Talk about #urbanagriculture

Stopped in at the Royal Winter Fair following the Team Canada vs. New Zealand Maori All Blacks game at BMO Field this afternoon. Wandering through the giant vegetable competition, I came across this monster pumpkin:

The second largest pumpkin at the Royal was grown in Scarborough this year! And at 822.8 lbs it wasn't much smaller than the first place pumpkin. I wonder where this urban farmer finds room to grow his giant crops in Scarborough? 

Rewilding

Love the wolf and whale examples. I always appreciate the reminder to move away from oversimplifying ecosystems, especially in restoration. Give up the control and let nature make the decisions. I think this concept is complicated in urban areas due to the pressure from neighbouring disturbed sites and weedy seed banks waiting to take over. Still, a lot to learn. Also, paleoecology is an interesting field, but restoration paleoecology seems a little crazy.

#Homegrownnationalpark Park Crawl!

The next Homegrown National Park event is coming up this September. Check out the details for the Homegrown Park Crawl from the David Suzuki Foundation and join the event. We'll spend the day traveling from park to park along the former Garrison Creek enjoying great food, local music, and planting native plants.

How does your garden grow?

In February, when I was deciding to move to a tower building, I had high hopes for the balcony garden I would create this year. Balcony repairs were necessary, however, and my outdoor space was closed until late June. Once my balcony opened up, I had quite a late start on my garden. I decided to take my own advice and start with a garden that was small and manageable. Over the past few months, I have gradually added more plants.

I've often had outdoor plants in containers. They work well in small spaces, concrete spaces, and temporary spaces. This is the first time that I've had all of my plants ten stories up on a south facing balcony. The wind and sun are a little more intense up here. With only a few pots, I've been able to keep up with watering and my herbs, native wildflowers, and grasses are flourishing in the full sun.

The large blue pot is full of a giant basil plant and it's three companions: sage, rosemary, and chives. The sage and rosemary have taken advantage of the slight shade provided by the basil bush. They also don't mind that the basil takes up all of the water. The small blue pot contains the little bluestem that I brought home on my bike from the Birds and the Bees picnic. It needs a some time to put down roots. The little white pot barely contains a wild strawberry. It's trying to reach out and has already put down roots beside the little blue.

On the other side, I have a lime tree, a blueberry bush, sweet basil, fennel, dill, pearly everlasting, butterfly milkweed, blue-eyed mountain grass, and an assortment of herbs.

And, I have this salad box hanging into my balcony. From top to bottom: radishes, spinach, and lettuce. They sprouted in one day and have taken off. This picture shows the plants at about ten days old.

Music in the Park

Just returned home from the Thursday night farmer's market at the ever gorgeous Toronto Botanical Garden, one of my favourite places in the city. Such a great way to spend some time in greenspace: buying freshly baked rye bread and sampling tiny heirloom tomatoes that come in about 36 colour combinations.

Following the market, the Edwards Summer Music Series hosted the final show of the Garden of Song 2013 line-up. One of my favourite Guelphtown musicians, Bry Webb, and band played a set of quiet music under the sunset on the rock patio down near the main building. Then I bought the record. A new one will be recorded in the next few months. This was one of the best Thursday nights I've had since moving here. And I bet the plants enjoyed the show just as much.

Gatineau Hydro Corridor Tallgrass Prairie Restoration

These days, I spend quite a bit of time exploring the Gatineau Hydro Corridor. This strip of greenspace runs through Scarborough from the Don Valley, all the way northeast through to the Rouge Valley and beyond. Massive hydro towers carry power for the city through the corridor. This area must be kept free of any obstacle. In some ways, this provides some interesting opportunities for the land beneath the power lines. A well-maintained, paved trail system meanders through the corridor. Along this trail, you can find some of the largest community gardens I have ever seen, cricket pitches, and native plant restoration projects.

