Gardens Are For Learning

All I need to know I found out while I was gardening, well nearly, I first had to learn to read and write first, thankfully gardens can help people develop reading and writing skills.

If you are going to plant seeds or plants, for example, you need to know what their requirements are. This information is either written on a seed pack or other printed source.

If you really want the plants to do well, you need to know how far apart the seeds or plants must be spaced when being put into the garden. You also need to know the size of the garden and how much space each plant requires so you can calculate the number of plants you can place in each plot.

There is more than math and language literacy skills one can develop by gardening, there are the personal or lifestyle skills that will help you make your way through the world.

The first garden/life lesson I had was patience. I used to find it very difficult to wait for anything; this may be partial because I was spoiled as an only child and while there may be other reasons I did my develop patience when I began gardening.

This took a while but the lessons were remembered as I planted seeds and had to wait for them to emerge; I also had to wait until the weather conditions were just right so I could plant.

During this process, I discovered what the basic needs of plants were and enhanced my botany and biology knowledge. As my knowledge of pollination grew and I studied the role of the earthworm and spider in a garden, my understanding of the role that cooperation plays in nature and how important cooperation with others was to the success of my garden, in fact, I even began to think of the garden as ours as I was not the only being responsible for its growth.

This leads me to an appreciation that life is much greater than just my immediate universe, the few blocks that I inhabit were only a part of something that was much, much greater; the whole was indeed more than the sum of its parts.

The act of gardening and the quest for related knowledge fanned my curiosity; I was already an eager learner but growing things gave validity to that eagerness and a sense of purpose.

What I was learning had a practical application in my immediate world. My years of schooling, especially the years before University would have been much, more rewarding if more of my classes gave me a sense that there was a real-life use for the lessons I endured.

The garden brings learning to life and if we want the children to become lifelong learners and truly reap the most from those formative years then we must get them back to the garden.

The garden can help us all find out what we must discover in order to live in harmony on our home, the Earth.

Small Gardens Can Be Great Gardens

Small spaces may present some gardening challenges but with a bit of planning and careful thought, you can create a great garden in the tiniest of places. Be it backyard, balcony, or rooftop, space can be transformed into a green oasis.

To get started ask yourself the following questions:

1. How do you currently use the space? Is it a quiet getaway; a place for you children to play, or pets to roam, for entertaining?
2. What do you want to grow, herbs, flowers, annuals, perennials, shrubs, fruit trees, vegetables?
3. Thinking about a water feature?
4. Do you use it as an outdoor office?

Once you have answered these questions, here are a few more to ponder.

1. How much money are you willing to spend, on hardscaping, plants, watering system and décor, lights, garden art?
2. How much time do you have to look after your garden?
3. What specific challenges do you need to address, sunlight blocked by nearby buildings for example, ugly view?
4. Measure the space and draw a plan. You do not need to be an artist but setting in down on paper will help you focus.

You are now ready to create your garden plan, and, of course, there are more questions.

1. Are you growing in containers? If so, you need to select containers that are the appropriate size for the plants you choose and fit in with your overall décor.
2. Is there a view you which to hide? If yes, then you may want to include a trellis and a climbing plant such as English ivy or you could consider ornamental grasses; it depends upon the situation.
3. Do you want to add lighting, furniture, garden art? If you do they must flow with the design.
4. Think up, small spaces are ideal for growing vertically; you can use trellises and other supports or stackable plant holders for herbs, for example.
5. Fill in all the items that will be in your garden on the plan, again, accurate representation is not the goal, only you need to be able to understand it. Label items, such as chair, light rose, peas.

We grow beans and peas vertically so why not expand that list. When you make the choice to grow vertical your small space expands, growing up means growing more.

Deer Proof Your Garden

Deer. Oh, deer, you may find them to be cute, reminding you of Bambi but once they have eaten your prize roses your feelings may change.

You may get even more annoyed with these four-legged eating machines when the vegetable garden you planned all winter long and so passionately prepared turns into a deer buffet. Deer will devour your greens and veggies and many of the ornamentals that we do love so.

