Tuesday 10 September 2013

Gardening Hiatus

As you may gather from the title of this post, the Kelly Gardeners have decided that 2013 will be a fallow year for gardening.

What? I can't believe I just said that. Why ever not?

Firstly, after our first visit this year at the end of April, I (in particular) was very disheartened at the amount of damage the deer had done over the winter. In fact, many of the plants that had survived the first winter, had not survived the second.  There's a great deal of emotional impact in seeing our very carefully selected, planted and nurtured plants decimated by a few seconds of indiscriminate chomping. We spent much in the way of time on our new "babies", not to mention the expense of purchasing them. Obviously, not being present for extend periods doesn't help.  Hence we have decided that it is probably more circumspect to have a suspension on new garden purchases for this year, though we will probably weed and cultivate.

Secondly, because we are extremely busy this year with the building of our new home! It now takes up 90% of our non-work related energy and has done so throughout the summer. Thank goodness we are busy, or gardening withdrawal symptoms might threaten my sanity.

Life without gardening is still a barren place, notwithstanding the enormous drain on energy that the learning curve of house construction has been.  My indoor garden is doing well, despite the strange infestations that occur, and I've managed to keep new acquisitions to a minimum at the same time as actually discarding some plants that are past their best.  Still, it's not the same as being outside and getting my hands in the soil.

So ... how have we managed to stay sane?  By watching Gardening shows online.  To be more specific, we've discovered that we can watch some pretty wonderful gardening shows that have been uploaded to the video sharing website, Youtube.  I have no idea how some people have the time, nor the data capacity to upload the hours of video that they do, but I must confess, I'm grateful to them.

We started off with Around the World in 80 Gardens with Monty Don, a well-known gardening person in the UK. This series is in 10 parts.  Gardening personality - Monty Don - visits 80 gardens in different parts of the world.  Part travelogue, part adventure, it is a deeply personal journey that Monty Don makes, which challenges his very conception of what a garden is.  My favorite episode was about India. I was very surprised, as I thought it would be about China and Japan, given my predilection for Japanese gardens, but I confess I found them a bit sterile and undelightful.



Here's a link to watch a preview of Around the World in 80 Gardens. Perhaps it will inspire you to watch more.

So, where to next? We really liked Monty Don and a quick investigation revealed that he was quite a TV personality in the UK. So we settled in to some more armchair travelling, this time to Italy.  Monty Don's Italian Gardens chronicles the history of Italian Gardens from the Renaissance through to the 20th century, and also traverses Italy geographically, visiting Rome, Florence, Naples and the North ... the Venato and Lake Como. I've watched some of the parts more than once. They are packed with information, not only about the gardens, but about the history behind their making, and although I'm not historical inclined, they are a fascinating chronicle.

Here's a link to a Preview of Monty Don's Italian Gardens

Monty Don has made quite a few series for British Television, and we have immersed ourselves in his visit to France; his kitchen garden series Fork to Table, where he grows vegetables and then cooks and eats them; and then to bring us right up to date, the venerable iconic British gardening show Gardeners' World.

There are other wonderful gardening shows which have distracted us from the real thing.  Here are a few of my favorites.
  •  Peter Thoday and Harry Dodson recreated the garden at Chilton in the superb Victorian Kitchen Garden (which I remember watching in the '80's when it was first broadcast). 
  • Carol Klien (another host of Gardeners' World) shows us her garden at Glebe Cottage in Life in Cottage Garden
  • Alan Titchmarsh chronicles the history of some of Britain's most well know gardens from the 17th to the 20th Century in Garden Secrets.

Is this vicarious form of gardening a satisfactory substitute?  Well, I've been amazed at how "serious" gardening is as a hobby in Great Britain, and how enthusiastic the gardeners are. I've also learned some very valuable lessons from the history books. It's certainly not a substitute for the real thing, but I must admit to have enjoyed the distraction.


Sunday 28 July 2013

Life and Death of an Agave

Dateline, July 28, 2013.  The 75 year old Agave americana at Allan Gardens has bloomed.  A native of Mexico, it has been cultivated all over the world as an ornamental plant. In Mexico various cultivars of the Agave have been used to distill alcohol and to make Agave nectar, as the sap is very sweet.

A view of the side of the Cactus house at Allen Gardens. You can see the Agave flower spike in the centre of the photograph, poking through the glass.

The plant is monocarpic. In its native habitat, it grows for about 20 to 30 years, it blooms once and then it dies. Cactus and Succulent experts judge the Allan Gardens specimen to be about 75 years old. Our colder climate has slowed its growth, and in fact this is why the plant is nicknamed the "Century Plant" as when it was first introduced to Northern Europe it seemed to take forever before it bloomed.

The Allan Gardens Agave put out its flower stalk in March and due to the extreme heat we've been experiencing in Toronto lately, the stalk shot up and was in danger of smashing into the greenhouse glass. Drastic measures were taken; a corner of the glass was cut out and the flower stalk allowed to continue its way sky ward.
 
The Agave stalk looks like a giant asparagus tip!
Staff at Allan Gardens padded the glass so the stalk wouldn't be damaged by rubbing.

David admires the enigma. How did that flower get through the glass?


Above the glass, the flower looks like a strange Pine tree.  The bees were buzzing madly around it.



The flower began to boom in June and now has almost reached the end of its life.  The leaves are withering and turning brown, and soon the plant will die.  The seeds will be collected and planted, and there's already an offshoot at the base of the mother plant, so it's not really a sad story, just part of the circle of life.

Thursday 21 March 2013

Quince Flowers Steals the Show at the 2013 Canada Blooms

This year Spring is late, so Canada Blooms is even more welcome than usual.

Since Canada Blooms amalgamated with the Home Show 3 years ago, it has changed. The first few years were a bit disappointing, as it just didn't have the same impact as when it was at the Toronto Convention Centre, and the Market place was drastically reduced.  But we adapt, our expectations change, and we find that there are moments that still inspire us.

The theme this year was "The Magic of Spring" and the show gardens interpreted the theme in different ways.  Although many were not really relevant for our future garden, it is nonetheless interesting to see the trends in landscaping.  This year the focus on "outdoor living-rooms" complete with fireplaces and TV's was even more strong than in previous years. In fact some of the TVs were larger than the one  in our living room.  (I'm not interested in TV in the living room let alone in the garden. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of them. But I'm sure you can use your imagination).

"Spring. In a Box."  Ron Holbrook's delightful work is always tasteful and subdued. This garden would be perfect in an urban setting, such as a condo or loft roof.

Perhaps the reason why we are seeing show gardens like this dominating Canada Blooms, is because the cost to mount the show is substantial (between $50 - $100, 000). Obviously to able to afford to show you need to be a big player, and the type of customer you are looking for has to have deep pockets, so you need to put on the Ritz to attract that customer.

Genoscape's "Magicool" featured many delightful water features in a naturalistic setting. 

Japanese style elements are always fascinating to us, and this simple bench from D. A. Gracey's "The Magic of Teamwork" really caught our eye.
But what really stood out for us, was Quince Flower's entry in the Professional Florist's design area.




I'm really sorry that my P&S camera can't really do the display justice, but I hope you get an idea of how gorgeous this deceptively simple arrangement is.  I'm afraid that it was so stunning, that I didn't really look at any of the other displays; I couldn't take my eyes off this table.  It has inspired me ... I'm going to collect some bottles and cloches, and then grow fields of poppies, terrariums full of ferns, and extend my succulent collection, so that I can have a go at creating this in my home.