Good Friday

Yesterday's slushy snow storm turned to ice over nice; it was like a layer of fondant over an earth cake this morning as I left for yoga. I love it when the sky is bright blue like this - there's always a window of time in the morning and again in the afternoon when the sky is like this, best when there are some clouds I can slowly capture swirling around in it. This morning it looked as if the blue was reflecting all around, off the shimmering layer of frozen snow, and Finn's bedroom window.

my shadow
and the Wild Thing tree shadow
on the April 18 snow

It's been seven months since he was born. He'd be crawling, getting licked by dogs, sharing toys with the dogs, ...I'd have him in little knit hats found on Etsy - bunny ones I had looked at but not bought yet. I probably would have him dressed like a carrot at some point. Photographed and over-shared.

Yoga was probably never better timed; in spite of the beautiful morning I needed some extra inner peace today, maybe a little extra inner strength. Robin's understanding of anatomy and recovery is making such a difference in the on-going healing from the infection of 2009 that played havoc on my nervous system, but she's also finding and fixing areas troubled by scar tissue - related even further back to the rough recovery from surgery after my c-section with Hannah's birth. She gives me hope that I could be looking at feeling, physically, a lot better - for the rest of my life. ...Which is so important - now more than ever.

There is a huge part of me that is forever broken, 
always in need of healing, therapy, help. 
I believe I will be fragile forever, 
so I have to work a little harder at being strong, 
and control what I can. 

Yoga makes me feel in control of a body that is wanting to fall apart. As I'm gently moving my breaths around, muscles stretching and contracting according to my mind's motions, I'm able to let go ...weep, but still breathe. Being able to feel both relaxed and strong at once in a posture is the perfect balance.

at the top of the Bay Street stairs
slush, snow, ice melting
in morning sun

The other day I said to Erinn, "Sometimes I think he gave me wings." I look at photos of Finn, utterly amazed at what I grew, who I made, how brave he was... Some people live a hundred years and do very little, he lived ten days and changed the world in so many ways - for so many people. I wish he was here, but he's not..., somehow I have to learn how to be grateful for the time I had, ...look for him in the sky, and feel him in the air around me. He's there.

one of my favourite books on yoga:

Yoga Anatomy

Leslie Kaminoff

ISBN-10: 0736062785

ISBN-13: 978-0736062787

photographs and found treasures

The last few boxes surrounding my desk in the basement are in the process of being unpacked. Finally.
Most of what's left are boxes of photos that need to be dealt with properly, organized, and put in albums - I've slowly been compiling everything for that project..., which I'm actually really looking forward to doing.
Family suddenly has a whole new context, and our photographed story from my father as a child in Holland, my mother as a kindergarten teacher, my sister and I growing up, our weddings, our children... is something worth telling properly.

This morning was spent sulking, feeling sorry for myself, emotional, unable to even look at Finn's photos. I miss him so much. Some times(days, hours, minutes, moments) I'm able to hold it together, others ..not so much. I think I'm learning when to take a step back... let the grief do what it has to do.

There are times I can't read other grief stories, I can't bear how much I relate to them.., other times I can't tear myself away. Today I found my way to Mitchell's Journey, unable to look away from his father's story.
He speaks and writes beautifully of his son, but most important to me is the photographic story - and what he says about the importance of being a "paparazzi" in your children's lives.

I felt terribly guilty for dangling my iPhone over Finn from the moment we were reunited after his birth. The convenience of being able to take decent photos with a gadget that fits in the palm of my hand was too easy, and even more easy to share instantly with family and friends. I kept telling myself to live in the moment and put the camera down, but I didn't.
How grateful am I now that I have dozens of photos of him - photos in every outfit, at every time of day - and night, in the sunshine, with the dogs, by the fire, outdoors, indoors..., I captured every minute I could. Without those photos now - where would I be? From his growth inside me, to his precious ten+ days, I have it all on digital files, saved forever.

(Due to the mother-daughter code photos shared of Hannah must be approved by her - and for the most part they haven't been since "teen" was added to her age. ...but that doesn't mean I don't take them, save them, and have them all at hand.)

