This Blog is no longer receiving active posts due to a family loss which lead to the forced sale of the Pollinator Potager's location.
I am pleased to relate that the garden is still being tended by the new property owner, for which I am grateful.
The memories of my Pollinator Potager Project will remain here, and in my heart.
Click on Image to Enlarge First Crocus Blooms in the Garden
I have always loved the look of the spring blooming crocus flowers that often provide colour even before the last snows of winter have melted away. Their appearance always fills me with hope.
Until last fall, though, I hadn't known the significance of the tiny crocus, as one of the first sources of nutrition for pollinators during the early months of spring; though, since I'm working hard at learning about and providing habitat for pollinating insects I decided that a practical gesture seemed appropriate.
Seriously, my newly acquired knowledge of the importance of the crocus sent me right out to the gardening store to purchase a generous selection of the corms – they’re not actually bulbs, I learned – necessary for early spring colour and pollinator sustenance.
A week or so ago, some of the crocus plants that incubated in my garden over the winter and have been slowly pushing up through the mulch and composting leaves, suddenly burst into bloom; and, they were glorious!
Some of the first-year crocus flowers, however, were eaten by visiting rabbits, a natural consequence of gardening with which I will have to grapple. Perhaps if I plant more corms this coming autumn, there will be enough sustenance to go around next spring … kind of a generous cross species cooperative, so to speak.
I think I could live with a sharing of valuable resources; but only time will tell about the other species involved, and neither of them are talking.
Click on Image to Enlarge Mel Bartholomew in His Square Foot Garden in Old Field on Long Island Photo Credit:
Roger Thurber
Today, The Hamilton Spectator published my article entitled: "Mel's Square Foot Garden. "It's a tribute to an innovative gardening guru who, "dared to suggest that there might be a better way."
I was surprised to receive a lovely acknowledgment of my article from Steve Bartholomew; Mel's son and the Director of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. Steve wrote, "Nancy, thank you for your wonderful article about my Dad. [This] Friday will make one year since his passing and he is missed dearly."
My own battered copy of Mel Bartholomew's original Square Foot Gardening book
Special to The Hamilton Spectator
by Nancy Haigh Gordon
Back in the early 1980s, traditional vegetable garden philosophy was shaken up by an enterprising retired engineer who dared to suggest that there might be a better way.
A relative unknown, Mel Bartholomew created the unique and engaging gardening method that became the title of his book, "Square Foot Gardening."
The name and method struck a chord with gardeners around the globe.
A square foot garden, as envisioned by its creator, essentially consisted of any number of 4-foot by 4-foot wooden raised frames filled with growing medium and divided into 16 individual gardening squares. Each of these delineated squares could, with a few exceptions, hold one, two, four, nine or 16 plants, depending on growing space required per plant.
For instance, Bartholomew's plan allowed for one plant each of asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, okra or pepper per square; two cucumber plants; four chard, corn, lettuce, potato or strawberry; eight pole bean plants; nine bush bean or spinach plants; 16 small beet, carrot, or onion plants; or one tomato plant (for each of nine squares).
His system allowed even the beginning gardener to mix and match crops, based on their own preference, using the square foot gardening parameters.
No wonder his method was so successful; essentially, Bartholomew predicted that in two months, one 4-foot by 4-foot square foot garden bed could produce at least four heads of romaine, five pounds of peas, nine Japanese turnips, 12 bunches of leaf lettuce, 16 each of scallions and radishes, 18 bunches of spinach and 32 carrots: quite a haul for a garden space of just 16 square feet.
Additionally, Bartholomew advocated vertical frames for climbing support; intermixing vegetables and herbs with annuals for colour as well as disease and pest prevention; and protective features and crop rotation to extend the growing season.
He predicted that his new gardening method would not only eliminate the need for pesticides and all but minimal cultivation, but would also require less watering, thinning and weeding. Simply put, Bartholomew had, "found a better way to garden – one that's more efficient, more manageable, and requires less work."