I first visited this area in the summer of 2012, while I was working for Ontario NativeScape and the Rural Lambton Stewardship Network (RLSN) out of Chatham, Ontario. RLSN was established in the early 90s as one of the pilot stewardship councils with the Ministry of Natural Resources. Over the years, RLSN has developed the capacity to complete large scale tallgrass prairie restoration projects throughout the province. They have created about 260 acres of native seed production area on farmland in Lambton County. It is amazing to see native plants, ones that are sometimes rarely found in nature these days, growing in agriculture fields. You can walk through the fields any time of year and find something incredible; thousands of prairie smoke in flower in the spring or millions of bright yellow blooms in late July.

In summer 2012, I was here to complete a site visit with the restoration project team. The site has since been prepped and planted.

The morning the first fields were planted, I rode my bike down the trail to visit my old coworkers. I love seeing seed go into the ground. Means most of the hard work, planning the restoration project, getting the funding and permits together, is all done and now it's just up to the seeds to out compete the weeds.

This site was prepped with an annual rye. The hard little flower heads stick to your fingers like Velcro.

City of Toronto was also in on this project, planting a wide variety of native shrubs in several plots. These shrubs will provide all sorts of berries for food and shelter through the seasons for local birds, insects, and other wildlife who call the hydro corridor home.

I ride my bike along the trail several times a week. Have to take my camera back up and show an update of this project. Weeds are doing well this first season, as is to be expected, but the crew at TRCA is doing a great job keeping them at bay and giving the native plants a chance to establish. The native plants have deep, fibrous root systems that take about three growing seasons to develop. The competitor weeds have small roots systems that allow them to quickly pop up and fill the space and take advantage of the available resources. Once the native plants are established, the weeds won't stand a chance. The extensive root systems will reach deep for water, hold the soil in place and prevent erosion, and create healthy, well-structured soil for the next generation of native plants to establish.

I can't wait to see this place all grown up!

The Birds and the Bees Picnic

Once upon a time I attended the Birds and the Bees Picnic at Trinity Bellwood Park. It wasn't that long ago, but it was a time when I was ignoring my blog. Hosted by the Homegrown National Park Rangers, the picnic was held on a lovely Sunday afternoon in late July. I rode my bike from Scarborough, along the Don Valley Trail, to the Waterfront Trail, and right into the park.

Ranger Kristi spoke about local bird species that live in the park. As she was speaking about Red Shouldered Hawks, one landed in a tree beside her. Ranger Gillian and the Toronto Beekeeping Coorperative were also in attendance with their traveling display hive. Gillian had also brought along a few flats of native plants from Native Plants of Claremont.

Even though I was on two wheels, I couldn't resist taking a few plants home to add to my balcony collection. Luckily, Ranger Aiden was traveling with twine in his backpack and I managed to secure some little bluestem, butterfly milkweed, and a wild strawberry for my flourishing garden. They held on for the entire 22 km ride home.

Bridging Festival: Film Night featuring The Curious Garden

So excited to head to the Bridging Festival film night on Tuesday, August 20. Last week, the festival started with a music night at the East Scarborough Festival Market. This week it continues with the film night on Tuesday, the spoken word night on Friday, and the main event under the bridge on Saturday. The themes of the Bridging Festival are food, culture, and environment.

This year, the film night will feature an animated film based on a book by Peter Brown, The Curious Gardener.

"Follow one boy's quest for a greener world ... one garden at a time.
A little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. The Curious Garden is an enchanting tale with environmental themes and breathtaking illustrations."

Newcomb's

A few weeks ago, a friend contacted me to ask for my plant field guide recommendations. He is a well versed field biologist, but has always chased after the creatures that move and he thought it was about time he paid some attention to the plants. I sent him a list of my favourite books and told him that the first one he should find is Newcomb's Wildflower Guide written by Lawrence Newcomb and illustrated by Gordon Morrison.

