Fusion Gardening

by Mark and Ben Cullen

It is time to change the way that we design gardens.

One exciting concept brings together new trends with traditional garden design concepts. New trends include attracting pollinators, sequestering rain water, and a place to grow food.

Traditional concepts include a place to eat out of doors, read, an activity area for kids and a storage place for garden gear.

Fusion Gardening brings these elements together, or, put another way, fuses them together under an umbrella concept.

Many aspects of Fusion gardening contradict our traditional vision of what a beautiful garden looks like and how it functions. Rain water in a Fusion landscape is captured. Bees and hummingbirds are attracted to a wide variety of blooming plants that are choreographed to bloom in succession throughout the season. Pavers used for an eating area are permeable, allowing water to flow freely through them. And the ‘understory’, the material underneath the pavers, consists of course gravel, providing a place for rain water to slowly seep into the sub soil. (OK, I think as a reader, give me a direct, small example of how fusion gardening contradicts traditional designs)

WATER: Fusion gardens, above all, replace our desire to move water off our property as fast as possible with a management system that puts rainwater to effective use. Rain gardens are created when you lower the grade of your yard and sequester rain water to grow plants that are suited to wet locations. When a rain garden in the spring, dries out in the heat of summer, the selected plants thrive in heat and dryness. In a fast paced, mid-summer deluge of rain, the same plants tolerate ground water, soaking it up and storing much of it for use during dry spells.

Bio swales, rain barrels and garden ponds can play a role in diverting and managing rain water also.

This paragraph, below, can be boiled down to one sentence, referring to a new training and certification program re: Landscape Ontario.

What is a Fusion Landscape Professional?

A Fusion Landscape Professional (FLP) is an industry certified expert. The term Fusion Landscaping has been coined to describe the skill-set that is earned by members of our professional trade association, when they take a course in this program.

This paragraph, below, does not answer its own question.

What is Fusion Gardening?

Fusion Landscaping works in harmony with the natural conditions of your property. It blends a traditional garden with elements of colour, texture and water-retaining features.

As you dream about how you would like to use your outdoor space and what it might look like you may consider where you will eat, relax, enjoy a recreation area and even where you will provide storage. Fusion garden design incorporates all your requirements into a plan that manages storm water, attracts pollinators and creates space for composting and rain barrels.A Google search of fusion gardening sends me to Region of Peel and Toronto Botanical Garden sites, and both describe fusion gardening as including many more aspects than just water. For instance, the Region of Peel’s website lists these aspects of fusion gardening for readers/Peel residents to consider when planning their own:A composter or rain barrel?A garden shed or storage area?

An area for your kids to play?

A secluded spot to relax?

An area for your barbecue?

A space for outdoor entertaining?

A vegetable garden?It is just a good idea!

Fusion gardening makes a whole lot of sense to us. First, rain water is a resource, not a waste product. So why would we be in a hurry to send it to the lake, (Single quotes are cropping back into your columns; most of the time – like this instance – quotes are not needed and when they are, never use single quotes, always use doubles please.) when our own gardens can benefit from the use of it? Fusion Landscaping provides a place for excess rain water to travel vertically, through layers of aggregate and soil in your new garden.

(These are all good, relevant points and deserve some fleshing out – like: How exactly does a fusion garden absorb excess rainwater? What kinds of plants for bio-diversity? How does a fusion garden reduce maintenance costs?) Sean Hayes, president of Clintar Landscape Management has filled training spots for the program and has this to say, “I have noticed that some clients assume these design and maintenance strategies are going to be more expensive than typical garden designs. But it does not have to be more expensive and, in fact, clients can actually save a lot of money on the back end.”

This means that you will use less water to maintain your garden or none at all when you switch to ‘Fusion’ gardening. Flowering plants like echinacea, rudbeckia, yarrow and native ferns are tough and (Give us examples/tell us what kinds of plants you’re talking about here)  self-maintaining. They do not need to be hand watered after they are established. Densely planted, there is very little need for weeding.

Take a moment right now to reflect on the sounds of bird song, bees buzzing in abundance as they forage nectar and pollen from native flowers and the sweet smell of spring rain as it warms the soil after a long, benign Canadian winter. (It will be the middle of Feb. when you tell readers to do this; maybe if you write it in a more descriptive way to create these 3 things?) There are three images that are enhanced through Fusion garden design.

Fusion at Canada Blooms.

In exactly one month, the largest garden festival in Canada comes to Toronto and Fusion landscaping will be featured. A (this is the 3rd mention of Landscape Ontario in this column) Fusion feature garden, designed by Parklane Landscapes, will be a knock-out. Plan on visiting to learn more about it.