Immediately taken with the concept, I rushed out to buy "Square Foot Gardening," and convinced my husband to help me put the method into practice in our backyard. It was a great success.
The Beginning of my own successful square foot garden in the 1980's
Years later, I incorporated the same principles in another backyard garden, although on a smaller scale and, recently, the square foot gardening method came back to me while I was researching the incorporation of vegetables and herbs into the perennial pollinator garden in my front yard.
Sadly, during this exploration I discovered that Bartholomew passed away last spring, albeit at the respectable age of 84. And though I only knew him through his book and subsequent television show, reading the unexpected news of Bartholomew's death suddenly made me feel I'd lost someone special.
I still have the book, fittingly battered and well read. It continues to be an inspiration, although I haven't recently applied the concepts in true square foot gardening form.
This spring and summer, however, I'm going to employ some of Bartholomew's tried-and-true methods in my front garden. I believe his "better way to garden" will be transferable, even without the raised beds.
It would also be a nice way to honour the memory of a gardening guru I greatly admire.
I became acquainted with the Earth Day movement during the local crusade to save Hamilton's Red Hill Creek Valley from the ravages of development and expressway construction.
Though I'd lived beside the valley my whole life, I'd taken this natural environment quite for granted, neither understanding the valley's significance to native flora and fauna, nor thinking ahead to the potential consequences of failing to look after this local treasure. I became deeply involved with the "Save the Valley" movement through Friends of the Red Hill Valley (FORHV), an environmentally conscious group of political activists dedicated to preserving the valley in it's natural state.
Failure to accomplish our mandate was a crushing blow, that all but separated me from my constant companions who’d become almost like family, and temporarily subdued my new-found commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice. It was like losing one’s support system and moral compass all in one fell swoop.
However, the re-discovery of Silent Spring, the ground-breaking book by Rachel Carson that gave rise in the 1960's to a substantial belief in the effects of pollution on public and environmental health; a second kick at the political can, so to speak, with a new Red Hill Neighbourhoods Association; and the refusal of a few close friends from FORHV to lose touch brought me back from the brink.
Lately, I’ve poured my environmental energy into a front yard grass-to-garden transformation that has more recently morphed into what I lovingly and laughing refer to as The Pollinator Potager Project. It continues to keep me motivated and environmentally conscious. Today, in honour of Earth Day, I am planting the pea plants I’ve grown from seed inside my house. It’s a small effort but an effort none-the-less. Happy Earth Day!
Note: For a terrific read, I suggest The History of Earth Day linked here from the Earth Day Network. It's enlightening and inspiring.
The dictionary defines the potager as, "a French term for an ornamental vegetable or kitchen garden." It has its roots in the French Renaissance. The Scots have referred to a similar plot of land as a kailyaird since at least the 16th century; so, I suspect that many countries have gardening traditions akin to the potager.
Basically, a potager, or kailyaird for that matter, is a place to grow vegetables and herbs within easy access to the house or kitchen. It must also be an enjoyable place to work and be pleasing to the eye. The potager can be part of a larger structured ornamental garden or a simple unassuming vegetable plot unto itself.
Traditional potagers involved geometric design, manicured lawns, raised focal points and were defined by their pathways and borders. Formality, however, need not be central to the humble kitchen garden. In my urban pollinator potager patch, functionality will become one with a very simple form; and both will develop over time as energy and money permit.
This growing season, I’m adding fruits, vegetables and herbs to the perennials, shrubs and flagstone patio already inhabiting my front garden. It’s a potager in the making and the making of a kitchen gardener.
Click on Image to Enlarge My South Facing Greenhouse Window
This is a shout out to my marvelous husband, who built me a lovely functional greenhouse window in the unused space above my kitchen sink.
