Eglinton Park: from Vermin to Voyagers

Last week in the garden I received a memorable lesson on both nature and native plants. The root of this lesson was an embarrassing and dirty little secret – there are rodents living in the garden. I haven’t mentioned it before because its been a source of shame for me and the garden. Urban rodents carry with them a legacy of disease, filth, and a general gross-out factor; scurrying and skulking being two of their most prominent activities. The mice or rats, whatever they are, that are living in the garden have apparently been there for years. It makes sense, as opposed to their cousins living in sewers or inside a wall, these rodents seem healthy and clean. The garden is a wonderful environment for them, lots to eat, frequent watering, many places to hide. In fact, as I’ve done some research I’ve found that those three factors – food, water and shelter– are the major requirements for rodent populations. Get rid of any one and your rodents will leave too.

This is where the native plants come in. Eglinton Park Community Garden started out as a partnership with Seeds of Diversity as a garden to showcase and preserve seed from native species. Our native plant bed continues to thrive, though when I started here in March none of the original players in developing the garden remained on staff. This left me hesitant to weed or maintain the bed for fear of killing off a rare heritage something-or-other, so inevitably the bed has become overgrown; a perfect habitat for sneaky rodents.

Enter Helen Mills. One of the original creators of the garden, Helen holds the knowledge of not only what’s in that bed, but why it’s there, its medicinal uses and historical importance. Helen is an important figure at TGC, but one I hadn’t met until recently because of late she’s mostly involved with our Lost River Walks program. This program is one of our most important, it takes people on walks through areas of the city where rivers were paved over as the city expanded. The walks are a fascinating combination of history, environmental stewardship, and an introduction to water issues and urban geography.

Groundnut

The walk Helen gave us last week in Eglinton Park told us the history of the park since the end of the Ice Age. We learned that the hilltop had been the centre of a Wendat settlement, the hillside a source of water and clay for pottery, and that the valley had been used to grow corn, beans and squash hundreds of years ago. The nearby Orchard View Blvd got its name from the orchards that covered the hillsides decades later when Yonge and Eglinton was a farming centre and the breadbasket of the country. According to Helen, centuries old pear trees can still be found near the park boundaries, a remnant of these old orchards. She went on to describe the importance of the crops found in the native plant bed and their role in Canadian history, from the groundnut, which was one of the first crops consumed by settlers, to the fleur-de-lys, used by Voyagers who marked trails with their bright yellow blossoms. An upcoming native plant post will go into further detail about the plants we have there and their uses, for those of you who want to know more.

Fleur de lys

At the end of her talk, Helen let me know that most of the natives growing in that bed were so hardy that they could survive any pruning I could throw at them, and that they would actually benefit from receiving a strong cutting back. This was the first step in my liberation from the rodents, knowing that I can remove their shelter means that they’ll have to move on to greener (and hopefully distant) pastures.

The second step came as an interesting precursor to my discovery of the rich natural and agricultural history of Eglinton Park. As I stood weeding the raspberry patch and feeling desperate about the rodent population explosion and considering getting a garden cat for protection, I noticed an unexpected  creature in the park. A large, raptor-like bird had landed on a nearby tree and was surveying the area. I returned to my work and a moment later the bird swooped – snatching up a mouse it had spotted from on high, and flying off into the distance. I almost cheered – what a great illustration of nature’s resilience. Even though humans have been in this park for centuries, taking it farther from nature with each passing year, mother nature could still come in with a quick fix to my human-caused problem: nature’s mousetrap!

Got Mice? Get a Falcon!

Native Plant or Weed? 4 more identified!

A couple of women from the neighbourhood stopped by the garden the other day and chatted with me, asking a few questions as they looked around. They seemed quite knowledgeable about all things garden, so I was surprised when one of them turned to me and asked “how can you tell when the corn is ready to harvest?” Before I had a chance to begin to reply she answered herself  “….When the raccoons have finished eating it all!” 

It’s true. Our corn, as well as other parts of our garden have been falling victim to some critters, be they raccoons, squirrels, or a frightening urban hybrid of the two! In any case, though we’ve been having success so far with preventing squirrel damage by wrapping squashes with screen and chicken wire (more on these successes soon), the corn fell victim to an attack this weekend. At first it seemed as if it were just weather damage, as we did have some torrential rains this weekend, but further inspection showed some definite chewing action had been going on. I righted the damaged corn stalks and tried to use the scarlett runner beans that are climbing them to tie them back upwards,  but they definitely still give the impression of having been leapt on by an animal fattened up by garden veggies. In fact, while I was there I harvested 4 zucchini as I was worried they’d disappear before we were ready to donate them on Thursday. I left them by the side of the garden when I went in to wrestle the corn, and came out to find two missing! Whether it was a human or an animal thief, they’re getting brave! 

