Garden Bloggers' Fling, 2015

I'd been aware of the annual Garden Bloggers' Fling since the first one, back in 2008 when it took place in Austin, Texas. I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to go to one, but when I realised that this year's was in Toronto, I jumped at the opportunity.

I wasn't disappointed. The event was superbly well organised and in total we visited 30 gardens and parks in the three days that I attended. Those doing the optional Niagara excursion on the fourth day would have seen even more. It was a real pleasure to spend time with so many passionate gardeners and designers. I feel like I have learnt a tremendous amount and have definitely made some new friends.

It's hard to know where to begin with describing the Fling: there was so much crammed in to the three days. I'll just pick out a few themes from the 563 (!) photos I took.

There was an interesting variation of scale, from the huge formal garden of the Aga Khan Museum

 to the intimate gardens of Cabbagetown, once home to Irish immigrants.

The Toronto skyline was ever-present throughout the Fling, either up close when we headed by ferry to the Toronto Island gardens on Friday,

or glimpsed from a distance as it was from the Aga Khan Museum

and from the Hugh Garner Co-op roof garden.

This coming weekend is the Peony Festival in Oshawa, and peonies were a noticeable feature in many of the gardens we visited. From the subtle and understated,

to the bold and beautiful,

and the downright outrageous.

There were a lot of Alliums around, too,

The importance of pollinators was another theme of the Fling: we learnt about the Fairmont Royal York's rooftop garden and bee hives on Friday and at the Toronto Botanical Garden on Sunday we were told to plant up our containers to 'attract guests'  like this honey bee who was busy visiting the salvia 'May Night' at the TBG.

We saw some interesting human-made objects, too, in the course of the Fling. I completely fell in love with the reclamation work going on at the former Don Valley Brick Works, where an industrial site has been turned into a fascinating space for people and wildlife. The 'Watershed Consciousness' artwork on the site is amazing.

I also (inevitably!) loved the way that archival images have been used to tell the story of the site's past.

You don't need a lot of space to make effective use of objects. I'm not generally a huge fan of garden art (or of city skylines, now I think about it) but I did rather like this little elephant in a Cabbagetown garden.

All in all, this has to be one of the most exhausting three days I've had. It was packed full of sensory, social and learning experiences; I will be thinking about this event for days and months to come. A hearty thanks to the Toronto Fling Committee for all their hard work!

Seedy Saturday 2014

Last year I wrote about how I'd become a vendor at the Picton Seedy Saturday event just two years after attending my first one. This year I became one of the organisers of a new Seedy Saturday in Trenton. I feel as though I've been on some sort of apprentice-training scheme with these events, with my involvement gradually escalating.

This event was a scion of the Picton one, with one of the Picton organisers encouraging our efforts and coming to the first meeting of the Seedy Saturday Quinte West committee.

We applied for start-up funds for the event from the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security - and were fortunate enough to receive $350. Thirteen vendors from a range of farm and seed-related businesses paid a small sum for tables on the day and we received enough contributions in kind to fill four raffle baskets, which proved a good fund-raiser. Around 80 people came through the doors on the day, which we were really pleased about. Donations for the book table and seed swap table brought in additional money, ensuring that we have enough in our bank account to pay for the hire of a venue in 2015. This means that the event should be self-sustaining after this first year.

If you get a chance to go along to a Seedy Saturday or to get involved in one, I can highly recommend it. There's always an interesting range of people to talk to and seeds to pick up. I was relatively restrained this year and only came away with four new packets of seed: one bean, two tomatoes and one pepper.

Seedy Saturday 2013

I blogged about the first Seedy Saturday event I ever attended back in 2011. This year I was one of the vendors at the same event. How quickly things move on! I got involved this year because I met one of the organisers when I had my farmer's market stall in Wellington last summer. You never know what is going to happen when you take on something new, do you? Always a good reason to try different ventures, I think.

I took along some herbs that I started from seed in late December. All except the basil had got to a reasonable size. I also had a box of home-collected herb seeds and some jars of the marmalade I made last month. I had some eggs to give away too, since we're not allowed to sell them apart from at the farm.

I tarted the marmalade jars up a bit with some cloth covers and twine. I wasn't sure that I would sell any of these (I thought they were bordering on the dangerously twee myself) but they were all gone in the first hour and a half!

I had a great time, talking almost without a break to people with a wide range of gardening experience but all with a strong enthusiasm for growing their own food or flowers. It was exhausting!

Citizens

Forty-two new citizens took the oath of citizenship in Belleville today and four of them were our family. There were 18 countries represented in the group and it seemed that England was the supplier of the largest number, with about nine of us in all (there were also two Scots, so a fairly good showing by the UK!). The ceremony had everything necessary: a convivial presiding official (Roy Bonisteel), civic dignitaries, bilingual proceedings, lots of maple leaves and, of course, a Mountie. We swore our Oath of Citizenship (which involved promising to obey the laws of Canada and "to be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second"), received our Certificates of Citizenship and then sang 'O Canada'.

We came away clutching bags of Canadian swag (I am never going to be short of Canadian flags) and feeling, on the whole, quite proud and happy.

Dragon boats

Mike had been roped in to joining one of the community teams for today's dragon boat racing event in Wellington, so we spent much of the day down at the waterfront there, watching the competition. There were 11 teams, a mixture of local dragon boat clubs, community teams and breast cancer survivor groups from as far afield as Kingston and Toronto.

After the heats, the breast cancer groups held a ceremony to remember those who had not survived the disease. Pink carnations were thrown in the water in memory of friends and loved ones.

The Rotary team Mike was on won the community team cup. It looked like incredibly hard work!

Seedy Saturday

There's a seed-swapping event going on today in Picton. I've never been to one before, so wasn't sure about how they worked. But taking seeds seemed to be a key part of the whole concept, so I spent some time this morning bagging up some of the parsley, dill and coriander seeds I collected from the greenhouse herbs last summer.

There was a long table at the event, with different containers for different categories of seeds. I deposited my collection in the 'herb' basket and was then free to browse the others. I came away with some Dakota Black Popcorn, Green Arrow peas and a packet of Nicotiana sylvestris.

See those brown envelopes? They're just made from single sheets of paper. I felt bad about my seeds in their plastic bags when I saw them - I think they're great. Maybe next year...

There were seed vendors there, too, with a wide range of seeds for sale. I couldn't resist a packet of alfalfa seeds: I've been meaning to have a go at growing some seeds for sprouting for ages. Child#2 was given a packet of mixed sunflowers by the lady at the Edith Fox Life and Loss Centre's table and I listened to Vicki Emlaw of Vicki's Veggies give an interesting talk about the concept of seed sovereignty and how to go about saving lettuce seeds.

I'm glad I went along. Now I need to do some research to find out how best to sprout these alfalfa seeds...

The colours of Canada

I had Canada Day in mind when I chose the seeds for my hanging baskets. The nasturtium is a variety called 'Gleaming Mahogany' which I thought would look good against the white of the Swan River Daisy.

I wish I'd put as much thought into my own colour-co-ordination for the day itself. I was helping out at the Friends of the Wellington Museum's Pancake Breakfast at the Wellington Town Hall. All the volunteers and nearly all the customers were wearing red and white, but the only red clothes I possess are thick woolly sweaters!

I don't think I'll be able to top this lady's hat, though...

P.S. Just saw a clip of the Queen who's in Ottawa for Canada Day. Even she's wearing red and white. How shaming.