Since starting at OPSEU at the beginning of June, it has been a steady job weeding and getting the memorial terrace garden at the front of the building prepared for planting. You could imagine that I was thrilled to finally get to the point where I could pick up the plants and get them in the ground.
Well the plants are in and due to some providential thundershowers seem to be settling in without any problems. I would like to thank everyone who stopped by to look on the garden and pass on their words of encouragement.
One element of the process that was a lot of fun (despite the terrible traffic on the hwy. 400) was picking up the plants from the nursery. Wildflower Farms on hwy. 12 just west of Orillia is a terrific place for anyone interested in starting their own native plant garden.
http://www.wildflowerfarm.com/index.php?p=home
A quick tour of their garden made clear how much attention and care this small company puts into their plants. The care taken to ensure the pedigree of each plant is unique in the industry. 90% of the plants are Ontario natives grown from seed and every plant has been grown with a good deal of tough love.
In the demonstration garden the owners leave all the plants to their own devices without any irrigation or fertilization giving the owner a terrific understanding of how each plant responds to the Southern Ontario environment.
Gary has recommended one way of introducing the garden could be to present a wildflower of the week on the blog. I’ll start later this week with our first plant. Of course anyone who wants to stop by to ask some questions or even get their hands dirty is more than welcome.
See you in the garden,
Jon
No comments:
Post a Comment