In any case, critters and diseases have been our major garden issues this season, we’ve been having a relatively weed and pest free go of it so far. Not to say we haven’t had any weeds or pests of course, but their impact has been minimal, as they should be in a garden with healthy soil. I thought though, since weed posts are among our most popular, I’d do another one, combining classic weeds and native plants, basically just a guide for identifying more things that appear in your garden and deciding what to do with them. Fair warning is to tell you that we keep a lot of native plants in the garden, either because they attract pollinators, look pretty or loosen up the soil with their deep taproots, and I’m happy that way, it makes for less work and more biodiversity. It’s of the utmost importance, however, that you do tend to them before they drop their seeds, either saving it for yourself for next year or throwing them out. Doing your best to prevent weed seeds from getting into the soil is one of the best ways to save yourself a lot of work and headaches next year. 

Large Milkweed Plant

Milkweed  

 

Propagation: By seed and by underground roots 

This is something I definitely thing of as a native plant rather than a weed. Though milkweed distributes a lot of seeds and grows  easily all over Toronto, it not a huge hassle to remove and is both useful and attractive, so I don’t think it deserves to be in the same family as dandelions and bindweed. Milkweed’s most important claim to fame is that its the primary food and habitat of the Monarch Butterfly. This alone makes it a welcome addition to my garden, as seeing Monarchs feeding on its pink or orange flowers is one of the highlights of summer in Ontario.  

Open Milkweed Flowers

It can be identified by its long stalk and oblong leaves that are dark green and soft to the touch as well as by the milky juice that comes from any part of the plant when broken. Its flowers are pink spheres made up of many smaller flowers (or orange, in the case of butterfly milkweed) and its seeds come in soft, green fleshy pods which grow directly off the stalk, eventually drying and bursting open. Milkweed is an interesting plant because it has a history of being used medicinally for treating throat and lung diseases, but is also known to be toxic to many animals. 

This is part of its benefit to Monarch butterflies, they can consume milkweed but it makes them toxic to birds, protecting them from attack. 

Assessment: Let it grow to bring butterflies to your garden, but feel free to remove it from beds and leave it as a border 

Purslane

Purslane 

 

Propagation: by seed 

This plant is cousin to portulaca, an ornamental flower used in many gardens, which explains why I kept thinking it looked kind of nice whenever I spotted it in the garden. It is said to grow in rich soil, though I’ve also seen it do quite well in a crack in the pavement, and in very dry soils. This is because purslane is a succulent plant, like aloe, which stores 

Young Purslane

water in its thickened leaves, allowing it to survive periods of drought. It can be identified by its fleshy, reddish stems and dark green succulent leaves. From July to September it has yellow flowers which are open only while the sun is shining. It is a prostrate plant, growing along the ground, and its stems can take root as they grow. It can be eaten fresh in salads, used as a thickener for soups and stews, and eaten boiled or picked as well. 

Assessment: Pull as you go and try some in a salad, be sure to get it out of the garden before it spreads seeds. 

Chickweed Flower

Chickweed 

Propagation: by seed and by stem rooting 

This is one of the most common weeds in the country, and can grow all season and beyond if weather stays mild. You can tell it’s chickweed if it’s a low, prostrate plant that can grow into a dense mat with small, white, star-like flowers. High in vitamins A,B,C and D, it can be eaten raw in salads or cooked, in which case it tastes like spinach. It indicates fertile soil, so seeing it is a good sign as long as you don’t let it smother your main crops 

Assessment: Thin it, but it’s not a serious threat. 

Jewelweed Flower

Jewelweed 

Propagation: by seed 

Also known as touch-me-not, this plant is famous for its inch long seedpods which explode at the slightest provocation when mature, sending seeds throughout your garden. It can be identified in flower by its orange-yellow trumpet-shaped blossoms, and earlier in the season by its smooth stalk which can grow to 4-5 feet and its large deeply veined leaves. Another identifying characteristic is the water repellence of its leaves, which causes water to bead and appear ‘jewel-like”, giving the plant its name. It is an important plant because its stems can be used as an antidote to poison ivy and other stings (I intend to try it on stinging nettle, which keeps getting the best of me in our garden). 