Fusion garden design is here to stay, and we think it is an exciting concept of gardening in the future.

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Ash to Ashes

by Mark and Ben Cullen

What is it, this love affair that we have with wood? Robert Penn has some suggestions. He is the author of The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, a book that is a deep dive into the meaning of wood.

We recently picked up a copy while in London, UK. In the book, Penn works through his plan to fell a giant ash tree and make as many useful items from it as he possibly could. It is a 101 on how trees grow and why their wood is so serviceable to us.

Why an ash?

Penn chose to cut down an ash tree and explore its practical possibilities because it is reputedly the most useful of any tree in the world. He proves this by explaining how ash has won over  various sports, how it has opened entire continents by providing the most serviceable canoe paddles, axe and hammer handles, and was the choice of native people for making  snow shoes. The story grows more fascinating with each page.

What is so special about ash?

The straight grain and dense annual growth rings lend ash wood to an amazing variety of uses.  Here are a couple:

Arrows. The best arrows in the world are made of ash wood. During the Hundred Years’ War between France and England, the long bow was the British weapon of choice. When preparing for the battle of Crecy, France King Edward III wrote to King Philip VI of France, on the eave of the battle in 1346, ‘at whatever hour you approach you will find us ready to meet you in the fields, with God’s help, which thing we desire above all else.’

King Edward was a bit cocky about the coming engagement, with good reason. He had commissioned three million arrows to be made of the best English ash wood. His 5,000 archers stood on high ground that morning and rained down arrows on the unsuspecting French, 60,000 every minute. The best archers had three arrows in the air at any one time. “The scale of defeat was unprecedented and shocking,” writes Penn, “the consensus is around fifty English dead and 16,500 French.”

Hurley sticks

Ice hockey has roots in the Irish game of hurling, which features the hurly stick: a hardwood bat that looks like a cross between a cricket bat and a field hockey stick.

A professional hurler can wack a hurly ball, with an ash stick, up to 90 miles an hour. Most often, this is a high scoring game due to its speed and ferocity. Penn describes hurling as, “a cross between hockey and homicide.”

Hurly sticks are made of ash by selecting a special section of the hardwood from the bottom of the tree where it flares out to the root below. Sticks for ice-hurling, in Canada’s Maritimes, were made similarly from ash trees by indigenous people, using timber from the base of the tree. It was a thriving cottage industry until about 1880, when laminating wood put an end to traditional methods.

A Natural Love Affair

Equally fascinating as the tales of 44 useful products that Penn made from one tree are his anecdotes about our love affair with wood generally. He suggests that, “Through odour, colour, resonance and warmth, we develop a sentimental attachment to artefacts made of wood that often reaches beyond their practical use.” Penn reflects on our connections to nature or “perhaps a kind of biological response. After all, we come down from the trees and for 99.9 per cent of our time on earth we have lived in natural environments: our physiological functions remain finely tuned to nature.”

The power of wood has been demonstrated through numerous studies. Pen states that blood pressure and heart rates drop in classrooms and offices with wooden furniture.

The ash tree has been under attack here in Ontario. Emerald Ash Borer has wreaked its havoc with many of our native ash, which is why we write this column on an ash desk that Mark made with his own hands. It features a solid plank that a professional tree-trimmer recovered from a large, dead ash in a Toronto park.

There is a certain satisfaction in working with wood, to be sure. And taking time to be in the company of trees has its own benefits. Final word to Robert Penn, “Walking in a forest proves the magic of trees. How it works on humans at a molecular level, in our cells and neurons.”

The Man Who Made Things out of Trees, by Robert Penn

Published by Penguin in the UK and W.W. Norton & Co. in the USA

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Food Gardening: The Artist and Canvas

by Mark and Ben Cullen

Ben was ‘an artist without a canvas’ – a passion for food, and nowhere to plant.

When he graduated from the Ridgetown Agriculture College there was one thing that set him apart from most of his classmates: he was not leaving school to return to the family farm.

The last few years, Ben has enjoyed container gardening, indoor plants and gardening in small urban yards. This spring, everything changes; now that he has secured a 1,000 square-foot plot 10 minutes from his home in Guelph.

For Mark, this season will be business as usual – growing loads of vegetables in his one-acre veggie garden, in addition to the remaining nine or so acres of orchards, meadows and flowers.

Two artists, two canvasses. How will we work differently? What can you learn from this?

Ben:

My 1,000 square feet is a big allotment, but my ambitions started out on a much larger scale, so I want to maximize space.

