For just under $1 million smakaroos you can own a kitchen on Grosse Ile fit for a British lord.

The kitchen, complete with house and yard, is completely updated with granite everything.

Some of the kitchen’s other features include:

• Four bedrooms
• Four bathrooms
• Gardens and landscaping
• View of the Detroit River
• Master suite with balcony
• Hardwood floors

Go to AOL Real Estate for more photos and information.

For the latest Trenton and Grosse Ile news and information, “like” Trenton-Grosse Ile Patch on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our daily newsletter.

A limited number of for-profit organizations will be accepted to demonstrate their products, services and materials at Nature Meets Design, a lakescaping and rain garden event organized by the Otter Tail County Coalition of Lake Associations (OTC COLA).

Native plant nurseries and landscape professionals (who design, install and maintain ecologically healthy shorelands, wetlands and rain gardens) are invited to submit a proposal to exhibit at the event that will take place in the afternoon of April 27 at Thumper Pond in Ottertail.

Exhibitors will be selected on the basis of appropriateness and level of expertise as it relates to landscaping with plants native to this region.

If accepted, you will be asked to submit a $100 registration fee. In return, you will be provided with an opportunity to market your organization to property owners interested in seeking information on how to control erosion and protect water resources by using plants native to this region.

Space is limited, so it is imperative that exhibitors respond quickly. For further information on submitting a proposal, please contact Shawn Olson, Past President of the OTC COLA, by phone at 218-334-3004 or by email at otccolameeting@gmail.com. In your email, please briefly describe your organization and provide your full contact information.

The OTC COLA is a nonprofit charitable corporation organized to facilitate cooperation among member lake associations and to assist in the fostering of the wise use of the lake and stream areas.

For further information on joining the OTC COLA, please contact Pat Prunty, Membership Committee Chairman of the OTC COLA, by email at pprunty@arvig.net.

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More from around the web

Roses are beautiful additions to any garden, and petals and rose hips can also add to your cooking.

In “Eat Your Yard! Edible Trees, Shrubs, Vines, Herbs and Flowers for Your Landscape,” author Nan K. Chase shares her first-hand experience with gardening, landscaping ideas and special culinary uses for fruit trees. Recipes for edible garden plants include the crabapple and quince, nut trees, such as the chestnut and almond, and herbs and vines like the bay, grape, lavender, mint, and thyme. She instructs how to harvest pawpaw, persimmon, and other wildflowers for your meal as well as figs, kumquats, olives and other favorites.

Eat Your Yard! (Gibbs Smith, 2010) has information on 35 edible plants that offer the best of both landscape and culinary uses. Edible garden plants provide spring blossoms, colorful fruit and flowers, lush greenery, fall foliage, and beautiful structure, but they also offer fruits, nuts, and seeds that you can eat, cook, and preserve. Roses are especially delightful for creating an edible landscape, as shown in the following excerpt. 

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Eating Roses

The rose is a botanical mothership with connections to much of what grows in our gardens: everything from nec­tarines to strawberries.

“Queen of flowers!” one source exclaims.

Roses have universal appeal for the intense perfume and entrancing beauty of their flowers. They also help pollination among other plants.

There are wild roses native to North America, or introduced and naturalized, which are adaptable from seaside to mountain­top. And there are hybridized roses, with thoroughbred refine­ment, suitable only where the climate cooperates and people can pamper them.

Wild roses, to make the situation more complicated, can be quite good in the garden — or highly destructive.

Let’s agree to cheat and consider several native North Ameri­can roses and several imported roses together (imported, that is, during colonial times or earlier and then spreading) before choosing the most useful and least intrusive for the edible landscape.

First, a word about why roses should be considered edible at all.

Gardening Green Expo will bring workshops, experts, and demonstrations about green gardening to Kennedy’s Country Gardens, 85 Chief Justice Cushing Hwy., Route 3A, Scituate, on Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m..

The event is free, and perfect for the family. The expo is sponsored by Greenscapes, a program at North and South Rivers Watershed Association, and Kennedy’s Country Gardens.

