growing a forest in the city

My little Emerald Ash Borer, Madge, and I attended the first class of the Citizen Pruner Program last night. By rare luck Rohan also happened to be in town (in fact his plane landed less than an hour before the start of class and I was there waiting with my boots on as he pulled into the driveway), so he also joined for the evening.

I am SO HAPPY I chose to do this. When I signed up I was literally sitting on my bathroom floor after long cry, sniffling and flipping through The Key when I saw the ad for this year's course. April seemed a long way away at the time, and I really wasn't sure if I would be up to being involved in ...anything...
I decided to sign up, on the off chance I'd feel like doing something by April.

Since that time...

....I've found myself back at work,

involved in other projects,

considering more..

So here I am in April, still crying, but back in it..., and loving this class. 

I've been wanting to learn more about trees. My knowledge of them is very book based and photography driven, but identification often escapes me and I didn't even realize how little I knew about their care until last night.

Many of the urban trees I've admired for years, photographed in seasons, are actually trees at risk, trees who haven't been properly pruned for life in the city. What we need to be striving for is to:

"grow a forest tree in the city." ~ Vince Rutter

Rutter Urban Forestry

Which means assisting trees to grow as they would in their natural forest setting, but in an urban jungle of concrete rivers and competitors for height. Trees in the forest grow tall, reaching their canopies to beyond one another. Urban trees don't compete for that sort of growth, height isn't their main concern.

Survival is really their only real motivation - sort of like grieving parents. Reach for the sky and reach for everything around you, hope for the best. 

The irony being that shortly before the class Madge and I admired some trees in famous Canadian paintings to get ourselves in "tree-mode".. 

Madge doesn't damage trees
she admires them in famous Canadian paintings

Very much in the theme of an earlier post about my desire for a "droopy spruce" for Finn's garden, in my mind I saw a White Pine in a forest - my favourite (with Tamaracks) ~ or something similar from a Tom Thomson painting when Vince spoke of those forest trees in the city. A tree as it should look, and what we admire as fine art. 

We don't have those kinds of trees in urban settings. Our city trees (with the exception of a few) are allowed to reach further than they grow tall. They find themselves developing extra limbs and unnatural growth - things that our human species would baulk at and insist on fixing immediately ... plastic surgeons make more $money$ than radiologists. Just sayin'. 

This class is going to help us take better care of all the trees in our new yard, and any new ones to be added. It has already taught me so much, and changed my perspective. I see trees with new eyes thanks to a few hours of an entertaining lecture ~ what can happen in another couple classes and some field work? A lot, I think. 

Madge, my rather incredible little bug, was hand crafted in clay by artist Heidi Hunter. Her creations are something intriguing, quirky, hilarious, sometimes a little grotesque (but I like that). I've been following her on Instagram, Twitter, and Etsy and enjoyed immensely the "construction" of the Emerald Ash Borers as she made them. She posted photos of their ceramic class anatomy being built from books of bugs - so gross but so interesting. Madge has all her little bug parts, she's a real EAB, just turned to stone and glazed ...so pretty with sparkly eyes. 

Find Heidi by searching @elfguts

links to good stuff:

Thunder Bay Urban Forestry

Why we don't like the Ermerald Ash Borer (the real bug)

More on the Emerald Ash Borer

Vince asked us all to draw a tree at the beginning of class - what we thought what a "perfect tree"...my first drawing was similar to this, but without the roots. (and I added a bird's nest in my first tree) (can't find that drawing).. anyway, he suggested we try drawing another tree at the end of the class, and notice the differences.
In yoga, and during acupuncture I often visualise a tree - specifically the Oak in our front yard. I breathe through the roots, up the truck, through the branches, into the leaves reaching into the sky then back down through it all into the roots and into the earth. Why I left roots off my first drawing ...bothers me.. .My branches weren't as well "pruned" either - more like a city tree than a forest tree. These on my after-class tree may not be much better, it could be taller - with a better canopy.
I wonder what kind of tree I'll draw in a few months...

