Garden-Free Me

Guerrilla Gardening on CTV

2008-07-21T15:05:11Z

Guerrilla gardeners break the law with 'green' graffiti

Andy Johnson, CTV.ca News

Toronto — As cities grow and green space disappears, a group of environmentally conscious urban dwellers are taking matters into their own hands to turn parking spaces into gardens, bus stop roofs into lush terraces and neglected parks into inviting play spaces.

It's a phenomenon called guerrilla gardening and it's changing the way our cities look as volunteers, working mostly under the cover of darkness without permit or permission on private property, transform abandoned public spaces.

(Full Story)

disappointments

2008-07-16T17:18:50Z

All of my worms died. Every last one of them. :(

Not sure what went wrong. Maybe I didn't put enough air holes. Maybe the box was too small. Maybe the worms were impostors and not really red wigglers at all. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

I guess it's good timing. I'm looking for a new home and at the moment I'm not sure that I'll be able to bring my garden with me, let alone a bin full of worms and rotting veggies. I'm sure that would be fun to explain to my new landlord. "Well, see, when I said I didn't have any pets I meant I didn't have any normal pets..."

I know that no matter where I end up I will grow something, anything, wherever I possibly can. And if I find I have the room, I'll probably try the composting thing again. Somehow I'll make this work, and if I have to be creative about it then fine.

I am sad though. All those innocent worms. And not knowing the fate of my baby tomatoes, my confused Amarlyllis, my resilient Kalanchoes, my dizzy looking pepper plant, my mystery seedling....

But life is change. Or, to put it differently: Shit happens, but it does make great fertilizer. It's all in how you handle it.

mysterious mysteries

2008-07-11T22:50:12Z

A funny thing's happened... I seem to have some mis-labled flowers.

My Calendulas, which the seed packet said would be peach pink, have come up pale yellow.

One of the 2 plants I labled as Fireweed seems to not be fireweed at all, has different leaves than the other, and has bloomed some kind of maroon-y flower... Not sure what it is since it doesn't seem to match any of the descriptions on my seed packets. Weird! Oh well, maybe once my camera is juiced up I'll take a picture of the mystery flower.

Recently I've switched to using coir instead of bagged potting soil. After not finding my favourite and supposedly eco-friendly brand of soil 5 or 6 times in a row, desperate to avoid Miracle Gro products and still wanting to not buy anything with peat moss in it, I came home with a couple of bricks of coir.

For some reason I'd convinced myself that coir alone wasn't a good choice for potting established plants, but I was very wrong. I still have some compost left from a public eco-day (I do love FREE COMPOST!) and have been mixing that in and using it as mulch. My plants are happy, and so am I -- even 2 of the tiny bags of soil were heavy for me and awkward to carry home on the subway, but coir is extremely light and goes a loooooong way. I'm sure it's much cheaper by volume as well.

[I often think about the fact that people with cars have the ability to transport immense amounts of stuff with almost no thought. I think that perhaps if everyone had to carry everything they wanted/bought/owned in their hands or on their backs they would not only be more selective about what was worth having, but also more appreciative of what they did bring home. We've pretty much lost the connection between physical labour and finished products in this industrialized consumer society, but maybe if we all bought only as much as we could carry at a time, we'd be a little bit better off... ]

There are only a couple of catches with the coir. The more minor one is that coir is kind of granular and it tends to stick to your hands, so is messier to work with than potting soil. I enjoy getting my hands dirty though, so this is only a minor nuisance.
The other silly thing is that the granules are almost exactly the same size, shape and yellowy-brown colour as the aphids that have been stubbornly (but only somewhat successfully) feeding on my plants lately. So when I'm checking for aphids I really have to pay attention and question whether every crumb of coconut husk is actually alive.

So the aphid battle continues but their numbers are way down. Hopefully I'll get the last of them before the season is over...

In other news, my largest pepper plant is enormous and has begun to flower! The tomatoes are slowly growing. Alas, my pea plants are history. The peas were pretty tasty though.

My Black-Eyed Susan has also bloomed.

And, speaking of mystery plants, I found a large seedling that had started to grow in what it must have thought was Seed Heaven, but was actually the compost bin. Of course I potted it. I have no idea what it is, but it's doing very well. Second chances are wonderful things.

new developments

2008-07-01T19:08:57Z

I recently learned about this wonderful thing called guerrilla gardening. It's big in London, England. I was even more thrilled to learn that there is a local chapter of guerrilla gardeners right here in Toronto. Fantastic! There's something I'd like to get involved in, I thought. Not a week after I became aware of all of this exciting ~~anarchy~~ activism, I even picked out a plot that I would love to see rescued from neglect. It's near the subway and see it every day on my way to work.

