Gardening Out Loud

It’s time for another guest episode, this time with Butterfly Ranger and passionate front yard food grower Sarah Joy Bennett. SJ tends a farm in the front and a forest in the back (the horticultural mullet?). The lovely front yard features two raised beds and a nifty terraced side pollinator patch. (If you’d like to see the transformation of her eroding slope with the Dirt Locker, you can see some photos from installation, year one, and year two on her Instagram. It’s pretty cool, and I’m not just saying that because I helped.) While we recorded, the whole space was just humming with pollinators.

This is an especially useful episode if you’re a renter with access to potential growing space, but we also discuss growing with kids, the wonder of berries (including the new-to-me annual huckleberry), gardening as a gateway to community, and focusing on growing what you love, which is less obvious that it sounds.

If you’re now invested in Sarah Joy’s garden, you can follow it through the seasons through her Instagram, @sarahjoybennett.

In this episode . . .

Garden, farm, or . . . ? Savouring scape season. Elegant cerinthe. The gift of a peony. The carrots’ loss is the beans’ gain. Pinching tomato suckers. Lavender haze. Strawberries are for sharing. What happened to my serviceberry?

In this episode . . .

Climate retreat and grounding in the grass. Tomatoes love heat. A moment for scented geranium leaves. (And too many streetcars — words hardly ever uttered in Toronto. Sorry about the sonic intrusion!)

In this episode . . .

A brief history of the garden’s roses (Boscobel, Desdemona, Munstead Wood, and James Galway — all David Austin Roses). Obsessed with my clematis. Dahlias emerging.

In this episode . . .

Visit from a baby raccoon. Flowering raspberries. Purple season continues. Planting for pollinators on a dry, shady, neglected “lawn” and the value of native plants.

To find the native plants right for your region, try Pollinator Partnerships’s Find Your Roots tool. Toronto has its own Native Plant Market in the west end, and you can also order plants online from Ontario Native Plants. I also recommend Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla’s A Garden for the Rusty Patch Bumblebee, an essential native plant gardening guide.

In this episode . . .

Purple season kicks off. Planting out tomatoes and avoiding cutworm losses. David Austin roses. Cultivating generosity. Comfrey potions and mulches. (The sterile version of comfrey is called Bocking 14.)

Welcome to the very first Gardening Out Loud guest episode!

While I wanted GOL to offer a close look at the evolution of the space I tend over the course of a growing year, there are so many other incredible gardens and gardeners I’d love to share with you. And so I’ll drop periodic guest episodes into the feed, giving you a glimpse into some more amazing spaces, stories, and ways of being in the natural world.

Recently I was revisiting Ross Gay’s Inciting Joy, in which he asks, “What if wonder was the ground for our gathering?” And if there’s an organizing principle for these episodes, it’s coming together for wonder.

This spring, I wanted to kick off with Ateqah Khaki, whose front yard garden I admired long before I knew her. She’s a fellow daffodil superfan, and her spring garden is abundance made manifest: it just explodes with life and colour. Her eye for form is evident too, and you’ll hear her discuss the shapes that really draw her in.

As she gardened out loud, I relished her insights on motherhood, growing as a gardener, connecting with strangers, and decolonizing the garden. (By the way, the podcast episode she mentions on decolonizing the garden is available now — check out Don’t Call Me Resilient to listen.) May we all remember to ask “what does the garden want?” as part of our regular cultivation practice.

If you’re now invested in Ateqah’s garden, you can follow it through the seasons through her plant Instagram, @planteqah.

In this episode . . .

The beauty of microseasons, especially this one. Lilacs and pink trees. (Relative) newcomers to the garden: firebugs and jumping worms. Uproot that garlic mustard. Eating shoots. Blueberry blooms. Tomato planting time.

In this episode . . .

A meeting of the magnolia appreciation society. Tender plants and tender moments. The challenges of growing in pots. Robins in stereo. Cutting your flowers. Is No Mow May a helpful British import? (Fuller consideration of this by Sheila Colla here.)

In this episode . . .

Rainy day reflections on water and the virtues of a rain barrel. Bird noticing. Asparagus arrives. Tulip time.

*A note to clarify the combined sewer system, which is in place in the oldest parts of Toronto: our own sewage goes into the sewer, not into the grates of course, but what I meant was rainwater + household grey & black water are all going to the same system, and a deluge of rainwater can overwhelm that system. In newer parts of the city, there are separate pipes for grate water and household water, and the grate water goes directly into the lake (which is not without some problems either!)