If a tree falls in the forest … Part 1

Well, we all know that philosophical conundrum.  What’s your answer? Do you think it makes a sound or not?  I’m one of those practical people who think - of course it makes a sound. Even if no one’s there to hear it, the laws of physics guarantee that some kind of noise is made. I bet if you put a microphone next to the tree it would record the sound… don’t get me started.

I’m willing to be persuaded though - if your argument is good enough.  I’ve just read an article on photosynthesis that looks at the process on the quantum level. In the early 20^th Century

...a bunch of brainiacs, including Max Planck, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, discovered that until particles like photons or electrons are observed, they’re nothing but probabilities. In other words, unless they are observed, they don’t really exist as solid physical entities…. When you turn out the lights in the living room and go to bed, the living room ceases to exist as a physical reality. It becomes nothing more than a subatomic soup of probabilities. [Jeff Cox, Horticulture, Sept/Oct 2011]

So does that mean when I turn the light out at night the mess in the living room ceases to exist too?  Yipee, no more cleaning the living-room for me! If anyone complains I’ll tell them to wait until it gets dark, and then it will cease to exist!  

So do I have any greater understanding of photosynthesis now than before?  Not really. I had a hard time with the chemistry of the process.  But I’ll give it a go.  The plant takes up water through its roots.  It also takes up Carbon Dioxide through the leaves. There is a cell within the plant that’s called the chloroplast. It’s like a cook pot. The chloroplast contains a magic ingredient called chlorophyll. When heat is applied (i.e. the sun shines) the magic ingredient combines the carbon dioxide and the water and comes up with oxygen and sugar. The sugar is used to grow the plant, the oxygen thrown off so we can all breath. That’s very much a simplification, because different chemical reactions occur in the dark (i.e. just because the sun’s not shining doesn’t mean the plant’s asleep) and it’s really a miracle when you think about it.

As for the physics … well, I found the chemistry hard enough. I couldn’t make head nor tail of the physics.  Something to do with how plant molecules, in the process of photosynthesizing, can do quantum computing (which even our computers can’t do) and have done so since the dawn of … well plants.  Who’d have thought?

But what has that to do with the garden, you might ask. I can just hear David… get on with it, and stop philosophizing.  Stay tuned for Part 2.

For The Mick -  some Streptocarpus that are blooming right now. This one is Morozy Vzory-Frost.  Streptocarpus have no scent, but the flowers actually get bigger, and last longer than a day.

This Streptocarpus is Fleischle Roulette Azur. Sorry about the quality of the photos. It was dark and I didn't want to use the flash (which changes the colour of flower), so I had to get creative with my desk lamp and hold the camera very steady. David would have taken a better picture. Next time I'll get David to take the picture.

Let me introduce you to an "incredible" gardener

When David read the previous post, he was very anxious to know who I'd be putting in the nice category.  And of course he guessed at my first choice.  I am honoured to introduce to you Wendy Woodworth, Head Horticulturalist at Spadina Museum Gardens.

Spadina Museum is a historic house which has 6 acres of gardens which are kept as historically accurate as possible. I'm not much into history, so if you are interested in finding out more about it you can visit here:
http://www.toronto.ca/culture/museums/spadina-history.htm

The gardens at Spadina (pronounced spa-dee-na rather than spa-dine-a) are what interest me.  The gardens were orginally designed in 1818, and in 1987 the Garden Club of Toronto funded the restoration of the garden.  Wendy was present from the beginning. 

Here's Wendy herself taking us on a little tour of the vegetable garden.

(Spot the typo in the video!  Pianese?  I think they mean Peonies. Obviously not gardeners!)

This little video doesn't really do the garden justice. It focuses on the Parterre portion of the garden where the vegetables and soft fruits are hidden behind a border of flowers.  It appears that it was filmed in early June when the Hesperis matronalis (or Dame Rocket) dominates the garden. And there's so much more than Hesperis to see.  Take a look at the garden in late July.

The garden also has an orchard with many heritage fruit trees, including apple, plum, and peach, a row of old varietal grapes (similar to the concords) as well as a sweeping lawn and lots of beautiful mature trees (some over 200 years old). There is a wonderful old coach house (the chauffeurs quarters now house the offices and the garage portion is filled to overflowing with plants) and a magnificent greenhouse.  There is also something called the Battery, which is a brick promontory built around 1860 which juts out over the escarpment and offers a magnificent view of Toronto


I have volunteer gardened at Spadina off and on (though  more off than on these days) since 2000. Nowadays I go once or twice a year, mostly to chat and catch up with the news. I really admire Wendy.  She has many qualities that I envy, not least of which is her ability to spout latin names of plants with consummate ease.  She is a jack of all trades, being equally proficient in planning, planting and being diplomatic, (there are a lot of volunteers who come to help out at Spadina and I've always seen Wendy treat everyone equally).  She is able to juggle many different tasks and (despite the fact that there's only so many hours in the day and so much to get done) she never appears hurried or worried. 