Chris Jones' story is important for another reason - as a father's journey through grief. His words are poignant, thoughtful and not held back by any tough exterior. I think it's often hard for father's to express themselves; Rohan has said a number of times how difficult it is to 'be the man' in this situation, hold it all together.. (...in those early days I don't know how he did it, while I lay motionless). So much of child loss and parental grief is focussed on mothers and how mothers cope. A father's perspective isn't something we've come across much, and certainly not one this beautiful.

Among the photographs and boxes of important things I don't know what to do with, I found some odds and ends of my mother's, some she intentionally left for me with messages scribbled on the envelopes, others just random things I ended up with - notes, drafts, notebooks she kept records in (she kept records of everything).
In a faded grey folder I came across a photocopy of pages from Dinah Shields & Edwina von Baeyer's book A Beginner's Guide to Gardening in Canada.

(von Baeyer's Rhetoric and Roses and Garden Voices being among my favourite garden reads..)

My mother's handwriting (in red pen - she must have been grading papers at the time) dates it 1992 ...
I know in the early 2000's she took a course or two in personal landscaping, hoping to do something pretty with her new construction home & garden - the work for which was put in me as hard labourer. She still didn't have a clue, but her determination was expressed clearly through likes and dislikes over my work. I am still being punished for planting purple (her least favourite colour) delphiniums in her front garden. (I thought they were blue..)
Though her enthusiasm for outdoor gardening may have been underwhelming, her indoor garden was always something spectacular. Also in the faded grey folder, a little pencil written note pulled from one of her many notebooks - on sprouting and growing avocados. My childhood memories of windowsills are not without a small glass of water with an avocado seed balanced on toothpicks half way in water, half exposed. I can't possibly imagine how many avocado plants she grew. I don't think any of them ever grew an avocado, but her plants were gorgeous.

Isn't it something that my mother the reluctant gardener was the first inspiration in my plans for our new garden.

Her Hansa rose will be among the first additions, but I've also just ordered some David Austin roses, a little tender here, but worth it even if for only one season. In my first garden I planted Winchester Cathedral - simply because I loved the fragrance of the blooms, even in the pot at the nursery. It wasn't until it was planted and I introduced it to my mother that she told me of how her and my father watched the changing of the bells at the real Winchester Cathedral while on a belated honeymoon (I think my dad was at a conference and my mother tagged along, but they called it a honeymoon... *academics*).
Ordered today is a new Winchester Cathedral, Golden Celebration, Graham Thomas, Jude the Obscure, and Lady of Shalott.
They're all of the hardier Davis Austin roses (famous for old world style and fragrance), but still considered somewhat tender here. I'm willing to take my chances. I'm eyeing up the sunny beds nearest the house for these, but that would involve the removal of boring shrubs..., which is a lot of work.

I see a lot of shuffling in our garden's future. The Reluctant Gardener pages my mother focused on were shrubs: flowering almonds, ninebark, burning bush... all of which are interesting, and worth considering for spots in this garden as well.

Rhetoric and Roses: A History of Canadian Gardening, 1900-1930
Edwinna Von Baeyer 1984
ISBN-10: 0-88902-983-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-88902-983-5

Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian Garden Writing
Edwina Von Gal, Edwinna Von Baeyer, Pleasance Crawford 1995
ISBN-10: 0-394-22428-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-394-22428-2

Reluctant Gardener: A Beginner's Guide To Gardening In Canada 
Hoel Cooper, Edwinna Von Baeyer, Dinah Shields 1992
ISBN-10: 0-394-22233-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-394-22233-2

from the garden bookshelf

January is a good month to curl up in a sunbeam and read garden stories. This is also the month the gardening catalogues start filling up my mailbox. Filled with inspiration by the time March comes, I'll be ready with my early seeds.

