Guelph Mercury

Curb appeal? I haven’t seen a curb in months, other than the odd one unearthed by a rogue snow plow, and it was hardly appealing. And yet curbs will be just one of the attractions at Canada Blooms this year. It starts on March 14 and runs until March 23. That’s 10 days where we can feel like spring is all around, even if it is indoors, unlike a couple of years back when it was warm and sunny outdoors … remember warm and sunny?

As for the curbs, they’ll be sort of featured in a contest called Curbalicious Delight. It’s an opportunity for homeowners to win a professionally designed landscaping makeover for their property. Two examples of a beautifully designed front yard with curb appeal will be on display to welcome visitors to the show.

In addition, there will be 24 feature gardens on display, each one unique. For me, this is the main attraction at the show. I’m not much of a shopper, unless I’m looking for plants I have no room for or trying out tools I don’t need, but shopping is all part of the show.

Each one of the display gardens is unique. In addition to being visually appealing, many incorporate practical uses, especially where space is limited and different needs must be provided for, but a dinosaur preserve? I have enough trouble dealing with rabbits, let alone a clomping great brontosaurus. The concept, Earthscape Ontario, however, is designed to capture the imagination of visitors, as I’m sure it will. I’m looking forward to seeing this one especially as it’s by a local company based in Wallenstein.

Another specialty garden is the Otium Exercise Garden, a concept first introduced at last year’s show. This is a garden designed to incorporate an exercise circuit within it. I get enough exercise chasing rabbits, but I can see how this will appeal to the fitness enthusiast who prefers to work out in nature rather than be surrounded by the steel and plastic of a formal gym. Definitely more fragrant, too.

Record Gardens/Jardins de Métis from the Gaspé Peninsula returns to Canada Blooms with another thought-provoking design. This year, the garden will explore the wild and the sacred. In their words: “Sacre potager leads the visitor into a poetic fiction of the sacred side of garden and culinary heritage.”

A garden of special interest has to be the one by the town of Goderich. Gardens there took an awful beating from the hurricane in 2011, but the town has recovered and will be at the show with a garden to represent the countryside and shore of Ontario’s west coast.

Each day a dozen or so education sessions take place covering practically every possible topic. Learn about green living walls, edible gardens, new perennials, new annuals, and get lots of new ideas you can put into practice in your own garden. How about Dancing with Wildflowers? It’s a presentation described as a wildly floriferous user’s manual by Miriam Goldberger. Miriam wrote the book on wildflowers — really. It’s called Taming Wildflowers and in it she teaches how to create a garden with native plants and how to use them to design wildflower bouquets.

For the budding photographer with a garden that doesn’t look quite as good in their photos as the ones in garden magazines, there’s a perfect opportunity to learn more from Theresa Forte with her presentation: The Art of Garden Photography.

There’s so much to see, so much to do and not a snow bank in sight at Canada Blooms. For more information, particularly on speaker schedules, visit the website at canadablooms.com

David Hobson gardens in Waterloo and is happy to answer garden questions, preferably by email: garden@gto.net . Reach him by mail c/o Etcetera, The Record, 160 King St. E. Kitchener, Ont. N2G 4E5

Art that can withstand Wisconsin’s winters? If it sounds improbable, it is not. The 90th REALTORS® Home Garden Show presented by Unilock is stretching its floor plan – or its canvas – to introduce new designs into this year’s show.

The show is touting a newly expanded sculpture garden featuring large and small masterpieces by Bruce Niemi, Peter Flanary, Jason Verbeek, Beth Sahagian and Herb Johnson. It is all part of the theme of this year’s show, “Home is Where the Art is,” which encourages homeowners to personalize their space.

“Whether you’re a do-it-yourselfer or prefer to leave projects to the pros, we’re chocking this year’s show full of designs and demos to inspire and develop guests’ craft,” said Sandi Anderson, director of the REALTORS® Home Garden Show.

One of the show’s main attractions, its 10,000-square-feet Garden Promenade, will again feature living gardenscapes designed by 12 area landscapers. Although each backyard retreat will feature the latest trends, techniques and colors, all will also integrate an outdoor sculpture into the plan.

