May, 2009

In This Issue:

Where to Find Mark this Month

Mark's Choice Product of the Month

Home Hardware $50,000 Backyard Makeover Contest

2009 VIA Rail Garden Route

Mountain Pine Beetle in Canada

gTo Green Tie Event

Lilac Gardens of Lindsay

Canadian Cancer Society Spring Garden Tour

Through the Garden Gate: Beyond the Bridle Path

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May is Our Month

If you are a gardener you know who ‘our’ is in this case and there is precious time to waste, so I will get right to it.

I have an extensive list of great ideas for you – mostly stuff to consider doing to make your garden more productive and beautiful.

But first, an announcement.

As you may know, I work with Home Hardware as the spokesperson for their lawn and garden category. This past month they announced that they have signed an agreement with none other than Anna Olson for their ‘kitchen’ category.

If you don’t know who Anna is, chances are very good that you will, if you enjoy cooking or for that matter eating. To this point I add that I meet many Canadians that seem to know me from my media work who are not gardeners, but who just the same enjoy looking at a great looking garden. So, if you cook or you enjoy eating – that would cover most of us.

Anna feeds your body, I feed your soul.

I was introduced to her at the semi-annual Home Hardware dealer’s market in St. Jacobs, Ontario. That hot-bed of maple syrup, Mennonite furniture and, well, Home Hardware.

I guess I could use a term other than ‘hot-bed’ to describe the center of this particular universe, but this IS a gardening newsletter, don’t forget.

Back to Anna.

She is bright, articulate and guess what – she can cook!

Anna and her husband have a wonderful bakery and a restaurant in beautiful Port Dalhousie in the Niagara region.

She has a TV show called ‘Fresh’, a neat website at www.annaolson.ca and several books, including In the Kitchen with Anna: New Ways with the Classics, which she signed for me to give to my cook, wife Mary.

You will be hearing more.

Meantime, we were going to talk about all of the great stuff that you can do in the garden this time of year, so here goes:

May is ‘planting month’ for most parts of Canada (apologies to Newfoundland) which means that you really need to have something worth planting in. Your ‘groundwork’ is the key to your ultimate success in the garden. So, make sure that you have lots of the good stuff to plant in.

Your current soil conditions may be solid clay or nice, friable farmer’s soil, which is highly unlikely unless you have been adding lots of organic matter to it over previous seasons.

If the soil in your garden is heavy clay I recommend that you dig it out 35 cm deep (14 inches) and replace it with 45 cm (18 inches) of good quality triple mix (equal parts top soil, peat moss and sandy loam).

If your soil is not heavy clay, perhaps something just short of it, then acquire enough compost, mushroom compost, or compost enriched top soil to spread one inch thick over the entire garden. You can either turn it into the existing soil with a sharp spade or shovel or rototill it in or just leave it and let the earth worms do their work by pulling it down into the soil over the next 6 to 8 weeks. Yes, if you are patient, the earth worms will do most of the work for you. That is why I refer to them as the ‘foot soldiers’ of the garden.

One more thing about clay based soil - the fine particles of clay bind together so tightly that they do not allow water to flow through freely. To open up the pores between the silty/clay particles, add lots of sharp sand (called ‘brick sand’ at the retailer). Do not use beach sand as it is too fine to do the job of breaking up the existing soil particles. The good news is that the addition of sharp sand provides permanent benefits as sand does not break down over time the way that ‘organic’ matter like compost does.

Now that you have created the perfect environment for growing plants, it is time to plant. From the first of May you can plant perennials, trees, shrubs, roses and evergreens in virtually every part of the country (including Newfoundland!) – what you need to be wary of are the frost-tender annuals like impatiens and petunias and vegetables like tomatoes and peppers.

To know your first frost free date, check out the Environment Canada chart at www.almanac.com/garden/frostcanada.php and consider adding a few days to it before you plant out your frost tender stuff just to be sure that you don’t lose it to frost.

Roses.

I am seeing a great many Canadians mix their rose bushes in with other perennials and flowering shrubs (not to mention herbs and other edibles) as they create interesting garden designs that are a break from the traditional ‘rose garden’.

If you have a minimum of 6 hours of sunshine each day in your garden I encourage you to think about adding some roses for colour, fragrance and to cut and bring indoors during the gardening season to enjoy on the kitchen table.