What can you do?

Well first remember this, deer are just being deer and foraging for food where they can find it; it is not their fault that you have gone to so much trouble to lay a feast before their eyes.

Also one of the reasons that deer are becoming pests in areas where they were rarely seen is that human, through urban sprawl and other activities are destroying their natural habitat and hey they have to live and eat somewhere.

So how do you deer-proof your garden? If you are growing vegetables, the safest way to do so is to build or buy a greenhouse. This will keep the deer out and keep your food safe from their hunger.

A greenhouse will also help keep another unwelcome garden raider away, the rabbit. A greenhouse is more effective than a fence

Now you could put up an electric fence; however, the price of energy is rising and adding to that bill offsets any gain that you may get from growing your own food.

Of course, a small solar panel could be used to fuel the fence. Deer when properly motivated and food is a great motivator, can leap pretty high. However, for a small garden plot an electrified fence can be a good alternative to the greenhouse.

Deer cannot sense electricity but will come up close to an object before leaping it so if they receive a shock, they are unlikely to proceed and will turn elsewhere for their meal.

If you want to grow organic vegetables then either a greenhouse or a solar-powered electric fence is your best option for success. There are other alternatives such as repellants and some of these will work but they do need to be applied more than once over the season so if you forget, you may wake up one morning and find the cupboard bare.

There are ornamental plants that are not on the deer’s favourite dining menu and if there is something they like handy, your ornamental garden might be safe. Rittenhouse has put together a list of plants that are deer resistant, just remember that a hungry deer is not a fussy deer.

Humans have destroyed deer habitat and humans have expanded their territory so that deer-human conflicts are all but inevitable. If you live in an area that has a large deer population and are a gardener then you will need to plan for deer control when you plan your garden.

Greenhouses will keep the deer out

If you build a glass greenhouse your cost will be higher. However, the added advantage to ether greenhouse is that unlike the fence they will extend the garden season both in the spring and the fall and this increases the yield and variety of plants that you can grow.

The choice is yours to make.

Weeds?

Weeds, if they were called by any other name, would they still annoy us to such a degree. The topic of weeds and weed control can touch off a frenzy of discussion when gardeners gather.

Some gardeners have little to no problem with weeds as they either use them to attract beneficial insects to their garden, eat them, for example, lambs quarters have serious food potential, or they read them and realize that the existence of weeds is telling us something about our garden; usually about the condition of the soil.

When we get the message we can take the proper steps to eliminate the problem and watch the weeds disappear.

Nature does not like bare patches of soil and the plants that we call weeds are nothing if not opportunistic, they will quickly move in where others fear to grow.

Weeds are hardy pioneers that are often the first plant life to appear on an abandoned site. So if you do not want the weeds to move in then do not leave patches of soil available to them because if you leave it they will come.

In addition to mulching, you can avoid digging all together; often when we turn over the soil to create a new garden bed what we do is free the weed seeds that have been lying in wait for the opportunity to grow to spring forth.

Resist the temptation to dig and deny them that opportunity. No-till gardening plus mulching will reduce your weed concerns.

Like many activities how you approach your garden depends to a considerable extent upon your attitude towards the garden; towards Nature and towards weeds.

When I am giving a garden talk or starting a workshop and feel the need to gain some insight into the people who are there; I ask one question; when you hear the word dandelion what is your first reaction?

If they gasp and say weed or worse then I know that I have my work cut out for me; if they say healthy, salads, wine or tea substitute than I have a very different crowd.

The dandelion, the bane of many suburban lawn and gardeners, is probably one of the most versatile and useful plants that grow so freely in our yards and just about anywhere it can get some sun and put down roots.

I am not suggesting that you deliberately grow it, although you can buy seeds if you wish, I do feel that you can learn to love it and try some of the recipes, like dandelion fritters.

I find the dandelion to be quite a beautiful plant that contrasts brilliantly with green lawns; if you pick the heads before they go to seed and deep fry them in batter, for example, you won’t be spreading them around the neighbourhood.