Ground Affects Landscaping of Sullivan will present an outdoor sanctuary with handcrafted metal sculptures by Hartland artist Herb Johnson. View Johnson’s clever creations tucked into plantings perched alongside a fountain or stationed in the outdoor kitchen.

Kelly’s Greenscapes of Sussex will combine colorful gardens with natural and manmade stone and a gentle waterfall to create a comfortable, relaxed space. Features will include two wood arbors, a winding garden path, outdoor seating, and a grill and bar area.

La Rosa Landscape Company of Cedarburg will debut a relaxing outdoor living room sheltered by an attractive cedar structure. Highlights will include a striking see-through, two-way masonry fireplace and kitchen area with a stainless steel built-in grill and stunning bluestone bar.

StoneOak Landscapes of Cudahy will showcase an “Artist’s Garden” with sculptures by Beth Sahagian. The space will blend lush plantings with stone, brick, wood, metal and water to create an elegant and natural outdoor room. Authentic brick pavers will convey an Old World charm and a grapevine-draped pergola will create a shady and rustic summer retreat.

Other landscapers that will be featured in the Garden Promenade include Aquatica of Wales, Breezy Hill Nursery of Salem, Brennan Landscaping of Wauwatosa, Exteriors Unlimited Landscape Contractors of Mequon, Extreme Exteriors of Big Bend, Innovative Exteriors Landscape of Oconomowoc, MJS Landscaping Services of Pewaukee and Quality Landscaping of Grafton. Each will also delight guests with elegant outdoor living spaces and one-of-a-kind outdoor sculptures.

Get advice from home and garden professionals
Aside from landscape experts, show-goers will be able to meet one-on-one with more than 350 professionals specializing in everything from renovations, heating, cooling and plumbing to foundation repair, interior design, roofing and window installation.

Ideas in energy efficient upgrades will also be available at the “Sustainable Solutions: Practical Applications for Your Home Garden” exhibit by Breckenridge Landscape. Teaching homeowners that sustainability can be both aesthetically and financially pleasing, some of the featured applications will include gabion walls, green roofs and permeable pavers.

Brush up on skills with free demonstrations and workshops
Throughout the show, chef demonstrations, solution seminars and workshops by area experts will offer attendees invaluable trade secrets. Stein Gardens Gifts will sponsor hands-on clinics with Sue Wilke of Karthauser Sons at 2 p.m. March 22, Angela Pipito of Stein Gardens Gifts at 2 p.m. March 23 and Nicholas Staddon of Monrovia at 2 p.m. on March 29 and 30. Topics will range from miniature gardening and creating the perfect bird habitat to incorporating underutilized shrubs and perennials into a landscape.

In addition, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Cooking Patio will feature city chefs and Milwaukee’s foodie, Kyle Cherek, co-presenting many of the demonstrations.

When to go
The 90th REALTORS® Home Garden Show presented by Unilock will be at State Fair Park March 21 through March 30 (closed March 24 and 25). Show hours are Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Wednesday and Thursday 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults, free for children 12 and younger, and free for active military with ID. To learn more, go to www.mkehgs.com or call (414)778-4929. 

Gardens showcasing inventive planting placements, water features and inviting hardscape will be on display at the 35th Annual Lane County Home and Garden Show through Sunday at the Lane County Fairgrounds.

Each night, only festival lights in rafters will be used so that the landscapers can demonstrate night lighting in the landscape, setting the stage for a garden party, the show’s theme this year.

Admission is free and so are 50 seminars by national garden writers and local garden gurus including John Fischer, aka “The Relaxed Gardener,” and Jackie Chama, “Bloomers Green Thumb.”

Saturday and Sunday will include Sunset Magazine garden writer Mary-Kate Mackey, who is speaking on the best small trees for the Northwest garden and the best plants for a show-stopping fall garden.

There are remodeling and how-to seminars as well as OSU Extension Service presentations on topics ranging from raising chickens to container gardening.

