Inspiring gardens and the tools that make them
It’s easy to become blasé about garden shows but overall, I have to say I was impressed with Canada Blooms this year.
One of the show gardens superbly captured that elusive element, an emotional connection with those viewing it. This was “Never Forgotten,” a garden honouring our fallen Canadians. The entrance is by way of a serene, tree-lined path. Round a corner and you’re on a highway leading beneath a magnificent stone arch. This wonderfully represented the 170-kilometre portion of Highway 401 that was designated the Highway of Heroes in 2001, where two million trees are being planted to honour those soldiers who lost their lives. It stretches from CFB Trenton to the Don Valley Parkway (and later Keele Street) in Toronto.
The huge rocks, flowing water and trees in the garden ensured it was quintessentially Canadian. With “O Canada” softly playing in the background while the garden is traversed, it was impossible not to be moved while reflecting on the selfless sacrifice of fallen Canadians. Well done, Joe Genovese of Genoscape Inc.
The other display gardens were also immaculately presented, though without that emotional impact. I did appreciate and enjoy “Fusion Oasis Under the Stars” by Landscape Ontario and Parklane Landscapes. It featured several clever ways of channelling and controlling the flow of water. Water from eaves descended by rain chains or through a cleverly arranged series of pipes and hoppers before flowing into rain gardens below.
Something I never expected to see at a garden show was dead plants. They featured in “The Inconvenient Garden,” a shrewd concept delivering a message. On one side of an artfully constructed wall were growing lush, healthy plants. In stark contrast on the other side was a wasteland of a garden complete with a dried-up pond. Designed and built by Mountainhill Landscape, it was designed to illustrate how climate change could affect our planet and our gardens.
After the show gardens, I browsed through the flower arranging area, only to be reminded once again that with my stick it in a jar approach to ikebana, I’m forever outclassed by such talented floral designers. Their creations were jaw dropping.
Being more of a hands-in-the-compost kinda guy, I moved on to explore the market place. It’s always a source of the new and improved, and sometimes revolutionary products. New ones are introduced there, and I did see a few items worth mentioning.
Among the snippers and pruners, one from Corona tools has a dial that allows you to limit how far the handles open.
This solves the problem of handles that spring open so wide, smaller hands have trouble regripping. Of course, at the same time the corresponding blades don’t open as far, limiting the thickness of twigs that can be cut. Regardless, I can see it being a useful tool.
Canada Blooms closes for the year at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, Sunday, March 18.
On Saturday, April 14, Cambridge Rivers’ Edge Gardeners are holding their first “Stepping into Spring” Symposium. Four speakers, lunch, vendors, and draw prizes all for $55. For more info and tickets, contact Lori Bennett-Davies at 519-893-4995 or bennettc342@rogers.com.
To chat with local gardeners, share tips, pics, discuss garden shows, see facebook.com/groups/Grandgardeners/.