  • “Square foot gardening”. Square Foot gardening was pioneered by Mel Bartholomew, an engineer who applied his mechanical inclinations to vegetable gardening. I am employing this concept in about one quarter of my allotment. Using string to outline a grid of one square foot sections. Planning becomes easy: in each square I will plant 16 carrots, nine onions, four Swiss chard or one broccoli, and so on. This allows for maximum density, and it is easy to plan, organize and maintain. http://www.squarefootgardening.com/
  • Intercropping works very well with certain crops which I intend to grow elsewhere in the allotment. Two or more plants will be planted in the same space, which will benefit one another mutually. The most popular example is what Native Americans called the “Three Sisters” – planting sweet corn in a block, with climbing beans interspersed, and squash spreading across the ground below. The ‘sisters’ evidently get along very well. The corn provides structure for the beans, and the beans fix nitrogen from the air to feed the corn, while the big leaves of the squash suppress weeds and keep the soil moist.
  • Herbal tea is a heavily consumed item in my household, and as a crop it keeps well once dried. Mint and Chamomile are easy to grow and are two of our favourites. The process is simple – harvest the Chamomile flower and the Mint leaves, and hang them to dry or process them through a dehydrator. Bingo.
  • A “pollinator’s perimeter” will provide an easy and attractive border, in addition to attracting and sustaining the necessary pollinators to the garden. The easiest way to establish this is to find a Bee & Pollinator Wildflower seed mix, which will contain a blend of Black Eyed Susan, Borage Officinalis, Butterfly Weed, Corn Poppy, Blanket Flower, Coreopsis, New England Aster, Wild Lupins, Coneflowers, and Wild Bergamot.

Mark:

While I have the luxury of space on 10 acres, I also have the luxury of 13 years’ experience on the property and a few more years growing at 3 previous homes.

  • Perennial crops are well established. I constructed a wire system to support a very healthy and bountiful raspberry crop that comes back year after year. The apple orchard on the West side of the garden is also coming to maturity, with 50 trees. Two years ago, I harvested several bushels of fresh apples.
  • Parallel to the vegetable garden on the Northern edge runs an “apple fence”, inspired by Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France. It was important to create space for the veggie garden that is visually separate from the rest of the farm. This fence was created by growing dwarf apple trees, trained along two horizontal wires and delineates the vegetable garden from the rest of the property. A nice harvest from my Monet apple fence each season.
  • Crops are rotated throughout the beds to maximize soil fertility and suppress weed and disease pressure. For example, I avoid planting tomatoes after potatoes or peppers, as late blight can overwinter in potatoes and kill the tomatoes. However, planting tomatoes after a legume, such as beans, is beneficial, as the beans will leave the soil enriched by fixing nitrogen out of the atmosphere for the tomato plant’s consumption.

Indeed, every artist needs their canvas. Now, as Monet plotted his garden in Giverny, we are off to the drawing board to finish plotting our gardens for 2018.

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Indoor gardening primer

by Mark and Ben Cullen

Dirty knees and gardening go together, just not at this time of year. Fact is, many of us ‘garden’ indoors in the Canadian winter.

We grow tropical plants, amaryllis, windowsill herbs, bean sprouts and more.

The need to nurture plants through the winter months is a good thing. There is nothing like getting some real dirt under your finger nails.

Here is our primer for mid-winter gardening success:

  1. Low light = poor performance. Most tropical plants need sunlight to perform and grow well. The hibiscus that you brought indoors from the patio this fall is looking tired and unhappy about now. Hibiscus, like many flowering tropical plants prefer high light. This is true for oleander, mandevilla vine, fig trees and citrus trees.