Jewelweed Leaf

Assessment: If you like the blooms you can keep it, but be careful of those seeds if you don’t want it everywhere! I pull it from veggie beds but it can have a place among the flowers.

all images thanks to ontarioweeds.com

Book Review: Guerrilla Gardening – A Manualfesto

Toronto Green Community is going to be participating in an event on October 8th called Eat-In Ontario at Queen’s Park. This event is being put on by FoodShare, and is a part of their Field to Table Schools program, which works on developing curriculum for all grade levels to promote food literacy and understanding of the social and environmental issues related to food.  We will be presenting on Guerrilla Gardening: gardening in unconventional spaces in the city with or without formal permission. My research on this topic led me to this fantastic book by David Tracey, Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto.

The use of the word manualfesto made me a little nervous at first. I felt like the might be an out of touch, unrealistic book that gave a humourless account of the politics of counterculture, with a few flower references thrown in for good measure. In reality, David Tracey’s years as a journalist give him an extremely readable style, and he manages to focus on both the politics and practice of guerrilla gardening without one overshadowing the other.

The book opens with an introduction to the history of and intention behind guerrilla gardening and discusses its capacity to help people re-imagine the city; learning how space can be used in new and creative ways. Tracey discusses ways to deal with the illegal nature of much guerrilla gardening and discusses ways to legitimize projects both before and after they are begun. His emphasis is on the fun in guerrilla gardening, and the fact that participating in these kinds of projects is a way to address and move beyond depressing environmental realities, not to get bogged down in them. Enjoying the process is so important that Tracey mentions it twice in his list of reasons to Guerrilla Garden, saying:

“Yes, the earth is in drastic shape, and OK, we’re all going to die, but no, we will not in the meantime be driven into becoming dour, hand-wringing, finger-wagging scolds. We will have fun and we will save the planet at the same time. Why? As pursuits they go well together.”

Guerrilla Gardening A Manualfesto is a funny and inspiring book that describes all different aspects of Guerrilla Gardening from seed bombs to midnight planting parties to community orchards and gives realistic project advice: landscape design tips, fast growing wildflowers, tools to use when you’re travelling light and what to say if you get stopped – “oops” being the #1 answer. For anyone interested in merging gardening and creativity in any way this book can be an inspiration, and for converts to Guerrilla Gardening( myself included) it lives up to its name, being a coherent, how-to manifesto.

Introducing Toronto’s most common garden weeds!

With the heavy rains and powerful sunshine we’ve been getting recently, many of our crops are coming out in full force! Just over the weekend, green beans, peas, zucchinis and cucumbers appeared seemingly from nowhere, and the garden is looking more lush than ever before. At the same time, this is excellent weed growing weather, and even after extensive weeding on Thursdays, the following Wednesday many weeds are threatening to overtake again! As we’ve discussed in previous posts, weeds can actually be very useful, having culinary, medicinal or indicative uses. Today we’re going to look at some weeds found in our garden that are among the most common throughout Toronto and Ontario, and find out how they grow, what they indicate, and if they’re good for anything – besides robbing nutrients from your crops I mean!

Before any post on plants, I have to recognize the Ontario Weeds website again. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you really should, it is an amazing resource that allows you to search through and identify prevalent weeds in this province and find out how they propagate, their lookalikes and non-chemical control options available to manage it.

Redroot Pigweed

Redroot Pigweed

The first weed we’ll be looking at. This plant is identified by alternate leaves on an upright, somewhat hairy stalk which reddens closer to the root. It has long stalked ovate shaped leaves, and develops a bristly bunched flowerhead called a panicle in July and August.

Propagation: by seed only

Roots: fibrous root system from a shallow taproot (one thick, penetrating central root… carrots are taproots, for example)

Uses: In the Amaranth family. Leaves and seeds are edible, historically seeds were ground and used as flour.

Assessment – not the most useful of plants, I pull it out.

Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne’s Lace/Wild Carrot

This plant is seen all over Ontario; it has large, round white flowerheads made up of many smaller umbels. It looks very similar to a carrot that has gone to seed, if you’ve ever seen one before, and can get quite tall if left to grow uninterrupted.

Propagation: by seed only

Roots: tough, deeply penetrating fibrous taproot  (again, like a carrot)

Uses: has been used to treat digestive and bladder disorders. Excellent for attracting pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

Assessment: Useful for its pollinator attraction, good surrounding plant beds, but can get out of control

Field Bindweed

Bindweed

A vining plant with arrowhead shaped leaves and white-pink funnel shaped flowers, bindweed can be quite attractive but very competitive. Its vines can choke out desireable plants and it is a chore to control.

