Advice for traditional Guys this Valentines.

~ Wednesday, January 26, 2011

I know that Valentines is 2 weeks off: consider this a public service from your buddy Mark.

I am a guy, which means that I qualify as one of those people who does not take a lot of risks around the special occasion that we call Valentines Day.

I am a member of the majority of guys who buys red roses for his sweetie on Valentines Day. In spite of what you hear and read about buying candles and fragrances and underwear, the average guy – and I claim not to speak for anyone else here – is into dinner out and long stem red roses.


If we have a sweetie that really likes chocolate and is not likely to hit us over the head with a box of them, we might buy them too. But be careful with this one: chocolates can send a message that you have not been listening lately to the ‘does my butt look big in these’ questions. Read between the lines.

No Risk Giving.

So guys: if you are like me and not about to risk your most special relationship on a Valentines purchase that may not go over really big, stick to the roses. And if you are sticking to the long stem red roses, at least buy them with some measure of knowledge – which is where I come in.

First of all, some reasons to buy roses as an expression of your love for someone:
a. They do not last forever. That is precisely the point. Plastic does not say the same thing –in fact plastic flowers are a language that most women do not understand.
b. In the Victorian ‘language of flowers’ roses were a sign of loyalty and strength - that is why they are associated with royalty.
c. The same Victorians believed that Red roses were a sign of passion. Not a bad message on Valentines day, to the right person, right?

How do you know that your roses are fresh?

1. Give them the squeeze test.
Every self-respecting florist will get on the rose-delivery truck and squeeze the rose buds before taking delivery.
If the rose bud is firm – like an onion – you have fresh roses. If the rose bud is soft and mushy, best take a pass.
2. Look at the stems. Yes, the stems may be knobby and scrawny. If that describes your cut roses, you are paying no more than $15 a dozen and you are paying too much. Better to get 3 really good quality roses with some girth – about the thickness of a pencil, measured about 24 inches or 60 cm down the stem.
3. Long stems. That is why they call them ‘long stem roses’. They should be at least 30 inches long, if they are the real thing. And don’t let the florist cut off too much of the ends before plunging them into water or applying the water picks (see below).


Get them home looking good.

How do you get your investment in quality roses home is good shape?

The florist will put a ‘water pick’ on the end of each rose stem. Some people call these water condoms. Not me.
‘FloraLife’ is the brand name for the little envelope of preservative that is packaged with the cut flowers. Use the entire contents in the first vase of water.
Use a deep vase. The more water that makes contact with the stems of the roses, the longer that they will last.
Change the water daily. O.k. – you really want to score points with your sweetie? Change the rose water every day and use only room temperature, tepid water straight from the tap.
Put the cut roses in a cool room or refrigerator every night before bed. Think of the roses as your new pet –one with a short life, granted. But you can extend the life of your (her) roses by several days by exposing them to cool evening temps.

If your roses should collapse, which is not uncommon: the rose bud will just droop at the stem. This is a bubble of air that has become caught at the top of the green stem. Pre-moisten newspaper, wrap the entire rose, stem and all, in an upright position in the wet newspaper and put it in the refrigerator over night. By morning the rose bud should stand up on its own.

Viagra can help.

Finally, to maximize the life of your long stem red roses, drop a half a Viagra tablet into the water – the same water that you are going to change every day. According to a study at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel, this works wonders at helping your long stem roses keep their heads up.

This is a good excuse to buy some Viagra. If anyone meets you at the drug store cash out, just tell them that I told you that the stuff really helps to keep your long stem roses up.

Really.

And what you do with the left over Viagra is your business.

Valentines is a fun time, for those of us in love.

If you don’t have a significant other, than buy yourself some fresh cut flowers. The selection this time of year is at its all time best. The industry is geared to it, so go with the flow and indulge yourself.

And remember to keep your knees dirty.

Mark

Let the Therapy Begin!

~ January 19, 2011

In recent weeks I have waxed on here in my blog about dreaming, planning and scheming your new 2011 edition of your garden.
Enough already.
Time to actually get to work.

You see the garden that you dream about is only going to become reality with the aforementioned plan and some – ahhhhemmmm (throat clearing) – work. There. I said it.
Those of us in the gardening business do not think of the slugging, bending, pulling, pushing and grunting associated with the garden as ‘work’ – it is more a kind of therapy.

So I say – “let the therapy begin!!” by starting some seeds indoors.



Seed buying.

You may be thinking in terms of your veggie garden – which is good if you are buying your seeds at your local garden centre or hardware store this time of year. I encourage you to get in there and buy your heart out as the selection of garden seeds – garden variety seeds and the rare ones more so – is at its very best right now. Store seeds in a cool and dry place, out of the sun, humidity and away from mice. And make a note mental or otherwise where you put them or you will have to buy them all over again in a month or two.