    The answer is to give your tropical sun-lover as much light as possible by placing it in a south or west facing window. However, that window receives about 500 foot candles of light on a sunny day this time of year, while in June the same window receives about 2,500 foot candles.
    Before you consider moving closer to the equator, cut the plant back. Mid-winter is the perfect time of year to prune large tropical plants. Pruning thickens and enhances the appearance of the plant. By early May, your tropical plant will be pushing new growth that will explode in the warm early summer temperatures and sunshine.
  2. Less water. As your indoor plants slow down their need for water is reduced. A bit like us, when we are most active, we need to hydrate more often. As a rule of thumb, water indoor plants thoroughly only when the soil is dry about 2 to 3 centimeters below the surface.
  3. Tepid water. Plants are like people and they don’t like cold water. Ever take a cold shower? Didn’t think so. Pour water into a large container before you go to bed and use that the next day to hydrate your thirsty plants. Gardeners using municipal water need to do this to let the fluoride and chlorine dissipate in the form of gas over night. If you use water right from the tap chances are good that a calcium deposit will build up around the root zone of your plants. You see evidence of this on clay pots when a white, powdery substance appears on the outside of the pot.
  4. Air dry? = white fly. One of the most frequent questions we get this time of year on our website is, “How do I get rid of white fly on my indoor plants?” and the answer is … well there is no easy answer. White flies are stubborn and once they find their way into your home there is no easy way to get rid of them. Yellow, sticky traps are quite effective at bringing them under control, but seldom eliminate the problem. Daily misting with a spray atomiser also helps to minimize the problem, as white flies hate water and love the dry atmosphere of a Canadian home mid-winter.
  5. Re-pot. If you have an indoor plant that is languishing, now is an appropriate time to pot it up into a larger sized container. First, pull the plant out of its existing pot and examine the roots. If they are ‘hitting the wall’ of the pot and twirling round in circles that is a sign that the plant is under stress.

    After you have removed the root mass from the existing pot, pull the roots apart. Get violent, pulling and tearing up to 30% of existing roots to break the root mass free. When it discovers new soil in a clean pot it will begin putting down new roots.

    Pot up one size when re-potting (from an eight inch to a 10 inch pot) and use quality, new plant soil like Pro Mix.

    After the plant is in its new home, compact the soil around the roots with a wooden ruler or similar piece of wood. Push air pockets out, which can trap water and cause root rot.

    Water thoroughly and don’t begin to fertilize until new growth appears on the top portion of the plant.

    Finally, keep the foliage of your tropical plants dust free. Use insecticidal soap on a dampened, clean cloth to wipe down dracaena, yucca, scheflerra and virtually all leafy plants.

    Happy plants, happy home.

    And you thought you had the winter off.

    Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Making a house a home

by Mark and Ben Cullen

When does a house become a home? When fresh baked cookies come out of the oven, when a new baby is brought ‘home’, and when the place in which we live becomes larger than life.

Recently we were privileged to attend the Toronto Garden Awards Ceremony at City Hall as sponsors. There were over 300 entries in 6 categories. With so many great gardens, contest judge Tony DiGiovanni remarked, “Choosing winners was the hardest job of all.”

Among the entries, was a letter from a homeowner that moved the judges and tugged at their heart strings. We are sharing an excerpt from the letter with you here.

“Dear Judges,

My name is Shanthi, I have been living at this address since 2012 Summer, I have been renting this house from 2012 to 2014 December when I bought it. When we moved into the property, there was no flower, plants or anything on the property except trees, dried grass, and lots of dandelions. After I took ownership of the property I worked on my gardening with the help of my son and daughter, and made my house and property beautiful. When we moved into the area, not a lot of neighbors were gardening.

Since 2015, I see a lot of neighbors working on their gardens. One of my neighbours gave me a few of her plants, and I gave her some of my plants in exchange. This encouraged neighbors to do more gardening.

My son and gardening has helped me a lot to find peace, and gardening is my hobby. We don’t throw out old vegetables, fruits, or dried leaves, egg shells or tea bags. My son digs and burys these, this helps the soil and plants to grow healthier.

Thank you so much, this encourages me to do a lot more for my garden.

God Bless You
Shanthi”

If a house becomes a home when we fill it with love and if it is a place where we find peace, what role can your garden play?
When Mark was four years old his father pointed to five pyramid cedars planted in a row across the back of the yard. “The middle one is yours.” He said. Without any more explanation he had given a young lad ownership over a living thing and it felt very special. Mark was the middle kid of five siblings and as the years passed his image of that house was framed by an image in his mind of that one tall cedar tree. A house became a home.

Sometimes, we create spaces in our living quarters that make our house feel more like a home. When you walk up to the front door of our family house you are greeted by flowering plants in pots or evergreen boughs, in season. We have four large hanging baskets dripping with fern foliage across the front of the house all summer. Ben plants up window boxes with fresh herbs through summer at his rented house, and always has a pumpkin and squash at his door come fall. Food gardening is his thing. Even at the front door of his house.

After you garden for a while you learn a lot about people by observing the treatment they use at the front of their house. A swing on a porch, visible from the street, says that the owners are social and desire to be inclusive.

A tall hedge at the street, that blocks the view of the front door, tells us that the owners enjoy their privacy.

An unkempt hedge or yard and a lack of outdoor furniture is likely the sign of, well, you know, and we hesitate to say, “Indoor” people.