Dear Garden Diary

I could go on without a computer, and I could even lose my camera, but I could never let go of a sharp pencil and a notebook. Long before digital photography and garden blogs I had my garden journals, and they are still where I do my best thinking. Drawing the landscape and doodling gardens is the best way to visualise plans...

...Photoshop works too. 

It's been hard for me to draw beds that I don't remember very well. I took some photos last year, but not enough - and not while I was thinking 'garden'. Not knowing how much space I have doesn't really matter right now..., they'e big enough beds and I think I can fill 'em (of course I can fill them)

Moving from Pearl (divided or taken whole): ligularia, all adopted daylilies (red, peach, yellow - unknown), geranium *Wargraves Pink, John Davis Explorer Rose, Therese Bugnet rose, Morden Blush rose, Morden Sunrise rose, rudbeckia, stronecrop *Autumn Fire, hostas (of course), tiarella, pulmonaria, irises, peonies x 2, ...um, ..more...

To be added: roses (already mentioned), joe-pye weed, liatris x a few, cone flowers, heliopsis, annual butterfly weed & evening primrose (if they survive a few seasons hooray), heath aster (small white, various other asters, various stone crop, lemon trillium :), ...and who knows what else...

A bird's eye view of this bed is really what is needed to display the haphazardness of shrubs and marigolds - oh and some individually planted cosmos completely frail in the wind.. It's pretty much all going to go. The Oak tree (my favourite) deserves better company. 

Photoshop doodling, imagining those Hansa roses building a (maintained) hedgeline, a mix of sun a shade plants tolerating the changing light from morning to night, ....there are still bare spots in this doodle which are easy enough to fill..., I just wish I had a better sense of space right now.

I'd like to find a Double River Wye daylily (my favourite), which I had years ago, but for some reason never took with me..., or lost along the way.

All of this reminds me of the front garden transformation at Pearl. :)

The south facing side of the house is..., um, ...crazy. The Virginia Creeper has swallowed the house, and though it needs a good haircut it is also a giant birds' nest condominium. This needs to be done carefully. I have no idea how.

I don't want to lose the creeper, I like it..., I even like it swallowing the house. Maintenance is all that's needed. 

As for the two shrubs with a red x mark, ...sorry... they don't even understand what they're doing there. Random round green balls. 

The star marks line the new path we're considering putting in. It became apparent right away that people will always being walking around back to find us - in the shack or otherwise, especially in summer. Having a path added to the existing lockstone will al so enable us (Rohan) to clear it in winter. (Aussie man loves his snowblower...). I've given myself a few extra inches of garden bed against the path to allow for low growing perennials - oooo, and maybe some creeping thyme and smelly things to walk on. 

The first step, as with any garden..., is the soil.., and good grief the soil in these beds is horrible.

This is a view of the little kidney shaped bed outside the shack. Rocks, dandelions, marigold bundles, and a clump of cosmos. For all the efforts in renovating the house, this took me by surprise. Sigh. This garden needed me. 

I know I can't physically do the work, so I'm counting on Bill and the team to turn this over and top it up with some compost and manure mixes. Once the soil is taken care of in these beds (front under the Oak, along the south fence, front east-south face of the house, the weird kidney bed by the shack, ...and the small areas on the north side of the house... That - is what I'm going to tackle this year. That and planting a tree or two in the back (one bare spot)..

...should keep me busy..

back at it...

It didn't take long for me, once I smelled the soil and spotted the plug trays, to want to get to planting..., and the day it was set up us die-hards were there at the planting table. It's the only part of the greenhouse season I can't miss out on - the first in years being last year at this time, when my mother was in hospice. I feel disjointed if I don't plant.
I don't mind the cold temperatures of January and February because they usually come with bright sunny days, and crystal clear starry nights. March and April are often dreary, dirty, damp, cold, and generally miserable. To spend those two months surrounded by warm soil under a blue sky roof - who could complain?

The last thing I expected to do this year was be back at work. I knew I would plant, and "hang around".... but, commitment wasn't something I was entertaining. It turns out I just don't know how to sit still, no matter what is holding me down.