Vegetable seeds do not require germination yet. The #1 home grown crop – tomatoes – are actually started 6 weeks before the last killing frost in your area… so find out what that is by going to http://www.markcullen.com/ and locate your town/city on the zone map. When you find out what the last frost date is, count back 6 weeks and voila. For zone 5, where I live, that is about the 3rd week of April. So there is lots of time for that.

Flowers are a different thing – violas, pansies, impatiens, petunias and geraniums should be started now.

Getting started.

Follow the directions on the back of the seed packet and keep in mind these general rules of ‘green thumb’:

- Use a ‘seed and cutting’ seed starting mix – not ‘soil’. Look for good quality brands like CIL, Green Earth, Premier and Schultz.
- Fill seed starting trays/cell packs with the mix and premoisten it. In other words, water the soil mix and let it soak in for a half hour or so before you sow your seeds.
- Impatiens require darkness to germinate. After you sow the seeds, place a piece of black plastic over them until germination takes place in about 10 days. Place the seeding tray on the top of your refrigerator where it is warm, to speed germination.
- Use a ‘misting’ atomizer to apply water to the surface of the soil until about 10 days or 2 weeks after germination. This is the most gentle method of applying water at a time when the seed/seedling does not like to be disturbed.
- Allow the soil to ‘dry to the touch’ between watering. This is a rule that you can live by – use it when starting most any seeds, otherwise you will have to deal with the next point:
- If a white powdery mildew appears on the surface of the soil, apply Green Earth Garden Sulfur to prevent damping off. This is the result of overwatering, water logged soil and poor air circulation. A small fan placed a half metre or so from the seedlings, will discourage further problems with damping off.


Above all, have fun. Involve the kids, grand kids, neighbourhood kids in the project if you can and remember that you are saving a ton of money in the process by avoiding the purchase of bedding plants come spring.

Remind yourself of this should some of your seeding efforts end in failure.

And keep your knees dirty!

Mark

Salt Alternatives

I hear from Jason, my Winnipeg connection, that things have warmed up considerably in the last few days on the Canadian prairies. So much so that his young kids can now go outdoors to play and not risk life and limb due to minus ice-age temperatures.

This reminds me of all of the salt that we use in this country, especially when the temperature ‘warms up’ to greater than minus 12°C. (Note: only someone from the Prairies would consider -12°C ‘warm’).

Truth is, salt does not effectively melt ice or snow at temperatures below minus 12°C. (+5°F) which explains why most cities on the prairies favour the dirty grit that they spread on their roads for traction as a salt alternative. This stuff makes your car such a dirty mess that you often can’t tell a Mercedes from a Chevy, but for the most part, it does the job.

In the rest of the country we reach for the salt when clearing the roads of ice and snow, which is a danger to the plants in your garden, our water, our soil and a threat to aquatic life. Other than that, it is fine.

Protect Your Plants.
I recommend that you wrap your upright evergreens, especially cedars, on the east side of a busy road with two layers of burlap to avoid the inevitable ‘salt drift’ that occurs when traffic kicks the salt solution or brine up off the road. The prevailing winds push it in the direction of your prized evergreens. The two layers of natural burlap will insulate them from the inevitable damage that will occur from the burning effects of the salt.

I could go on about the toxic mess that salt creates, but I am not here to bash the use of salt. Let’s face it: salt is cheap and it provides for much safer driving conditions when the temperature is right (see above).

Alternatives.

However, for those of us who are not under contract to the highways department for snow and ice removal (i.e. if you are only concerned about your front walk/steps and driveway) there ARE alternatives to common ‘road salt’.
Some are synthetic and others are 100% ‘natural’. Both have their features, benefits and limitations. From a practical point of view these products provide a reasonably economical alternative to the much less damaging and slower working common salt.

I have been using Alaskan Ice Melter for a few years: it is Canadian made and contains a combination of calcium chloride, CaCl2 and urea. The granules are ‘colour marked’ so that you can tell when you have put down enough or used too much. It works even when temperature dip to as low as minus 31°C(-24°F), it lasts twice as long as rock salt, is gentle on concrete, grass, plants and pets when used as directed and it provides good traction the moment that you apply it. http://www.icemelter.ca/


Downside.

There are other ‘ice melters’ on the market that are worth a try, I am sure. In my opinion the less salt that we use, the better all round. Let me say that if you over-apply an ‘ice melter’ they often produce a white residue on your boots and your car floor mats, but this is much less stubborn than that of salt and washes out easily.

Also, if you use more than directed on the package you may cause damage to your lawn, plants or concrete, but you would be challenged to do this. Again, my experience tells me that salt is far more damaging to anything that is living and we have all seen the damage that it can do to concrete over time. Just visit a building in most any part of Canada with concrete steps over 20 years old…. Look carefully and you will see that the steps are pock marked, beat up and aged or they have been replaced or repaired over time. Unless they have used a salt alternative.