A house, a home. The difference is what we invest of ourselves in the process. Much more than a single sheet of fresh baked cookies, a mature cedar tree or a landscape that transforms the front of the house from grey/brown to a riot of living colour. It is not just one thing that makes a house a home and it is not just love. It is an accumulation of honest efforts made to warm a place up and the garden can be at its’ heart.

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Stimulating Sustainability

by Mark and Ben Cullen

A new year: a clean slate. Gardeners appreciate clean air and want to make the world a better place. After all, we are in the business of producing oxygen every time we nurture a plant.

We are here with stories that will make you think outside of your box and stimulate ideas that might just help you make your corner of the world more liveable.

30 Days of Wild

The Wildlife Trusts, a coalition of 47 land trusts dedicated to “nature’s recovery” in the United Kingdom, created a program that is designed to encourage people to take the time to connect with nature. The Waitrose Weekend newspaper reports that nearly 30,000 people and organizations signed up online to take part in the campaign last year. “Thousands of people carried out 1.8 million random acts of wildness during 30 Day of Wild,” says The Wildlife Trusts’ Lucy McRobert.

What are ‘random acts of wildness’? Anything that connects us with nature. The newspaper lists three ways to do this:

  1. Channel your inner poet. Write some verses about your favourite wild place.
  2. Relax in Nature. Pull a hat over your eyes, cross your hands behind your head and chill out in a meadow. In Canada, a toque.
  3. Admire a sunset. In the summer, bats might be spotted overhead (and we need more bats). In a Canadian winter, the silence can be deafening, in an amazing way.
  4. Go Wild at Work. If you have an open or disused space near your work, encourage colleagues to create a wild space there. Native plants might factor into your plan.

30 days of Wild sounds like such a clever idea, we think that Canada should have a month of “Wild” also. After all, we have more “wild” per capita than any other country.

Who would like to launch the concept?

Cow Burps

Many of our climate change problems revolve around the production of carbon and the slow erosion of the ozone layer. According to Food and Agriculture at the UN, 9.5% of the greenhouse gasses (GHG) produced by human activity is the result of cows producing methane gas. They burp like crazy. Hazardous burps.

While vegetarians will suggest that we simply stop eating beef, there is another solution: breed cows that burp less. According to The Scotsman Newspaper in Edinburgh, a new breed of cow is in development and may be on a farm near you within a few years. The newspaper reports that, “Researchers from Scotland’s Rural College, the University of Edinburg’s Roslin Institute and the University of Aberdeen have identified a link between an animal’s genetic make-up, the bacteria in its digestive system and the amount of methane it produces.” The newspaper quotes a news release from the University, “Our Green Cow research has allowed us to identify a number of things that will help to reduce global methane emissions.”

In time, the Green Cow project could help agriculture cut its carbon footprint worldwide.

We note that burpless cucumbers have existed for generations. Isn’t it about time someone developed a burpless cow?

Free Food

While visiting Strathcona, Alberta a couple of years ago, we saw signs posted in large containers of vegetables growing in open, public spaces. The signs welcomed passersby to harvest food for their own consumption. We were surprised to learn that the privilege of self-harvesting was not abused.

Free Fish

In Pincher Creek, Alberta, a small, man-made pond in the centre of town provides opportunities for free fish. A sign reads, “Senior citizens fish for free. Limit two fish per day.” What a wonderful way to say thank you to the seniors in their community.

Ideas that are sustainable and green are all around us. As the garden sleeps through a Canadian winter, we can dream about what each of us can do to play to protect the environment.

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

An Indoor Fix

by Mark and Ben Cullen

We’re not quite ready to admit that the Canadian gardening season is “over”. In fact, we belong to a growing number of gardeners who are getting their plant fix indoors.

We have been maintaining plants indoors for as long as there has been indoor space to put them. A Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) in the breakfast nook, an Elephant Ear (Colocasia) in the hallway, and a Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera) in the bathroom, are stalwarts in the collection. In Ben’s apartment, visitors can barely move for propagated tropicals – cuttings which are traded and gifted to friends as the trend takes hold among his peers.

The trend of growing plants indoors is very real.

“The ‘70’s are back! We are seeing more demand for house plants than we have in years.” Jeff Olsen of BTN Nurseries recently told us.  BTN is a large wholesale plant grower based in Schomberg, Ontario. “I think it’s part of a look that’s popular right now, and young people enjoy taking care of these things.”

Predictably, the online presence of houseplants is also ever-growing.

Darryl Cheng, based in Toronto, runs an Instagram account called House Plant Journal. What began as a chronicle of his “plant parenthood” now has over 190,000 followers who seek out his daily updates and advice, from #MonsteraMonday to #FoliageFriday.