Reading now: a little lore and history and the garden science of garlic  ..mmmmmmmmgarlic Not only is garlic my favourite fender of aphids, but I eat it daily. There's nothing like walking down Algoma Street when The Growing Season is cooking up something delightful - and the aroma of warm roasting garlic fills the street. 

In Pursuit of Garlic: An Intimate Look at the Divinely Odorous Bulb

Liz Primeau 

Greystone Books 2012

978-1553656012

A couple of reference books arrived in my stocking this year. I can't say enough for illustrated garden reference books - everyone should have them. These two include interesting sidebars of lore and historical notes.. which I always enjoy.

Edible: An Illustrated Guide to the World's Food Plants

National Geographic 2008

978-1426203725

A Visual Dictionary of Herbs: A Comprehensive Botanical A-Z Reference to Herbs

Jessica Houdret

Anness 2000

978-1842150733 

For the Culinary gardenerd: a Shakespearean cookery. I really love this one. I'll have a lot of fun with it over in my food blog (when I feel like eating again). :)

The Shakespeare Cookbook

Andrew Dalby and Maureen Dalby 

British Museum Press 2012

978-0714123356

first  arrivals 2013

Stoked

Met a dog named Kone today ("snow" in Ojibwe). Walked in blowing snow again, hello winter. Came home to find 1012 Gardening Guide from Stokes Seeds in my mailbox, hello winter reading.

:D

books in hand

Abundant Beauty: The Adventurous Travels of Marianne North, Botanical Artist

The Language of Baklava

Eating India: Exploring the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices

The Way of a Gardener: A Life's Journey

The Renaissance of Bees

The Renaissance of Bees

Woolfson, Jonathan

Source: Renaissance Studies
Volume 24, Number 2,
April 2010, pp. 281-300
Blackwell Publishing

ABSTRACT

Insects have occupied the planet for over 400 million years, humans for a mere one million. Their impact on human development has been incalculable. They are likely to outlive us. This article explores selected cases in attitudes to the honeybee, an insect with a particularly intense history of interaction with humans, from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries, mainly drawn from England and Italy, but with forays into other parts of Europe. It is argued that the Renaissance of bees is a mixed phenomenon, characterized by the elaboration of ancient and medieval ideas about these creatures; a heightened tendency to moralize about human society in the light of them; and a new curiosity for understanding them better through direct observation. The study of attitudes to bees sheds light on religion, politics, science and gender during the Renaissance.

Jonathan Woolfson ¹

  ¹ Istituto Lorenzo de'Medici, Florence

 I am grateful to audiences at the Warburg Institute, Sussex University, and the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in Atlanta for response to versions of this article. Thanks especially to Susan Brigden, Peter Burke, Rita Comanducci, Martin van Gelderen, Claire Preston and Flaminia Pichiorri. For general orientations to the subject of this article see Peter Burke, 'Fables of the Bees: A Case-Study in Views of Nature and Society', in Mikulas Teich, Roy Porter and Bo Gustafsson (eds.), Nature and Society in Historical Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 112–23; Claire Preston, Bee (London: Reaktion Books, 2006); Bee Wilson, The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us (London: John Murray, 2004); Max Beier, 'The Early Naturalists and Anatomists during the Renaissance and Seventeenth Century', in Ray F. Smith, Thomas E. Mittler and Carroll. N. Smith (eds.), History of Entomology (Palo Alto: Annual Reviews, 1973), 81–94; and Hattie Ellis, Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honey Bee (London: Sceptre, 2004).

Floriography

 Flora's Dictionary

 "By a Lady"
Elizabeth Washington Gamble Wirt, 1784-1857
Originally published in Baltimore by Fielding Lucas, June 1829.
This first dictionary of flower meanings can be viewed in full (scanned version) (or downloaded to your Kindle) thanks to the contribution from the University of California Libraries to the Internet Archive.


My appreciation grows for these scanned copies of treasured books for the sake availability and record, but oh how I'd appreciate even more being able to hold an original copy.