That very same week, I noticed someone filming an area of broken concrete directly across the street from my chosen patch. Within a day or two, the concrete was gone and the space was full of large boulders, one of which was etched with a sign proclaiming that these stones were generously donated by a corporate sponsor. There was a team of workers and a camera crew doing interviews.

Within a couple of days, there was a garden.

And this pissed me right off.

How dare these corporate bastards come in and spend money to do what hard working concerned citizens are willing to do for free! How dare these self-righteous jerks come in and beautify my community just so they could boast about how generous they are! More importantly, how dare they out-garden what I thought my little patch of land might look like if I could get some people together to help me pretty it up?!?!

Okay, my initial reaction was definitely a gut one. After some venting and some swearing and some thought, I grudgingly have to admit that what they've done is, overall, a positive thing. Did those workers really care about what they were doing, or were they going through the motions for a paycheque? Probably the latter, but in the end maybe it isn't THAT important. At least there's a garden. Sure, it's tucked behind a subway entrance on a hardly-used road that seems to lead to some kind of industrial area, but at least it isn't a patch of cracked pavement anymore. That's got to count for something. And maybe it isn't as grassroots as I would like it to be, and maybe the people involved were doing it more for recognition than for the love of gardening, and maybe it's a little too flamboyantly "LOOK AT ME, I WAS DONE BY PROFESSIONALS!" for my tastes, and maybe I'd secretly like to plant some really invasive weeds among the perfectly landscaped....landscape...... But really, if they'd put up a store or turned it into extra parking space, I probably would have complained that they could have turned it into green space.

So, back to my garden!

I'll begin with the bad news. The bad news is that my pea plants are pretty much done. One has died and the other is on its way out. I'm also continuing to have aphid problems. I thought my kalanchoes were just very thirsty or done flowering but it turns out they're swarming with the little buggers. I've had to hack it back to just leaves. A bunch of other plants are also infected. Argh. I'm battling them off though, more on that below.

Now the good stuff. I purchased a cute little 3-level plant stand at the thrift store for $11. I'd seen it before and passed on it, but when I went in the next time and saw it was still there waiting for me I had to take it home.

Now my butterfly-attracting flowers can actually reach above the balcony railing instead of sitting behind glass. I have the insane hope that I might be able to attract hummingbirds too, but they probably don't fly this high. Then again, I've found nothing online to suggest they wouldn't be around or interested in my flowers.

Not one but TWO tomatoes have sprouted from my ever-expanding tomato plants. Wow, these things drink a LOT of water. The bottle-feeding is working well, but I have to refill the bottles at least twice a day. If I really watched them all day I'm sure they'd go through more than a few refills.

I still can't seem to stop buying plants, even though I have a pretty big collection now and am constantly having to get bigger containers as the babies out-grow their pots.

Let's do a run down, in no particular order.

Outside
- Firecracker Columbine (aquilegia)
- Dark Red Mohave (bracteantha) a.k.a. Strawflower, I think
- October Daphne (sedum sieboldii)
- Amarilis
- Upland White Aster (soldago ptarmicoides)
- Black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia hirta)
- Fireweed
- Little Wonder Peas
- Supersonic Tomatoes
- Green Peppers (grocery store variety)
- Rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis)
- Sugar Baby Watermelon
- Chives
- Thyme
- Butterfly Weed
- Wild Bergamot (monarda fistulosa)
- 'Kimono Orange' Celosia
- Cupid's Dart
- Calibrachoa (MiniFamous Sun Violet Veins)
- Calendula
- Kalanchoe (blossfeldiana entretien)
- Night Scented Nicotiana
- Mosquito Plant (pelargonium x van leenii)
- Clovers (that I found growing in another plant I bought and decided to keep them)

Inside
- African Violet + 1 successful clipping
- Jade
- Calandiva
- Baby Necklace Plant
- Aloe
- Somona
- Chinese Lantern seedling
- clipping from an unknown tree someone abandoned behind my apartment building

Yikes. I have broken the 30-mark. I really should stop getting new plants. Especially since I also have a substantial collection of seeds, many of which I haven't tried planting yet.