In fact, you could invite the neighbours over for dandelion tea and fritters and maybe just change their minds.

Once again, if you do not leave space for weeds to garb hold in your garden and do not set free the seeds already hiding in the soil, you are well on your way to reducing your weed worries.

How to Save Time When Gardening

Reducing the work you need to do and creating a garden that thrives begins in the planning stage.

My Small Garden is located near my front deck and my container garden.

Planning steps to take:

1- Calculate the amount of time you have to invest in your garden.

2- Determine what available space you have or where your garden will be.

3- The first two steps tell you how big your garden should be.

4- How much light does that space get? This tells you what you can grow.

5- Be sure to write your answers to the above down.

6- What do you want to grow?

7- Draw a rough plan which you can refer to as you go.

8- Get started.

Simple activities:

1. Which garden tasks would you rather not do?
2. Which garden tasks do you enjoy doing? If there is nothing on this list, perhaps, you are not a gardener.
3. If you dislike mowing the lawn, reduce the lawn space. Add a shrub, some berry bushes or a fruit tree or two, Put in a vegetable or cut flower garden or add a deck.
4. Dislike weeding, add mulch. Mulch will not only reduce the need to weed but also reduce the need to water. You are reducing labour in two ways and improving the garden’s health.
5. Keep a compost bin. This gets rid of food scraps, lawn clippings and tree leaves, for example, and turn them into organic matter that will help the garden thrive and reduce the amount of garbage you will need to put out.
6. Spend time in your garden, just watching the plants grow. What could be easier? While there check for any new and unexpected happenings. This way you can catch a problem in its early stages and reduce the work you will need to do, if the situation gets out of hand.
7. When planting put the right plant in the right place. Make sure the plant gets the sunlight it needs.
8. Water in the early morning and water deep; you are watering the roots.
9. Plant a diversity of plants and use a combination of herbs, vegetables and native wildflowers. This will attract the pollinators your garden needs to reproduce.

Time spent in the garden is a great investment; one that will repay you for many years.

My Small Garden: Update

Good day. Cool and windy here today. The photos are from my Small Garden:

Pumpkin rising

part of my container garden on deck. Glass gem corn, pumpkin, peas.

Why I Garden?

Why do I garden? There is no single reason that underscores why I like to grow plants, just as there is no single plant, I like to grow more than the others. There are a number of reasons why I enjoy spending time in a garden.

First, I believe that people need a hobby, interest or activity, call it what you will, that takes their minds off their day to day realities.

All of us are busy and often have a number of different thoughts or things to do that are competing for our attention.

Speaking of things to do, your hobby or personal interest should not result in you developing another list of things to do. That is not helpful and may indeed take the fun out of the doing.

That does not mean that you do not make a plan, without a plan you may never get started or get started and then have no idea what to do next.

It simply means that your plan is not the law; it is not engraved in stone, and can be changed or tossed aside, in favour of another approach.

I find gardening to be the perfect activity and that is primarily why I garden. It can keep me enjoyable occupied all year round, either doing it; reading about it; ordering seeds or planning the garden and even redrawing last year’s plans.

When I sit down with a seed catalogue, the day’s news and events slip from the forefront of my mind and images of what the plants will look like when they grow. 

This leads to giving some thought to where the new plant(s) will look best and where they will most benefit in the existing garden.

Will this be the year I plant that flowering crab-apple that I have been reading about or perhaps a redwood dogwood. These thoughts nudge out the concerns about the economy, the environment and all the bad news that fills the media.

An hour spent with a seed catalogue in the deep of winter refreshes my mind and awakens the hope that Spring brings when the gardening season begins anew and old friends reappear and new ones are waiting to be discovered.

I garden because I love spending time outside; feeling the wind and the sun on my face and hands.

Of course, these days you need to protect yourself from any prolonged exposure to the sun’s rays but a hat works and gardening gloves serve many purposes.