“This weekend will be chock full of information to help folks achieve beautiful, healthy yards that require fewer chemicals, and less water,” said Debbie Cook, Greenscapes manager. “ Everyone I talk to seems to be eager to find out how to make their yards safe for children and pets, and we will have plenty of experts to advise them.”

The expo will feature lectures on xeriscaping (water-saving landscaping), transitioning to organic lawn care, natural lawn care products, how to create healthy soils, native plants and heirloom vegetables and more. Workshops will include: Composting and compost tea, selecting grass seed and seeding techniques, creating bird and butterfly gardens, soil testing and fertilizing techniques, and more. Products, such as rain barrels and water sensors for irrigation systems will be available for purchase from local companies.

“According to the EPA, 80 percent of the synthetic fertilizers and pesticides we put on our yards wash away into our rivers and ponds. I am so encouraged to see people becoming more interested in natural products which not only tend to stay put in our yards, they also contribute to the health of our soils,” said Cook.

Chris Kennedy, owner of Kennedy’s Country Gardens, and former president of the Mass Nursery and Landscape Association, agreed, saying “After years in the nursery business, I have seen over and over how natural products contribute to making healthy soils, which in turn support healthy plants.”

Kennedy recently had Kennedy’s Country Gardens nursery grounds certified by the National Wildlife Federation as a natural wildlife habitat, and tours will be given throughout the weekend, explaining how people can make their own yards a certified wildlife habitat.

For more information about the event, visit www.nsrwa.org or email Cook at Debbie@nsrwa.org.

Saturday March 9, 2013

STOCKBRIDGE

Looming from Prospect Hill over a picture-postcard landscape with one of the best views in town, the Gilded Age-era “cottage” known as Naumkeag holds pride of place as one of the community’s most-treasured sites.

The National Historic Landmark that’s undergoing extensive property restoration was built in 1886 as a 44-room, three-season country estate designed by prominent architect Stanford White for well-known attorney Joseph Choate, later the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, and his wife, Caroline Sterling Choate. It cost $100,000 at the time — about $2.5 million in today’s dollars.

Now, thanks to an anonymous benefactor’s $1 million challenge grant being matched through fundraising

by The Trustees of Reservations, which owns the property, an ambitious landscaping project to spruce up the gardens is under way at a cost of $2.8 million. Separately, a new $500,000 roof for the mansion is under construction.

The goal is to restore the shine and splendor of the original gardens created by noted landscape designer Fletcher Steele, working with Mabel Choate, the ambassador’s daughter who inherited the property in 1929 and owned it until she bequeathed it to the trustees before her death in 1958.

The project is designed to reverse the ravages of time, including damage from winter weather, the aging of original plantings, and obscured views caused by unhealthy and overgrown trees.

At least 200 damaged or overgrown birches and other trees are being removed, to be replaced by at least 250 trees, including 14-foot high plantings, as the five-phase beautification project aims for a spring 2016 completion target.

“Some viewscapes have been opened up throughout the property,” project manager Mark Wilson said during a walkthrough this past week. “Trees had grown in and blocked views. There will be views opened up that have not been seen for many years.

Wilson called the large-scale project “beyond the scope of anything we’ve done at Naumkeag before. We’re looking to work with local contractors. We want to make sure the local community is as involved as possible.”

To restore the landscape so it replicates what they would have seen from the 1920s to the 1950s, “We’re going by the records, but we’re also thinking and trying to feel like Mabel Choate and Fletcher Steele,” he added.

A landscape firm to handle the installations is about to be chosen. Plans have been completed by landscape designer Cindy Brockway, the trustees’ director of cultural resources and a specialist in restoring and creating gardens.

The project includes an update of Steele’s famed and often-photographed Blue Steps, as well as the Peony

Terrace, Chinese Temple, and Evergreen Garden. In all, there are 16 projects to rebuild or reproduce fountains, water systems, masonry, decorative arts and original plantings.

