Like most avid home gardeners, I had clear and resolute plans for the spring growing season. They included early sweet pea transplanting and early seedings of snow and shelling peas, carrots and beets.
Alas, low temperatures, freezing winds, rain, and life circumstances threw several wrenches into the agenda and have brought to mind familiar sayings like “We plan; God laughs” and the Robert Burns poem “To a Mouse:”
“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/ Gang aft agley.”
The early April week I had “off” from writing columns featured cold, wet weather and the deaths of a close neighbour and a family member. Through that terrible week I managed just one gardening session.
Still, several plots had been prepared and were ready for planting as soon as the shock subsided and pockets of useable weather materialized.
If our gardens teach us anything, it’s the ability to jettison hard-held plans and make suitable adjustments to them.
A livable Earth. As I was checking a few television channels one evening, I came across an unusual National Geographic program that imagined our Earth without human life. There were graphics depicting familiar monuments like the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower being gradually covered in vines as Nature formed a green blanket over slowly degrading human works.
The program was oddly inspiring. I was reminded of it recently as I listened to a “climate panel” discussion on solutions to climate change. One panel member asserted, “We have the solution! Invest in Nature.”
Whatever size our gardens, we have an opportunity to be partners in Nature’s healing process. We can grow plants that support Nature. Even the pansy bowls on the patio this spring have drawn regular hover fly and bumble bee visits. Simple, single daisy type flowers, sweet alyssum, calendula, cosmos and cilantro all attract and feed insects that play key roles in Nature as pollinators and as predators on destructive insect pests.
We can turn our gardens into carbon sinks by continually adding organic matter to garden beds and plots and by keeping the soil covered with plants and/or loose mulches to help keep carbon dioxide from leaking into the atmosphere.
The process of recycling leaves, weeds, plant trimmings and other non-woody prunings and turning them into compost absorbs CO2, helping to establish a low-carbon garden. Avoiding the use of toxic chemicals protects the health of our garden soils and leaves the diversity of beneficial wildlife unharmed.
Communities of gardeners tending to the health of their growing spaces have a role to play in preserving the Earth as livable for all. Happy Earth Day.
GARDEN EVENTS
View Royal meeting. The View Royal Garden Club will meet on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Wheeley Hall behind Esquimalt United Church, 500 Admirals Rd. (entrance off Lyall St.) Lynda Dowling of Happy Valley Lavender & Herbs will demonstrate how to create lovely spring planters in “Beautiful Blooming Pots.” One of Lynda’s creations will be raffled off at the meeting. A judged mini show will feature exhibits from members’ gardens. Drop-in fee for non-members $5. .
Rose meeting. The Mid Island Rose Society will meet on Wednesday from 2 to 4 p.m. in North Island Library on Hammond Bay Rd. in Nanaimo.
Cowichan Valley plant sale. The Cowichan Valley Garden Club will hold its annual Spring Plant Sale at St. John’s Anglican Church, 486 Jubilee St. in Duncan on Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
HCP plant sale. The Horticulture Centre of the 91原创, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is hosting a Spring Plant Sale on Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer questions. There will be many unique plants propagated from the HCP gardens. Check the web site for a list of available plants closer to the sale date. .
Container vegetables. The Compost Education Centre, 1216 North Park St. in Victoria, is offering a workshop on Growing Vegetables in Containers on Saturday, April 29, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Learn about what types of containers are the best to use, how to choose the right soil, and what varieties of fruit and vegetables to grow in containers. For information and registration, call 250-386-9676, email [email protected], or go online at .
