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June = Romance
Weddings, peonies, roses, birds busy building a home. Is all of this a coincidence? No. If a June evening could talk it would claim to have invented romance, said Bern Williams.
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Chick Magnet
Me? I'm such a chick magnet this time of year that I picked up 50 of them just last week. Yes, even this guy in his 5th decade. I am surprised that my 20 year old son does not ask me more questions on the subject as I have likely forgotten more about relations with the opposite sex than he has learned. Alas, I change the subject. Last week's haul came in a box about the size of a � bushel and now we are the proud owners of 53 (to be exact) baby chicks. They live in my shop for now, in a kiddy swimming pool, under a heat lamp. I am new at this, but I am told by my trusted chicken advisory board of one, by the name of Rudy, that they will out grow their pool within about 2 weeks and then will need to be moved into larger quarters inside the barn. I will build an outdoor run for them so that they can peck the grass and enjoy the sunshine. Makes for better birds.
In 15 weeks or so they will be taken to the meat master down the road and their dear souls will meet the Great Chicken in the sky. Bodily, they will be placed with love in our freezer.
That is our chicken adventure.
Add that to the 24 'layers' that are out in the coop, our pet duck Clark (Super Duck, actually - get it?), our dog Zac and Harvey the cat and there you have some happy acres.
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Where is Mark this Month
* Monday, May 30, 2011
Rocky Mountain House Home Hardware Building Centre
Rocky Mountain House, Alberta
* Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Rimbey Home Hardware
Rimbey, Aberta
* Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Boytinck Home Hardware
Pincher Creek, Alberta
* Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Brockville Home Hardware
Brockville, Ontario
* Friday, June 10, 2011
Windsor Home Hardware
Windsor, Nova Scotia
* Saturday, June 11, 2011
Wilson's Home Hardware Building Centre
Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia
* Monday, June 13, 2011
gTO4 - Green Tie Event hosted by Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation
Stop33 - Sutton Place Hotel, Toronto
www.torontoparksandtrees.org
* Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tools, Pizza and Beer at the TBG
Mark and Denis Flanagan share their expert advice for your lawn & garden.
Visit www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca for more info.
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Recipe for the Best Tomatoes on the Block
1. Buy short, stocky plants with dark green foliage.
2. Plant in the ground once the temperatures are a minimum of 20�C.
3. Dig a hole about the size of a half bushel, or 3 shovels full. Dig existing soil into another part of your garden.
4. Fill the hole with triple mix (one third top soil, one third peat moss and one third compost or composted cattle/steer manure).
5. Plant the tomato up to the second set of real leaves - deeply. And push the soil firmly around the main stem of the tomato to give the soil and plant contact. New roots will develop along the stem, producing a stronger plant.
6. I use straw as mulch around my tomatoes. Spread the straw about 25 cm deep per plant. Straw mulch helps to retain needed moisture during the hot, dry spells of summer and reduces weeds dramatically.
7. Water using a compost tea solution (take an old pillow case half filled with compost, drop it in your rail barrel and leave it there for 24 hours or a week - but no longer or it will begin to stink). OR Fertilize with your favourite tomato food. I use Green Earth organic 4-6-8 for tomatoes and vegetables. Keep in mind that tomatoes are heavy feeders. Follow directions on the fertilizer package or continue to water with compost tea. You really can't go wrong with the stuff.
8. Stake in mid June using a spiral aluminum stake. No tying, no fuss. Timing is everything - get to this job before the tomatoes begin to bloom as you will double your crop as a result of getting them off the ground. Staking your tomatoes reduces the risk of diseases and insects.
9. Apply Green Earth Bordo Copper Spray in July to prevent the #1 enemy of healthy tomatoes - early blight. Bordo Copper Spray is a copper fungicide which is mixed with water. Use it on fruit trees, ornamentals and vegetable crops to control leaf spots, blights, anthracnose, downy and powdery mildew and black spot.
Tomatoes like plenty of sun - a full eight hours a day, in fact. They also like heat and shelter from the wind. They are heavy feeders so the soil should be rich with organic material at planting time. Water at least twice a week for the first 6 weeks or so, more frequently if the weather is hot and dry.
Harvest often - do not allow fruit to rot on the plants. This will slow fruit production and is an invitation to insects and diseases.
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Strawberry Pots
Growing strawberries in terracotta pots is not a new idea and has been around for a quite a while. It is especially popular with people who are short on growing space and in the cooler parts of Canada like Alberta where the springs can be unpredictable.
Growing strawberries with this method is simple, clean and promises to produce a bumper crop of berries. It's easy to get started:
1. Buy the terracotta pot, if available try to select one that is glazed (to reduce moisture loss) and frost resistant. If it's not frost resistant you will have to store it indoors over the winter to prevent cracking.