Euphorbia graminea ~ Diamond Frost

Grief - of this kind especially, is defeating. There isn't a day, a moment, a conversation, a thought, that passes without Finn heavily on my mind. As much as it weighs on me I've come to conclude it also gives me strength. In a strange sense, I've never felt more empowered. I'm all too aware that worse could happen, the tension in my gut won't let that go - but, there aren't too many lower lows than what I've experienced in the past year.

I'm still standing.

The clarity that comes with the energy of being in the greenhouse again has helped in so many ways. My focus on our new garden is pretty clear; I even know how we're going to solve the new-garden-no-vegetable-bed problem so that once outdoor planting weather finally arrives I'll have some place to get my seeds dirty. (stay tuned)

I've already decided to focus on the trees, learning about our new trees, pruning and disease concerns of our new trees, adding birdhouse and feeders to the yard, dividing/moving/transplanting favourite perennials from Pearl, moving/transplanting favourites from around the new garden beds, and the addition of rose bushes.

The rose bushes I add this year will fill our yard with my mother's favourite childhood scent thanks to the wind sweeping across the Port Arthur Ridge to and from Lake Superior. By autumn I hope the yard will display some sort of transformation from bland to beautiful, useful, prosperous, and fruitful.

My father's scientific mind, my mother's artful eye, and my precious son's energy are a part of everything I do now. They'll grow in ways their bodies couldn't, and my only hope is that what comes of it makes a positive impact on the small parts of this earth I can help.

Beneficial Trichograms

I released my Trichogramma in the garden yesterday, leaving the little card of eggs tucked away near the yarrow pot - for shade and shelter. I'm looking forward to watching them develop and devour all the nasty caterpillars who are destroying our leaves.

Dirty Ladies, Mystery of the Plant

Laura and I reintroduced ourselves recently - we've been neighbours (a house apart) now for three years, and have been spying over each other's gardens just as long. We've talked before, but it wasn't until the a few weeks ago - one evening when I was recovering in the shade on the front balcony with a glass of wine, and I yelled down to Laura to ask if she wanted a mugo pine. I was already half in my nightwear - a skimpy tank-dress, but with some garden grubs beneath, still with  dirty hands. I had no business being out of the privacy of home, but I went downstairs and out front with my glass of wine to talk without yelling over the neighbour. Laura was in her comfortable clothes too, and we both agreed we didn't care. 

We talked over my garden for a while, then we went to her garden for a while. She told me about Marla's garden, of which I've already heard enough about to be in jealous awe. We decided to peek over the fence, and following Laura's lead climbed a little hill in the back lane to get an even better view - at which point Marla, who was working in her garden, saw us, and instead of reporting two nosey gardeners to the police, invited us in and brought out a bottle of Riesling. This was the first meeting of The Dirty Ladies (named so by Laura...HEEHEE).

Marla was definitely the most dirty, and no wonder - her garden is a wonderland. Tulips were blooming, the sun was setting through the apple blossoms, alliums rising. The visit inspired me. Both her and Laura are growing Kiwi vines - which I informed R later that evening that we would be adopting some Kiwi's as soon as the soffits are in place on the back balcony (removing the horrible drip line that ruins a foot and a half of the little kitchen garden). 

After taking the garden tour back through Laura's garden, to mine again, the meeting was adjourned. It reminded me of year ago when Caroline, Shelly and I would walk barefoot from one another's gardens with summer drinks in hand.

I was in our backyard garden then other night when Laura yelled over the neighbour's yard - she had something to show me, so I invited her over. Dressed again in our garden skimpies, the Dirty Ladies stood and stared at a tall picked plant, slightly shrivelled. A mystery plant, unidentified from a friend's cottage - once a Finlander's land. She said it reminded her of a tobacco plant, maybe coffee plant. ? Tall and wild, hardy and perennial. It's surrounded by organized plants - once a garden, long overgrown, so likely something someone put there. 