I love to grow things; there is immense satisfaction and sense of accomplishment from watching a flower come alive from a seed that you planted a few weeks prior.

Gardening offers you an opportunity to make decisions and choices. It is your garden. You can decide what you want to grow; how much you want to grow and what you will do with what you choose to grow.

I often refer to the garden as a place that exists between Nature and Civilization and the gardener is responsible for maintaining the balance between the two. When you create a garden, you are opening the door to remembering the connection that exist between humans and Nature; a connection that is very real, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Gardens do not require chemicals poured over them to thrive; that is the gardener’s job to create and maintain the conditions that allow the plants to mature and reproduce.

The garden is a learning ground where you can learn about botany, biology, math, history and become acquainted first hand with the processes that make the garden grow.

You see the relationships between the various beings who work with you to make your garden grow.

Birds and butterflies, for example, bring their beauty and other services to the well-tended garden. Bees carry out the important work of pollination and you observe the connection between what the bee does and your garden’s growth.

I garden because I love to grow things and watching a plant break the surface as the seed spring into life is always a wonder and an encouraging moment. I like to have cut flowers for our house and do not want to buy them but step outside and cut them myself. That way I know that they were grown without artificial pesticides and fertilizers.

Tomatoes are a favourite food but the ones I buy at the supermarket just do not have the flavour that the ones I plucked off the vine in my own garden do.

It is only truly fresh when the farthest distance it travels is the distance from my backyard to my kitchen table.

Simply spending time sitting in a comfortable chair in the backyard after a slow stroll through my garden is one of the best ways that I know to calm my mind and relax at the end of the workday.

As I take my first step into the garden, I can feel the day’s concerns sliding off me. My eyes begin to focus on the plants, their fruits and foliage as I look to see what has changed and how each plant is faring.

Then when the quiet inspection is complete, I sit back and watch the dance of life performed by the bees, butterflies and other small creatures who are busy at work maintaining the garden while I sit back and enjoy the view.

There are many reasons to garden and each one of us may well have our own and that is another reason that gardening is a delightful way to spend our time; our gardens are our own creations; and we are free to pursue our own interest when in the garden.

Gardens, both great and small, are a refuge from the concrete and asphalt world that surrounds so many of us as we travel back and forth to work.

Anyone who wants to, can garden; it is a matter of will and design and is a wonderful opportunity to get away from it all without ever leaving home.

Great Gardens Grow

Great gardens take time. The learning curve never ends.

When people ask me how to get started with a garden, one of the first questions I ask them is how much time do you have to spend in your garden each day?

The reason I ask this question is people often have great gardens in their minds but in their daily lives, they simply do not have the time to care for those gardens. Sure, the first few days are full of energy as the garden bed or beds are prepared and the seeds and seedlings are planted and everything is watered.

But then life happens and the busy schedule that is many peoples’ reality starts to take over and tending the garden gets put aside or left to the weekend. Now, once a garden is established, you do not need to visit it every day, although I do recommend that if you really want a thriving organic garden then allow yourself at least five minutes each day.

During those five minutes, all you are doing is observing, looking for changes like any unwanted visitors or signs that something may be wrong, brown leaves, chew marks and so on.

This early warning will increase your odds of saving the plants before the problem zooms out of control.

Also, in unusual weather, heavy rains, excessive heat or not enough heat, you need to care for your plants, to help them endure the extremes, and still produce the flowers, and vegetables you want.

Great gardens take time. Do not start a garden you do not have to have the time to tend. Be sure to enjoy a quiet stroll around the garden. You are looking for anything unusual, so you can handle it, pests, diseases, before the situation gets out of control, then,  back and watch nature do her thing.

When you calculate your time as part of the overall garden design process you will avoid building a garden that is too big for your lifestyle and also avoid the disappointment that can follow, especially if this is your fir

Are You a Humble Gardener?

Why does a gardener need to be humble? After all, look at what he or she creates, beautiful flowers, healthy herbs and tasty vegetables, surely that is a sound reason to be proud. But, pride is not the issue, it is important to take pride in your work, to fully appreciate the value of what you do. 

