Is that even possible? I have, in my efforts to attract local wildlife, tried to find native plants with little luck. Not to mention that anything I do find ends up costing a ridiculous amount of money. But I managed to find some information at Canada Blooms. Perhaps the only useful thing I did while there last weekend.
I attended a talk on sustainable urban gardening. Guess what, the expert tells me not to turn the soil over. We have very hard clay in Toronto, unlike the sandy soil I have seen in Australia or the fabulous soil that is a lovely mixture of just about everything in my country of birth. So splitting perennials or transplanting them can be a back breaking task, not to mention making up a brand new bed. After all the digging I did, this lady says, don't dig! Better late than never I guess. So that is one thing, don't dig, or at least the message was that you don't have to.
The next was to find native plants. I have picked up information on a whole lot of gardening clubs in my area. Now I have to find the time to look them up so I can meet up with like minded people. Here's hoping the colour of my skin or my appearance does not put them off. I am dealing with quite a bit of that lately. It seems South Asians are not considered keen gardeners. Perhaps this whole migrating all over the world is seen as unsustainable? No pun intended. But I will try and find those native plants.
I am also looking forward to exchanging plants and getting some for a fraction of the cost of buying it at a nursery. Most importantly the talk has meant that if my roses die I will let them go to rose heaven and get a few native plants that my feathered friends would be attracted to. I already have the bees buzzing in the yard.
Last but not least, she said start by stretching and then begin exercising. Makes sense. There would be no garden if the gardener cannot sustain him or herself. So if you have done no gardening so far it is probably a good thing, temperatures are dipping below zero next week and you have time to loosen those muscles a bit.
I attended a talk on sustainable urban gardening. Guess what, the expert tells me not to turn the soil over. We have very hard clay in Toronto, unlike the sandy soil I have seen in Australia or the fabulous soil that is a lovely mixture of just about everything in my country of birth. So splitting perennials or transplanting them can be a back breaking task, not to mention making up a brand new bed. After all the digging I did, this lady says, don't dig! Better late than never I guess. So that is one thing, don't dig, or at least the message was that you don't have to.
The next was to find native plants. I have picked up information on a whole lot of gardening clubs in my area. Now I have to find the time to look them up so I can meet up with like minded people. Here's hoping the colour of my skin or my appearance does not put them off. I am dealing with quite a bit of that lately. It seems South Asians are not considered keen gardeners. Perhaps this whole migrating all over the world is seen as unsustainable? No pun intended. But I will try and find those native plants.
I am also looking forward to exchanging plants and getting some for a fraction of the cost of buying it at a nursery. Most importantly the talk has meant that if my roses die I will let them go to rose heaven and get a few native plants that my feathered friends would be attracted to. I already have the bees buzzing in the yard.
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| March 16, 2012 - this picture should not be possible on this date! |
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