From it's shrivelled condition and not having a photo I could only guess curly dock, but now that I see the photos it's obviously not. I'm with Laura that it is some kind of tobacco plant. ??? Maybe? She sent me the photos by email yesterday, which I received while still at the greenhouse - I went through every book and plant person there yesterday, nobody could say for sure. 

I pose the question of identity to the interweb sources now. Does anybody know what this is?

Mystery  Plant

Sleepy G Farm

On Earth Day, 22 April 2012, we visited Sleepy G Farm - with Marcelle and Brendan, who run this incredible homestead farm on the edge of the Sibley Peninsula near the Sleeping Giant's resting head. The visit was arranged over a story for theWalleye - except theWalleye story was already written and submitted with photos of theirs from previous years. A wild spring snowstorm had interrupted the spring farm story, but I still wanted to visit the farm and take my own shots, and see for myself what they are up to.
It ended up being an unbeatable way to end Earth Day - after a day in the greenhouse planting basil and photographing things growing; new life was all over the farm with babies born before our eyes. I've haven't been able to put it to words...

We got lost on the way out. I was too excited to remember to read (or bring) the directions and was just running on memory from Marcelle's instructions and my image of the farm from photos on their website. Our teenager in the back seat wasn't impressed with our country drive, but I was - there's just something magical about being on the Sleeping Giant.
I admired the farm from the road the first time we passed it, even more so when we drove up to it again. The fields, tilled by oxen, lined the road to the farmhouse and barn, with an irrigation system greeting at the top of the drive.
Met by a friendly farm dog before meeting the farmers, who welcomed us like old friends, I was really surprised at their modest surprise that theWalleye was interested in their story... never mind all the words I wished I could have added to the story. How could we not all be interested in this? Thunder Bay (& area) now boasts a number of these young farms emerging from the landscape with passion and integrity; and its because of people like Marcelle and Brendan that a greater respect for local, ecologically raised food has developed.

I'm glad that both Brendan and I remember the Fort's farm in better days. It deserves that. Even more glad to see his traditional farming knowledge fundamental in their farming philosophy. Simple hard work, ecological farming - people who care about their animals, and the land they live off. They raise Dorper sheep, shorthorn milkers, and field run chickens along with their vegetable gardens.

It was great to see the little chicks; for me an instant flashback to my childhood
 - the smell of the chicken coop, the warming lights on straw, the feed. Hannah was able to hold a chick while I told her what it was like to keep them in the family room growing up, holding them in our laps while we watched television, or letting them run loose in our Lego™ village.

She was also lucky enough to hold a lamb, finally. After years of adoration and only seeing them at places like the Hymer's Fair, or at Featherdale in Australia - here she was on a working farm, seeing sheep being raised for food the way they should be, in the field eating grass, cared for like family. I was happy.


More incredibly, there in the evening sun, as we stood over the oxen yoke talking about farm days at Old Fort William, a ewe gave birth in the yard. Before our eyes an Earth Day lamb was born, and I find it really hard to find the words to describe the sight. It was such a beautiful spring evening; a best memory for sure. 

a new mother and her lamb
moments after birth
on Earth Day 2012

 ewes & babies

spring on the farm

Red and River, the Sleepy G oxen work the farm with Brendan and Marcelle. They are referred to as children, with anecdotal stories of calf-hood and playfulness. Lovely, sensitive animals - they are appreciated greatly for their contribution to the farm.

Red & River
Sleepy G Oxen

Red & River's oxen yoke
at Sleepy G Farm

The irrigation system, cleverly set up to pump fresh water from the creek that runs behind the farmhouse to a raised well near one of the large vegetable gardens, uses gravity to cover the area. The dogs fend off deer and rabbits to the best of their ability, working shifts between belly rubs and long naps. The whole farm is in sync.

onions growing
preparing for transplant

chicks grown up

We left the farm with eighteen of the freshest eggs, and a deep respect for how hard these people work day in, day out all year long. There are no vacation days or sick leave in farming. Their successful CSA program is credit to the extra effort they put into growing great food - organic, healthy, and most of all: fresh. 