Speaking of ridiculous numbers of things, I now have 100 new pets. I've taken the plunge, and have started vermicomposting. (Who knew there was a Worm Digest magazine?) After getting the run-around from one bait shop, I found another that was willing to sell me some Red Wigglers. I wasn't sure how many I'd need considering there are only 2 of us and we don't cook every day, so I thought I'd start with a 1/2 pound, which they told me was 100 worms. So that's 100 lives I saved from certain death as fish bait. Beat that, Humane Society!

I read that worms regulate their population according to the space and amount of food they have, much like rodents in captivity. The difference is that the adult worms die and let the babies replace them, unlike rodents who eat their young. Who would have thought that worms were so noble?

The bin is made of a cheap latch-top container I got at Canadian Tire that I drilled air & drainage holes into and covered with black tape to keep light out. The whole set-up cost about $16. Oh, and I put a $5 winter boot mat that we already had in the house underneath it. A black garbage bag probably would have sufficed but the mat was just taking up space anyway.

The worms seem to be adjusting to life in our kitchen. You're not supposed to disburb them too much so I have to stop myself from feeding them every other day, but I have fed them a couple of times and everything seems fine. I'm starting to realize just how much of our garbage waste is compostable. I went through our (embarrassingly gigantic) pile of recyclables that had yet to be taken down the to our building's dumpsters, and a lot of it I salvaged as bedding material for the squirmies. We get quite a lot of junk mail. Also, besides vegetable scraps from cooking, tea bags, etc. from the kitchen, I can throw in bits of my plants that I prune off. And then there are all of those random things you don't think of as compost material - shopping receipts, the labels off tinned food, the "Jesus Loves You" pamphlet you get from the Village Of The Damned girl who corners you while you're waiting for the bus... Apparently you can reduce your waste output by as much as 40% this way. Plus - free compost!!!

In other news, I came up with a new recipe for my aphid spray. I found out recently that ginger is a good insect repellent, I suppose because it burns the way lemon does. I was looking up its uses because I had just brewed a batch of ginger tea for myself and was wondering if it would be good for fertilizer. So I added strong ginger tea to lemon juice, some water, and a drop or two of environmentally friendly soap, and then just for some extra kick I added a bunch of tobasco sauce. Ok, it doesn't smell as nice with the tobasco in it, but it works very well! In fact I have to be careful when I spray it because breathing in some of the mist is enough to make you cough. I've decided I should grow some hot peppers so I can use the seeds in the spray instead of resorting to hamburger condiments...

So that's what's new in what now passes as my garden.

diy food

2008-06-06T23:57:54Z

Peas!!

Plant #1

Plant #2

Five pods in all. Yip-pea!

Yes, I just wrote "Yip-pea."

Also, my "Mohave," which is really a Strawflower (Bracteantha), is blooming.

So it's instantly gone from cool pea-loving weather to 31C. As of 6pm, it was 38C with the humidity. And it's going to be like this all weekend. Yep...hot. So much for the winter blues.

thrips

2008-06-02T02:25:24Z

Oh...I think I just figured out what's on my Black Eyed Susan plant. Thrips! They're not friendly. The ones I saw look like this -- their bodies are about as wide as one or two strands of hair:

These are the babies. Better get rid of them before they start multiplying. :(

when aphids ATTACK!

2008-05-31T19:41:31Z

On this sunny, warm gorgeous day (ok, it decided to get dark and start raining as I began to write this) I decided to spend some time pruning and fussing over my plants. Just when I thought I was all finished, I discovered that a bunch of them were being attacked by aphids - my 2 pots of pepper seedlings, my Black Eyed Susans, and one of my Fireweed seedlings. Nooooooo!!!

I checked my book and learned that aphids don't like citris oil, and that I can easily make a home remedy with citris peel in only 24 hours. Great! Too bad I don't have any citris fruit in the house. I also can't bear the thought of those little plant blood suckers getting another whole day to hurt my plants and give birth to more already-pregnant babies.

So here's what I whipped up. I took some lemon juice (which we do have!), watered it down a bit, and added a little drop of eco-friendly dish soap. I used this on the end of some Q-tips and wiped off all, or hopefully all, of those little aphid buggers. It seemed to do the trick - they tended to stick to the Q-tip. I'm a little worried because apparently citris oil can sometimes burn plants, and I'm not sure if this applies to citris juice. I guess I'll find out soon.

On my Black Eyed Susan I also found some teeny tiny bright yellow wormy/grubby things. I have no idea what they are. They're so tiny I didn't notice them even while scrutinizing every leaf for aphids. I'm going to leave some of them on in case they're friendly larvae of a bug that likes to eat aphids, but will keep an eye on them.