I think Wendy is most at home in the garden. Her favorite tool is the garden fork and she refers to herself an "industrial gardener". That's because she has no time for fussing about. There are only 2 full time gardeners to look after 6 acres, and in order to get it all done you have to be fast... and not worry when it doesn't all get done.

I've learned a lot from hanging around Wendy and Spadina.

I learned how to prick out seedlings.
I learned to plant flats and flats of annuals quickly and efficiently.
I learned to appreciate all manner of plants that hithertoo I have been ignorant of.
I learned that not all gardening is fun. There are some really tedious tasks (such as weeding the gravel drive).
I learned you have to turn a blind eye to the antics of the "general public".

I also learned that despite being in love with gardening, I cannot do it for a living. It is incredibly difficult to work a 9 - 5 day when it's 30 degrees Celsius outside (and feels like 38 degrees with the humidity). Although I know how to plant massive amounts of the same flower/bulb efficiently, it's not the kind of effect I want in my garden. I can't lift heavy bags of -whatever- as I'm not strong enough. And, I'm not able to hold my tongue when the public allows their beloved children to swing and climb on the 200 year old tree, endangering its limbs.

Thank you Wendy. You have enriched my life beyond words.

Not all gardeners are nice people

Does that statement surprise you?  It shouldn't. It is in the same category as not all handicapped people are nice, or not all old people are nice.  However, it never fails to surprise me when I meet a gardener who isn't nice.  I expect them all to be "salt of the earth" and "shining examples to us all" when in fact, they are just like you and me (although I'm not suggesting that you're not nice).

I'd like to give you a couple of examples of pillars of horticultural society who I didn't find particularly nice people, but as I am a nice person, I will not reveal their names, just tell a few anecdotes to amuse you.

Firstly, there's the name dropper (ND). We went on a tour with ND during that year when we visited many gardens, lead by different people, including ND.  Organized tours are great as you get to see some private gardens that you might otherwise never have a chance to visit, but I didn't care for ND's way of leading. As the bus drove to our destinations, he kept pointing out en route where famous people live/lived. This was lost on me as I'm not very good with remembering names (even famous ones) and so it didn't impress me. He also didn't give out any handouts, and we were forced to gather round and listen to him pontificate for 20 minutes before being allowed to explore on our own. No, I will not be going on a tour with him again. This being said, he does have a lovely garden (yes, he included his own garden on the tour ... how about that for ego?).  Oh, by the way, I've since learned that he's not everyone's cup of tea, so I feel somewhat vindicated in my opinion.

Although I didn't care for ND's style of leading a tour, I must admit he has a beautiful garden and he was also very generous, giving all of the group hand reared Dogwood seedlings (ours didn't survive). Here are some photos from ND's garden. (Note:  The statue above is also from ND's garden).

This is a lovely use of plants. The burgundy Japanese maple on the right hand side contrasts beautifully with the chartreuse of the Hakonechloa macra - Japanese Forest Grass on the left hand side.  Repeating the Hakonechloa plantings leads the eye purposefully down the slope.

The same planting from a different angle.

And from another angle. This time you can see how the Japanese Maple is placed at the top of the pond, and the Hakonechloa becomes a "water fall" of grass tumbling down the slope to the pond.  This is a really gorgeous focal point in the garden.

Secondly, there was the Paragon (P) and husband (H). Now P is also a major player in Toronto's horticultural circles. You see her name everywhere, and 4 times a year she has an open house at her garden. We visited in September, and it was a really strange experience. I didn't actually have much contact with P, but we did with H, and he was very disagreeable ... David's actually words were, "he was a very nasty little man" (my David doesn't mince words).  Throughout the entire visit, H tried to sell you something. If you asked a question about a plant, his answer would go something like... "we had some of those for sale in the Spring but we've got something else you might be interested in." That's ok; these folks obviously felt they needed to have some recompense for allowing complete strangers to come into their garden, but it made you feel like he wasn't really that into gardening.  And then when David mentioned Connon Nurseries (as a location where he'd spotted one of the rare conifers that H told us we'd have real problems finding anywhere else) he slurred them. In all my experience with nurseries and gardeners, that was a first. This was the last straw. I don't think David would be very happy with me if I ever bought anything from these people.

And their garden. Well, there was a lot of tender plants that were either throw away or brought in for the winter, and we got the feeling that many plants were just popped in the earth in pots so they could be easily moved or "sold". And there were many trees that were hard pruned to keep them small enough to fit into the suburban lot.  This happens ... I know, we all plant things too close together, but to see a Meta sequoia so badly pruned made me sad.  And when compared to ND's garden, there is no focal point. Just look at the photos and see for yourself.