“After more than 50 years, the gardens need a refresh and a rejuvenation of the intricate details of scale, furnishings and plantings that made Naumkeag a work of fine art,” Brockway stated. “By the end of the project, few landscapes in the country will have seen such a detailed restoration.”

Wilson, a full-time trustees staffer based in Stockbridge, said that nearly $400,000 has been raised so far to match an anonymous $1 million donation by Sept. 30.

Naumkeag has applied for $250,000 in state funding through a cultural facilities grant to complete

a re-shingling of the mansion according to 1886 specifications. A gala fundraiser is scheduled at the property on July 20.

There’s a potential of $35,000 more if Stockbridge Town Meeting voters approve Community Preservation Act funding at their annual meeting in May.

So far, designs have been completed to replace plantings according to hundreds of plans, vintage photos, letters, notes and documents left by Steele and Choate, with special attention to restoring the Linden Allée, a pathway modeled after the wooded walks of Germany.

“By rejuvenating the gardens, we’re looking to create greater interest in Naumkeag,” Wilson acknowledged, pointing out that the site, along with the Mission House and gardens down below, is among the few among the 700 designed by Steele that are still open to the public.

“By rebuilding and putting back plant material that had been lost, we just need to refresh [the design] since the bones and the framework of the garden are good,” said Wilson. Wilson also serves as statewide curator and western regional cultural resources manager for the Boston-based Trustees organization.

The gardens, completed after 30 years of collaboration between Steele and Mabel Choate, are considered a leading example of early American-modern landscape architecture.

According to the Library of American Landscape History, Naumkeag’s gardens represent “a playground for the imagination which boasts some of the most vibrant, original and luminous gardens on the North American continent.”

“We take our responsibility as caretakers of these magnificent National Historic Landmarks very seriously,” Barbara Erickson, president of The Trustees of Reservations, said. “The iconic gardens at Naumkeag are one of only a few Fletcher Steele-designed gardens viewable to the public and we want people to be able to experience them in their full and original brilliance.

“Mabel Choate chose to bequeath her family home to the trustees knowing it would be lovingly maintained and shared with generations to come,” she added. “It is part of our mission and true passion to ensure their exemplary care for everyone, forever.”

To contact Clarence Fanto:
cfanto@yahoo.com
or (413) 637-2551.
On Twitter: @BE_cfanto

About Naumkeag

Location: 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge.

Origins: Built in 1886 for $100,000 (now $2.5 million), it was named for the term used by native Americans to describe the Salem area where they lived and where Joseph Choate grew up. It was the three-season country home for the Choate family until 1958.

The property: The shingled mansion includes traditional European elements — brick and stone towers, two-tone brick patterns and wrought-iron architectural details. Interior decorations: Elegant cherry, oak and mahogany paneling, ornate plaster, decorative flooring, brass and silver hardware, and a three-story hand-carved oak staircase. Original late 19th century furnishings, arts and antiques collected from around the world by the Choate family. Exterior features: Flower gardens, a linden walk, an orchard and pastures.

Ownership: Trustees of Reservations, the Boston-based nonprofit that tends 103 properties statewide. Naumkeag is one of the few remaining intact historic house museums in Massachusetts.

Restoration project: $2.8 million (gardens, landscape); $500,000 (roofing).

Visitation: The 48-acre property, including the mansion, eight acres of gardens as well as pastures hosting cattle in the summer, will open for its traditional season from Memorial Day to Columbus Day. About 12,000 visitors tour the site each year.

Financing: The property derives its operating costs in equal thirds — revenues from admission fees; a 4 percent annual draw from interest on the $3 million endowment from Mabel Choate’s original $900,000 bequest, and membership combined with annual support.

Information: (413) 298-3239. On the Web: http://tinyurl.com/ naumkeag

Source: The Trustees of Reservations

Get ready for a weekend of gorgeous blooms that brighten landscapes, sidewalks and paths of the historic Bayou Bend Gardens and other locations during the River Oaks Garden Club‘s annual Azalea Trail, now in its 78th year.

