July, 2010
In This Issue:
Mark's Choice Product of the Month
Harvest Ontario
Cullen Landscaping
Water-Efficient Plants
Garden Tours
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“Love many
Trust few
Always paddle your own canoe”
~ Garth Stephanson, Belleville
It is the beginning of summer and while some Canadians are thinking of outdoor past times like canoeing, a record number of us are turning to the garden to invest our leisure time. I like the quote above because it is just plain old good advice. And I like canoeing.
Newfoundland.
 On that note, I am back from a wonderful trip to Newfoundland with my buddy Garth along for the ride (it was on his bucket list) and I have to report to the rest of my Canadian readers that things from a horticultural point of view are about as tough on The Rock as pretty much anywhere. As for last week (June 27 th) there were tulips still in bloom (only just), crabapples, laburnum (Golden Rain Tree) and azaleas. The peonies are in bud as are the day lilies.
This is life in a garden where everything seems to bloom on the same day. It is spectacular, if you happen to be there on that day. The challenges of gardening in Newfoundland are more than made up for by the warmth of the people – I am sure that you have heard this before. Cross the street and a complete stranger will speak to you like a true acquaintance. Sit in a pub or coffee shop and YOUR accent will stand out enough that folks will know instantly that you are from ‘away’. Offers to guide/assist/feed and water you ensue.
If we were to create the model Canadian I would put some Newfie genes in this mix.
West and East and Points in Between.
As I reflect on my month of June I get dizzy thinking about the things that I have seen, people that I have met and experiences that I have experienced. I opened the month with a trip to Invermere B.C. to open a new Mark Cullen Approved Garden Centre at the local Home Hardware – spectacular scenery, incredible wild life and birds, down to earth people.
Then to Sussex, New Brunswick and Stratford, PEI – lupins lining the highway (who would BUY them here?) great seafood and meeting of friends at the Grand Opening of 2 more Mark Cullen Approved Garden Centres at Home Hardware (www.homehardware.ca).
 
Rideau Hall
One of the highlights of my June was getting to meet the Excellencies Governor General, Michaelle Jean and Jean-Daniel Lafond who were presenting the first ever Governor General Awards Celebrating the Nations Table.
I was honoured to be among 200 guests June 23 rd at Rideau Hall, where 11 recipients of the award were honoured. It was a night that I will remember forever.
Mark and Governor General Michaelle Jean
Mark and Anna Olson, Home Hardware's Kitchen Expert.
It is July and time for something that you will not hear from me too often: this is hammock time.
Gardeners have earned the right to hang loose for a while. To rock and read and snooze a bit while the hummingbirds and other pollinators work their magic with the flowers that you have planted and tended.
To enjoy ‘hammock time’ it is important to make sure that you have taken care of business to the extent that the garden is not falling apart at the seams while you swing and snooze.
It is early summer and thoughts of gardeners and non-gardeners alike turn to taking it easy. On that score I can be of assistance. As a recent convert to summer slouching I have created a list of stuff that you can do to minimize the work and maximize the hammock time in your garden this summer:
 Use native plants. Less water, disease and insect pests. Think about this – long before the Europeans arrived on our shores there were a lot of plants happily growing their hearts out without human intervention. The Native People of Canada, to their credit, left well enough alone, harvesting the odd herb or peeling a little bark here or there for culinary or medicinal purposes. But at no time did they reduce the population of any plant species to the extent that it became extinct. All of that changed rather dramatically about 500 years ago.
The plants that have survived since then are true ‘survivors’ with a tolerance for severe weather, pests, disease and drought.
There are lots of native plants now available at garden retailers, who have responded to consumers, who have demanded these plants in recent years, with the introduction of many nursery-grown ‘natives’.