You can find them at the Pavilion at Silver Islet every Saturday from 10 am – 12 pm June 30th to September 1st, 2012. Farm products from Sleepy G (including fresh lamb cuts) are also available at the True North Community Co-op in Thunder Bay - on Algoma Street with The Green House (previously Folino’s store).

They also keep up a blog with farm news and photos through their website: 

Sleepy G Farm

Brendan Grant & Marcelle Paulin welcome questions and comments. To learn more about their farm, here is their contact information:

RR 1 Pass Lake

Ontario, P0T 2M0

807. 977.1631

sleepygfarm@gmail.com

Kitchen Garden 15 May 2012

mesclun

'Sugar Daddy'
peas

Inter & Companion Planting the Edible Garden

Inter & Companion Planting the Edible Garden

Trending now is a new generation of back-to-the-land gardeners reviving and reinventing a very old concept in gardening: interplanting home-grown vegetables and herbs with flowers to make the most of urban spaces. Area gardeners are creating spaces where families can retreat, eat, educate, and entertain. Thunder Bay is becoming a city where back lanes are grazing grounds, where neighbours plant seeds, ideas grow, and biodiversity is the aesthetic consideration of our backyard gardens.

Filled with healthy plants that provide both beauty and abundance, there is an ever increasing interest in edible gardens, whether in a backyard, a community plot, or on a balcony. No matter the size – edibles are everywhere. People are growing tomatoes and peppers upside down from balconies, or on them: herbs and peas in pots combined with favourite annual petunias, calibrachoa, edible pansies and marigolds. This is inspiring; the possibilities are endless.

Companion planting in the eco-friendly garden understands the symbiotic relationships between the plant species, and with pollinators. The ways in which opposites attract in the garden can be used to establish beneficial habitats: sun lovers provide shade for those who require it, nitrogen fixing plants can be paired with heavy feeders to balance soil nutrient, and deep rooted plants together with those with shallow roots can work together in the same space.

Attracting pollinators and beneficial insects by planting their favourites, which in the Thunder Bay area include beautiful, hardy deciduous shrubs such as hydrangeas or weigela, perennial cornflowers (bachelor buttons) and coneflowers (echinacea ), monarda (bee balm), sedum, and veronica – these and other plants with high nectar concentrations will draw in helpful hummingbirds , bees, and bats. Herb plants, such as coriander, dill, and parsley not only complete a kitchen garden, but are all the preference of beneficial bugs.

 The same works for deterring unwanted visitors; if you want to keep aphids from your roses or lupins try interplanting garlic, which also helps to prevent fungal diseases. Hardy area roses such as those in the Explorer Series, Mordens, or Rugosas attract pollinating bees and butterflies to vegetable crops while their intoxicating scent fills a backyard with home grown aromatherapy.

Prevention as pest control can be easily achieved both in containers or garden beds. Interplanted sage, calendula (pot marigold), mint, and geraniums repel pests through summer, while migratory birds are lured by late fruit bearing shrubs and trees. Here, a pesky mosquito problem can be taken care of with the inclusion of a bat house in the garden. Bats are active members of the garden ecosystem and also work to pollinate fruits trees, tender annuals, and disperse seeds.

Understanding soil composition is a good preventative step, and helps to simplify the process of soil building. By topping up and amending we improve soil nutritional quality; plants grow strong, more resistant to harmful insects, and produce more flowers and fruit. Supplements such as bone and blood meal, NPK compounds (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), and by replenishing mulch will provide the balanced nutrients for plants to bloom profusely, and produce large yields. Choosing appropriate plant type fertilizers saves valuable energy and improves the efficiency of the garden.

Our Boreal climate, with its many shifts in temperature, allows us optimal chances to observe seasonal blooms: through our long (often confusing) spring time weather, tolerating the heat of July becoming lush in August lasting through October. By designing environments which are diverse, stable, and have the resilience of natural ecosystems, our garden spaces will thrive and require less intervention.

printed in:

May 2012 Home & Garden flyer

distributed by the Chronicle Journal

Sunday, 13 May 2012