Coinciding with this glorious rite-of-spring event is the release and sale of the garden club’s latest edition of A Garden Book for Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast, initially published in 1929. This first revision since 1989 is entirely updated, expanded and colorfully redesigned with a new emphasis on organic gardening, native plants and conservation.

“Since 1989, we’ve learned a lot about gardening that is more environmentally sensitive,” says Lynn M. Herbert, author and editor of the 670 page-plus definitive guide. “We all need to follow organic practices, like not using chemicals and using native plants.”

 This first revision since 1989 is entirely updated, expanded and colorfully redesigned with a new emphasis on organic gardening, native plants and conservation. 

The tribute to organic gardening begins with the cover photograph, which Herbert took along with numerous other frameable images featured in the book. Her close-up capture: A blossom from the passion vine, Passiflora incarnata, and so apropos as the vine is one of Houston’s most prolific native plants.

The theme continues with sections in the popular tables on trees, shrubs, vines, annuals and perennials, bulbs, turf grasses and more with green, bold-faced “NATIVE” designations for hundreds of indigenous plants for Houston-area gardeners to consider.

Readers can learn more about organic gardening through chapters like “Native and Invasive Plants,” “Lawns and Lawn Alternatives” and “Organic Recipes for Fertilizers, Insecticides, Fungicides and Herbicides,” to name a few sections.

“Native plants can require much less water,” Herbert says. “You’ll find native plants that like shade, sun, filtered light, almost any condition. Discovery Green is a example of great use of native plants, while you can also create a formally clipped garden with them. And they really attract wildlife, like butterflies, to help bring your garden even more to life.”

Azalea blooms lure butterflies and, with the Encore varieties and hybrids now flourishing at Bayou Bend Gardens, possibly soon hummingbirds, as the newer plants flower in Houston five to six months out of the year.

These hybrids join the 26-plus varieties of azaleas at Bayou Bend Gardens alone. And no wonder azaleas became popular for landscaping in Houston in the early 1930s, as they are “happy” nestled under pine trees that drop needles to add the perfect acidic balance to the soil.

In addition to the entire chapter dedicated to azaleas, gardeners can still depend on the comprehensive information throughout the volume, including in the month-by-month calendars for soil preparation, planting, pruning and maintaining hundreds of plants, Herbert says.

She adds the encyclopedic volume filled with stunning color photos came together only through a community wide effort, with more than 100 professionals and amateur gardeners contributing their knowledge to this edition.

“We’ve been told by nurseries, arboretums and more they see many people come in with the book in hand, asking for specific plants,” she says. “We decided to keep it hardback for that reason: It gets a lot of use.”

A Garden Book for Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast ($40) is available from 11 a.m to 5 p.m. during the length of the Azalea Trail run, Friday through Sunday, at the Forum of Civics Building, 2503 Westheimer at Kirby; The Shop at Bayou Bend and at 1620 River Oaks Boulevard. National Book Network is distributing the book.

In addition to the early sales at Azalea Trail locations, A Garden Book will also be available at area retailers and online in both hardcover and e-book formats.

Click photo to enlarge

Alrie Middlebrook’s affinity for growing things combined with her appreciation of nature’s original plans has resulted in one successful career and has her heading toward a second one.

“I became interested in native plants about 22 years ago,” Middlebrook says.

Taking her success with an indoor outdoor landscaping company, she created a butterfly garden at Community Hospital of Los Gatos in the mid 1990s, and in 1998 she created the Healing Garden for the Women’s Cancer Care Center there.

In 2001 she founded Middlebrook Gardens at 76 Race St., a design/build landscaping company.

In 2004 she cofounded the California Native Garden Foundation, which is headquartered at her place of business. She remains president and director of the foundation.

In 2007 she published Designing California Native Gardens, a 342-page book she coauthored with botonist Glenn Keator. The book sold more than 20,000 copies and is used across the state.