There are more than 300 home and garden vendors, including contractors, garden nurseries and national manufacturers. See how smart phones apps can adjust your home thermostats at Marshall’s Heating booth or heat up a spa by Cedarworks. A $20 Propane Pal will alert you when the barbecue tank is low and there is an ergonomic paint brush by GalaxG Tools. Johnson Brothers Greenhouse is pairing plantings with herb cocktails recipes.

What: 35th Annual Lane County Home Garden Show

When: March 6-9, 2014

Thursday: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Lane Events Center, Convention Center at the Lane County Fairgrounds, Eugene

Cost: Free admission and parking! Bring canned food donations to benefit FOOD for Lane County.

For more information visit: www.EugeneHomeShow.com

— Homes Gardens of the Northwest staff

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Ever since I wrote about British gardener Stuart Grindle’s lawn obsession a few weeks ago, I’ve had to stop myself mowing ours more frequently than once a week. Grindle, who’s 70, mows twice a day, three times a week, to keep each blade a uniform 5mm long.

At the other end of the scale, I discovered an 80-year-old man who planted a garden in 1960 and last watered it in 1972. And yes, it’s still thriving. David Latimer planted his garden in a bottle and sealed it shut 40-odd years ago as an experiment to see if it would survive.

The hardy spiderwort plant inside has grown to fill the 38-litre container by surviving entirely on recycled air, nutrients and water. The water in the bottle gets taken up by the roots, is released into the air during transpiration, condenses down into the potting mixture, where the cycle begins again. Clever.

Almost as clever is a garden so poisonous you can enter it only with a fully qualified guide. The creation of Alnwick Poison Gardens in Northumberland, England, was inspired by the legendary botanical gardens in Padua, where the Medicis plotted to bring their enemies to a mouth-frothing end.

An English duchess created this garden, dedicating it entirely to flora that is deadly and/or narcotic. The tall, black gates imprison about 100 killers including belladonna and hemlock. Wanting in part to hark back to old apothecary gardens, she shied away from healing medicinals and sought out deadly poisons.

She has also cultivated narcotic plants such as opium poppies, cannabis and tobacco, many of which can be grown only with special government permission. Some plants are so deadly they are caged, and the garden is under a 24-hour security watch. Makes my oleander and datura look like pussycats by comparison.

And scarily, Alnwick is not the only garden in the world dedicated to murderous plants. Amy Stewart, author of the book Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, has a small poison garden at her home in California. Stewart’s garden has more than 35 species that can wreak havoc on humankind if mishandled.

Happily, not all the weird gardens of the world are poisonous. Sydney has the world’s tallest vertical garden, with greenery climbing more than 160m and 15 storeys high up the One Central Park building. It may soon be overtaken by vertical gardens on the 46-floor apartment building under construction in Sri Lanka.

There’s no opportunity to admire at close range the features of the new roof garden at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Created solely as art for working Manhattanites to look down on from above, the garden isn’t even accessible. And probably just as well – it’s made of crushed stone, recycled glass, recycled rubber mulch, fibreglass gratings, PVC fittings and artificial plants. Not the sort of place you’d want to eat your packed lunch, anyway.

Top 10 gardens A Google search for “the world’s 10 best gardens” brings up hundreds of contenders. On one top 10 list I was delighted to find a display garden from last year’s Ellerslie Flower Show. Named “A French Kiss in Akaroa”, the garden by designer Ben Hoyle included a huge floating vine parterre over black water canvas. Islands of perennials were captured within the vine, and it included a pit filled with cushions where visitors could take in a perspective from below the waterline.

And if you thought it was hard to grow beautiful gardens in Invercargill, Stewart Island or the Chathams, take heart from the Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden in Troms, Norway. It’s the most northern botanical garden in the world and home to an impressive display of plants from all over the world.

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After months of record snowfall, freezing temperatures and killer wind chills, the 56th annual Indiana Flower Patio Show’s glimpse of spring is more than welcome.