Ms Wirt's floral dictionary was one of a number published during the Victorian Age; when gardening for leisure flourished, and propriety meant constraint, the symbolic use of flowers was a means of expression. Floriography, or the meaning of flowers, has continued to serve as a instrument of the romantic gesture. What I adore about Flora's Dictionary is the combination of science and folklore. The book begins by setting the stage for a botanist's study, but the references aren't direct and are quoted from literature, namely poetry - the songs of the heart.

Often the message is as much about the colour of the flower as the flower itself. Over time, the language of  these emblems of emotion has been reconstructed; for instance Ms Wirt's yellow Tulip symbolized hopeless love, while now is commonly known to speak for cheerfulness. Innocent Daisies stand over time, but the Foxglove Digitalis evolves from "a wish" according to Flora's Dictionary to being known as "dead man's bells" or "witches gloves" due to the potency of the plant's chemicals.
Whatever their meaning, flower symbolism continues to satisfy the human psyche, and the heart. With Valentine's Day quickly approaching I'm quite certain the florists will be busy interpreting the language of flowers.

As always, I recommend reading A Contemplation Upon Flowers by Bobby J. Ward.

 Also

The Language of Flowers; With Illustrative Poetry by Frederic Shoberl
Lea & Blanchard, 1848
Harvard

Flora Symbolica or, The Language and Sentiment of Flowers. Including floral poetry, original and selected.
by John Henry Ingram
Published in 1869, F. W. Warne and co. (London)



Flora Symbolica: Flowers in Pre-Raphaelite Art by Debra Mancoff
978-3791328515
Prestel, 2003

gardenerd

also

(JSTOR) Scientific Theory in Erasmus Darwin's "The Botanic Garden" (1789-91)
Clark Emery
Isis, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sep., 1941), pp. 315-325
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society

gardenerd 

six more weeks

Wiarton Willie saw his shadow this morning, and so we have six more weeks of winter. Shubenacadie Sam, and Punxsutawney Phil did, and I'm going to assume our furry little friends R.O.U.S.'s in the LU Garden have also seen their shadows.
This means six more weeks of winter reading, so I picked up a copy of The God of Small Things today from the university bookstore. Winner of the Booker Prize, I was sold by the description of being "lush and lyrical", and the first chapter title: PARADISE PICKLES & PRESERVES.
Roy begins with a description of Ayemenem, India in May; rich in red ripening bananas, and fruity air - just the sort of place I want to read myself into on this cold February. A little bit of travel writing to take me some place else.

Groundhogs are popping up all over the city, not only in the LU Garden. The courthouse on Court Street also boasts a groundhog, and I'm sure there are some living near the ridge of Hillcrest Park - near our garden. Luckily Claire and Gromit have little affection for large rodents, and will do well at keeping them at a distance. woof

The legend of the groundhog's forecasting powers, though up for discussion, dates back to the early days of Christianity in Europe when clear skies on the holiday Candlemas Day, celebrated on Feb. 2, meant an extended winter.
The tradition founds its way to Germany, altering so that that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast its shadow, thus predicting six more weeks of cold weather.
The Groundhog Day was then carried on in North America during the late 1800s thanks to a Pennsylvanian newspaper editor and publisher, who organized and popularized a yearly festival in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The festival featured a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil to foretell how long the winter would last.

A typical groundhog, or by its scientific name Marmota monax, weighs approximately 9.5 pounds with a body length reaching about 20 inches.
Groundhogs use their short, powerful legs, claws, and large teeth to dig underground living habitats, which can run quite extensively with as many as five entrances and various tunnels extending some 45 feet, and as deep underground as 5 feet.

"Shubenacadie Sam, Nova Scotia's furry season forecaster, spots his shadow as he emerges from his enclosure in Shubenacadie, N.S. on Monday, Feb. 2, 2009."
(Photo by Andrew Vaughan / 
courtesy of THE CANADIAN PRESS)

As the light grows longer

The cold grows stronger

If Candlemas be fair and bright

Winter will have another flight

If Candlemas be cloud and snow

Winter will be gone and not come again

A farmer should on Candlemas day

Have half his corn and half his hay.