When browsing the thousands of images of houseplants online, Cheng can tell when plants are established in their environment, or when they’ve been placed as props in a photo shoot. He explained, on a recent phone call, “(After a while), a plant looks like it actually belongs there. You can see when a plant belongs somewhere because it’s more appealing”.

The beauty of indoor plants is that you don’t need a garden to grow them; they are accessible to virtually everyone. In addition to adding beauty to your home or office, houseplants have a measurable impact on your indoor air quality.

Here are some tips for getting started:

  • Start simple. A lot of people tell us that they have a “black thumb”, or that they “kill everything”. A Pothos or a Spider Plant are incredibly robust and will help even a novice indoor-gardener build confidence.
  • Try cuttings. This is a free way to multiply your riches – and most tropical plants lend themselves to this very well. Cut healthy shoots of new growth right below a leaf joint, and remove lower leaves. Put the cuttings in a jar of water or push them half way into moist soil and within a few weeks roots will start to form. Once a few good roots have developed plant into a pot filled with good quality potting mix.    
  • Try exotics. Once you have mastered the art of plant care, there are endless places you can go with your new-found passion. Ben is particularly interested in hibiscus, for their big and colourful flowers, and the endless varieties to choose from. This only works in extremely bright south or south-west facing windows. Providing auxiliary artificial plant lights can help to maintain blooming even during the low-light period around New Years.
  • Share! Like everything, the joy of gardening is greatest when shared. Propagate new plants to give to your friends and family, or reach out to any of the various growers’ societies who are active right through the depths of winter. Start some now as Christmas gifts. And of course, post those pictures on Instagram!

Mark learned many years ago that indoor plants can really help to shorten an otherwise long, cold Canadian winter. Ben and his generation are all over it! What goes around comes around…

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Plant Blindness

By Mark and Ben Cullen

Anyone would be impressed. Standing in front of the skeleton of a Blue whale has a jaw-dropping effect. It is hard to imagine a mammal THAT big. We were at the Royal Ontario Museum, enjoying a special birthday treat with family, which is about as rare as a Blue whale sighting.

At 25 meters (80 ft.) long and 150 tonnes, a Blue whale is hard to beat for bigness.

Unless you are looking at a 350 year old white oak, like the one that grows in a residential back yard in Etobicoke.  Believed to be the oldest tree in Toronto, this Methuselah of trees could tell a lot of stories about our history, if only it could talk. Heritage designation had been applied for on behalf of this behemoth, over 10 years ago. As of today, it still has not been granted.

The point is: we will go to enormous lengths to preserve a whale, take it apart and display it in a museum, but we have trouble noticing the importance of a tree that is more than twice the size and almost 10 times the age of a whale.

Botanists now have a term for this: plant blindness.

In 1998, researchers James Wandersee and Elisabeth Schussler introduced the term ‘plant blindness’. The research showed that when people looked at pictures of different landscapes, most would notice the animals and other objects before plants. Tony DiGiovanni, Executive Director of Landscape Ontario, responds to these findings with this, “Something that is unappreciated and unnoticed has little value.” And he is determined to fix that.

Landscape Ontario is a founding member of Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition, an organisation that represents the interests the ‘natural vegetative systems and green technologies that collectively provide society with a multitude of economic, environmental and social benefits, including urban forests, bio swales, engineered and natural wetlands, ravines, meadows, agricultural lands and more.’

Economic Powerhouse

The Green Infrastructure Ontario Coalition provides some important numbers:

  • The ‘green’ sector employs 140,000 in the private sector in Canada (for comparison, Chrysler Canada employs about 10,000).
  • Including the public sector, over 280,000 people are employed in the green sector.
  • Consumers spent about $11.7 billion on landscaping and horticultural products last year.
  • The farm gate value of horticultural trees, shrubs and other plants grown on Canadian farms is over $2 billion.

Green Infrastructure provides a lot of Canadian jobs and is a powerful economic engine.

As DiGiovanni says, “It is the job of our profession to tell our story of benefits in ways that will be heard”.

Here is the buzz.

Last spring, on Mother’s day, our family gathered at our house for a celebration. We asked our two son-in-law’s Rene and Martin to come to the backyard. We walked them quietly down to a 10-meter-high pussy willow and stopped under it, asking for silence. “WHAT IS that?” they both exclaimed in a loud whisper. We pointed up into the branches of the willow where thousands of honey bees were busy harvesting an abundance of nectar and pollen. The buzz was deafening.