Some of my favourite, disease-resistant roses include:

David Thompson – named after that famous Canadian explorer who first surveyed much of the west, this is a wonderful rose that flowers most of the summer (but is at its’ best in June), grows to about 120 cm or 4 ft high and is reliably hardy, without ‘mounding up’ for the winter. It is a proud member of the ‘Explorer’ series of roses, developed here in Manitoba and Quebec late last century (it was only 15 years ago or so…..)

Another favourite has a familiar name – ‘Mary’. It is a member of the British David Austin family of roses that have become very popular in recent years.

I like Mary for her predictability. She will grow to 4 ft (120 cm) high, a nice rounded bush, winter hardy (i.e. No winterizing needed) and she flowers for most of the summer with this lovely rose-red single blossom that will knock your eyes out.

Mary is also my wife.

If you are looking for a very cool rose that is great in mass planting, look for the pink flowering Bonica or better still the AARS floribunda winner called Impatient (not to be confused with the annual impatiense….. very different indeed). Impatient is a rose-red.

Perennials.

Now is a great time of year to get the perennials planted that you dream of. For one, the selection at your retailer is better than at any other time of year. You will literally have your pick of the crop. Moreover, the perennial that you put into the ground now will outperform the summer planted perennial by a large margin. The result is a longer blooming time and a bigger plant come the conclusion of the gardening season.

Some perennials to look for include butterfly magnets like Echinacea purpurea, Rudbeckia Goldstrum and Summer Sunshine and of course any of the many wonderful hostas that add drama to virtually all sunny and partly shady gardens.

Your Lawn.

If you have not fertilized your lawn yet, this would be a great time to apply Golfgreen, with the highest content of slow release nitrogen in the business. Also, it is made here in Canada, which always wins points with me.

As it gets hotter and dryer, I would recommend that you put off sowing fresh grass seed until early August through September if you can. You will get better germination and a thicker lawn as a result. On the other hand, if you can’t hold off: go for it but know that you will have to sock the water to your newly sown grass seed for a few weeks.

Living Well.

How ‘bout spending the day with me? We will visit some of the great gardens in the Toronto area, taking our time to see the now famous Music Garden on Queen’s Quay down by Lake Ontario. We will visit Allan Gardens, one of the oldest public gardens of its kind in the country, and of course the newly renovated Toronto Botanical Gardens. There, we will see a new straw bale building (that my daughter Heather helped to build!) and a $6 million garden and teaching facility… it truly is in a class of its’ own.

We will conclude the day with a trip to our own property where I will tour you through our 10 acre garden, we will visit our chickens and ducks, enjoy a glass or two of fine Ontario wine and my wife Mary will cook up something special for you.

To enjoy this very special day all that you have to do is enter a contest on www.livingwell.ca. This is the official website of Johnson and Johnson: a household name in ‘living well’ products.

And here is the really cool thing: just by entering the contest a donation will be made to Tree Canada in support of planting and maintaining our forests – urban and otherwise.

The contest opens May 15th and closes May 31 st – so don’t forget to register soon. While you are on the site, check out the daily gardening tips offered by moi.

I am looking forward to the whole experience.

Looks like a busy month – as any gardener would expect May to be!

Looking forward to meeting you one way or the other!

Keep your knees dirty,

Mark

  May 11: gT02 Toronto's Green Tie Event. This event takes place at Casa Loma, 1 Austin Terrace, Toronto. Featuring my good friend and vocal performer Sarah Harmer.

Tickets are available on-line at www.torontoparksandtrees.org/gTO_event.

  May 13: Markham Women's Prayer Breakfast. This event takes place at Willow Springs Winery in Stouffville, Ontario. Proceeds from the event will benefit the sensory garden at Union Villa in Unionville.

  May 19 and 20: My book tour continues with a day in Ottawa (look for the noon news on CTV) and the following day in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

  May 20: Windsor Home Hardware event. Check out the details at the Windsor Nova Scotia Home Hardware. Guaranteed to by fun and informative!

  May 26 : Orillia Home Hardware event. Check out the details at your local Orillia Home Hardware location.

Anyone who has wiled away a sizzling summer day in the shade of a tree knows that trees have value. They provide shade, absorb carbon dioxide from the air, provide visual and wind screens, help control erosion, preserve water quality, and increase property values. Arborists calculate that a mature pine tree is worth $500 to $2,000 and that the true costs of benefits lost when a pine dies, may be $20,000 or more. Land owners in BC and Alberta , who have lost trees to the mountain pine beetle in the last 10 years, know too well the value of their trees.

More than 40 million acres of trees in western Canada —the equivalent of two Lake Superiors --have been killed by the beetle in the last decade. Land owners who expected years of tangible and intangible benefits from their trees, have seen their property values, and their dreams, plummet.