Propagation: by seed and persistent underground root system

Roots: densely spreading whitish root system, which allows new shoots to grow when old ones are pulled.

Uses: said to predict rain- if flowers close during the day, rain should be coming. Has also been used as a laxative and for bile removal.

Assessment: not useful. Try to control by frequent pulling or cutting. Though the plant will come back, if you keep an eye on it, it will not get big enough to harm your crops.

Hairy Nightshade

Hairy Nightshade

An interesting plant, because at first it can look like a tomato, pepper or potato plant as they come from the same family. It can be distinguished from these plants by its teardrop leaves and white star shaped flowers, usually smaller than those on pepper plants, and by the fact that you didn’t plant it, it just appeared!

Propagation: by seed only

Roots: weak root system

Uses: in the same family as deadly nightshade, so best not to consume.

Assessment: pull it before it sets and spreads seeds

Jimsonweed

Jimsonweed

This weed doesn’t actually grow in the garden, but rather in the small crack between the community centre and the concrete path beside it.  If that isn’t a testament to the hardiness of jimsonweed, I don’t know what is! It can be identified by its large, funnel shaped white flower and its dark green serrated leaves.

Propagation: by seed only

Roots: weak roots

Uses: All parts of the jimsonweed plant are toxic, and can be poisonous if consumed in high doses.

Assessment: A nice looking plant in my opinion, and attractant for pollinating moths and hummingbirds, so remove it from garden beds, but you can keep it as a border.

Lamb's Quarters

Lamb’s Quarters

This plant is everywhere in our garden, and one of our volunteers swears by it as a basis for pesto, so we try to keep it around. It has soft, toothy leaves eventually growing a stalk with small, densely grouped white-green flowers.

Propagation: by seed only

Roots: small roots

Uses: young leaves are nutty-tasting and very nutritious, high in vitamin A, C, and calcium and can be eaten steamed or raw. It aids the growth of squash family plants and corn, so is a good addition to three sisters gardens.

Assessment: let it grow, but pull it out before the plants go to seed, and make sure not to put seeds in the composter.

Identifying plants and weeds, Ontario-style!

Back at work after the incredibly sunny Victoria Day long weekend when I hope you were all outside and taking advantage of the freedom to plant plant plant as the last frost date should certainly be behind us! Planning out the activity in both our community garden and my home garden this week, I’m getting excited to plant tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and all those exciting heat loving crops that we’ve been coddling on windowsills until now. It will be a busy week for sure, as we’ll also be assembling and planting our vertical potato garden. I’ve got a variety of potatoes sitting on my desk beside me which have been chitting (sprouting) all weekend and should be ready to plant by Thursday. Although chitting your potatoes is said not to be absolutely necessary, it gives them a head start, and a guideline for you to follow if you want to cut larger tubers up into smaller seed plants. 

Weeds, however, are the actual focus of this post, and I’ll get straight to them. Weeds, as non-fanatical gardeners like to say, are just plants in the wrong place at the wrong time. A volunteer tomato plant that comes up spindly in the spring in the middle of your raspberry patch is a weed – otherwise a useful plant, but you don’t want it growing right there in the middle of everything. Bearing that in mind, most weeds have useful attributes, medicinal properties, culinary uses, beautiful flowers, but are intruding into your garden in an aggravating way. In addition, many weeds have developed propagation methods, such as rhizomes (horizontal underground stems), tubers, or seeds that blow all over your garden and wait  years to germinate. These techniques, among others, allow them to outcompete the plants you are trying to grow, potentially taking up space, water, nutrients or sun that you’d prefer to dedicate to the crops you’re cultivating. All of this is why weed identification is important. You need to know what plant you’re dealing with, to find out 

a) If it has any benefits to you or attracts native pollinators to your garden 

b) What kind of a threat it poses 

c) How it propagates, and so how it can best be removed and prevented from re-growing. 

Finding out what weeds you have can often be difficult without the vocabulary to describe them. However, two extremely useful resources I’ve found can make your weed IDing life much easier. The first is one in a series of great Ontario-specific sites I’ve found: http://www.ontarioweeds.com/ . This site pretty much blew my mind, and I assume it will only get better with time. The fact that it is Ontario-based means you won’t waste time mis-identifying a weed that doesn’t actually grow here. In addition, it allows you to search weeds by name or (and this is important) by descriptive words.  So, in searching “white flowers” “heart shaped leaves” I was able to identify the plant growing in my friends garden (and everywhere else in the city) as garlic mustard. 