2. Prepare the pot. Lay down a geotextile filter cloth, cut to the same size as the bottom of the pot and layer on top of that a couple handfuls of � inch gravel. This will allow for excess water to be drained from the bottom of the pot while keeping the soil inside where it belongs.
3. Place a water wick on top of the stone and fill the pot with good quality container soil, leaving one to two inches at the top free.
4. Lightly water and shake the pot gently in order to settle the soil.
5. Select what type of strawberries to plant. There are three main types of strawberries that you can choose from and some that can even be grown down to zone 2. The first is known as Summer Fruiting (June bearing) which produces a single large crop over two weeks in mid June. The second type, known as Ever-bearing produces two smaller crops, the first in summer and second in autumn.
And finally, Day-neutral which produces fruit throughout the summer except during very hot weather.
For this particular growing method, that is growing strawberries like annuals in containers, it's best to choose Ever-bearing or Day-neutral varieties like "Ozark Beauty" and "Tristar" respectively. This way you can get a crop from June until the first hard frost.
If your house has a cold cellar you can let the plants go dormant in the fall and then move the entire pot into the cellar. In the spring you can bring the pot back out and place it in a sunny location making sure to protect it from spring frosts.
Now that you have prepared the pot and selected a good plant variety you can finally plant.
6. Gently separate each plant and place one in each side opening and one directly in the center on the top. Simply make a hole in the soil large enough to accommodate the roots, place the plant inside and gently press the soil around the roots to get rid of any air pockets. The soil level should come half way up the crown covering all the roots. If the crown is too high or too deep the plant will suffer.
7. Water the pot from all openings, about one cup per plant and monitor it frequently as they tend to dry out quickly. It may require watering once a day, especially during a hot summer.
8. After the plant produces berries watch for runners, these are daughter plants that the main (or mother) plant will send out. Prune them out from the base of the plant and discard them. If you choose to over winter the plants, every four years they will need to be replaced and the soil topped up to maintain productivity.
These terracotta pots make excellent containers to grow strawberries in but they are versatile too! They also make excellent containers to grow herbs in such as oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil and parsley.
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St. Marys Horticultural Society
Garden Fair
14th Annual Garden Fair, hosted by the St. Marys Horticultural Society
Saturday, June 4, 2011
There will be more than 20 vendors from southern Ontario. Featuring a huge assortment of annual and perennial plants including new and unusual varieties, hanging baskets, aquatic plants, alpine and succulents, herbs and grasses, Society-grown Heritage tomato plants, plus fabulous garden accessories.
Location: St. Marys, Ontario - beside the river flats (Milt Dunnell Field)
Time: 8:30 am to 1:00 pm
Free admission, free parking
More info.
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The veggie garden has been too wet to plant as the soil has been too wet to turn over. Compost is compost-mud. I did manage to get my peas, garlic and onions in, but I await the heat and dryness that is appropriate for planting. If you find yourself in a similar situation no worries: planting warm season crops right up to Father's Day weekend is not a problem and while you may not get quite the yield that you would have in a 'normal' year you will get a decent one. 
There is lots of time to get your annuals in. Take your time and do it right, remembering that 90% of your success hinges on proper soil preparation: use lots of compost or 
June is a busy month for me and one that I look forward to. 
My favourite green charity in Toronto is the Toronto Parks and Trees Foundation. Together we are going to double the tree canopy from 20% cover to 40% cover (where it was about 50 years ago). Ron Sexsmith is going to help us do it by providing the rhythm and beat to get the planting party started. Join us Monday evening June 13th. I emcee and he is the entertainment. It is going to be fun and intimate. For $100 you can't buy an experience like this, you have to donate it to the Foundation.
The most enthusiastic 'amateur' dahlia growers/collectors and networkers that I have ever met are in Moncton. Just today I learned that I will be receiving some fresh stock from buddy Merle in a week or so. Can't wait! Want to learn more? E mail president Merle at 
Those of you that live in Ontario are lucky. You have access to the most complete guide to farmers markets, pick your own farms and farm B&B's anywhere in the country, and it is free. Look for the 'Harvest Ontario' at all Home Hardware locations beginning the second week of June.
My early spring schedule has been busy and I am grateful for that. Anyone in the gardening business that is not busy this time of year has a problem. My schedule began to fill up in mid March with the launch of Canada Blooms and continues throughout June. 
I have appreciated all of the benefits of growing tomatoes upside down for some time. The first time that I saw this done was about 15 years ago in a
private American garden where the gardener had fashioned a planter out of wood. Since then I have been looking for a sturdy and practical planter
that has the water capacity that makes sense. 
� Coming early June to all Home Hardware, Home Building Centre and Home Furniture locations is this year's edition of the Harvest Ontario guide.
June 11, 2011
Toronto Botanical Garden's 24th annual garden tour. 
June 13, 2011 - 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm