MAY FLOWERS DON’T BRING SHOWERS

The garden this week is beyond glorious. I have more stuff to plant and then to take pictures of it.
I was on Fresh Air (CBC radio) on May 19th and mentioned that I was upset that I couldn’t find compost without the addition of peat moss. I don’t buy peat products for the following reasons:
Peat comes from peat bogs and other endangered ecological areas. Once heavy machinery gets in there ripping this stuff out of the wilds, it takes thousands of years to restore the ecological habitat of millions of insects and plants. We do enough damage to the planet without bringing it into our garden practices.
Use coir products which hold moisture in the soil. Coir comes from coconut shells and though it does have to travel here, it creates jobs somewhere and it won’t damage fragile environments.
Most of the landscapers pushing peat moss as a “fertilizer” haven’t a clue. It’s a sterile medium and once it’s scattered around it will wick moisture out of the soil. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw grass mowers plunking this stuff down by the cubic yard on whole streets.  If you do use anything with peat in it, you have to moisten it thoroughly before putting it around plants. The stupidity of putting it all over a lawn is totally ignorant of what this stuff actually does. It’s nuts and  it’s going on all around us.

Sorry to be in such a ranting mood when I’ve been absent for so long. But it’s worrisome that so much abound gardening is cloaked in “this is what we’ve always done.” type of practises.

Please get out into the garden and water major plants deeply. I use the three bucket rule:  slow watering from a bucket all around a tree. Get the water to the root systems. Make sure you do the same thing for your city tree.  It’s as much your responsibility as the municipalities and when we lose our canopies we’re going to be frying.

The Globe is putting up videos of me and I’ll post a link.  They are kind of fun. Certainly fun to do.