KNOWLEDGEABLE gardeners who think globally while acting locally understand how to keep their gardens beautiful by growing in sustainable ways using effective techniques.
For many homeowners who may not be "gardeners" in the true sense of the word, a good-looking garden is an accepted norm.
And as a society we value greenspace, beautiful gardens and plants that enhance the visual appearance our neighbourhoods. For those of us who believe that living in a civil society comes with responsibility, gardening in a manner that is sustainable, beneficial, effective and affordable is a minimum responsibility. So here are a few suggestions to help everyone along the path to gardening gently on earth.
Where is that made? We have all heard that buying locally is good for the planet and for local businesses. If you buy fertilizer, pesticides or chemical additives like bone meal along with most gardening tools, almost none of them are made in British Columbia, or even Canada.
Many of the plants sold at local garden centres are grown in B.C. by our local growers.
But some plants are grown in other countries.
Every time we buy a foreign produced plant we are sending money and business out of the country. Next time you buy a gardening product, check the label or ask the salespeople to tell you where the product was made or grown and try to buy made in B.C.
How long will that bloom? This is the common refrain of so many people who are looking for plants that bloom and bloom. Sorry, that's just not real. Annuals may bloom all summer but most plants bloom for a few weeks and that's all. It's nature's way. We can't have children (flowers) all the time or we would be exhausted or dead and neither can plants.
If you are looking for new plants don't be sucked in by "big blooms" or "long lasting flowers" on the label, it's all marketing. Choose plants with attractive flowers but do not make that the single most important purchasing criteria. Look for plants that have fragrant foliage, produce attractive fruits or seed pods in fall and always look for outstanding foliage. Beautiful foliage provides the best visual return on investment because attractive foliage lasts and provides long-term interest after the flowers fade.
Is that a native plant? The hippie gurus have been out in full force for the last decade telling us how native plants are the best choice, they will grow anywhere and they are adapted to our environment so they suffer fewer pest and disease problems. It is true that plants native to British Columbia are highly adapted to local conditions, as long as those conditions are in a forest, on a mountaintop or along a river.
When it comes to planting many native plants in urban settings, most simply do not flourish in the hostile urban environment. It would also help all of us who like native plants if the native plant prophets would put their plants where their mouths are and start selling more than just two ferns, a cedar tree and ninebark, so we could plant more native plants. The top level philosophy for choosing plants is, "choose the right plant for the right place" and nothing else works as well.
The weeds are taller than my kids! Weeding is not gardening. Weeding is work. To avoid weeding, the most sustainable, effective and affordable method is to mulch all garden beds. For all of those people out there cultivating the soil's surface or paying someone to cultivate the soil's surface to stop weed growth, I feel your pain and I have some advice. Cultivating the soil's surface to develop that black soil agricultural look is a function of the desire of our vanity and it's a short-term control method that is expensive over the long term. Mulching is a long-term control method and buying mulch helps support local landscape businesses.
There should never be bare, unmulched soil in the garden, unless you want to grow weeds.
Flower beds take too much work, that's why I have a lawn. Planted beds cost half as much to maintain in time and money versus an equal amount of lawn.
If you don't play on the lawn, sleep on it, dance on it, let the pets use it, eat it or have some other use for a lawn, then why have one? Lawns are the single most unsustainable, water hogging, resource-sucking monster in gardening. You want to save the planet, save money and have more time in the garden, then kill your grass and turn it into something useful, like a vegetable garden, pathway, patio, play area for the kids, planted flower bed, pond or whatever suits your lifestyle and desire.
Todd Major is a journeyman horticulturist and chief horticulture instructor at the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden. For advice contact him at stmajor@shaw. ca.