Depending on the weather, the mountain pine beetle could start its flight as early as May—easily flying over roof tops to backyard trees. While experts agree that the battle is almost impossible to win at the forestry level, property owners with living trees still stand a fighting chance.

Removing dead trees and preparing for the imminent flight will always be the best defense against the beetle. Removal and proper disposal should happen before the beetle flight, and property owners should prepare integrative pest management plans.

Because more consumers are demanding environmentally friendly lawn and garden products, integrated pest management plans often incorporate non-toxic beetle solutions like the use of verbenone—a synthetic version of a naturally occurring beetle pheromone.

Beetles and other insects communicate through the use of pheromones. To reproduce, pine beetles gather in host trees. At the beginning of an attack, chemicals produced by infested trees, and by the beetles, will attract additional beetles. When the numbers approach the maximum the tree can support, new chemicals are produced to keep additional beetles away.

Verbenone has been used for more than a decade in the fight against the pine beetle. It is easy to use and is applied by stapling the repellent pouch to the north side of a tree twice during beetle flight season. Verbenone sends a false message that the tree is already infested and that beetles should look elsewhere for a suitable host. The product is environmentally friendly and non-toxic to humans, pets, birds, and even the beetles themselves. Verbenone is available at Home Hardware stores in Western Canada.

It may take more than 50 years for a new tree to grow to a size equal to that of the dead tree it replaced. While protecting healthy trees may seem time consuming and costly, it does not compare to the loss of a mature tree and its lifetime of benefits.

gTo2 is Toronto's 'Green Tie' event hosted annually by the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation. Now in its second year, this event provides the Foundation with a platform to raise funds and awareness of the need to sustain our public green spaces - the parks and trees that make urban living healthier and add beauty to the place that we live and/or work in.

Tickets still available!

This year the gTo Green Tie Event welcomes Sarah Harmer as featured guest speaker and performer.

When: May 11, 2009. 6:00pm - 9:00pm.
Where: Casa Loma. 1 Austin Terrace, Toronto.

Tickets are available on-line at www.torontoparksandtrees.org/gTO_event

Event: 9th Annual Lilac Festival

Date: May 23 - 31, 2009 11am - 4pm daily.

Address: Logie St Park at Logie St and Lindsay Street South, Lindsay, ON

Visit www.lilacgardensoflindsay.com for full details.

Event: 4th Annual Garden Tour for the Mississauga Unit of the Canadian Cancer Society.

When: May 31, 2009. 10:00am to 4:00pm.

Where: Ten gardens will be showcased. Don Hancock of Woodland Nurseries will speak about landscape design at the Bradley Museum between 2:00pm and 3:00pm.

Tickets: $15.00 in advance. Can be purchased from the Cancer Society office at 905-608-8411 x 3855 or from JCavalheiro@ONTARIOCANCER.CA. Tickets will be sold on the day of the tour for $20 at the Bradley Museum.

Proceeds of the tour will be going towards cancer research.

The Birdhouse Design Project 'For the Birds' has been created for the Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) to:

Bring attention to the ongoing mandate of the TBG to promote environmental awareness through education.
Support TBG fundraising efforts.
Inspire the community to become aware of the plight of songbirds due to environmental degradation.
Promote the message of wildlife preservation, ecological awareness and sustainability.
Jumpstart the TBG long term vision of extending it's influence beyond the local site.
Educate TBG visitors about bird nesting, habitat and support.

The objective of the competition is to design and construct birdhouses that promote nesting and provide shelter for migrating birds. There are three categories of entry which will be judged separately by an esteemed jury of professionals. The submissions selected will be put to auction at the fundraising event, the 'Flocktail' party. The winning entries will be installed permanently at the TBG. This is a unique opportunity to showcase free-flying imagination and soaring creativity.

The deadline for submission of bird houses for non-professionals without a phase 1 drawing will be at the TBG on June 13 and 14.
Visit www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca for more information.

Photo credit: Louise Warner

When: June 20 and June 21, 2009. 11:00am to 4:00pm.

Where: The gardens are located in the Bayview Ridge to Post Road area with headquarters located at Toronto Botanical Garden, 777 Lawrence Avenue East.

Tickets: Public $40 / TBG members $35. On-line ticket orders and a complete list of ticket outlets can be found at www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca.

For more information, refer to Mark's best selling gardening books — or tune into CanadaAM every Friday morning at 8:45am on CTV. If you have a specific question, simply search Mark's Library at www.markcullen.com.