From that day on, our pussy willow is looked up to differently by those two. More accurately, it will be looked upon, finally! A large flowering shrub among many others in our 10 acre garden, this tree was easy to overlook until the bees discovered it. And we discovered the bees.

Curing Plant Blindness

Perhaps, there is the rub:  when we find wildlife that engages with the green world around us, we notice the green living world that supports it.

The benefits of green infrastructure are many. Here are just a few:

  • Lower up-front construction costs for the same level as ‘grey’ infrastructure.
  • Green infrastructure often reduces maintenance costs of other infrastructure and expands the lifespans. The shade and cooling effects of mature street trees, for example, significantly extend the life of asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks under their canopy.
  • Green infrastructure can prevent large-scale damage and reduce costs of floods (this should be of interest to insurance companies and municipalities alike).

If only we could see the oxygen that we inhale, manufactured exclusively by the green, living plants around us.

If only we could put a value on the toxins that are filtered by lawns and tree roots from rain water.

If only we could pick the fresh fruit from all the trees in our yard. 

Perhaps then, we would not be so blind.

Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and holds the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, on Facebook and bi-weekly on Global TV’s National Morning Show.

Ageless Gardens

by Mark Cullen

Kids take their lead where they find it. Sometimes parents steer kids in one direction, their experiences at school in another. When it comes to food, there is little doubt that every child, for better or worse, develops eating habits from a very early age. After all, we love to eat.

Sunday Harrison is the co-ordinator of the Green Thumbs Growing Kids program. www.greenthumbsto.org She works collaboratively with the school board in a cluster of elementary schools in high -need neighbourhoods. She explains her motivation for this program, “Children are growing up in high-rise communities without access to green space and fresh growing food. Research shows that positive attitudes towards nature are formed in childhood.”

I would agree that kids can learn a lot by growing their own food and it is impossible for me to imagine a parent who does not feel the same way. As I dig into the subject further with Sunday, I find out that I can learn a thing or two about the benefits that kids enjoy when they grow their own food. Here are a few:

  1. Universal language. “We witness the power of gardening to unite people through the universal language of food; our programs reach all ages at various times during the year.” Sunday explains. Green Thumbs partners with schools to integrate lessons of gardening with curriculum expectations in science, language, art, mathematics and social studies.
  2. Worms, Squirrels and humans. We are not alone. And the gardening experience helps kids to understand that we share the natural world with myriad other creatures. In fact, the lesson here is not just that living things share our outdoor space with us, but in some cases, the land was their home first. At least we get to go ‘home’ to our own bed at the end of the day.
  3. Who benefits? 70% of the kids who participate in the program come from first-generation immigrant families, including many refugees. The kids and volunteers who help to deliver the program are encouraged to taste, harvest and take food from the school garden home. Better food = better nutrition = better learning. This year, there are over 3,000 kids reached by the program.
  4. “What about summer?” After all, that is when a healthy harvest is made or broken. A great deal of the watering, weeding and harvesting all take place while kids are off school for up to 10 weeks. She replies, “Youth staff run weekly drop-in evenings for families to care for and harvest the gardens all summer, and local day campers visit – many are the same children who planted in spring.” The gardens provide summer youth programs with the perfect space for teaching healthy food preparation, art, music, meditation and yoga. “Beyond summer jobs, youth in our programs have opportunities to earn money through our social enterprise, gardening and residential properties.”
  5. Why not standardise the program across the board? I ask the obvious question: the elephant in the garden. If the idea of Green Thumbs Growing Kids is so wonderful, shouldn’t the government hop on board and support school boards to offer such programs? “Canada remains the only industrialized country without a national school food policy.” Sunday states emphatically. “Most successful long-term school gardens are either supported by community organisations or are located in high-income school districts.”

I considered this answer from Sunday when I recently read an article in the Washington Post by Shannon Brescher Shea titled ‘How Gardening Can Help Build Healthier, Happier Kids’. In it, she optimistically states that gardening in households with kids increased by 25% in the States between 2008 and 2013. “The natural stimulation of being outside seems to replenish minds exhausted from practicing self-discipline. It re-energizes the part of the brain that controls concentration, checks urges and delays gratification.”

I am encouraged by this and hope that Canadians are following suit – or will take an opportunity to lead the way. I know this about our veggie-growing habits: seed rack sales of vegetables are up about 20% across the board and have been tracking increases for the last five years.

Eating Dirt is Good

Shea suggests that research points to the benefits to young children who eat dirt. They develop ‘microbiome’ or a personal microbe ecosystem. Although there are some microbes – bacteria, fungi and viruses – that make us sick, many more are essential to our health.”