On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop

You can be sure of a good pea crop.

OMAFRA factsheets

Why Farm Organically?

Factsheets from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs are a invaluable source of information. Though focused on commercial farming, the principles can be applied to any grower. The OMAFRA Vegetable Production Information page lists everything from soil science to seed companies, and homemade pesticides from Health Canada.

Season Extension Techniques for Vegetable Crops is a particularly relevant sheet to gardeners in our area.

Interim Report on Ontario's Biodiversity (a 66 page pdf document from the Ontario Biodiversity Council) discusses everything from native species, ecosystem diversity, sustainable use and Integrating Biodiversity Conservation into Land-Use Planning. The anecdotal (though fundamentally scientific) information in the document and links to further reading can keep a gardener well entertained on a rainy spring day.
The Ministry of Natural Resources extends to Ontario’s Biodiversity Strategy and "seeks to engage more Ontarians in our efforts to achieve the goals of protecting biodiversity and ensuring the sustainable use of our biological assets."

Interested to know What's current in crops?

Frosty Day

Robert Frost ~ A Girl's Garden
A neighbor of mine in the village
Likes to tell how one spring
When she was a girl on the farm, she did
A childlike thing.
One day she asked her father
To give her a garden plot
To plant and tend and reap herself,
And he said, "Why not?"
In casting about for a corner
He thought of an idle bit
Of walled-off ground where a shop had stood,
And he said, "Just it."
And he said, "That ought to make you
An ideal one-girl farm,
And give you a chance to put some strength
On your slim-jim arm."
It was not enough of a garden,
Her father said, to plough;
So she had to work it all by hand,
But she don't mind now.
She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
Along a stretch of road;
But she always ran away and left
Her not-nice load.
And hid from anyone passing.
And then she begged the seed.
She says she thinks she planted one
Of all things but weed.
A hill each of potatoes,
Radishes, lettuce, peas,
Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn,
And even fruit trees
And yes, she has long mistrusted
That a cider apple tree
In bearing there to-day is hers,
Or at least may be.
Her crop was a miscellany
When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
A great deal of none.
Now when she sees in the village
How village things go,
Just when it seems to come in right,
She says, "I know!
It's as when I was a farmer--"
Oh, never by way of advice!
And she never sins by telling the tale
To the same person twice.


ROBERT FROST

Urban Planning for Community Gardens

Urban Planning for Community Gardens: What has been done overseas, and what can we do in South Australia?

By Elise Harris

An Honours thesis submitted as part of a Bachelor in Urban and Regional Planning

School of Natural and Built Environments

University of South Australia

October 2008

Linked from City Farmer News

The Green Fork

The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. 

The Eat Well Guide® is a free online directory for anyone in search of fresh, locally grown and sustainably produced food in the United States and Canada.

Eat Well’s thousands of listings include family farms, restaurants, farmers' markets, grocery stores, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, U-pick orchards and more.  Users can search by location, keyword, category or product to find good food, download customized guides, or plan a trip with the innovative mapping tool, Eat Well Everywhere. Eat Well is also home to the free educational booklet Cultivating the Web: High Tech Tools for the Sustainable Food Movement.

The Eat Well Guide was initially created by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) as a directory of sustainably produced animal products.  IATP later joined forces with Sustainable Table on the project. The Eat Well Guide in its current form, which includes all types of food products, launched in 2003, along with The Meatrix, a critically acclaimed Flash animation series about the dangers of factory farming. Eat Well emerged as an independent program in 2007.

Thanet Earth Greenhouse Project

Britain's biggest greenhouse complex - the size of 80 football pitches - is under construction in Kent. When it is complete it will include seven 140-metre long glasshouses covering a 220-acre site. ...

Using the latest technologies the computer-controlled Thanet Earth complex will have the capacity to grow salad produce such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers which will be picked continuously 52-weeks per year.