When I refer to humility or humbleness, I mean the quality of being courteously respectful of others. This attitude is the opposite of aggressiveness, arrogance, boastfulness, and vanity. The humble gardener does not say, "Me first," but her humility allows her to say, "No, you first, my friend."

Humility is the quality that lets us go more than halfway to meet the needs and demands of others.

The second reason for calling a gardener humble is the root of the word humble itself. Humble derives from the Latin word "humilis," meaning "low," which, in turn, comes from the Latin "humus," which means "earth" or "dirt" or "soil."

Soil is the foundation of the garden; soil nurtures the roots, feeds them and helps them develop strong and vital plants. The humble gardener knows this and understands that the job is to build healthy soil, for once this has been achieved, the garden will thrive.

The most effective way to build healthy soil is first, to avoid artificial additives which will drain the soil of its vitality because these poisons kill the millions of little helpers who work with the plants to produce delicious tomatoes and beautify roses.

The second way to grow healthy soil is to add organic material to it periodically. Compost is a perfect source of organic material and your plants will reward you when you spread it around.

You can purchase compost, be sure it is organic or make your own. When you make your own you reuse those kitchen scraps (vegetable cuttings and eggshells, for example, rather than tossing them away.

Grass clippings can be added to compost as can leaves, rather than bagging them up, cover your garden in the fall with them, or bag them set them aside until the following spring when you break them open and add the contents to the garden beds.

The humble gardener appreciates the bounty that nature provides and the assistance the birds, bees and spiders as well as many, many much smaller beings provide in helping your garden grow.

Deck and Small Garden:

A friend filled the deck containers today. so soon, I will plant the flowers I have started indoors. This is an experiment as I have not started flowers from seed before, vegetables, sure.

The Small Garden will be cleaned and prepped next week.

Favourite Fower Photos

I do not have one favourite when it comes to flowers, but many. This is one. Do you have a favourite Post a photo in the comment section.

Tomatoes: Growth Habit

Gardeners love tomatoes.

Growth Habit:

There are three basic choices, determinate, indeterminate and semi-determinate.

Determinate: varieties are often referred to as bush tomatoes. This is because the terminal (top and end) buds end in a flower cluster that produces fruit. The plant will stop growing when the terminal flowers develop. The fruit then develops and ripens over a short period of time, depending upon the weather. Tomatoes like heat so in cooler summers this process will slow down. The determinate varieties usually mature early and will produce small plants with generally smaller fruit. The small size means they do not need to be pruned or staked and can be great for a balcony or patio, especially if space is limited.

Indeterminate: these varieties are very popular with home gardeners. The indeterminate varieties will they often produce high-quality, flavourful, desirable fruit; they do mature later in the season than the determinate varieties do. Indeterminate refers to the continual growth habit of the plant which will continue to grow and flower until a killing frost. These are tall plants and will require staking for best results. Pruning is also vital if you want to enhance quality. Both flowering and fruiting occur over a longer time period.

Semi-Indeterminate: the name says it all they have characteristics that are intermediate between determinate and indeterminate. Basically indeterminate in nature, they will need staking and pruning in order to improve quality, but this is not essential. The indeterminate varieties are also very popular with home gardeners as they can provide a fairly early and good-quality yield.

I generally grow Camp Joy Heritage Cherry Tomatoes. They have performed well for me over the years and I first grew them in containers on my balcony. I could sit on my chair watch the Lake and pick a tomato for a quick snack. Add some fresh beans and a bit of lettuce and an instant balcony salad was created.

I have also grown Camp Joy indoors with less success but one plant did continue to produce fruit for nearly eight months, mind you for the last few weeks it was one tomato at a time but when you consider that was in winter that was a gift.

How To Attract Butterflies

 There are two things that butterflies are seeking: one is nectar, the food that adult butterflies need, and the other, host plants, the place where the female will lay her eggs and the food that caterpillars need. Both are necessary to create a successful butterfly garden.

