We hope to launch it the first week of February, so stay tuned!!
www.markcullen.com will also provide a forum for you to rate Mark’s Choice product. You will see the most popular products listed PLUS honest comments from users complete with features and benefits based on their own experience.
A contest! ‘Bring a friend’ to the website and specifically to sign them up to this free monthly newsletter and you may win… well, that is the surprise! Stay tuned.
Mark’s Choice
The Mark’s Choice brand of gardening equipment and tools has been developed over the past 5 years in an effort to meet the demands for high quality, competitively priced products for you – the Canadian home gardener. Every product has been ‘field tested’ by me personally (or I will not put my name on it!) and wherever possible we insist on sourcing our products right here in Canada.
I am proud of Mark’s Choice and the many people on the Home Hardware and Mark’s Choice product development team who have succeeded in putting together a line of more than 130 products.
The line up of new products for 2010 under the Mark’s Choice brand will include some very exciting additions (look for them late this winter and early this spring):
2 wheeled wheel barrow. This unit has all of the Home Hardware dealers drooling …. I don’t think that you will have any trouble finding this one! This is a ‘light weight work horse’ of a wheel barrow!!
As with all Mark’s Choice products this one is built for the home gardener to professional standards. In other words we build the features and benefits of a professional product into a light weight product that is easy to use, maintain and above all is made to last and last.
Water Wicks ™. Imagine a tea bag that will reduce the watering of newly planted plants by up to 70%. Pre-soak the new Mark’s Choice water wicks tea bag for 10 minutes in tap water and place at the bottom of the hole, making sure that the roots of the new plant make contact with the wet bag. Voila! The water in the pre-soaked bag will release to the root zone as the plant requires it.
Each ‘tea bag’ retains up to 400 times its’ original weight in water.
It is a remarkable thing that will revolutionize the way that you plant and water. It was developed right here in Canada by professional flower growers and has been tested over the past 3 years on over one million plants. It works! And it is a Mark’s Choice exclusive.
The world’s best lawn and leaf rake. When I attended an industry trade show this past spring I was introduced to this new product by the originator of it – while he explained how this rake was different from any other that I had ever owned, he stood on it and twisted it back to demonstrate that it has a ‘memory’ like no other rake on the market.
- Indestructible
- Light weight
- Great for ‘throwing’ leaves and grass clippings across the lawn (rather than pushing them)
- Shortens work time so you can lie in the hammock longer
- Fun to use!!
The World's best hose cart.
You may find this hard to believe, but I have had no luck finding a hose cart that would stand up to the elements of our 4 seasons, the weight of a good quality hose and survive the rigors of regular use… not for long, anyway.
 
This hose cart is built for all of this – weather, up to 200 feet of hose (full of water!) and lots of use – make that abuse!! Look for it this spring.
Compost by the tumbler full…. In record time! Compost tumblers have been around for some time but not like this one…. The new Mark’s Choice compost tumbler is made of high impact molded plastic right here in Canada, has a huge capacity of 200 liters and comes with a heavy duty stand that will take the weight of all the wet stuff that you want to throw at it.
And the price is more competitive than any other on the market. Includes Green Earth compost accelerator and a Mark Cullen ‘composting’ reference guide.
Mulching fork. Ever try moving bark mulch with a shovel or a spade? It is impossible. You might just as well put on a pair of gloves and move it with you fingers… hey! (we thought to ourselves) what a great idea! A garden fork fashioned after our fingers only longer and tougher!!
The new Mark’s Choice mulching fork features tines that are the perfect caliber and distance apart to move through the mulch with little effort. Reinforced steel to hold the wettest mulch with a high gloss finish to reduce sticking. Go ahead: see how far you can throw your mulch with this puppy!!
Mark’s Choice garden soils – at last! We have been working for 3 years on the perfect formulation of soils for the 3 main jobs that you have around the garden
- Container Mix
- Lawn Seed and Sod Mix
- Veggie and Flower Mix
I have lots to report on these 3 new products but you won’t be using them for a while … and I want to reserve some space here for ‘garden news’ and things to do ‘out’ of your garden. Suffice to say, “Details to come!” And more stories.
Note: Mark’s Choice products are available exclusively at Home Hardware stores. Of which there are now 1,050. If there is not one in your neighbourhood, perhaps you would like to open one? Contact the good folks at www.homehardware.com for details.
January is a good time of the year for gardeners… sometime this month we reach the ‘half way’ mark between the day that we hung up our hoe and put away the lawn mower and the day that we haul out the lawn rake and make our first application of lawn fertilizer.
Things to do:
I know that you were busy with Christmas and the ‘holiday season’ over the last while, but have you considered doing the following, in prep for the upcoming gardening season?:
Print your favourite pictures of the garden. The ones that are still on your camera or logged on your computer.
Organize your pictures in an effort to ‘tell the story’ of your garden as it matured and progressed through the season
Write down ideas of new plants that you are going to plant, old plants that you are going to move/divide, new structures that you are going to build or have built etc. These thoughts often occur to you as you look over your pictures…and if you are like me, they are gone into the ether if you don’t write them down.
Sign up for seed catalogues that you do not already subscribe to.
Open and review the seed catalogues that you DO subscribe to.
Go to your favourite websites to review the new offerings from the likes of www.gardenimport.com, www.mcfayden.com, www.veseys.com, etc.
Read. Read a lot. Gardening magazines, books, monthly newsletters that are hanging around the magazine rack in the bath room… don’t you find that the gardening stuff that you read THIS time of year sticks to your brain more effectively than at other times of year? Or is it just me.
Check out the archive of my newsletters on the side of this page
Attend a local Horticulture club meeting, even if it is your first time. You will be surprised at how friendly the folks are there and how much you can learn in one evening.
Also, check out the gardening courses that are available at local schools, colleges, botanical gardens and libraries. Remember the ‘greats’ like the Toronto Botanical Garden, Montreal Botanical Garden, Royal Botanical Garden, the Muttart in Edmonton, VanDusen Botanical garden in Vancouver, etc.
Above all – relax, take your time to enjoy the mid winter pace of gardening in Canada.
It is nature’s gift to us – this time ‘off’. To rejuvenate, reinvigorate and to plan the greatest garden ever, this year.
All the best – keep your knees dirty!
Mark
P.s. look for my weekly blog at http://ca.lifestyle.yahoo.com/home-garden/blog/markcullen
P.s.s. I still recommend The CanadianGarden Primer, An Organic Approach, above all if you are interested in gardening successfully without the use of chemicals. Look for it at Chapters/Indigo or Home Hardware. It is authored by Mark Cullen. Hmmmmm – while this may sound suspicious, I really do think that you will enjoy this book and get full value from it. Printed in Canada too.
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