Operators Fresca Group Ltd., say it will increase by 15 per cent the UK's crop of salad vegetables most of which currently have to be imported.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

By Paul Eccleston
Telegraph.co.uk

(thanks iDale! :D)

Patricia found Edwinna

A while back I published a list of books I wished I owned. My mother made it so that I now do own two jewels on the list. I couldn't have been more surprised. Out of print, neither easy to get your hands on - she did. They're fabulous. Grin.

Von Baeyer, Edwinna. Rhetoric and Roses: A History of Canadian Gardening, 1900-1930. Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Toronto, (1984), Ist ed.. 197 pp hard cover 0889029830
~ which tells the story of the development of Canada's civic gardens, railway gardens, parks, and the growth of horticultural and agricultural programs across the country.

Von Baeyer, Edwinna, Crawford, Pleasance, Eds.. Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Candian Garden Writing. Vintage, 1997. 9780679308607

From the Publisher
Garden Voices is the first anthology of Canadian garden writing to celebrate the legions of gardeners, from every decade since the 1790s, and from every province and territory. Listen to L.M. Montgomery as she describes the Prince Edward Island garden where she played as a girl and to Mackenzie King as he designs a balustrade for his Kingsmere retreat in 1931. A delightful read and the perfect gift for the armchair or active gardener, Garden Voices will instill in any garden enthusiast the perennially hardy spirit of Canadian gardening.


Henrietta Wood 1917
"My Garden - 1917: A Dream"

Dorothy Perkins
1918
From "The Kitchen Garden and Production", in The Canadian Garden Book

on community gardening in Toronto:

random food security links

Foodland Ontario

Food Secure Canada


Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs - FOOD SAFETY

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/tomatoes_peppers.html
Irrigation Scheduling for Tomatoes

Soil Fertility & Crop Nutrition
The Gardener's Handbook: Chapter 5 - vegetables

www.landscapeontario.com/

Birches - Robert Frost

WHEN I see birches bend to left and right
Across the line of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
(Now am I free to be poetical?)
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches;
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate wilfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Resources - Horticulture Certificate Program (University of Guelph)

American Nursery & Landscape Association
ANLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. This support enables them to operate more effectively and to provide the public with quality plants, landscape design and installations, and related products and services. www.anla.org/about/index.htm

Canadian Nursery Landscape Association
CNLA provides education, research, public relations, and representation services to members. www.canadanursery.com

Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone
The Plant Hardiness Zones map outlines the different zones in Canada where various types of trees, shrubs and flowers will most likely survive. It is based on the average climatic conditions of each area. sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System
The CANADIAN POISONOUS PLANTS INFORMATION SYSTEM presents data on plants that cause poisoning in livestock, pets, and humans. The plants include native, introduced, and cultivated outdoor plants as well as indoor plants that are found in Canada. Some food and herbal plants are also included that may cause potential poison problems. www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/pp/poison?p_x=px

Canadian Rose Society
A Non-Profit Organization dedicated to furthering the study of Roses and to promoting their cultivation throughout Canada. http://www.canadianrosesociety.org/
American Rose Society - http://www.ars.org/

Canadian Soil Information System
The Canadian Soil Information System (CanSIS) has supported the research activities of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada by building the National Soil DataBase (NSDB). The NSDB is the set of computer readable files that contain soil, landscape, and climatic data for all of Canada. It serves as the national archive for land resources information that was collected by federal and provincial field surveys, or created by land data analysis projects. http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/intro.html

Composting Council of Canada
The Composting Council of Canada is a national non-profit, member-driven organization with a charter to advocate and advance composting and compost usage. It serves as the central resource and network for the composting industry in Canada and, through its members, contributes to the environmental sustainability of the communities in which they operate. http://www.compost.org/

Hedge Plants for New Brunswick Gardens
The choice of hedge plants should be determined by the location, soil conditions, size of garden and the effect to be created by the hedge.
http://www.gnb.ca/0171/30/0171300011-e.asp

International Society of Arboriculture
Arborists around the world share their experience and knowledge for the benefit of society through the ISA. The ISA works to foster a better understanding of trees and tree care through research and the education of professionals as well as global efforts to inform tree care consumers. http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/