It does take some thought and a bit of planning but then so does any successful garden. You need to know which butterflies are native to your region. You need to know what they like to eat and where they sleep, in short, you need to know butterfly habitats and habits.

Your public library or nature-society can be a very useful source of this information.

Let's start with a look at the butterfly.

Adult butterflies and moths have mouthparts that are shaped into a long, coiled tube. Butterflies feed on liquids (nectar) and they get all their food through this tube.

Their offspring or larvae, on the other hand, have chewing mouthparts, which they use to devour leaves.

The eyes of the butterfly are large, rounded compound eyes. This allows them to see in all directions without turning their heads. Butterflies are nearsighted, like most insects, and are more attracted to large stands of a particular flower than those planted singly.

Butterflies do not see the colour red as well as we do, however, they are able to see polarized light (which tells the direction the sun is pointing) as well as ultraviolet light, which is present on many flowers. This helps guide them to nectar sources.

Butterflies use their antennae to smell and their sense of smell is well developed. All butterflies' antennae are club-shaped, as opposed to moths, which can be many shapes but often are feathery.

Nectar Preferences (food)

Different species of butterflies have different preferences of nectar, in both colors and tastes. If you want to encourage different butterflies to visit your yard then your best bet is to supply them with a wide range of nectar source or plants.

Diversity is the keyword here, ecosystems thrive on biodiversity. This is an opportunity to explore and have some fun and a chance to engage your imagination.

Consider a circular garden bed that is just off of centre in your front or back yard. You can use twine or even a garden hose to lay out the circle. It does not have to be a perfect circle. A diameter of 4 to 5 feet is sufficient to add beauty and function to the yard.

If you combine wild and cultivated plants and use plants with different blooming times of the day and year you will encourage a wider range of butterflies to stop by.

When you plant your flowers in groups of the same plants this will make it easier for butterflies to see the flowers than singly planted flowers would.

Housing:

If you want the butterflies to stay in your garden and raise a family then you need to provide them with food plants where the females can lay their eggs. Some females are pickier about which host to lay their eggs on than others.

The butterfly larvae are also distinctive. Some caterpillars have hairs or forked spines, which may be or may not sting (often the hairs are just for show).

Certain swallowtail caterpillars imitate snakes or bird droppings. Other caterpillars, like sulphurs, blend into their surroundings very well.

If caterpillars are eating excessive foliage from a prominent or desirable part of a plant and you want to place them elsewhere then use gloves to move them if they're hairy to the backside or another less noticeable portion of the plant.

All insects are cold-blooded and cannot internally regulate their body temperature. Butterflies will readily bask in the sun when it is warm out, but few are seen on cloudy days.

It is a good idea to leave open areas in a yard for butterflies to sun themselves, as well as partly shady areas like trees or shrubs, so they can hide when it's cloudy or cool off if it is very hot.

A flat rock placed in full sun will provide the spot that butterflies need to bask. Butterflies like puddles. Males of several species congregate at small rain pools, forming puddle clubs.

Permanent puddles are very easy to make by burying a bucket to the rim, filling it with gravel or sand, and then pouring in liquids such as stale beer, sweet drinks or water. Butterflies love overripe fruit, that has been allowed to sit for a few days.

Garden Design Fundamentals

There are two things that you need to remember when designing a garden. Pay attention to both and you will create a space that you and your family can enjoy.

The first one is simple: It’s your garden. You do not have to please anyone else with your plant choices but yourself.

The second one is what I call the right plant right place rule or RPRP. When you place a plant where the conditions give it what it needs (water, soil, light) that plant will do well and reward you with fruit and flower throughout the season.

For RPRP to work you need to know three things:

One: what are the conditions where you are planning to garden, for example how much sunlight and/or shade?

Two: Be sure the plant gets the water it needs. If you are in a dry area, use plants that can tolerate the dry conditions, if the site is wet, use plants that like it wet.

Three: will the plant grow in your garden hardiness zone.

More on zones in a future hub,

Talk with the staff at the local plant nursery, ideally seek out the manager or owner when you have specific questions.

Now that you have the bare essentials we will move on to the other design elements that will help you create a garden that everyone can enjoy.

Basic Garden Design Elements:

· Line is likely the most important design element and certainly is the one you will most often use in your design. For an informal look use, a curved line, for a more formal one use straight lines..

· Texture is defined in 3 categories. 1-Coarse includes plants, structures and hardscapes that are bold and large. 2-Medium texture takes in many plants and smaller structures. 3-Fine includes plants such as ferns and grasses and structures that are thin and delicate.

· Form is the shape and structure of your plants, hardscapes or garden structures.

· Colour is the visual POP in your design. Blues, Purples and Greens are calming and seem to move away from you. Whereas warm colours like red, orange and yellow seem to bring things closer to you.

· Scale or proportion in the landscape is simply the size of your plants or structures and how they relate to each other and the area you are landscaping.

You now have the basics. It does not matter whether or garden is large, small or somewhere in-between if you follow RPRP and apply the five design principles you will enjoy the results. Happy gardening.

Attracting Birds to Your Garden.

This video will help you create a garden for the birds that visit, live in your community.

Rooftop Gardening

When considering your gardening options look up.

There are always options and that is the approach that I take to gardening and most other aspects of my work and life. When it comes to gardening if you want to grow something green you can. Your desire and imagination will wake up the creative energy that is needed to overcome obstacles and enable you to design a garden to fit your space.

If you can’t grow in the ground, use containers or raised beds, if you have limited space think vertical.

One area that is often overlooked when planning a garden is the rooftop.

Now your house may not have a roof that suits a garden; it may be too slanted or does not have easy access for regular gardening chores.

It is important to make the distinction between a rooftop garden and a green roof, while there are some similarities, they generally serve different purposes.

Green Roofs:

Green roofs are a roof that allows plants, trees and shrubs to grow in a specially designed light-weight growing medium.

The three main types of green roof systems are:

• complete systems where all the different components including roof membrane are an integral part of the whole system
• modular systems that are positioned above the existing roofing system
• pre-cultivated vegetation blankets that consist of growing medium and plants that are rolled onto the existing roofing system with drainage mats and root barriers as required

Rooftop Gardens

The rooftop garden is simply a garden, usually in containers, that is located on a rooftop. The rooftop may be a house, an office building, a garage, shed or any other structure that has a suitable surface and is strong enough to take the extra weight.

BE sure that the roof you choose can handle the extra weight, or you may get a major surprise. You may need to consult with a structural engineer before proceeding, remember that in addition to the garden, there will be at least one person adding to the overall weight.

If you are ready to proceed in the design of a rooftop garden the process that you are beginning is similar to combining interior decorating with landscape design.

Step One:

What is the purpose of the space? If you are looking to grow a container or two of herbs and vegetables that is one thing; if you are planning a community garden that is another.

Or, are you designing an outdoor space for relaxation and entertaining that incorporates flowers, shrubs and trees into the design?

It is possible to set up an orchard on the roof as long as the containers you use are big enough.

Step Two:

You know the space’s purpose; now what do you want to grow?

Step Three:

How much time do you want to devote to gardening? If your time is limited you may want to keep the garden element of the design small, you can always add later, enough so that you can give the plants the attention they deserve.

Be sure to make notes as you go; you will want to refer to them as you proceed.

What you do next will depend upon the answers to the questions raised in the first three steps. If you are adding an outdoor room to your home then you need to think about furniture, for example; if you are growing food, then all that is left to do is decide what food you want to grow.

Some considerations, the weather conditions on a rooftop, much like a balcony, will be different than those at ground level, there may be little to no shade so it will be hot and the winds will be stronger.

The combination of heat and strong winds means that the soil will dry faster than it will in the garden and therefore, the plants will need watering more frequently.

This brings us to another point, water overflow; containers can be designed to catch excess water so that it does not puddle on the roof, making for slippery conditions and added weight. I suggest you hand-water your rooftop garden so that you get sued to the plants’ needs and thus avoid excessive watering.

A rooftop garden is an ideal place to grow native perennials. They will be able to handle the ecosystem and you will be helping maintain the native plant population. This will also encourage native butterflies and birds to drop by for a visit.

Bees, Butterflies, Birds

The three Bs, birds, bees and butterflies are a gardener’s good friends. If you make a few wise plants choices, refrain from engaging in chemical warfare and understand that Nature will provide what you need, then you are well on your way to creating a great garden; one that will provide the fruits, herbs, flowers and vegetables you seek to grow.

The plant choices you make need to be those that provide for the needs of the beings you wish to attract to your garden. Herbs are a great place to start and can be incorporated into a garden bed or arranged throughout your design.

Bee and Sunflower

Bob Ewing photo

• Flowers and Herbs That Attract Butterflies
  - Flowers and Herbs That Attract Butterflies - Nicki's Garden - information and resource guide

Plants

Dill and mint, for example, will bring the butterflies to your garden. Be sure to consider the whole butterfly family and choose plants that provide a place for the butterflies to lay their eggs. If you also provide them with a drink of water, they will hang around.

Sunflowers will attract all three, bees and butterflies first and then as the seeds develop the birds will drop by for their snack.

There are two things that butterflies are seeking: one is nectar, the food that adult butterflies need, and the other, host plants, the place where the female will lay her eggs and the food that caterpillars need. Both are necessary to create a successful butterfly garden.

Birds like seeds, nuts and berries so plants shrubs and native grasses to get their attention. Shrubs also provide them with shelter so they have a place to fly to when they feel the need, which can happen quite frequently in an urban backyard.

The plants you choose will do the job best when they are native to your area. The bees, birds and butterflies will recognize them and make a point to visit.

I suggest that if you are just getting started then take a trip to your local public library or talk to a naturalist society and find out what birds and butterflies are native to where you live and the plants they demand. Butterflies, especially, can be very fussy about what they eat and where they lat their eggs so get those facts first and then plant accordingly.

The three Bs, birds, bees and butterflies, provide the gardener with a number of services, pollination, pest control and beauty, for example. The plants required to make them feel at home in your garden are all plants that even the vegetable-only gardener can appreciate.

My Plant Breeding Plan

What do you love to grow?

I enjoy the growing process from saving seeds to harvesting the fruit. I do not have a favourite plant but am focusing on beans for breeding.

What are the interesting characteristics for which you would breed or select?

Projections about the future indicate many parts of the world will see greater heat stress — higher temperatures that can result in more frequent, longer periods of excessive heat for crops.

This is bad news for growers of certain crops. That would include beans. I am interested in heat resistance. Beans do not like a nighttime temperature over 23. In my area, Central Ontario, Canada, currently few nights exceed the 20C nighttime heat limit but that may be changing.

Last summer, my first in the area, was hot and humid and more than a few nights exceeded the maximum temperature.

Talking with people who have gardened here for years, that summer was unusual. The previous year was cooler and wetter. The forecast for this year rests somewhere between the two. What the future holds, who knows.

In addition, to selecting for heat extremes, I am also interested in hardiness. I want to develop beans that will thrive in the soil where I live and will be resilient enough to tackle future challenges.

How would you go about facilitating this project? What about climatic conditions, geographic location within your garden or farm? Soil issues, disease?

The soil here is clay. I have worked in clay before and am comfortable I can use its advantages to the garden’s best effect. I am a renter with a large yard, permission to use it, as I will for growing, and a good lease. I have obtained several heritage beans, as well as, tepary beans suitable for much warmer climates.

Climate change is a major concern when it comes to future food security and may other issues. Beans are an ideal crop for storing over long periods of time and have multiple uses.

I will plant four varieties of beans, including tepary, and select and pollinate the plants that demonstrate the characteristics I am looking for. I will also be saving and sharing seeds with the local seed library.