“That established me as an expert in the field,” she says, adding, “As I get older, I see the need for doing things for the next generation.”

Her response to that need was establishing the Environmental Laboratory for Sustainability and Ecological Education, known as ELSEE.

“ELSEE came about because my landlord had gotten a zoning change and put these plans together to put in a mini mall,” she says, referring to her business at Race Street and Garland Avenue.

“I’d

been developing this land as an example of what people could do on their home property to create a sustainable garden, to keep their rainfall on site, to encourage pollinators and biodiversity. When I found out I might have to move, I thought, now is the time for me to reach out and see if we can start teaching the kids next door about their environment, growing your own urban food and protecting pollinators.”

(The Los Altos owner of the 0.38-acre lot got his zoning change in 2010, but thus far has made no move to develop the property.)

Middlebrook’s invitation to students at St. Leo the Great School next door to join her in her garden is now in its third year. Some 165 students from St. Leo’s meet there for an hour every other week.

“We teach them to science standards; we’re complementing what their teachers are doing,” Middlebrook says.

“It’s been a great program,” says Marie Bordelau, St. Leo’s principal. “It’s a way for some of the science they do in the classroom to come alive, although it’s not necessarily tied specifically to the science they’re doing in the classroom. It’s more the ecological curriculum.”

She says that as a Catholic school they’re teaching children about being good stewards of the earth, and the program ties in with that goal.

As second-graders came over on Feb. 28, they shared their day’s lesson with Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, who had heard about the program and came from Sacramento to see it in action.

The 17 students listened to Middlebrook talk about ELSEE’s food towers growing “super foods,” which she defined as “the foods that are really, really good for us–they’re super.”

Students were invited to name super foods, correctly identifying the arugula and kale, growing in the towers; they also named spinach and broccoli, which are not in the towers.

For the day’s exercise, students were given a sheet with colored photos of butterflies and the plants that support them.

Divided into four groups, they set off to find the plants and maybe spot a butterfly.

“It’s pretty good,” says Giovanni Caruso, 7, of the ELSEE classes. “We get to learn about plants, and we get to be outside. Last week we ate watercress. It’s kind of spicy, but it’s good.”

Seeing the worms in the worm bin has been a highlight of this year’s classes for Genesis Huether, 7; Chloe Bombaci, “almost 8”; and Genesis Ortiz, 8.

Brooke Garcia, 8, says, “I like eating new things and growing plants.”

At the end of the lesson, Middlebrook talked about chia seeds as “a super food that native people ate, and it kept them going.”

She gave the students chia seeds to eat and then passed out miniature chia lemon cupcakes for the children to enjoy.

Although her longest relationship has been with St. Leo’s, Middlebrook has also reached out to other schools in San Jose, including Bellarmine College Preparatory, Downtown College Prep and both Lincoln and Willow Glen High schools, as well as elementary school students at Trace and River Glen. One of her most recent collaborations is with St. Andrew’s School in Saratoga.

Middlebrook has shared the ELSEE approach with schools throughout California.

“We believe you can raise science scores and instill a love of science by going into the garden with a hands-on approach. We want to raise the California science scores,” she says.

She says all 50 states have voted, or are in the process of voting, that children in grades K-12 should be taught environmental science. “California is leading the country, and our lessons are based on that,” she says.

Middlebrook is a firm believer in moving beyond theory into practice, and she views schools as the perfect place to do that.

“We have 10,000 public schools in California, and most are in a sea of concrete with parking lots, sports fields and underutilized land that could be used to teach science, environmental education and food production.”

Middlebrook sees ELSEE as the model the rest of the state should follow, and she’s hoping Ross’ visit will help that happen.

“I love all the energy of the students,” Ross says. “I love how you can integrate what they’re learning in the classroom with hands-on in the garden.”

Ross believes it’s important that children realize where food comes from and that they have access to good healthy food.

One surprising thing about ELSEE is that it is staffed by volunteers, including, since February, some 15 interns from San Jose State University, Santa Clara University, UC-Berkeley Extension and Foothill College.