Ontario Noxious Weeds
http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/noxious_weeds.htm

Ontario Pesticide Education Program
The Ontario Pesticide Education Program has been providing pesticide safety and application training to Ontario farmers and pesticide vendors. http://www.ridgetownc.on.ca/opep/
Ontario Pollutants

Ontario ’s Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has been protecting Ontario’s air quality for over 30 years. Using stringent regulations, targeted enforcement and a variety of innovative air quality initiatives, the ministry continues to address air pollution that has local, regional and/or global effects. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/air.htm

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

Weed Science Society of America, Plant Photo Library
The photo herbarium contains pictures of many plants that are common to North America. Some of the plant species listed are not generally considered weeds but may have toxic or poisonous properties, or are otherwise of general interest as wildflowers or herbs. http://www.wssa.net/photo&info/weedframe3.htm

Invading Species Awareness Program

Invading Species Awareness Program

More than 160 non-indigenous species (plant & animal) have become established in the Great Lakes basin.
Invading species are one of the greatest threats to the biodiversity of Ontario's waters, wetlands and woodlands and have devastating effects on native species, habitats and ecosystems.

In 1992 the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters, in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, established The Invading Species Awareness Program. Their objectives are to:
1. Raise public awareness of invasive species and encourage their participation in preventing their spread.
2. Monitor and track the spread of invading species in Ontario waters through citizen reports to the Invading Species Hotline and the Invading Species Watch program
3. Conduct research on the impacts and control of invasive species

Plant species include:
Flowering Rush, Purple Loosestrife, Giant Hogweed, Fanwort, European frog-bit , Eurasian watermilfoil, Yellow Iris, Water Lettuce, Phragmites, and Parrotfeather.

The Sun Parrots are Late This Year

For Chico Mendez, murdered Brazilian environmentalist

The great forests of the world are burning down,
Far away in Amazon they burn,
Far beyond our eyes the trees are cut
And cleared and heaped and fired:
Ashes fill the rivers for miles and miles,
The rivers are stained with the blood of mighty trees.
Great rivers are brothers of great forests
And immense clouds shadowing the rose-lit waters
Are cousins of this tribe of the earth-gods
Under the ancient watch of the stars:
All should be secure and beautiful forever,
Dwarfing man generation after generation after generation,
Inspiring man, feeding him with dreams and strength.
But over there it is not so; man is giant
And the forest dwindles, it will soon be nothing,
Shrubs sprouting untidily in scorched black earth.
The sun will burn the earth, before now shadowed
For a hundred thousand years, dark and dripping,
Hiding jewelled insects and thick-veined plants,
Blue-black orchids with white hearts, red macaws,
The green lace of ferns, gold butterflies, opal snakes.
Everything shrivels and dust begins to blow:
It is as if acid was poured on the silken land.

It is far from here now, but it is coming nearer,
Those who love forests are also cut down.
This month, this year, we may not suffer:
The brutal way things are, it will come.
Already the cloud patterns are different each year,
The wind blows from new directions,
The rain comes earlier, beats down harder,
Or it is dry when the pastures thirst.
In this dark, over-arching Essequibo forest
I walk near the shining river in the green paths
Cool and green as melons laid in the running streams.
I cannot imagine all the forests going down,
The great black hogs not snouting for the pulp of fruit,
All this beauty and power and shining life gone.
But in far, once emerald Amazon the forest dies
By fire, fiercer than bright axes.
The roar of the wind in the trees is sweet,
Reassuring, the heavens stretch far and bright
Above the loneliness of mist-shrouded forest trails,
And there is such a feeling of softness in the air.
Can it be that all of this will go, leaving the clean-boned land?
I wonder if my children's children, come this way,
Will see the great forest spread green and tall and far
As it spreads now far and green for me.
Is it my imagination that the days are furnace-hot,
The sun-parrots late or not come at all this year?

Ian McDonald (1933 - 2003)

McWatt, Mark and Stewart Brown, ed. The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. New York: Oxford, 2005.