CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — For those of us who have enjoyed months of outdoor activity, the prospect of knee-deep snow and cold temperatures sends shivers down our back.
Which is why we have created the pandemic primer for gardeners. There is much to keep us physically and mentally active. Here are our top recommendations:
Be a joiner
Local horticultural clubs are active right now. Recently, we spoke at a meeting of the Richmond Hill Horticultural Society in Ontario. More than 40 people attended, online and it was cool. Ben hosted a PowerPoint on “Attracting birds to your garden” while Mark provided colour commentary. Lots of questions and even some answers.
There is a local garden club or horticultural society near you that would welcome your participation. For a comprehensive list go to http://markcullen.com/gardening-communities/.
Be a saver
Look out of your kitchen window and you might see trees hanging with nuts, annuals (snapdragons and calendula, for example) and perennial plants heavy with seed heads, brown little packets ready for harvest. It is a tempting proposition, all that free stuff just outside your home. Harvesting seeds, preserving, and propagating them can be as satisfying as it is profitable. The snapdragon that you start from your own seed is seed you do not have to buy. Or a transplant that you do not need to forage for at a garden retailer come spring.
Be a dreamer
Nature gives Canadian gardeners the winter off so that we can dream about the next season. We both do this, Ben imagines food gardening and pollinators while Mark dreams of creating a new one-acre garden this spring as he makes plans to move house. Ben is moving into his parents’ rural 10-acre garden while his Mom and Dad “downsize”. Not everyone has such adventures to look forward to but all of us, including singles living in small condos, can dream. If you are limited in space, be sure to sign up for a local community or allotment garden before they are all spoken for.
Be an action figure
Winter is not a time for docile gardeners. Be proactive and introduce indoor tropical plants into your life. You do not have to name them. It is OK if you do, after all Tom Hanks named a basketball Wilson and befriended it in the movie Cast Away in 2000. There may be days this winter when the social restrictions of COVID-19 make us feel cast away.
By adding living foliage and flowers to our indoor living space we can get a lift, become more hopeful and feel good. Moisture is added to the air, oxygen is pumped into the atmosphere and the satisfaction of tending and growing can be unmatched. Like having pets that are clean air machines, without the litter box.
For more information, we recommend you follow our friend, Darryl Cheng, who is based in Toronto, on Instagram at @houseplantjournal. He has more than 190,000 followers.
Be a listener
Podcasts are taking off in the horticultural genre. Which is why we launched, The Green File podcast, featuring interviews with special guests like Cheng and other Canadian gardening greats, including Lorraine Johnson, Niki Jabbour and Sean James. We also like the In Defense of Plants podcast for true plant geeks, The Joe Gardener Show and Gardening with the RHS. Our friends Charlie Dobbin and Jabbour also make their gardening radio programs available in podcast form, which are worth a listen.
Be a reader
The most sophisticated form of listening is reading. Choose a magazine from Canada’s own, including Canada’s Local Gardener (https://www.localgardener.net/). Mark’s favourite is The Garden, which is included with his annual membership of $110 in The Royal Horticultural Society in the U.K. (https://www.rhs.org.uk/join/).
We enjoy reading and recommend a long list of books including: (Mark) Big Lonely Doug, the story of the second largest Douglas fir in B.C., and Man of The Trees, biography of Richard St. Barbe Baker, the world’s first conservationist. So far this year, Ben has enjoyed Birds Art Life, a memoir about discovering birding in the city of Toronto by Kyo Maclear. We both enjoyed Nature’s Best Hope, A new approach to conservation that starts in your yard by Douglas Tallamy.
Indulge your gardening passion this winter and spring will be here before you know it.
Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, author, broadcaster, tree advocate and member of the Order of Canada. His son Ben is a fourth-generation urban gardener and graduate of University of Guelph and Dalhousie University in Halifax. Follow them at markcullen.com, @markcullengardening, and on Facebook.