About 100,000 people attend the show every year, said Donell Heberer Walton, executive director of HSI Shows, which produces the nine-day event. The show continues through March 16 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

This year’s landscapers designed gardens to fit the theme of Personal Space, reflecting the hobbies and interests of their creators, Walton said. “I asked them to create space in the garden that tells a little bit about themselves.”

For instance, Calvin Landscape’s display is called “Colts Backyard Tailgate”; Hittle Landscaping’s exhibit is “Room

with a View and BBQ”; and Berger Hargis Landscape Management has “Family Game and Garden Movie Night.”

Cool Ponds’ owner Steve Wicker’s garden “For the Birds” reflects his love and interest in our feathered friends. In his landscapes, he plants native perennials and shrubs to support native bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Some of the plants, such as viburnums, provide shelter and produce berries, which birds like to eat.

For ponds, Wicker said, his “waterfalls always allow (the birds) access to water.” If the water moves too fast or the rocks are not positioned correctly, birds and other animals will not be able to take advantage of the asset. For the Flower Patio Show, his garden will feature a pond and bird feeders placed among the plants in the landscape.

More than 40 gardens make up the show this year, along with about 450 exhibitors. Most of the gardens are in the West Pavilion, but there also will be exhibits in Expo Hall.

The gardens take a lot of planning. Designers developed the gardens in the summer or fall. It’s done this early so plants can be ordered and forced to leaf out or bloom in time for the show. Specialized nurseries, including some in Ohio, do the forcing, and landscapers travel to get the plants. That can be hazardous this time of year because of snow and ice on the roads and the threat of freezing temperatures on plants in transit.

Edible Garden to spark community interest

BY LILY ABROMEIT | MARCH 06, 2014 5:00 AM

Iowa City residents will soon be able to gather and learn how to grow their own perennial gardens — something officials said will hopefully spark an increase in “edible forests” in the community.
Backyard Abundance, a local company that provides environmental education, is beginning its inaugural step in the Edible Forest project.

Fred Meyer, the director of Backyard Abundance, said the project will hopefully improve environmental health and encourage people to become more proactive when it comes to growing gardens and orchards.

The first step is a nine-hour class on March 8, which Meyer said will teach “people how to design environmentally friendly, high yielding orchards of any size, from a backyard to an entire farm.”

The first of four classes will be centered on designing.

“We can go anywhere from a backyard landscape … up to a 10-acre farm,” Meyer said. “[This can help people] maximize the yield they can get out of it.”

Perennial farms that do not require replanting, he said, provide much more than just food benefits.

Melissa Sharapova, an ecological landscape designer and educator who will teach the first class, said these orchards can prevent soil erosion, improve water quality, keep pollutants out of the soil, and provide habitats for insects and birds.

“We’’re hoping people will change their perception of what growing perennial nuts and berries entails,” she said. “By choosing the right plants, and plants that are native to Iowa, people can avoid having to spray chemicals and do heavy management.”

The variety of options the area provides is what Tom Wahl, who is also teaching at the class and will be providing trees to the Edible Forest, said is the most important aspect to recognize.

“It is my hope that people will see this edible forest and come to realize their landscaping plants can serve multiple purposes … rather than just providing shade and aesthetic enjoyment,” he said.

Meyer said that although the first class is primarily for designing ideas, they will also brainstorm crops to grow, such as pears, plums, hazelnuts, and different kinds of shrubs.

“When people think of orchards, they usually think of … apple trees, but it’s a lot more than that,” he said.

Wahl said these kinds of projects are important because “many people need to physically see, touch, and taste an edible forest before they can be nudged into actually taking action to implement edible landscaping on their own property.”

Sharapova said they are hoping a variety of people will attend the class in order to reach a wider audience and encourage larger participation.

“We’re having people enroll that are city dwellers,” she said. “We’ll adapt the class to people who have small orchards in town or have fruit trees in town.”

Meyer said he hopes people will be inspired through this “outdoor classroom” to plant their own yards with perennials.

“The biggest take-away is an understanding that we can grow food and help the environment in the same space,” he said. “These spaces actually enhance our environment.”

