“The chances of finding someone who actually knows something in a Canadian Tire is as remote as a Canadian team ever winning the Stanley Cup,” claimed Roy McGregor, writing in The Globe and Mail. Novice and even experienced gardeners might feel the same way when visiting the various big box stores alleged ‘garden centres.’
Extended text: Loathe to part with the lucre required to hire graduates of college horticultural courses let alone experienced horticulturists, these retail outlets are singularly barren ground for growing information.
Luckily for Ontario gardeners at least, members of the trade association Landscape Ontario’s have come up with ‘Green for Life’ and the consumer website
landscapeontario.com. Visit to find out the nearest garden centres that stock the product you want. Check out the “Find a Professional” section for landscaping queries and for profiles on individual garden centres.
Then we are urged at every turn to recycle wherever possible.
Pantyhose has a long been used by gardeners for ties, slings to support cantaloupes grown up stakes, even covering pool pumps as filters. No surprise then to find Joe Dasilva of Port Darlington, Ontario, writing in the current edition of
Harrowsmith magazine that the hosiery stretches and does not damage the plants. He gets the necessary material from his mother. Now, however, men’s socks – hosiery seems a confusing term here – are available made of rayon derived from bamboo. Confirmed bachelor gardeners may find this a slightly less embarrassing source.
Even more weird and wonderful can be the ways of gardeners. Sometime back, it was the in thing to have a planted chamber pot as a patio or deck feature. Today it is bras, boxer and jockey shorts converted to use as hanging baskets. And the initiative comes from no less than the Royal Horticultural Society. Georgie Webb at that venerable institution calls them ‘bra-skets.’ Our take on it? Go for bust and you’ll never be caught short.
Less than wonderful are the warnings of possible lead poisoning in the vegetable patch. No gardener should assume they are exempt from the hazard. Not when Washington’s very own Candida Casa has been found to have its brand-new South Lawn veggie patch with 93 ppm of lead. This has been countered by adding lime and compost to the soil. But the idea of replacing a front lawn in particular with food crops may not be so wise. Leaded gasoline, in use for years, may well have contaminated the soil alongside any well-used street.
Ironically, experts advise that if garden soil is tested and found to have unacceptable levels of lead, then it be covered by turf.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not consider 93 ppm of lead hazardous to children. The federal department rates 400 ppm in children’s play areas and 1,200 ppm elsewhere as posing a problem. Other jurisdictions disagree: Minneapolis calls for 100 ppm. In the Netherlands, levels may not exceed 40 ppm.
Closer to home, a new housing subdivision in the Newmarket, Ontario area was found to be located close to where old orchards formerly existed. As late as the 1960s, arsenic-based pesticides found frequent use in such operations. And lead-based paints were only phased out a few years later, with the result that any older home may have contaminated the surrounding soil.
Doubtlessly, with the professional advice available to her, the kitchen garden of America’s First Lady will get the lead out. For those in Washington, D.C. less blessed, the National Gallery of Art there has an exhibition of the works of 18th-century Spanish still-life painter Louis Meléndez, famed for his realistic depictions of fruits and vegetables.
Ontario’s new legislation banning chemical pesticides for “cosmetic” use has wrought many changes. Not all of these were anticipated by environmentalists or their political camp followers. Indeed, home brews have proliferated to such an extent Health Canada has issued warnings about boiling up rhubarb leaves or cigarettes to obtain sprays. Even more hazardous is dousing ant heaps with gasoline or kerosene.
A simple, safe home insecticidal spray is a tablespoon of ‘Ivory Snow’ dishwashing soap in a litre of water. Unlike garlic, hot pepper and other home brews, this will keep for several weeks. Mix in a hand sprayer and keep handy for use as and when required.
Homer’s description of the idyllic Calypso’s Isle, where the weary Odysseus tarried, included soft meadows parsley flourished. Did they use the herb to sweeten the breath? If they did, the Homer failed to inform us. Later a less than enchanted poet summed it up in three words: parsley is ghastly. Either way, as we wrote here in early April, the herb does nothing for the breath, folk wisdom not withstanding. So we were agreeably surprised to discover the same subject pursued late the same month by none other than Anahad O’Connor in
The New York Times science section (28 April). The bottom line, states Mr. O’Connor: “There is no evidence that parsley can counteract bad breath.” Interestingly, green tea does reduce oral odours, at least for an hour or two, he writes. Although we, too, enjoy an occasional cheering cup alas, it tends to pass through all too quickly.
Finally, just in case the approach of summer already has you worried about a warming world, 24th through 27th June sees the 12th Annual Snow & Ice Symposium. This year it is to be welcomed by the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky. You can find plenty of cool innovations in the 70,000-square-feet exhibit hall, learn more from 20+ educational sessions, and join the ‘friendship and fun’ of the Snow & Ice Management Association. Discover how to cool it by visiting
sima.org