Newcomb's, for short, was one of the first field guides I discovered and has been a constant throughout my education and career. The first edition, originally printed in 1977, has a distinct bright yellow cover. It always cheers me up and it's so easy to find on my bookshelf or wherever I've set it down in a tallgrass prairie. It's compact enough to carry around anywhere, within the northeastern States and neighbouring Canada of course, but it contains the most information about the widest variety of plants that I have found in a field guide. The illustrations are detailed and clear. And, one of my favourite features of this guide is that the pictures are found on the page directly facing the plant description. In the field, it is much easier to confirm identification when one can read the plant description and view the illustration at the same time.

This field guide is described as, "an ingenious new key system for quick, positive field identification of wildflowers, flowering shrubs, and vines." Before using the traditional dichotomous key to determine the identification of a plant down to species, the reader uses a chart called The Three Classifications to narrow down the choices. This chart asks the user to answer the same three questions about each plant they want to identify. First, what is the flower type? Second, what is the plant type? And third, what is the leaf type? Each of the three questions have a short set of 4 to 8 possible answers that are fairly easy to decide between. For each of the answers to the three questions, the associated number is selected. The resulting 3 digit code number is used to find the starting point in the dichotomous key.

On August 3, I was out for a hike with some local naturalists at the Altona Forest in Pickering. The topic of the guided hike was the Understory Plants of Altona Forest. One of the hike leaders and I were both carrying Newcomb's that day. I have a couple copies that I have picked up or have been gifted along the way. I share them with friends and keep a copy on each of my desks. They are all in fairly good condition with a few bent corners, maybe some dried plant samples tucked inside, and a few scribbled notes in the margins. The leader's copy, I'm certain, had been at his side every day since 1977. From the cover, his copy was unidentifiable as Newcomb's, let alone as a book. It was completely held together with packing tape that had  melded tiny fragments of the forest into every tear and crease. The bright yellow colour was completely gone and it just sort of looked like a puffed-up grey mass of papers. Inside, a note was taped on every page. Every single centimetre of white space was filled with handwritten notes in tiny, shaky script that was only legible to the author. There was a thick rubber band holding the whole thing together. He let me hold it and carefully open it up. I was worried that the notes were going to blow away in the wind. Or that his most prized possession was going to disintegrate in my hands. I guess this is something to aspire to, but I think I would miss the bright yellow cover far too much.

Homegrown National Park Event @ Fort York on June 26!

On Wednesday, June 26 the David Suzuki Foundation, along with several partners including Fort York National Historic Site and Toronto and Region Conservation, will be holding a Homegrown National Park event at Fort York. Admission is free and the event will run, rain or shine, from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

At 7:00 PM we will be presenting the Gardening with Native Plants workshop in the Blue Bunker. Visit trcastewardshipevents.ca to register. We'll have great resources, door prizes, and local, native tallgrass prairie seeds to help start your garden.

Throughout the event there will be food trucks, local beer, and a campfire. Also, the Community Canoe container garden sponsored by the North American Native Plant Society will be unveiled. This project encourages residents to plant native plants for pollinator habitat throughout the Homegrown National Park.

At 9:00 PM there will be an outdoor screening (bring your own blankets to sit on) of the Lost Rivers documentary featuring the lost Garrison Creek, which flows underground past Fort York, and forms the backbone for the Homegrown National Park.

Visit the facebook event page to see more details about this event.

Looking Back.

This weekend I will be attending my first board of director's planning retreat for the North American Native Plant Society (NANPS). The retreat is held every June to ensure that we are collectively guiding NANPS down the right path and remaining dedicated to the study, conservation, cultivation, and restoration of North America's Native Flora. I am really looking forward to learning more about the society and getting to know my counterparts a little better.

In order to prepare for the retreat, I have been reading everything I can find about the society. I may have mentioned before that I have been following the work of NANPS for several years now; throughout most of my education and career. Tonight I've been reading Silver Memories - A Personal History Dedicated to the Society on its 25th Anniversary by Jim French, one of the founders and the honourary president of NANPS. This document has many interesting stories about NANPS over the years and I have certainly gained some insight into the great work of the NANPS volunteers since 1985. I really like the part about how Sir David Attenborough became the Honourary Patron of NANPS.

 

Over the years, I've been involved with a few different not-for-profit groups and organizations. I am always so interested in the history of these groups and learning about the people who came before me. It's important to be able to understand how groups have evolved and how decisions have been made over the years so that the current board of directors and members at large can stay true to the path and keep the momentum moving forward.

There's a lot to learn and I am very excited to see where this new endeavour takes me.

Ever Onward.

A Homegrown National Park.

The first? Homegrown National Park is gaining momentum in the west end of Toronto. The park is forming around one of the lost rivers, the Garrison Creek. It's growing out of community involvement, clever projects, and native plants for pollintators. There is so much to learn, see, and do in this city and I am so excited to be involved with this project.

Today I read a fantastic blog post about some of the history of this project and where it's heading. There are also many links included to learn more about this type of project. I've been following closely and I can't wait to see what happens next.

On June 26, from 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM the Homegrown National Park crew is hosting an event at Fort York. It'll start with my Creating a Beautiful Garden with Native Plants workshop then there will be food trucks, local beer, campfires, the unveiling of the North American Native Plant Society sponsered Community Canoe, and an outdoor screeing of the Lost Rivers documentary.

Much more to come about this project! O yeah, and the Star covered the story too.

Happy 25th, TMG!

Tonight I attended the 25th anniversary celebrations for the Toronto Master Gardeners (TMG). The event was held at one of my favourite places, just down the street, the Toronto Botanical Gardens. The weather was perfect tonight for a garden party.

 

This accomplishment, 25 years of great work in Toronto, was recognized by Premier Wynne.

TMG provides all sorts of support and resources for people interested in gardening. They are part of an international network of gardeners. They give talks, answer questions, and lead inspirational tours of local gardens. I always find great advice in the tips section of their website. If you have a question about gardening, you can just submit it online and they will provide the answer. TMG encourages all types of gardening: vegetable gardening, container gardening, gardening with native plants, and horticulture, just to name a few. Sometimes advice is directed at a specific type of gardening, but much of it is general and applies to all types of gardening. Just make sure that you do your research to understand which species are native and which ones are not if this is important to you and your garden.

A usual, I met a lot of interesting people, had some great conversations, and I came home from this event feeling completely inspired. I'm really glad that I am finding my way into this community in Toronto.

Attracting Beneficial Insects with Native Flowering Plants

Michigan State University (MSU) has one of my favourite resource websites about Native Plants and Ecosystem Services. I really admire the scientific research they do and the way they present their findings. Also, since Michigan is practically next door and is also surrounded by the Great Lakes, it has a very similar natural history to that of the Greater Toronto Area. Historically, this area of Michigan was covered by tallgrass prairie, which continued up along the sand ridge through Windsor, to Toronto, and finally ended with the easternmost prairies in North America at the Rice Lake Plains.

See on the map? MSU is at a very similar latitude as Toronto; latitude has a large impact on local environmental conditions. We can even bike to MSU in only 28 hours if we take Macomb Orchard Trail!

The resource that I wanted to highlight from MSU is the Attracting Beneficial Insects with Native Flowering Plants booklet. This booklet was published in 2007 by several researchers from the Department of Entemology at MSU. I came across this resource several years ago when I was at a conference in grad school. It features some great close-up pictures of beneficial insects and provides some useful definitions of native beneficial predators, parasitoids, and pollinators. My favourite part of the resource is the chart that shows a list of tallgrass prairie plant species and their blooming times.

This chart clearly shows how important it is to provide beneficial insects with food sources throughout the entire growing season. The chart can be used when planning your garden to ensure that you are supporting insects over the course of the year. Just select plants with overlapping bloom times across the season from spring to fall. Bloom times for native plants can be found in native plant identification guides, in native plant databases, and in native plant catalogues from local nurseries that specialize in producing native plants.