In other news:

My Morning Glory seedlings have completely wilted. Talk about "live fast, die young."
I realized that the tomato/pea baskets weren't getting any direct sunlight, so those are now tied to the balcony railing. We have glass panels instead of just railings around the balcony, so they should get some decent light. Still, I think each tomato plant will have to grow some more to get comfortably out of the basket's shadow.
One of the pea plants has grown a pea pod!!!!

What's this? A hint of sunburn?? Okay, I guess it's finally spring. :)

spring! maybe...

2008-05-27T15:55:14Z

Well the snow is gone. We've had some hot weather. Does that mean it's finally spring? It doesn't really feel like it. It's been "unseasonally" cold and although it's almost June people are still wearing jackets to work. As you'll see from my photos below, it's gray grey gray.

I haven't let this discourage me too much and have been indulging in my gardening hobby regardless. I make frequent trips to thrift stores in search of cheap planters, I browse at the local veggie markets for little plantlings to bring home, and have recently stocked up on potting soil. I also found a parking lot garden centre that is conveniently on my way home from work and has a mind-boggling variety to choose from.

So here's what I have to show for my efforts.

In this corner, from left to right we have Calendula, Upland White Aster (indigenous plant from the High Park plant sale) , red and yellow Kalanchoes, a dark red Mohave, Black Eyed Susan (indigenous from HP), what used to be some nice blue Hyacinth, Rosemary, some wild Bergamot hiding in the back (indigenous from HP), and Chives.
I made the flower pot for the Mohave out of an empty CD spool box and the sheath my umbrella came with that I never use. I'm not cheap, I'm creatively thrifty!

Following a design I found on this site, I decided to try growing upside down tomato plants. Remember my little pea twins? That's them growing in the top of the baskets! They're doing very well and have begun to flower.

My theory was that the peas would enrich the soil with nitrogen and that would help the tomato plant, but after planting them I did some research on companion planting and found that tomatoes don't get along well with beans, and presumably peas. Too much nitrogen for them...or something... I asked for some advice on the YGG forums and have basically decided to leave them together and see what happens. I'll be thrilled if anything grows on either plant so I'm not too concerned.

Here's a closer look at one of the baskets. You can see one white flower on the pea plant. Since I'm short and have to stand on a chair to reach the baskets I decided to make them self-watering. Rather than buying one of those Aqua Globes, I fashioned my own out of empty green beer bottles. Seems to be working so far.

As usual I have seedlings on the go.

Some extremely leggy Morning Glory seedings that shot up out of nowhere in my poorly lit kitchen.

My handsomest pepper seedling, waiting patiently for warmer weather.

I've just planted some more seeds, including some melons - not because I really think I can grow ripe edible melons, just because I want to see what they do. Fingers crossed it gets seasonable soon and I actually manage to produce some flowers (that weren't already blooming when I bought them).

Montreal trip

2008-04-20T22:13:16Z

What does Montreal have lots of?
SNOW!
What else?
Plants in bloom!

Who'd have thunk it.

I got snap-happy on my recent trip to Montreal's Biodome and Royal Botanical Gardens (featuring a fantastic butterfly exhibit). I've narrowed down the photos to only the really interesting ones, or at least I tried to.

First, the Biodome. The main feature there is really seeing the animals, and I did get a bunch of animal shots, but I ended up getting distracted and preoccupied with all of the cool plant life around.

Next, the butterfly exhibit at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Again, lots of butterflies around, but lookit all the pretty flowers!!!

I love the "hand" at the bottom left reaching into the frame.

From the orchid greenhouse.

Okay, I did get some more butterflies too...

I'm pretty sure this is called an Owl Butterfly because of its markings. They were everywhere...

...even on my coat.

It was a great trip and seeing all of the greenery really helped with the dragging winter blahs. Plus, seeing the ridiculous amount of snow in Montreal made Toronto's winter seem not so bad. We really are a bunch of crybabies and Montrealers have every right to laugh at us -- even before the playoffs start.

seed starting round 2

2008-03-21T23:21:03Z

Ahh, the first full day of spring. It's Easter weekend and I didn't have to go to work today. Okay, it's still barely breaking 0C but who cares, life is good.

Time for a picture-intensive update on my wee plantlings.

My windowsill nursery, and some houseplants.

My pea seedlings are doing pretty well. I've re-potted them and have started to harden them off. They spent 4 hours outside today and I'm increasing at about an hour a day. I don't know if that's right but they don't seem to mind it.

