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August. Harvest time begins.
My Dad, Len, always said that the garden looks better during the first full week of August than any other time of year. That rather broad generality may be true in your garden, maybe not.
It seems to me that if you own a cottage or a cabin and you spend most of your summer there, you would be wise to plan your garden to look best in the 'shoulder' seasons. Spring and fall is when your garden should peak - two peaks!
Your vacation property, on the other hand, should be planted with a selection of flowering and fruiting trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals that peak this time of year. Right now the Rudebeckia, Echinacea and hydrangeas are looking their very best. Later in August the Japanese anemones and asters will begin to show off.
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Speaking of Sharing.
I am driving down to my buddy Ted's, the proprietor of Mother's Deli in Unionville, with my first truck load of tomatoes next week. The crop looks like a doozy.
The heat, dryness and our ability to get just the right amount of water on my 250 tomato plants this year equals a great success, pending the development of public enemy #1 - early blight. To prevent this I apply Green Earth Bordo mixture. I highly recommend that you do this as blight is more prevalent across the country than ever before.
Beat Tomato Blandness - grow your own.
Ever wondered why the tomatoes that you buy at the supermarket, the ones that are perfectly red, do not taste very good? Flavourless? Bland? That's because they are strip mined in greenhouses and in vast fields in the southern States. For a more fulsome explanation here is a 'blog' that my summer time assistant wrote. Marette explains exactly what the difference is and it is fascinating.
"I recently read an article about tomatoes and how, over the years, they have lost their flavour. Those ripe, red tomatoes that look so delicious in the grocery store have actually been bred to look that good and in the process their flavour has been bred out.
Here's how it works: over the past 70 years, tomatoes have been selected for their uniform green colour and consequently their uniform ripening capabilities. All done in an effort to supply us, the consumer, with tomatoes that look evenly red in the stores. It turns out that the molecules that code for uniform ripening are actually a mutation. When this mutation is present, the molecules that code for the tomato's sugars (and therefore, sweet flavour) are disabled. The result: a tomato that looks nice on the shelves but has a compromised taste (maybe that's why your kids aren't a fan of them).
Other than appealing visually to the consumer, the less flavoured tomatoes have some added nutritional benefits that result from the mutation - a chemical called lycopene. Researchers at the University of California are looking into a way to find a middle ground: a tomato that is sweet and has all the same nutritional benefits of one with less flavour. So far, they have discovered that tomatoes that are darker green before ripening have a higher number of sugars and lycopene. A combination of flavour and health benefits.
The tomatoes we grow on Mark's farm have more flavour than those bought in a store. They don't last as long once they're ripe but I don't mind - I'd prefer that my tomatoes don't look ripe and ready to eat for three weeks. And this is just one more reason to start your own garden, grow your own vegetables, learn something about where your food comes from, and have fun in the process. Get your kids involved - it's an excellent way to help teach them that food doesn't just come from the grocery store."
~ Marette Sharp
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International Influences
Inspiring Ideas for Trees in Public Space
Thursday, August 16, 2012
7:00pm - 8:30pm
Event Location: Metro Hall, 55 John St., Rooms 308-308, Toronto
Speaker: Brendan Stewart, Landscape Architect and Urban Designer, ERA Architects, Toronto
Planting trees to enhance and humanize our cities is a practice as old as human civilization. Join us as we explore the rich aesthetic traditions and histories of planting trees in gardens, parks and urban open spaces from around the worls, and how these practices shape our ideas about green space here in Toronto.
To register call 416-413-9244 or visit: www.yourleaf.org
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Spindle Tree Gardens
Twenty years ago, Susan Meisner and Tom Brown bought a run-down bungalow on a derelict 80-acre farm near Tamworth, a small village two and a half hours east of Toronto. What was to be a weekend retreat from the city evolved into a passion; 20 acres of gardens surround the transformed house: a greenhouse, rose gardens, ponds, waterfalls, rockeries, a maze, a new orangery/conservatory, and many, many spindle trees that come into their full glory in autumn.
Why travel to Europe when you have one of Canada's great gardens on your doorstep?
Spindle Tree Gardens is already a destination for gardeners, city dwellers looking for relief, photographers, bird and wildlife lovers, and brides.
For more information
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