“We’re an all volunteer organization fed by young people in their 20s and 30s, They really want to see protection of the environment in the cities,” Middlebrook says.

“A lot of organizations have older people, but I try and attract young people. We want to make jobs for these young people.”

For more information, visit elsee-gardens.org.

 

This is a new column for Topanga’s gardeners or those who think they might like to garden in Topanga. The information is based on Sarah Priest’s extensive knowledge, expertise and love of creating gardens and landscapes.

In typical Topanga fashion, not everything is blooming on the same timetable. The Coffeeberries, aka Buckthorns, have been blooming since early February, icing the local mountains like cupcakes with thousands of sweet-smelling native shrubs. As the Buckthorns go to seed, the Ceanothus (also known as Wild Lilacs) will be the next to explode with clouds of fragrant blue, purple and white blooms.

Although we have had a dry year so far, it is still not too late to plant wildflowers and shrubs. The wildflowers—look for California poppies in seed or in small sprouted “six-packs” in local nurseries—will need water only this spring, while newly planted native plants and shrubs will need watering for the first year. After that, they usually don’t need and don’t want supplemental water, making them a smart landscaping choice as water costs soar.

Ornamental gardeners should be done pruning roses and planting bare root roses. Cool weather gives us a last chance for this through the middle of March or so. Don’t buy bare root roses that are dried out or have lots of sprouts on them. It’s still okay to prune fruit trees that have started to bloom out. The cut blooming branches look spectacular in a vase in the house.

Deciduous Magnolias and New Zealand Tea Trees are blooming now and a good selection is available in local nurseries. As with most plants, the nurseries have the best selection when any particular plant is in bloom. Brighten things up with primroses and pansies which should give you flowers right into summer. Be aware that primroses like the shade; pansies need sun.

We are right in the middle of azalea and camellia season and they will flower into June or so. Depending on the variety, most can take some shade and prefer an acidic soil. Add soil amendments if you have clay-like soil. Azaleas need regular, but not too much water, while camellias can become pretty tough and tree-like over time, and may need little water.

PREPARING YOUR GARDEN SITE

Through the years, so many Topanga clients have asked me to create a wonderful vegetable garden for them. Many of us (including me) are in love with the idea of harvesting organic fresh veggies and bringing them right in to prepare healthy foods. The thought of saving big market bills by having “free” foods we grow is equally appealing.

This can be tremendously challenging in Topanga because in most areas of the Santa Monica Mountains everything that digs, crawls, flies, jumps or has a mouth is eventually going to plot to munch all of the food in our green and luscious gardens that we lovingly and arduously planned, built and grew, especially so as local hillsides dry out.

Some hints for making it work would be to have the whole “floor” of the garden completely covered with hardware mesh (chicken wire won’t do) for raised beds, or dug into the ground underneath, so our friends that live under the soil won’t pop up to munch or drag our vegetables under to consume in privacy. Once that is accomplished, pull the wire up the sides to about six feet or so to prevent deer from jumping in for a quick meal. Oh, and the top has to be covered, too, or the birds will come in for their share.

There’s not too much to do about munching insects unless the whole structure also has insect screening. Crazy as it sounds, many Topanga gardeners do go ahead with all of this, so strong is their desire for fresh foods. Check out the gardens at the Topanga Community House for a good example.

Once we add in the costs of sometimes daily watering, seeds and bedding plants, plus the many, albeit highly satisfying hours of soil preparation, building raised beds, planting, weeding and other necessary maintenance that all “farmers” must perform, the disappointing news is that dollar for dollar it may be a lot less costly just to patronize the Topanga Farmers Market or the organic bins at grocery and health food stores.

Fruit trees have plenty of wild fans, so keep a sharp eye out for the day everything ripens and get out there immediately or even preemptively to get the best of your harvest. Citrus does really well in our sunny climate and are less likely to be “harvested” without permission. Good drainage, some fertilizing, and protection from frost is about all you need for abundant harvests of these sunny fruits.

Please remember to respect our local wildlife. Everyone knows that without birds and bees, our gardens and the world won’t survive, so killing and poisons are not smart options for “control.”

And yes, it is the beginning of spring in Topanga. Enjoy the wildflowers, plant some natives, take a walk in the State Park and watch for the next column for more hints on late Spring gardens.

Sarah Priest melds her love of interior design, home staging and landscaping through her business Sarah Priest Estate Staging. She is available to assist Topanga homeowners add value and beauty to the inside or outside of their home whether they are selling or staying. Contact her at (310) 455-3547; Sarah@SarahPriest.com; or through www.SarahPriest.com.

NIAGARA REGION – 

From March 15-24, 2013 Canada Blooms returns to the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto for its 17th year as Canada’s largest flower and garden celebration.

The theme of this year’s festival is “The Magic of Spring”. Spring is a season of renewal and hope. It’s a time to celebrate the colours and scents of the season, and Canada Blooms is the perfect venue to jump-start the gardening season.

A sampling of the 2013 show highlights include:

What would Canada Blooms without flowers? I’m not a flower arranger by nature, but I love to see the spectacular floral arrangements entered in the newly named Toronto Flower Show. I Entries include regional, national and international competitors and innovative displays from well-known professional florists and growers in partnership with pickOntario. The creativity and talent of both the amateur and professional designers is truly inspiring. Be sure to stop by the exhibits—you’ll be amazed.

Some of Canada’s best-known garden and landscape specialists will on hand to share their insights and expertise in a comprehensive series of lectures, demonstrations and workshops. I suggest you visit the website (www.canadablooms.com) and look over the list of speakers appearing on the day of your visit, if you’re like me, you may want to schedule your visit to coincide with a lecture that really piques your interest. Topics include everything from Celebrating Wildflowers from Seed to Vase with Miriam Goldberger, to Garden Crazy: Fable, Folklore, Facts about the Crazy World of Gardening with Frankie Ferragine. Just about every garden related topic you can imagine will be covered, there’s sure to be a topic that will pique your interest.

The Marketplace showcases the latest and greatest garden and landscape products and services. It’s always fun to see what is new and exciting, or to reconnect with an old-time favorite product (or plant) that you haven’t been able to find locally. Be sure to try on the garden hats (there’s always a great selection) and treat yourself to an armful of fresh flowers—they are irresistible.

The Feature Gardens, designed by Ontario’s premier landscape architects and designers are always a feast for the eyes. Slow down and give yourself the time to really check out the intricate details included in these projects, I come home with a list of ideas to include in my garden plan every year.

Niagara is well represented with Aura Landscaping ‘Senses Awaken’ garden: “Melt your winter blues away as the magic of spring awakens your senses, leading you down our garden path towards the warmth, sights, sounds and scents that we call spring. Let nature’s elements rejuvenate your soul in this tranquil setting that showcases our passion for what we do,” Scott Duff, Aura Landscaping.

Mori Gardens and Reif Winery have paired up to present a ‘Wine Sensory Garden’ where visitors are encouraged to “contemplate the sounds, colours, aromas and flavors in a relaxed oasis garden.” Reif will share wines that pair with cheese samples from the Dairy Farmers of Canada.

Let the kids explore the Bienenstock Natural Playground designed in partnership with the Canadian Wildlife Federation. “This fully accessible playground is designed to inspire teachers and parents to engage all five senses through play.” Features include a chime fence, sand and water play, twisted log fort, and a sideways tree climber. This sounds like a lot of fun for both children and the young at heart.

“Gardening is a great way to relieve stress, take time for yourself, and unwind,” says gardening expert Denis Flanagan. “Gardening also allows you to take part in an activity that takes on a life of its own and offers an end result for you to take pride in.”

In 2012, Canada Blooms co-located with The National Home Show, Canada’s largest Home Event to become the largest Home and Garden Event presented in North America and largest Consumer Show presented in Canada, attracting over 203,000 guests to experience North America’s most comprehensive home and garden experience. As a convenience for guests, a single ticket purchase of $20 at either event allows attendees to visit both events.

Canada Blooms is a not-for-profit organization that gives back to the community throughout the year by funding community garden projects around Ontario. Canada Blooms is also dedicated to providing the community with horticulture expertise, education and resources on an ongoing basis.

For more information and to purchase festival tickets please visit: www.canadablooms.com.

Theresa Forte is a local garden consultant, writer and photographer. You can reach her by calling 905-351-7540 or by email theresa_forte@sympatico.ca

 

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Denis Flanagan’s top five reasons to resolve to garden in 2013.

1. Gardening is good for your health

Gardening is a natural stress reliever, as well as a natural exercise and can also help release your artistic side.

2. Gardening helps instill life lessons

Gardening can help teach lessons — especially to children—such as nurturing, care, how to share something with other etc.

3. Gardening helps foster relationships with neighbours

Being out in your garden can help break the ice between you and your neighbors as well as other members of your community.

4. Gardening increases the value of your real estate

Adding an updated landscape theme or a beautiful new garden can increase your home’s value while also giving you a sense of pride.

5. Gardening can help conserve water/nature/environment

Adding a bird feeder to your garden will bring an added element of wildlife to your home, and installing a rain barrel or water-conserving fountain looks great while also conserving and reusing water.

 

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Bus trip to Canada Blooms

The Niagara on the Lake Horticultural Society has organized a bus trip to Canada Blooms, March 20, 2013. The cost is $40.00 for Hort. members, and $45.00 for non-members. This includes the bus and ticket to the show.

Contact Rose Walsh 905-934-9230 rosewalsh@sympatico.ca or Donna Carter 905-262-4362 carter.11@sympatico.ca for details and tickets.

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Meet the author

Theresa Forte will present ‘Take Great Garden Photos—With The Camera You Already Have’ at Canada Blooms on March 23, 2013 at 4:00 p.m. Grey Power Garden Solutions Series, Room 102, Hall A. Hope to see you there!

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Madison Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway and others want to make it easier to have gardens on city terraces and plant gardens and other food-producing plants — fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts — on more city-owned lands.

The proposals, introduced to the City Council and now under review by committees, are intended to support the growing interest of residents and groups in urban agriculture and “edible landscapes,” said Rhodes-Conway, 12th District.

Rhodes-Conway started working on proposals about three years ago and is pushing forward now as a result of talks at the city’s Food Policy Council.

“It’s a symbolic way for the city to say, ‘We support people who want to grow their own food,'” she said. “I hope it becomes a positive difference for neighborhoods.”

Bill Barker, a city Parks Commission member, said the proposals can help the city address so-called “food deserts” where residents lack nearby access to nutritious food and also help build a sense of community.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.

The city currently allows planting on terraces, but with restrictions including distance from sidewalk and curb and a maximum 24-inch height.

“This is going on today without harmful effect to anyone,” Rhodes-Conway said, noting the proposed change would likely loosen the height rule.

The proposal would let residents have plantings commonly found in flower or vegetable gardens and landscaping — but not trees or shrubs — in the terrace next to their homes.

It would permit landscaping features like mulch, small rocks, temporary wire fencing, lattices, and vegetable cages, but not pots, railroad ties or some other fixtures.

A new terrace policy would regulate where plantings and features could be placed and include criteria for permanent fixtures and standards for use of chemicals.

All plantings would have to be maintained to be safe and orderly and not obstruct the public’s use of the street or sidewalk. Plantings could be removed by the city at any time without compensation.

The proposal has at least eight co-sponsors.

The city in 2012 allowed the planting of edible landscape with permission in some areas of parks. Rhodes-Conway also is proposing to expand the planting of edible landscape — with permission — to other city-owned land held by other agencies such as the Water Utility or Engineering, or around public housing. The proposal has at least four co-sponsors.