My 'Little Wonder' pea twins

Last weekend was Seedy Saturday. I'd never been to this event before and wasn't sure what to expect, but Mom and I had a great time and picked up a load of goodies. There were lots of organic seeds, native plant seeds, heirloom seeds, herbs and veggies galore as well as some fruit and flower seeds. There were also plenty of activists groups and lots of petitions to sign, so a great way to spend a couple of hours. Plus, I got to meet Gayla Trail! squeeeee!!

After SS, Mom and I headed to the complete opposite end of the gardening spectrum: the Canada Blooms show. This corporately-sponsored garden-fest was also good fun, and there were some good finds to be found.

So it was a very successful day. Here's what I picked up:

Jasmine Scented Nicotiana (nicotiana alata)
Triangle Flashback Calendula (calendula officinalis)
Butterfly Weed (asclepias tuberosa)
Cupid's Dart (catanache caerulea)
Blackjack Pansies
a block of coir
3 seed catalogues
a ton of flyers and pamphlets
a couple of free fashion magazines for me to tear up

Today I finally got around to planting my new seeds.

Round two...

As I've mentioned, I've had a bit of trouble keeping my seeds warm. I don't have, or really intend to buy, one of those seed warming mats. I've tried the top of the fridge and the microwave, and even a hot water bottle partially filled with hot tap water. Those didn't seem to help the seeds much.

My current solution is to keep my seeds on my south-facing window ledge, cover them with plastic wrap to keep in moisture, and then put a black tea towel over top of the plastic wrap. The dark colour seems to soak up whatever sunlight comes through the window. Tucking in the edge of the tea towel also keeps out the draft from the window. This seems to be working quite well, but means that the seeds and any resulting seedlings aren't getting much fresh air. To avoid suffocating them I don't seal the plastic wrap, but just lay it over the top.

So far, besides my peas, I have the beginnings of some Fireweed, Green Pepper (the grocery store variety...), Forget-me-nots, and a Wildflower mix. I've had some trouble with the Forget-me-nots but today I noticed a small sign of life.

In other news, my Calandiva and Jade houseplants are still looking a bit worse for wear:

Leggy Calandiva, wrinkled Jade

Both of these succulents are not so succulent lately. Their leaves are soft and unplumped. I'm not sure what's wrong but I'm guessing I must have over-watered them and caused some root rot.

The Calandiva is looking pretty leggy, probably due to a combination of its previous lower light location and some misguided pruning, but since I moved it to the window ledge it's starting to grow new leaves
The Jade still seems to be growing new leaves, but the old leaves are saggy and wrinkled. The new leaves are purpley and I've heard conflicting information about that. Some say the plant is getting too much sun and burning, others say these purple leaves are okay and mean the plant is getting a good amount of sun. If it starts to look worse I'll move it back from the window, but as long as it's wrinkly and sad I'll let it have the extra sun and hope that helps it gain its strength back.

I'm looking forward to actually getting some plants outside and starting a little container garden on the balcony. First things first though...

well that didn't take long...

2008-03-09T02:04:21Z

Hey hey, my peas sprouted in no time.

Beginner's luck? More likely I'm not keeping the seeds warm enough, so my cold-loving seeds are in heaven while the rest sit there and look at me funny. It seems even the top of the fridge doesn't stay warm in this drafty apartment. Oh well, baby plants make me happy. And that's a very good considering that we're in the middle of a massive snowstorm. Our 3rd or 4th blizzard this season. There is a whoooole lot of snow. Yup. It's still winter!

setting up

2008-03-03T02:12:05Z

Today I planted my first seeds.

Thanks for the inspiration, YGG

Okay maybe it's still a bit early... maybe it was -9C at some point today... maybe there's still snow all over the place and the balcony is coated in a layer of ice... but I figured I'd give some seeds a shot. There are plenty more where they came from, and it seemed a shame to have a big bag of seed mix just sitting there...

I had the bad luck of being bitten by the gardening bug right in the middle of winter. Since then I've resorted to coddling my houseplants. I may have coddled at least a couple of them to death. Even my spunky Jade is starting to look sickly, so I treated it to some proper cactus mix.

Hopefully spring will wander in soon and perk everything up. I've always appreciated winter and its beautiful snowscapes, clear quiet nights, fireplaces and hot chocolates, not to mention the holidays and all of that heart-warming manic binge-festing. Ah bliss. But being cold gets tiresome. Never seeing daylight gets tiresome. Walking on thick jagged sheets of ice where there used to be sidewalk just isn't as fun as it sounds. I think some spring is definitely in order.