Here is a short list of my favourites:
For sun:
Perennials –
Blanketflower (Gaillardia)
Butterfly weed (Asclepias)
Coneflower (Echinacea)
Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium)
Yarrow (Achillea)
Beebalm (Monarda)
Serviceberry (Amelanchier) – shrub/tree
For shade:
Perennials-
Lily of the valley (Convallaria)
Solomons’ seal (Polygonatum)
Canadian ginger (Asarum)
Marsh marigold
Trilliums
Bloodroot
Ferns including Christmas, Cinnamon, Royal, Wood and Marginal Wood ferns
Hemlock (evergreen tree)
Sugar maple (shade tree)
There is more to carving time out of your schedule for loafing. Consider this:
Water deeply and less often. Invest in a quality lawn/garden sprinkler that covers a large area but does not spray water high into the air, where much of it is lost to evaporation. I like the new circular sprinklers that do not have the ‘halo’ effect of the old impact sprinklers. Go to www.rainforestsprinklers.com or www.markcullen.com and look for the ‘Mark’s Choice’ sprinklers.
- Apply no less than one inch of water at a time and water less often (place a straight edged container under the sprinkler to measure the amount applied).
- Hand water newly planted annuals and perennials as the soil dries to 3 to 5 cm below the surface of the soil and not before.
- Do not water your lawn at all. If we get into a drought situation, which is highly likely in July, your lawn will turn brown and go dormant but it will not die. It will immerge from dormancy in August when evening temperatures drop and morning dew heavies up. In the mean time you have cut your lawn mowing time dramatically.
- Deep watering encourages deep, drought resistant roots.
- Water in the morning to avoid wasting water to evaporation. The water will seep deep into the ground.
- Use a rain barrel – I have 4 of them on the go and they save me a ton of time dragging the hose out to water my containers. I place a large plastic garbage can under the faucet of each so that I just have to dip the watering can into the water filled can and bingo, the job is done in a jiff and my plants love the warmth of it, vs. the cold water from the end of a hose.
- Use a soaker hose. The ‘bleeding hose’ that is made of recycled rubber is great at delivering water to the root zone of your plants – where it is needed most. The new nylon products are tougher and stand up to hard use longer. Go to www.gilmour.com for more info.
Add organic matter to the top of your soil. By insulating the soil from the drying effects of the sun, watering is dramatically reduced. I favour the use of finely ground up pine or cedar bark mulch but straw works very well, when laid down about 30 cm (this works great in the veggie garden especially around tomatoes).
Other tactics that will reduce the demands on your time this summer in the garden are:
Cut your lawn high at 6 t o 8 cm high with a mulching mower.
Plant drought-tolerant plants (see the native plant list above) and look for other non-native species that will thrive in your garden without a lot of attention on your part. Ask at your garden retailer.
Cut down weeds when they are young with a sharp hoe– much easier to do it now than to allow them to grow into small trees – now removing them, THAT is work. And time consuming.
Work in the morning when it is cool, when your energy level is highest and discipline yourself to quit when it gets hot.
Work in the shade – do morning work on the west side of your house and afternoon on the east side, if you have this option.
Wear a broad brimmed hat. I am a ball-cap guy and still wear one most everywhere on my days off work: however, when working in the sun nothing protects you from the dehydrating effects of the sun like a Tilley or similar chapeau. You will feel more comfortable while working in the sun while wearing one and you will have more stamina.
Hydrate. Take a bottle of tap water with you everywhere you go in the garden. Sip it frequently. By doing so you will sustain your energy level and feel good all day.
Sharpen your cutting and digging tools. Put your shovel, spade and hoe on the grinder in your work shop or see the guy who travels around the neighbourhood peddling his sharpening services. The guy with the bell, not the ice cream truck. Keep an edge on your tools by running a garden file over the blade every time you use it.
Be sure to visit the ice cream truck. Reward!
The difference between a low maintenance garden and an ‘intensive care’ garden is careful planning, timing, quality tools well maintained and attitude. I am in the process of changing mine. The attitude that is.
Keep your knees dirty,
Mark
www.markcullen.com
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