All Natural.

Home Hardware sells their own brand of salt-less ice melter under the Natura brand. I have not tried it, but I trust the brand. (http://www.homehardware.ca/)
Another natural alternative is Get a Grip® Natural Ice Melter (www.icemelter.ca/products/getagrip_e.php). It will melt ice at temperatures down to – 18 C, contains a similar ‘colour marker’ as the Alaskan brand, provides instant traction and is reportedly ‘gentle on concrete, grass, plants and pets. No mention of kids in their press release but I assume that it is gentle on them too. I would not recommend that you keep them indoors just because you ‘salt-alternative’ the front walk.

Give the alternatives to salt a try and let me know how you do.
If your experience is anything like mine, you will be hooked and will never buy another bag of salt for anything. Except maybe the water softener.

Keep your knees dirty,

Mark

Next week: time to get off your butt in earnest and ‘Start Your Garden Indoors’ – I will tell you how, why and what to sow for a great looking (and cheap!) garden.

Dreaming

Well gardeners – are you enjoying your ‘time off’?
God gifted us with this season that we call ‘winter’ to relax, reflect on the season ahead, educate ourselves and drink lots of coffee.
We do this now because there is precious little time for any of it come spring.

I took a walk around my garden the other day after a particularly beautiful snow fall. Only a couple of centimeters had arrived overnight, but it landed so lightly and in such cold conditions that I would have turned down a free trip to Florida even without the usual hassle of customs and airport security just to be in that moment.

Here is a shot of my now famous hydrangea garden covered in a fresh shroud of snow.

Here also is a shot of the same hydrangea garden in mid summer, looking its best.
One has to marvel at the dramatic changes that occur over the year in the average Canadian garden, regardless of where you live. We observe the cycles of new growth, flowering, fruiting, colour change and the slow onset of dormancy knowing that we – the gardeners – exercise very little control over any of it.

Plant Managers.

I am not sure that gardeners even orchestrate change – waving a baton at the key players in a symphony of colour, fragrance and flight of wing. No: I think that we are, at best, plant managers.

Gardeners can design and plant a garden. We can add to the existing soil or dig the whole mess out and replace it with the good stuff. We can prune existing shrubs and trees and move perennials around the yard as they mature. But we don’t actually ‘grow’ anything. Evolution took care of that job for us many generations of Hosta and hoyas ago.

If you don’t believe me, take a look around you and you will notice that there is a whole big green world out there that is growing without any help from any of us. Thank you very much. Before the Europeans arrived in this land the woodlands were left for the most part on their own. Carbon dioxide was exchanged for oxygen and a few other goodies and voila – forests grew up all over the land.

The best time to plan and to dream.

Mid winter is the best time of year for us to think about the garden that we want this coming year, to plan for it, to make some calls to contractors and designers to enlist some assistance in this process. And to dream.

It would be easy for me to recommend that you subscribe to seed catalogues right now, to read gardening magazines, to visit my website to get your nagging gardening questions answered at http://www.markcullen.com/ and to go to a few horticultural meetings. These meetings are occurring all across the country in greater frequency than ever before. They are a great way to meet like minded people and engage in some conversation that will get you going in a direction that will help you produce the garden of your dreams.

But I am not going to suggest any of that.
Instead I merely want you to do one thing this week: to dream the dream of the greatest garden and yard that you ever had.
No great accomplishment in this world ever occurred without a dream.

It is your turn, Canadian gardeners.

Our ability to dream is a vital part of the gift.

Dream about keeping your knees dirty – and pour yourself another cup of coffee.

Mark


Join me on Thursday, January 20th for an event with the Applewood Garden Club. The event takes place at the Lakeview Golf Course in Mississauga. For more details, visit http://www.applewoodgardenclub.org/. Hope to see you there!

Investing advice for 2011.

I just received an interesting memo from my financial portfolio manager. It is a ‘top ten list’ of important things to remember when investing in the stock market this year. The most dominant message is that things have changed and by the way in case you forgot, things have changed and they are going to change some more.

Well, I have some advice for all of the stressed out financial advisors out there (and if they are not stressed out, they should be): bet on the gardening experience to produce dividends that you have only dreamed of.

You see, gardening is a blue chip investment from any point of view. Take a packet of seeds, for example. I don’t know who said that the best bet that you can make is with some good soil and a packet of seeds, but he or she had a point. The risks are few and the potential rewards many.

It is in the garden that we connect with the natural world around us and learn, providing that we are listening and asking the right questions in the first place. We learn, for example, that whatever goes up must come down. Try growing a vine in your garden and you will learn that it won’t go up in the first place without some support. And in time, the vine outgrows the support and the vine grows downwards again. You have to keep shoring up the support or cut down the vine.

