This is a response to Michele’s question about what is wrong with mulching: What Dr. Laurence Packer, the bee guy from York U, was objecting to last Saturday was exactly the kind of mulching most real gardeners hate as well: huge wood chips smothering the soil, packed up around perennials, trees and shrubs. It’s supremely ugly, but worse, it covers up the dry holes that many bees like to nest in. This further destruction of a pollinator’s habitat is one we can avoid. I invited Dr. Packer to come on over to my garden and I’d show him how a real gardener mulches.  Number one: I would never mulch when pollinators are out and about looking for sustenance in spring—it’s way too early. Spending lots of time in the garden makes you more observant about what pollinators are up to. And when they’ve finished nesting, we can start mulching. Real gardeners mulch with organic matter: leaves, compost, manure and it’s not only local it’s probably from our own gardens. This is material a bee can get through but usually we don’t have enough mulch so the soil is not going to be completely covered anyway. In autumn we wait until there’s a hard frost and all these little guys have gone to ground. We have to live with them so we have to work our gardening around their health. Without bees we all die.  I think most real gardeners understand this fact.

Suzuki made one of many good observations:  if we die, all living things on earth will flourish; but if ants disappear, then all growing things and certainly will disappear completely. So have a little respect for the tiny creatures.  And watch what they are up to these days.

See this article on Chatelaine’s website. Marjorie offers tips for the novice gardener. 

Saturday’s gig with Dr. David Suzuki turned into one of those real surprises.  I’ve known Suzuk for decades because I worked on one of his project many years ago.  When they threw open the doors at the Music Hall and about 50 people filtered in at what we thought was the right hour, we were muttering “This is going to be disappointing.”  Then about 800 people marched in at the last minute and the place was jumping with energy.  The neat thing, apart from catching up with David, is that I got to meet Laurence Packer the bee guy from York University. The occasion was the publication of his  book on Bees of Toronto. So we were all talking about habitat, native plants  (I used the wonderful Linda Read’s native plant shots).  Then David got up and did what he is so brilliant at: connecting all the dots, bringing everyday things into perspective.  Dr. Packer is adamantly against mulch so I’m going to have to go into that in a future blog.  Not that we’re thinking about mulch this early.  He’s such a neat guy and the information about bees and other pollinators is invaluable. Get it. Suzuk was then going off to Ottawa to be a stand-in speaker for Brian Mulroney. He was addressing a group of realtors. I suspect they are still reeling from the impact. I am at work on the Spring newsletter so I will have lots more native plants than the ones listed in the last blog, and it will have more particulars and why I like them.  

I’m going to be on CBC’s 3 to 6 show with Matt Galloway this afternoon  (on at 4:40) talking about bumble bees and plants in the garden. We need to attract all sorts of birds and insects into our gardens and that’s going to be the theme today. As it will be tomorrow when I’m doing a gig with David Suzuki at the The Music Hall from 4 to 6 p.m. and there are still tickets left.  Here’s a list of plants I’m going to mention if you want to start adding important plants to insects and birds into the garden.  I’m going to keep on adding to this list and give information on it as I get through this weekend of non stop activity.   

• Uvularia grandiflora (Bellwort);
• Trillium grandiflorum;
• Sanguineria canadensis (bloodroot);
• Erythronium (trout lily);
• Asarum canadense (wild ginger);
• Aquilegia canadensis (Columbine);
• Echinacea pallida (purple coneflower);
• Eupatorium spp (Joe-Pye Weed);
• Solidago canadensis (Canada goldenrod);
• Tradescantia virgianum: this one moves around a lot so be sure you keep it under control
• Aster spp (New England Asters, any aster)
• Amelanchier spp serviceberry, is my favourite native shrub (A. alnifolia) or small tree form.
• Gymnocladus dioica, Kentucky Coffee Tree

My poor blog was hit with a Trojan Horse virus and it took days to clean out. Now the usual idiot spammers are at work. I apologize for this. But spring is happening in my garden. I’ve got masses of species tulips in bloom and if this cold weather continues, they will have a fairly long life span as these things go. I notice the squirrels haven’t moved them around and many of them are naturalizing at a glacial pace. The star magnolia is wonderful;  and right behind I’ve got an Amelanchier canadensis (serviceberry)  which is a dramatic combination most of the year but just wild right now because they are both in bloom.  When the magnolia’s bloom is over, the serviceberry will carry on. This right in the centre of the garden.

The wonderful Tom Vogel is going to do a spring panorama tomorrow so it will be up next week.  Go to the Nav line at the top right. To MY GARDEN and take a minute to look at the panorama he’s created. It’s brilliant. He’s brilliant.  We’re also gong to have voice over eventually.  And he will do this in each season. I hope to be able to learn how to id all the things in each of these amazing panoramas. Meantime don’t rush the season. It is only May 1st. Tender plants should stay under protection. And planting should wait for a week. The newsletter will be coming out next week. Promise.