Employing an extra white wire closet shelf, a scrap piece of oak found in our garage and some serious elbow grease; within an hour Doug had transformed useless space into a beautiful greenhouse-like seedling starter location in a south-facing window. The shelves are easily and completely removable, should I choose to take them down over the winter; however, I think they'd be a great location for houseplants during the colder months. In addition to the portability, the location of the shelves - right over the kitchen sink - makes it impossible for me to forget to water and tend the seedlings. With respect to form and function, I'm simply delighted with the result of my greenhouse window; and, my seedlings are growing, as my husband says, "Like they are on steroids." Many thanks, Doug, for a project very well done!
Click on Image to Enlarge Mattie-Belle & Our Seedlings
Two evenings spent planting seeds with the help of 5-yr-old grand-daughter is the equivalent of ... well, there is no equivalent. It's a combination of trying to control tiny dextrous hands that move at the speed of light, keeping up with thought processes and verbal ability of which I can only marvel, and feeling the absolute exhaustion that can only follow a delightful sharing experience.
We planted arugula because Mattie-Belle gushes, "I love arugula!" She also requested carrots and broccoli. I chose kale, lettuce, peppers, chives, peas, cucumber, dill, parsley, beets and tomatoes. Corn, squash and pumpkins may have been planted a little early, but my eager assistant couldn't be stopped. I will likely have to re-sew these crops later when they can be moved outside quickly.
None-the-less, it's inspiring to see a 5-yr-old so invested in planting and growing food she will one day eat. I can only hope that her enthusiasm will grow with her, and that gardening will always be an important part of her life.
Click on Image to Enlarge Meme Credit - Simple Organic Life
"Weeds," said Robert Fulghum, "are plants growing where people don't want them. In other words," continued the author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, "weeds are in the eye of the beholder ... dandelions are NOT WEEDS - they are FLOWERS!"
I like Fulghum's style. I'm quite partial to the delightful dandelion, myself, and have been since I was a little girl. Sunny and bright in the springtime, I've long admired the dandelion's ability to grant wishes when blown to the wind, and remember well the jewelry and hair adornments I used to make from them.
Contrary to the long held belief that dandelions are a scourge to lawn and garden and a noxious weed to be eradicated at all cost, the flower of the dandelion should be celebrated as one of the first available sources of food for bees and other pollinating insects in the spring.
It’s truly unfortunate that the modest dandelion’s astonishing ability to self-seed and its deep burrowing taproot invites definition as invasive weed when in fact they are a flower. Perennial and herbaceous, the dent de lion or tooth of the lion, has many beneficial qualities that should render even the fussiest of grass growers silent about dandelion eradication.
Specifically, the dandelion is an edible green, an immune system and hormone enhancer, and a source of important vitamins A, C, and K; iron, manganese, potassium, calcium; and antioxidants. Every part of the Dandelion is edible, although care should be taken when sensitive or allergic to latex or inulin or taking blood sugar modulators.
Otherwise, dandelion greens and stems are extremely nutritious in salads and spreads, the flowers can be cooked or eaten raw or blended with citrus to make a praise-worthy wine, and roasting the stems produces a dandelion coffee substitute that is caffeine-free.
Add to all that, the fact that pollinators depend on the dandelion pollen for sustenance until other flowering perennials come into bloom, and you have some pretty substantial reasons to leave the sunshiny-yellow dandelion’s alone.
If, however, you still feel compelled to rid your lawn or garden of dandelions, at least resist using harmful pesticides and chemicals. Chose instead to carefully dig the dandelions out, only after the colourful blooms have faded to give pollinators a chance to feed on the life-sustaining nectar. Better still, pick the seeds to prevent too much spread, and welcome the healthful herb-like greenery to your garden as you would parsley or kale.
The University of Rochester boasts the dandelion as their official flower, and Dandelion Yellow an official school colour.” They’ve even celebrated the flower oft' condemned as a lowly weed in this linked song, The Dandelion Yellow, sung by the Yellow Jackets and written by Richard L. Greene and Charles F. Cole.
So, here's to the spirit of celebrating the pretty yellow dandelion and its important role in providing pollinator sustenance. Giving dandelions a place to grow and pollinating insects a better chance at survival will benefit us all in many unexpected ways!