Everything has a life cycle. By planting in one season and removing the finished plants in another we learn that every living thing has a life cycle. Even the mighty oak will fall, someday. Hopefully not on your house. The productive tomato finishes its work in one season. Garden leeks and garlic need to experience some frost in order to maximize their flavour. Raspberries are best in their 3rd and 4th years, strawberries in their 2nd year and asparagus never seems to quit after it’s 5th year, but man are they slow to come around until then! The same for rhubarb. But even they will peter out in a generation or two. Everything that grows eventually regresses.

Even plants that seem never to quit are actually just fooling you. Take the peony for example. If you visit the location of a long-ago homestead, where a farm house once stood but has long since disappeared, you will often find a lonely peony or two just hanging out on their own with no seeming interest in civilization – occupied house or not. Maybe it was planted there over a hundred years ago.

Truth is, the root structure of the original peony plant has died and been replaced by other, newer roots. The vigour of the peony plant is constantly refurbished in this way. This is why peonies will often appear to change colour over time: it isn’t the original root that is changing. The new one is just taking a different genetic direction. This is Mother Nature’s way of renewing the original plant. And as far as you and I are concerned the peony looks like it has been there forever.

Renewal is our reward. For being patient, we experience the natural division of plants as they multiply before our eyes. Take the Lily of the Valley for example. They seem to go and grow without stopping. The root is a rhizome that moves beneath the soil making new plants as it moves. A lawn thickens much the same way.

We are not alone. In gardening, we engage in a partnership with Mother Nature and grow relationships with neighbours and friends, creating a sense of community that is without price. I believe that people who spend time writing for the financial pages and the financial planners themselves would actually benefit by spending more time in the garden.

The support system is invisible. The burgeoning popularity of organic gardening offers one very basic tenant that is worth keeping in mind: the health of your garden plants is determined by the health of your soil. A colony of thriving bacteria, beneficial insects and protozoa = good quality soil. Add lots of raw organic matter in the form of compost for these critters to feed on and your plants will grow almost despite themselves because a buffet of goodies is at their feet.

Now, how is this helpful to financial planning professionals?

Let me sum up:

Everything has a life cycle. The markets had been growing for a record period of time then took a plunge and then recovered. Funny – just like Nature to behave that way.

Renewal is our reward. As sure as the markets are up they will go down. How fast and how far is anybody’s guess. But they will bounce and new, better stocks will replace some of the tired old ones. Be smart and be patient.

We are not alone. They say that 47% of Canadians were invested in the stock market last year. Remember that when you open your investment update this month. As Red Green said many times, ‘We are all in this together.’

The support system is invisible. The news is full of union disputes, large companies that are standing in line for government bail outs, other companies that are in decline and some that are closing their doors.
The media will not tell you about the people who are making their best effort to create a product or service of value: many are hanging in there. The majority of us are reporting for work on time, getting the job done and making a small but significant contribution that helps to make Canada great.
Those companies that are hanging in there are making something or selling something that people want and can afford. I had to wait in line today behind 4 people at McDonalds for a fillet-o-fish. Somebody other than me seems to want their product.

But I digress: it is a new year and time to reflect on what is important.

From William Alexander, author of The $64 Tomato.

“Things that I remember: witnessing childbirth, finding myself standing absolutely alone before DaVinci’s Last Supper. And planting potatoes on a perfect spring morning.”

If you like this message I hope that you forward it to your financial advisor.

Keep your knees dirty,


Mark

Gift Ideas for Gardeners

I have said for some time that it is easy to buy for gardeners: generally you do not have to worry about the colour or size (except for gloves). In most cases the gift will get used because so many things that a gardener needs cannot be “over acquired”.

Take good gloves as an example. I have lost track of the numbers of pairs that I have around the property….tool shed, barn, garage, truck, car trunk and at the front door cupboard. Look for goat skin or reasonable substitute, reinforced finger tips, an open weave back to allow your hands to breathe and a Velcro closure at the wrist to stop dirt from travelling down into the working portion of the glove. I have just described the Mark’s Choice garden glove at Home Hardware. $15.

Garden Magazine. A copy of the latest Canadian gardening magazine does the trick, if you are looking for a ‘stocking stuffer’. For the more generous there are some great deals on subscriptions. We are blessed in Canada to have several great publications that address the peculiar needs of the Canadian gardener. Look for Canadian Gardening, the tried and true (http://www.canadiangardening.com/). For information guaranteed to meet the regional needs of gardeners pick up Gardens West/Central/East, for which I write (http://www.gardenswest.com/) and the newest publication on the block is Garden Making, for lots of colour and columns by some names that you may be familiar with (http://www.gardenmaking.com/).

The Truly Canadian Almanac, by Harrowsmith. Finally there is a great, 100% Canadian almanac that provides you with weather forecasts, small town stories, trivia and all manor of washroom reading. Sure to keep the receiver of this gift busy for hours. $5.95 at Home Hardware and books stores.

How bout yourself?

Consider donating TIME to the receiver of your Yuletide largess. This may be the most appreciated gift of all!

Weeding. Offer to donate several hours of weeding at a mutually convenient time. Every gardener gets weary of pulling weeds, after the romance of the thing wears off about mid June. Bring your own equipment, including a long handled Mark’s Choice Speedy Weeder from Home Hardware. At about $28 it is the best investment that you can make in effective, chemical free weed control - without the back pain associated with stooping and bending.

Pruning. Most of us do not like to cut our own kid’s hair. Ditto the plants in our garden. Offer to come over with your loppers/shears and a green wood saw and do some trimming. Take away the trimmings for a bonus. Btw, the best loppers and hedge shears in the business are made right here in Canada. They are the Mark’s Choice limb loppers ($50 and $70) and hedge shears ($50) at Home Hardware.

Consultation. If you love to garden offer your services to people on your list who have a moderate interest in gardening. Your experience is worth something. Likely more than you know. Can you give advice on plant placement? Soil prep? Accompany your friend(s) to a garden retailer next spring and offer advice on the best deals on the lot, noting that the lowest price is not as important as the quality of a live plant.

I hope that these ideas are helpful.

With many thanks for reading each week, I wish you a very Merry Christmas this week. Regardless of your religious beliefs I encourage you to take the time to reflect on a world of peace and goodwill towards our fellow humans.

Hold the people close to you closer.
Hold the door for a stranger.
Hold out the hand of friendship to someone in need.

And God bless.


Mark

Gearing up for a great Christmas

Garden Gear for the gardeners on your Christmas list.

We are not exactly ‘on the home stretch’ of the Christmas buying season, but we are at the 7th inning stretch. That means that the ‘last minute’ people are beginning to think seriously about their gifts for this Christmas and the long-term-planners are about to sit down with a good book and light a fire.


Which brings us nicely to the juncture where I can talk about MY favourite gifts – the ones that I would most like to receive at Christmas – as a gardener.

Here are my suggestions:


1. Books. Gardeners love to read, especially now that HGTV doesn’t run ‘gardening shows’ per se any more. We become starved for ideas and reflections on the growing season as the winter wears on.
* Middle Aged Spread. By Sonia Day. What my good friend Sonia has done here is to lay out the reality check everyone needs who has EVER even just thought of moving to the country. Her ‘dream garden’ becomes an adventure in living that even someone with the diverse background and travel experience of dear Sonia cannot anticipate. Funny. Engaging. Informative. Available at Book City and on line from Indigo/Amazon. Retails for $24.95.

* Gardeners Journal (especially for gardeners in Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe). Provides excellent weekly tips, what to do, contact info for all horticultural clubs, associations, government agencies, gardening media (i.e. TV, radio shows, magazines etc.), space for your own garden photos, and an extensive list of garden retailers including the bricks and mortar and e-retailers. http://www.torontogardenbook.com/


* Canadian Garden Primer, by Mark Cullen. This is my most exhaustively complete work, with an organic bend. Most everything that you need to know to grow a great veggie garden or a fabulous looking landscape (including an environmentally responsible lawn!). Lots of colour. Clear, concise text. For experienced and novice gardeners alike. Available at Chapters/Indigo and Home Hardware. http://www.markcullen.com/


2. Tools. Experienced gardeners love to use quality tools. They are a pleasure to work with and, just like your favourite pair of jeans, we ‘break our tools in’ and become attached to them over time. Buy the best that you can afford and the receiver will think of you favourably forever.
* Pruning saw. Not just any saw: look for a comfortable fit in the hand, light weight, Canadian Made with a Swedish blade (they still make the best). You cannot go wrong with name brands like Felco, Corona or (frankly) Mark’s Choice. http://www.homehardware.ca/

* Hand pruners. Why is it that many gardeners will not part with enough cash to buy themselves a good quality pair of hand pruners? And yet, there is not one gardener alive who does not value the experience of working with a quality pair. Look for a comfortable feel in your hand: weight, balance, rubber grip, aluminum handle and a high carbon steel cutting blade. To be a real hero, include a small tube of honing oil, a small blade sharpener and a belt holster. THAT is a gift!! Name brands like Felco, Corona and (there it is again!) Mark’s Choice are recommended. http://www.homehardware.ca/ or http://www.leevalley.com/

* Stainless steel digging tools. Why stainless steel? They are smooth and cold - dirt does not stick to them as readily as with cheaper steel. They hold an edge – you will not have to sharpen them as often. They do not rust and they look great. http://www.homehardware.ca/



3. Gardeners also love wildlife and colour. Consider a magazine subscription. (Gardens West or Canadian Gardening, National Geographic, Canadian Geographic, Outdoors Canada etc.)

4. Nature/garden calendars.

And if your gardening friends have everything that they could ever want for their garden, why not plant one for someone else, in their name! There are great Canadian charities that are providing the resources for less fortunate people all over the world to access tools, soil, water and seeds in an effort to feed themselves. Every gardener that I have ever met would relate to and appreciate such a gift. Go to http://www.shareagfoundation.org/ or http://www.worldvision.ca/.

Keep your knees dirty!

Mark

Choose the right Christmas Tree

Just when you thought that life is not at all predictable, I come along with a morsel of information that shatters your illusion.

With Christmas little more than a couple of weeks away we are coming up to THE big weekend for Christmas tree sales. In fact, most Christmas tree sales will occur exactly 2 weekends prior to December 25th.

I know this based on more than a few years in the retail ‘Christmas tree’ business.

Which brings me to the most asked ‘gardening’ question this time of year, which is, “What is the best Christmas tree?”

It is a great question because not all Christmas trees are created (grown) equal and there are new varieties/species offered almost every year. I will get to that in a moment, but first a short speech in defense of the ‘plantation grown’ Christmas tree.

There are sincere but misguided people out there who will tell you that buying a Christmas tree is bad for the environment. The thinking goes like this: why would you cut a perfectly good tree down in the forest when it could continue to serve a purpose left standing there? Wildlife benefits from trees as does the environment (all of our oxygen, after all, is produced by the green living world around us).

IF we cut trees down in the forest for Christmas – trees that otherwise would stand for a long time naturally – I would agree with the above stated argument. But the truth is that no respectable retailers in Canada would sell cut Christmas trees that were cut from a natural stand of evergreen trees. Virtually all of the trees that are available for sale from nurseries, garden centres, retailers, Boy Scouts and church groups are ‘plantation grown’.


The truth about the Christmas tree that you buy:

It takes between 8 and 10 years to grow a good quality Christmas tree.

They are generally grown on marginally productive land to begin with. While growing they provide valuable protection and a home for a wide variety of wildlife including birds, deer, rodents and butterflies. Christmas trees sequester carbon and exhale pure, clean oxygen (like all other trees). They reduce soil erosion and filter air borne pollutants. They are not (generally) fertilized while in the field, and the use of pesticides seldom occurs and when it does, they are used judiciously (Christmas tree growers are not necessarily environmentalists, but the cost of pesticides alone discourages the practice of using them).

Now that we have established the benefits of supporting the Christmas tree growers of Canada (they are a net-export crop by the way), let’s look at the various qualities of the trees that are available:

Canadian Christmas trees: in order of my personal favourites:
Five *’s = very favourite
One * = poor choice.

Fraser Fir *****. Tall, straight, wonderful evergreen scent and above average needle retention. A traditional look. Soft needles: easy on the hands. I will put one of these in my home partly because they are easy to set up. Have you ever put up a Christmas tree that had a crooked trunk? It is a test of anyone’s good will and ‘Christmas spirit’. If I am ever visited by the ghost of Christmas past, I am sure that he will take me to that day in the garage when I tried putting a Scots pine into a 3 legged tree stand. Not a pretty picture.
Cost for a 7 foot: between $45 and $65.


Noble fir *****. Much like the Fraser Fir but with a wonderful silver tone to the underside of the needles.
Cost for a 7 foot: $50 to $90

Balsam ****. Great needle retention, straight trunk, nice scent. A maritime native. Only downside is the distance between branches is rather generous, giving the tree a thinner look than its’ Fir cousins. You will get fewer ornaments on a Balsam, but if the tree has been aggressively pruned on the farm it can thicken up quite nicely. The lower cost may encourage you to look for this one at your local supplier.
Cost for a 7 foot: $35 to $50.



Scots Pine ***. This was the #1 cut Christmas tree a generation ago. It was the tree that my Dad hauled home from the garden centre for our personal use for as many years as I can remember. The greatest advantage of the Scots Pine is that it has long needles that are stiff enough to hold up most any tree ornament. Also, it is densely branched, providing an excellent opportunity to load it up with lights and decorations. However, the trunk of the Scots Pine is seldom straight and never as straight as that of the Fraser Fir. It has reasonable needle retention, a gentle scent that is most intense when you first bring it into the house and the price is lower than any of the more popular trees.
Cost for a 7 foot: $30 to $45.


White spruce **. The very first Christmas tree, which, legend has it, was cut somewhere in Bavaria, Germany about 350 years ago, likely was a spruce of some kind. This gives us the ‘traditional’ shape that most of us associate with the Christmas tree. That is about the limit of features that the White Spruce has to recommend it.
It has poor needle retention, usually has wide gaps between branches (minimizing the opportunity for decorations and lights) and the scent is moderate.
Above all, I steer away from the White Spruce for the fire hazard that results from the dramatic needle drop.
If you live in the country and are cutting a spruce down on your own property, be sure not to bring it indoors until about 5 days before Christmas. And take it back outdoors a couple of days after Christmas. That way the ‘needle drop’ will not cause too much of a problem: like clogging up your vacuum cleaner.
Cost for a 7 foot: Cheap, if you can find them.

A couple of tips when choosing and preparing your tree for indoors:

1. Look for a tree with a straight trunk – anyone that has tried to put a crooked tree in a stand will tell you the same thing.
2. Look for bushiness that suits your space. Look for a tree that is the right height for the room you plan to put it in. You pay for height when you buy a tree – no use cutting off a foot or two!
3. Cut about 2 inches off of the bottom of the trunk the same day that you plan on putting the tree up. This opens up the capillaries in the tree, increasing its ability to take up water.
4. ALWAYS use a stand that holds water and make sure that you keep it topped up. This, more than anything else that you do will help the tree to hold its needles for the longest time possible.
5. When you dispose of your tree, leave it for the municipality to recycle OR place it in the garden, stand and all, until spring. In the mean time it will provide protection for visiting birds. I put mine within 20 ft of bird feeding stations.

Above all, take family and friends out for the tree selection experience and get the Christmas spirit stirred up well ahead of the big day!

Keep your knees dirty,


Mark Cullen

Christmas carols on the radio. Christmas carols in TV commercials.

So, Christmas is in the air. And it is time to think of the gardeners on your Christmas list.
If you are a non gardener, have no fear. I am here to help guide you through the quagmire of gardeners’ gifts.
If you think of yourself as a gardener, I can give you some suggestions that will help you help the gift givers that are after you for your list.

First of all, let me help you do some thinking for yourself: when it comes to gardening gizmos: tools, equipment, supplies etc. you want to think about stuff that is not only useful but that:

A. lasts i.e. quality (because you want the receiver to be thinking good things about you while using the gift)

B. is useful (vs. say, a popular gardening tool like the Gold Digger, which often hangs in the tool shed until it ends up in a garage sale somewhere)

C. is of a certain nature that the gardener receiving it would not have purchased it themselves (e.g. a digital camera).

The digital camera is not such a bad idea, even for the person who already has one. I am thinking of the less expensive kind: a camera that is dedicated to garden use more-or-less exclusively. You would store this camera in your garage or even your tool shed (assuming that the roof doesn’t leak). It would be there for the ‘impulse shots’, just a few steps away from the rose that is flowering at its peak, the rare looking bird that just arrived on the feeder and (most importantly!) the light that is perfect – but only for a moment.
A gardener will put these photos into a special place, if only in a special ‘garden’ file on their computer, where they will think of you every time that they visit it.


Nothing gets more practical than a pair of hand pruners. Here, high quality goes a long way. Any gardener can tell you that using a cheap pair of pruners is hard on the hands: often they do not spring back into position after a cut, the blades will separate under moderate pressure and they will not hold an edge for long as the blade metal is cheap, just like the rest of it.

True, I have my own pair under the Mark’s Choice brand which is made by Corona: they have a reputation for excellent quality and a cutting edge that holds for a long time. But they, frankly, are second best. The very best hand pruners on the market are still made in Switzerland by Felco. When I had a nursery farm and 30 field workers, we outfitted every one of them with Felcos because they never (almost never) let us down.

Felco hand pruners are twice the price of Corona pruners. About $30 vs. $60 to $80. You are comparing the cost of a good quality garden tool that is designed and manufactured for the passionate gardener (Corona/Mark’s Choice) vs. the professional grade (Felco). Now you can make an intelligent choice. Visit http://www.homehardware.ca/ to view the Mark’s Choice/Corona pruners.
$10.
If you are looking for the $10 stocking stuffer for a gardener, I have a little secret: every gardener is human and as such, forgets what she planted where. Answer: aluminum plant markers.
I have about 300 of these on the go in my garden at any one time. Use a permanent nursery marker or a Sharpie to permanently mark perennials, roses and shrubs. You can stand on these things and the worst that will happen is you will bend them. If that happens, pull them out of the soil and bend them back with your gloved hands. I find that the names of my plants need to be re-written every two years or they do fade. This is a good thing as I have forgotten the plant name by then anyway and writing it down yet again reinforces the name in my forgetful mind. When I am through with the marker (i.e. the plant dies or I pull it out) I simply put the marker on my wire wheel in the shop and rub the printing out. Or you can use a solvent to do the same thing.

$15.
For anyone that loves gardens and trees: The Toronto Tree Portraits desktop Calendar.
Many of my blog readers are not from the Toronto region: I appreciate that. However, this calendar is unique and it celebrates the green spaces and heritage trees in one of the greatest cities in the world (arguably). You will love it.


You can order on line at www.torontoparksandtrees.org/portraits.htm.

$15
Book: A Sandbox of a Different Kind. [hardcover]
Personal reflections on the Canadian garden experience.
My 17th book, but my first ‘story book’. 52 short gardening stories based on the many Canadian gardeners that I have met, my own gardening experiences and some reflections on the stories told to me by my Dad. This book is light, refreshing and fun. And my kids say that if you read it you will sleep like a baby. Nice kids.


Available at Chapters/Indigo, independent book sellers and Home Hardware.

I’ll bring you some more Christmas gift suggestions in the coming weeks, but in the mean time, some reminders about your garden:

- It is not too late to protect valuable young fruit trees with a plastic spiral. This will prevent potential mice, rat and rabbit damage.


- Be sure to secure upright junipers and cedars with burlap. I find the ‘tensor’ type of burlap easiest to apply. In other words, you don’t have to invite a few friends over to help you wrap up your evergreen when you do this job.

- Water the plants under your house eve. All plants enjoy going into winter with moisture at their root zone.


Indoors: this is a great time to start an amaryllis bulb. Get it potted up now and in a sunny window and it will be in bud for Christmas. Maybe, with some luck, it will be in full flower for early in the New Year.

Keep your knees dirty!

Mark

The Best Time to Start Gift Buying

"Seedsmen recon that their stock in trade is not seeds at all – it’s optimism.”
~ Geoff Hamilton

This week I would like to suggest a gift for the non-gardeners on your list – the kids.

There are little people all across the country who have not yet been introduced to the miracle of growing plants. Or the miracle of compost, but that is for another time.

Where kids are concerned, there can be no argument that an introduction to soil, water, sun and their collective effects on the plant world is in order. The younger the kid the better. If you have any doubt about the importance and – indeed – the relevance to the future of civilization and the earth generally, read the book ‘The Last Child in the Woods’ by Richard Louve.

In his landmark book he explains how a whole generation of youngsters now suffer from a malady that he calls ‘nature deficit disorder’. This disconnection of the human species from the natural world around us is creating an attitude that we are somehow not a part of it – nature, that is. And with that attitude comes a whole wheelbarrow load of problems that I won’t get into right here – remember, this blog is about engaging kids in the gardening experience.

So, to the list:

1. Make it easy – start an amaryllis or a handful of paperwhites. These easy to grow bulbs are so easy that you don’t even need soil to get results. Amaryllis will produce two or three stems about 40 cm high and 4 or 5 flowers per stem. ‘Spectacular’ might describe them when in bloom.
2. Paper whites are almost as much fun. Members of the narcissus/daffodil family, these miniatures grow almost as aggressively as the amaryllis – the main difference is that the flowers are smaller and they smell funny. Some would say that they smell sweet – which is an understatement and the reason why I think that they smell funny.
3. Flower seeds. Soil. Starting tray/cell packs. When you buy flower seeds for the first time gardener, make them ‘easy to grow’ and as fool proof as you can. Sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, marigolds and calendula are about as foolproof as they come. Be sure to offer a chart of ‘seed sowing times’ so that they are started early enough that they are ready for the garden come planting time.
4. A small shovel, rake, or trowel. Nothing like a shiny new tool to claim the gardening experience for yourself. Home Hardware has the line up of small, wooden handled stainless steel digging tools that are suitable for medium sized kids, say, 6 years or older.
5. A tree. The best way to give a tree at Christmas is to give a gift card to your local gardening retailer with a picture of the tree that you have in mind. Or give them a gardening catalogue with a post-it note in the tree page.
6. If the kids on your list do not have access to the real estate to plant a tree, I suggest that you plant one in Africa (www.worldvision.com) or in public space in an urban area (http://www.torontotreesandparks.com/). A message to this effect in a Christmas card works nicely.
7. Membership in a local botanical garden (Montreal, Toronto, Burlington – ‘Royal Botanical Gardens’) – or a local ‘kids gardening program’ – go to the website of your local horticultural society for details.
8. A few hours of your time, in the garden, with seeds and soil. Come spring there is ample opportunity to get down on your hands and knees with your kid – or someone else’s kid – and sow seeds or plant transplants. What could be more rewarding for you?

As I think about it, this would be a great gift FROM a kid to his/her parents/grandparents/aunt or uncle… a couple of hours in the garden ‘helping’.

You can take it from there…….

More to come.

Keep your knees dirty.

Mark