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Despite the lingering cold and snow, now is the time to start planning your summer garden. Whether gardening at home or at the Naperville Park District’s West Street Garden Plots, residents are invited to attend a series of free gardening workshops led by Master Gardener and Commissioner Ron Ory.

The workshops will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays in March at Sportsman’s Clubhouse, 735 S. West St. The March 5 and 19 workshops will focus on organic gardening and the March 12 and 26 workshops will cover regular gardening. Participants will hear helpful tips and practical suggestions on how to plant and maintain their gardens.

“The workshops are tailored for beginning gardeners, emphasizing the basics of gardening,” Ory said.

Registration for the few remaining Park District garden plots is continuing. A map of the plots can be viewed at the administration building, 320 W. Jackson Ave. Registration must be mailed or dropped off at there.

Ory and other master gardeners from Naperville Community Gardeners and the University of Illinois Extension also will support the demonstration gardens planted in recent years at the Naperville garden plots to help beginning gardeners learn more about native Illinois plants for their home landscape.

“This spring, we’ll be installing the Prairie, Savanna and Sedge Meadow in the Idea Gardens to offer the home landscapers some additional ideas on using native plants in the home landscape,” Ory said. “We’ll also have some new presentations in the Sensory Garden we installed last year.”

For more information about the Garden Plots or about other programs and facilities at the Naperville Park District, call 630-848-5000 or visit www.napervilleparks.org.

Courtesy of the Naperville Park District

Beautiful doesn’t have to be wet, says this gardening expert.

Growing water-loving plants in Southern Colorado often is an exercise in frustration, says Panayoti Kelaidis of the Denver Botanic Gardens, but a more realistic sensibility has taken root in the landscaping community. This new thinking shows in streetscapes and public gardens planted in vibrant vegetation that’s both beautiful and well-suited to this arid area.

Kelaidis, who’s worked for more than 30 years at the Denver gardens and who’s responsible for introducing many, many plants to Colorado gardeners, will be the keynote speaker at the Western Landscape Symposium on March 15 at Pueblo Community College. He’ll talk about Pueblo as a garden mecca.

“Pueblo has such a historic setting and it has the beginnings of a beautiful setting,” he says.

If a city has a sustainable and artistic landscape, Kelaidis says, it benefits residents and attracts people from elsewhere, so the question is: “How can we enhance Pueblo and the Rocky Mountain region instead of trying to do the Midwest (gardening style) without water?”

“During the last 40 years, there’s been a revelation that more drought-tolerant plants do well here. Plants that really want to grow in Virginia or Indiana will struggle here.”

Garden mecca?

If the idea of Pueblo — at the heart of the tumbleweed belt — as a garden mecca seems strange, Kelaidis says it’s important to remember that tumbleweeds are alien plants accidentally brought to the region by farmers, and that many other unattractive qualities of the landscape also have been created by man.

“If we go up into the Wet Mountains and to other natural settings, it’s beautiful,” he says.

Kelaidis has been instrumental in the growth of Plant Select — a cooperative program administered by Denver Botanic Gardens and Colorado State University — which locates, identifies and distributes the best plants for the intermountain region to the high plains. He designed plantings for the Rock Alpine Garden and helped create Wildflower Treasures, South African Plaza, Romantic Gardens and many others at the botanic gardens.

He says his interest in beautifying Colorado by growing more suitable plants stems from growing up in Boulder and visiting California on spring vacations.

“I’d go there and everything was in bloom and then I’d come back here and I knew it was ugly here at that time of year. It was like comparing apples and oranges. I didn’t get it as a kid.”

Since “getting” it, he’s devoted his career to beautifying Colorado and sharing his vast knowledge with the plant-loving public.

maryp@chieftain.com

Jacqueline Soule

Posted: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 4:00 am
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Updated: 10:38 am, Wed Mar 5, 2014.

Gardening With Soule: Personalize your yard with a theme garden

Jacqueline A. Soule, Special to The Explorer

Explorer News

People like to personalize their “stuff.”  You see it everywhere, things like family stickers on cars, unique cell phone ring tones, stylized computer covers, etc.  Many different ways to personalize your possessions.  So how about taking it one step further and personalize the space around your home?  Your yard should have a theme that makes it personally yours, even if, or maybe especially if, you live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood.  With a judicious use of plants and landscaping, you can turn your yard into your own personalized theme yard.

It is highly satisfying to live surrounded by a space that speaks to who you are as an individual.  Are you proud of your heritage?  An Italian garden is easy to create here in the Southwest.  Also Greek, Middle Eastern, Spanish, French, Australian, and just about any other warm climate area of origin.  I mentioned the idea of a football themed garden several years ago in this column, and Oriental themed gardens are also a distinct possibility.   Are you a Shakespeare buff?  You could have a Shakespearean yard filled with plants mentioned in his plays and sonnets, and don’t forget the sundial for a touch of the Elizabethan age.  Consider a yard full of plants mentioned in the Bible – easy to do since many of them thrive in our very similar arid environment.

Designing a theme landscape is much like designing any other landscape.  Think about the look you desire, formal or natural, and then select the plants that reinforce that look.  The hard part is keeping in mind the final mature size of the plants and the growing and watering requirements of the plants involved.  

You may need some help creating your theme garden.  That is to be expected, because you want it to look good, not just a bunch of plants plopped into the yard here there and everywhere.  Garden coaches and landscape designers can help create the look you want.

In fiction, the theme is considered one of the fundamental components of the story, and can be a broad idea, message, or moral of the story.  When it comes to yards, having a theme would mean that your yard in not simply an amalgam of whatever ended up there, your yard can help embrace and embody who you are as an individual or family.

(Editor’s Note:  Jacqueline Soule will be offering a series of lectures on theme gardens at the TJCC, starting on March 5.  As well as writing and speaking about plants, Jacqueline works as a garden coach.  For a private consultation call 909-3474.)

© 2014 The Explorer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Wednesday, March 5, 2014 4:00 am.

Updated: 10:38 am.

GardenNews.biz – Mar 05,2014 – SATURDAY AT THE GARDEN!

Edible Landscaping: W/ Master Gardeners
THIS Saturday, March 8, 1 PM – 3 PM

$5 for Garden members/ $10 non-members.

No registration required.

Edible Landscapes

Saturday at the Garden – Edible Landscaping
with Master Gardeners Ron and Jutta
Saturday, March 8, 1 PM to 3 PM

Edible landscaping by Rosalind Creasy The number of US households growing their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs is on the rise!

Many yards are spatially challenged and cannot afford the space for a separate vegetable garden and orchard. Edible landscapes have been used successfully for centuries as a way to take advantage of the beauty of edible plants by incorporating them into more traditional landscapes. Join us at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Gardens on March 8, from 1 PM – 2 PM as Master Gardeners Ron and Jutta present ways to combine form and function in your yard by using food plants as stunning design features.

Ron Whisenand is an avid gardener who developed his passion for beautiful landscapes as a child from his gardening parents. Ron retired from environmental planning in 2011 and is pursuing new challenges. His desired to give back to the local community led him to become a Master Gardener in 2012. His gardening interests include landscape design using the concept of “garden rooms,” edible landscapes, and gophers.

Jutta Thoerner was born in Germany on a 100 Acre Horse and Hay Farm. Jutta has been a Master Gardeners since 2003, and has held many positions including President. Jutta’s childhood passion for growing and preserving her own food lead her to operate a 100 acre walnut farm in Paso Robles.

Presentation is $5 for members/$10 non-members. Followed at 2 PM by a free docent-led tour of the Garden. For more info contact our Education Coordinator at education@slobg.org or 805.541.1400x 304.

Edible Landscaping2- Rosalind Creasy There are many reasons to incorporate edible plants into the residential landscape. These include:
•To enjoy the freshness and flavor of home-grown, fully ripened fruits and vegetables
•To control the quantity and kind of pesticides and herbicides used on the foods you consume
•To increase the food security of your household
•To save on grocery bills
•To grow unusual varieties not available in stores
•To get outside, interact with the natural world, and have fun

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