Beginner Gardening Tips Blog

As I mentioned in the newsletter I sent out this afternoon, winter is a great time to reflect on what you’d like to add or change in your garden come spring. It’s also a great time to take a course or attend a seminar and learn more about your garden.

Canada Blooms is coming up in March, but in the meantime, the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton is hosting what I think sounds like a really interesting symposium of interactive discussions and workshops called Living Plants, Liveable Communities. From February 16 to 19, learn about what sustainable horticulture means to Canadians, take a workshop on plant identification, seed saving or cooking with local produce, and meet environmental experts who will hopefully inspire you to become more environmentally mindful in your garden and everyday life.

Click here for online registration.

This morning it was officially announced that next year, Canada Blooms will take place at the Direct Energy Centre located in Exhibition Place. This is a fabulous choice of venue, most notably because of the accessibility for visitors and vendors alike. I can just picture gorgeous floral displays in the vast, sunny hall. And you won’t feel like you’re descending into a cave when you head into the show.

It was also announced that the theme will focus on passions, whether it be a passion for plants and gardening or a passion for the environment, food, design, etc. I find this a little ambiguous as everyone who attends is quite obviously passionate about gardening and everyone who is involved with creating the gardens is passionate about their craft. It will be interesting to see how this theme is interpreted visually among the exhibits.

The gorgeous set the TBG put together for our video shoot

Yesterday morning I headed to the Toronto Botanical Garden with our videographer Ryan Da Silva for a video shoot with the new director of horticulture, Paul Zammit. Paul is known for his stylish containers and showed off his talent to lucky visitors at Canada Blooms last week.

We wanted to capture step by step how Paul puts together his containers. Paul is a natural as a video host, because not only does he explain his design ideas as he puts everything together, he incorporates so many helpful tips into his presentation.

Every year I put together a few pots and a hanging basket. They are pretty enough, but after yesterday, this year I am so inspired to use all the great ideas I learned from Paul and really plan out my containers and spend more time on their arrangement.

Stay tuned for Paul’s video, which we’ll be publishing online next week! I’m certain you’ll be inspired, too!

The shopping made me leave Canada Blooms—but only because my arms wouldn’t let me carry anything else! My first purchase was… jam! I’d tried this delicious Pears & Pansies jam that my mom bought at The Culinarium. The woman who makes these unexpected combinations, like mixing pears with pansies, had a booth, From These Roots. I had to try three more flavours. I bought Apricot HoneySuckle, Black Currant & Wild Violet and Mango Jalapeno.

Next a stunning bunch of violets caught my eye, so I grabbed one in bright crimson.

At Your Creations Hostas and Perennials, I was eyeing the hellebores when I saw these huge hibiscus rhizomes. Hibiscus is one of my favourite flowers, so, despite its tropical provenance, I’m going to try my luck at growing one this summer.

At Tropical Expressions, a bonsai retailer, I saw these small, spiky and hairy sprigs. They were in a basket—no dirt, no water. Called Tillandsia—or air plants—these little specimens are epiphytes, meaning they can be placed on any surface and will grow there without needing soil to take root. All they need is to be misted with water a couple of times a week—or so I was told. My little guy is currently on my kitchen windowsill. I will try really hard to keep him alive with his minimum care requirements.

My last purchase was a little stone cabbage for my garden from this great booth that has a store in the Eglinton Town Centre in Scarborough. I can’t wait to put it outside amongst my plants! With that weighing down my bags along with some of the literature I picked up from various booths and Mark Cullen’s new book, The Canadian Garden Primer: An Organic Approach, which I had received after hearing Mark speak at the press event, it was time to head home.

I could have kept going, but this Budding Gardener is on a budget!

Yesterday I checked out Canada Blooms for the first time–what a delight! Between the inspiring gardens, the informative and interesting seminars and the shopping, I can’t decide what I liked best. More to come on my blooming adventures, but I’ll leave you with a photo of one of my favourite gardens. Designed by Be-Leaf Landscape Design, this sweet little space was whimsical and inspiring and totally my style! I love how they’ve brought life to a normal stone patio by creating a narrow ring of space to add a pop of colour and greenery.

Last year's gorgeous tulips!

This Budding Gardener has never been to Canada Blooms before. I know, I know… what a gardening sin! This is the 13th year of the show and I have to make up for lost time! I was going through the website to plan my day and was overwhelmed with everything there is to see—from the feature gardens to the shopping to the seminars. I will definitely be there on Wednesday shooting some video for CanadianGardening.com and checking out the booths, but I also want to see some of the presentations.

These are some of the reasons I’m excited to visit Canada Blooms:

• Creating an organic perennial garden of continuous bloom
  (Speaker: Lorraine Roberts)
  Because perennials are my best friends—they come up every year no matter what—and in my quest to be greener, this should be a very helpful seminar.
• Gardening with Mother Nature the natural way
  (Speaker: Marjorie Mason)
  Because I want my garden to be an eco haven. Marjorie has written a great book called Ecological Gardening: Your Path to a Healthy Garden. It’s trade paperback-sized, perfect for the subway, except I also need a pad and pen to take notes while reading!
• Vertical vegetables
  (Speaker: Kenneth Brown)
  Because I’m planning on planting a square-foot garden and I need all the advice I can get to ensure I actually have something to eat at the end of all my hard work.
• No more chemicals in the garden
  (Speaker: Jeff Lowefels)
  Because I need to know how to keep my ant population down without grabbing for a can of Raid.
• Dramatic containers
  (Speaker: Paul Zammit)
  Because I need some fresh ideas for this year’s pots. I will be filming a step-by-step video next week of Paul planting his gorgeous containers at the Toronto Botanical Garden! Stay tuned!
• Since I love to travel, I’m looking forward to checking out the VIA Rail Garden Route and Tourism Ireland’s Garden Travel area. Aldona did a portion of the Garden Route out west last fall and it sounds amazing!
• The City of Toronto’s 175th Anniversary Garden – to celebrate my city’s birthday.
• The Heart and Stroke Pulse Garden and the Canadian Cancer Society: Cancer Connections urban gallery for inspiration.
• Pick Ontario Avenue because I can’t resist shopping!