I reflect on my late mother’s attitude towards my penchant for eating dirt as a young child. Much like her attitude towards outdoor activity generally, there was this benign-ness about it all. “Just make sure you are home before dark.”

I think that my microbiome has served me well over the years.

Mark Cullen is lawn & garden expert for Home Hardware, member of the Order of Canada, author and broadcaster. Get his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com. Look for his new best seller, ‘The New Canadian Garden’ published by Dundurn Press. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and Facebook.

The best month for (real) grass

by Mark Cullen

“In September, you can lay sod upside-down and it will still grow.” My late father, great Canadian gardener that he was, used to say this quite frequently. He should have known: he laid a lot of sod in his early days in the landscaping business. Soaking wet, a roll could weigh up to 80 pounds. Not so today. We grow sod on lighter soil, generally, and growers cut them in smaller ‘jelly rolls’.

There is not one self-respecting sod grower in the country who would disagree with this statement: this is the best time of year to either lay sod or sow grass seed. The reasons for this are simple, but often overlooked.

  1. Cool evenings. Grass is a cool season ‘crop’. You may not think of it as a crop at all, but it is an important contributor to the farm gate value of Canada’s agricultural crops.
  2. Heavy morning dew. If you walk through grass in bare feet, early in the morning, this time of year, you are reminded that dew falls heavy in early fall. Maybe that is why we call it ‘fall’?
  3. Shorter days. The long days of summer are behind us and the heat that we often associate with it. Grass responds best to half days of sun and half of night time. Like hydrangea and other late -flowering plants, grass wakes up and gets frisky about now.
  4. Cooler soil. We may have some hot weather ahead of us and we may not. But soil temperatures moderate whether air temperatures are cold or hot. Gradually the soil cools, producing a root-inducing environment for this ‘cool’ crop.

    If you are a golfer you know that fall play provides some of the best playing conditions of the year. One of the reasons is that golf management professionals take the time now to strengthen and grow better turf.

    Here’s how:
    a. Sow grass seed. This is the best time of year to thicken an established, but thin lawn or to start a new lawn from scratch. Make sure that you spread a lawn soil mixture or weed-free triple mix over the area first, about 2 to 3 cm thick. Spread grass seed at the rate of about one lb. per 400 sq. feet. Either do this by hand or use a small ‘whirly gig’ hand-held spreader. Rake it smooth. Step on it to bring the seed and soil in firm contact, water it and keep the area moist until the seed has germinated. You will be amazed at how quickly it emerges from the soil and establishes a thick carpet of green.

    b. Sow seed and compost together. Premier Tech, a Canadian company, introduced a new product this year that includes quality grass seed, a charge of nitrogen, chelated iron and pelletized compost. It is the first product of its kind that can be applied through a fertilizer spreader. As the compost is watered or rained upon, it expands to provide a medium for the grass seed to germinate. Look for Golfgreen Iron Plus 4 in 1 Lawn Recovery. It will save you the effort and expense of bringing in soil to do the job.

    c. Fertilize. Don’t apply fall fertilizer just yet. I know, technically ‘fall’ is only a couple of weeks off. Your lawn needs ‘fall lawn food’ when it is preparing itself for winter, in late October or early November, not now. I apply a regular season lawn food in September, while the lawn is growing actively and can absorb the nutrients. Look for slow release nitrogen, 18-0-8, with chelated iron to do the best job this time of year.

    d. Weed. If controlling weeds in your lawn is important to you, now is a great time of year to control many of them. Dandelions are bi-annuals that seeded early this spring. Small plants established themselves in the weak areas of your lawn this summer and next year they will grow into the dandies that we know. Dig them now or use one of the new environmentally responsible broad-leafed weed killers like the Wilson WeedOut. A dead dandelion this time of year is a nuisance you don’t have to deal with next spring.

    e. Cut your lawn high. It is very important to cut your lawn at least 6 to 8 cm high, especially this time of year, when it is growing actively. Use a mulching mower, to return the nitrogen-rich goodness of grass clippings back to the root zone of grass plants.

    Play. Remember why you grew grass in the first place. It is the most sophisticated living carpet of green on the face of the earth. You can walk, run and roll on it, knowing that an average sized lawn produces enough oxygen to support a family of 4. It sequesters carbon, filters toxins out of rain water and it cools the atmosphere.

    It is September: the best month of the year for (real) grass.

    Mark Cullen is lawn & garden expert for Home Hardware, member of the Order of Canada, author and broadcaster. Get his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com. Look for his new best seller, ‘The New Canadian Garden’ published by Dundurn Press.