A view of the back garden, with pond in the foreground. Behind the pond is the alpine garden.  I think one of the problems in this garden is that there is no restraint.  You don't know where to look as there is too much of everything and no real focal point.

The lawn provides a quiet place to rest your eyes, but otherwise, there's far too much going on in this small space.

On the whole though, most of the gardening people we meet aren't like that. We've met some truly charming and generous people in our travels ... that's for another blog post though, and rest assured, I will be naming names!

A Source of Inspiration

I’ve always gardened in small to medium sized suburban gardens, and there was always a goodly amount of lawn, well it always seemed that way when it came time to mow it.  Whenever I bought a new plant my mother asked 2 questions:  “Will it come back next year?” and “Where are you going to put it?”  The first questions was born of parsimony and the second …well, like most gardeners I couldn’t resist a bargain, or this year’s “must have” (ugh, I hate that expression, but it does apply in this case) even if there wasn't room to plant it.  So every year I was forced to dig up some more lawn and expand the beds.   I was always envious of those lucky gardeners who had gardens large enough to house 6 foot wide perennial borders.

Our property has some really interesting challenges and I soon learned that larger is not necessarily easier.  Unlike most regular gardens round a house, we had many different environments that we could garden in and we couldn’t really have a regular suburban garden with lawns and beds (ok, perhaps the septic tank would house the lawn, that's how it seems to work in the country).  Obviously it was time to get some inspiration.  Although we have many gardening books, especially those coffee table books that you can’t resist buying at a discount at your local independent book store, there’s nothing like visiting a garden in the flesh. After all, you cannot get the smell of a garden from a book, and that for me is a big part of the attraction.

So we began our visits to gardens to garner inspiration for our own creation.  We started close to home. Every year the Toronto Botanical Gardens (TBG) hosts “Through the Garden Gate” a weekend of visiting open gardens in different areas in Toronto. It’s not as large an event as that very famous week long open garden extravaganza in Buffalo, but it’s a really exhausting day, nonetheless.

One year we took advantage of some group tours to different areas to the east and the west of Toronto and we visited a host of gardens.   And every time we travel to a new region we try to see some gardens.  We've seen alot of gardens, from public to private, from tiny to enormous.  We've seen many spectacular gardens of all different kinds; some obviously designed and implemented by landscape architects, but others that were lovingly planted by their owners.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

What a beautiful placement of plants, and rocks in front of that white fence.
Love the way the window cut in the fence is echoed by the round stone at the foot of that pendulous spruce.
Gotta get me one of these.

This shot is so evocative. It could have been taken in Paris or on the West Coast.
It was taken in a private garden near Port Hope Ontario.

This is a tiny part of the most spectacular private Japanese style garden that I've seen outside of Japan. 
Multiply this by 1,000 and maybe you'll  have an idea of how incredible this garden is.

I couldn't resist. Here's another picture from the same garden.
The fence is really unusual and the contrast between the cool green Japanese Maple and the deep maroon Japanese Maple is gorgeous.

Not strictly speaking a garden but I included this as it is inspiring.
It looks so French, but it's right here in Toronto.

This taken at Folmer Gardens which is just west of Walkerton, Ontario. It is a private nursery and show garden on 36 acres. Quite spectacular even in early September.

The Montreal Botanical Gardens - Outside the Japanese Pavilion. You could be fooled into thinking that this little grouping of trees are full sized and those rock are mountains, but in reality the trees are about 4 feet high. The park bench gives you a clue as the scale. This is essence of Japanese gardening - to evoke entire landscapes in miniature. 

The Montreal Botanical Gardens has one of the best artificial Alpine gardens in the world. It is even featured in North American Rock Garden Society's - Rock Garden Design and Construction, which is the authority on ... well - rock garden design in North America. (I feel a bit stupid writing that, as it's pretty self evident!). That's me eating my lunch amidst the beauty of the rocks.

Here's a close up of the MBG crevice garden as the larger picture really doesn't show enough detail. I bet you all thought I was a nut, didn't you?  (Hmmm, you probably still do... beauty in rocks...where?)

Though not strictly speaking a garden, I just had to add this for it is truly inspiring, Taken at the Purdon Conservation Area, these beautiful Lady Slipper Orchids are native in some Ontario wetlands.  The plants do not bloom until they are 10 years old, and they have to have the perfect environment before they can do so. They are little miracles - actually not so little they stand about 1.5 to 2 feet high. They were a delightful surprise as I tend to think of orchids as dainty things. 

 Did we get inspired?  You bet we did! And we'll talk more about that later.