Garlic Mustard

 I was also able to find out where it came from, how it grows, what threat it poses, and the fact that it’s garlicky leaves are delicious in pesto and a source of vitamins A, B and C.  This website also gives an excellent primer on plant nomenclature, so you will be able to describe leaves as cleft, or lanceolate, or what have you, and identify them that much faster. Definitely grab some weeds from your garden, bring them by the computer and start figuring out what they are, and whether they’re good for attracting butterflies or making wine, because they’re probably good for something! 

The second resource I’ve found, which is a little more conventional, is classic book Weed ID guides, but specifically those published by Rodale. I’m not going to be a snob about this, I’m sure there are tons of good weed guides out there, and I would love to hear any recommendations from you out there, we could start up a database of recommended reading. For my part however, Rodale’s books are great because they’re always organic, they’re full of concise, useful information, clear pictures, and are portable enough to come right into the garden with you. Also, they happen to have 3 different versions of their weed guides in the library beside my office, which means they’re accessible, which is key. 

Through a little detective work I was able to identify the major weeds we have growing in the TGC garden as burdock, colt’s foot, dandelion, golden creeper, milkweed, ox eye daisy, plantain, and shepherd’s purse. (I’m not including pictures of them as an incentive for you to get on Ontario Weeds and see if you have them growing too!) On Thursday we discussed this weeds and their merits. Firstly, many of them help us discern that much of our soil is waterlogged or poorly drained, which as formerly grassed parkland is unsurprising. We also discussed how milkweed is the primary food source for monarch butterflies, burdock was the inspiration for Velcro, shepherd’s purse can help stop bleeding, and plantain can be used on cuts or itchy areas. Getting to know your weeds can be fascinating, and is a key part of  organic land stewardship, so get out there and let us know what you find in your own garden!

Endless Possibilities!

Well yesterday we had a beautiful day for gardening and a beautiful group of volunteers who came out to join us! There was lots to do as well; since it rained last week and this week was our first time to spend our funding money from the TD Friends of the Environment funding we had tons of things to go in the ground.

When I arrived at the garden to prepare for the workbee I found some healthy looking seedlings left by the composter as well as a bag of dog poop left on top of the bins. Our lovely and talented volunteer Phyllis took responsibility for the seedlings donating parsley, broccoli, lettuce and basil, but the accompanying bag of dog poop made me feel like I was getting mixed messages from the community!

In addition to Phyllis’ seedlings we planted 3 beds of lettuce mixes, 3 more varieties of peas, new carrots, beets and radishes and a sunflower mix to surround the benches and add some cheer. Also, a black raspberry plant and a tayberry (which is a mix of raspberry and blackberry – yum!) were added to our raspberry patch, and I couldn’t resist buying a healthy looking fig tree, which we’ve nestled in a pot amid the native plants bed.  A row of green, yellow, and purple bush beans finished off our new plantings and we surrounded them with summer savory seeds to deter bean beetles.

We all took  a break for a short discussion of plant and weed identification techniques, and examined a few of the  most prominent weeds in the garden, their identifying characteristics, and some of their medicinal or culinary uses. A subsequent post will discuss this in more detail, but I was thrilled to find out the depth of knowledge about natural plants and their uses among the garden volunteers – it led to the idea that we should try to develop a field guide of plants found in the Eglinton Park garden and compile all the information we know about them. Another topic of discussion was how to spend our TD money, and I’ve already received some fantastic suggestions: a bike rack, a cigarette butt stop container, a more extensive butterfly garden, a dedicated area for culinary herbs and spices, and lots of support for the idea of having bees in the garden. If anyone has experience with bees or advice of how to get the community/community centre onside for this idea, your input is very welcome! And please send along any other suggestions for the garden, I’d love to hear them all!

First harvest of the year!

Went to check up on the garden today after a sun and rain filled last week, and found – to my surprise – a different kind of volunteer than I’ve been used to: Volunteer Radishes! Volunteer plants are ones which grow without being intentionally planted, from seeds which lay dormant in the soil through the winter. Suspiciously radish-looking plants which have been sprouting all

four little radishes

 over the garden have today been identified as a variety of radishes both red and purple, so we’ll try to leave them undisturbed until they’re ready to harvest. A meagre harvest to be sure, only four radishes all told, but an exciting reminder of how early some veggies can be harvested, even here in Ontario!

In other garden news, we’re gearing up for our Great Garden Adventure summer program for kids 3-7. TGC has put on this program in conjunction with POINT (People and Organizations in North Toronto) for the past seven years and had a great time doing so. The program introduces kids to compost, bugs, growing and harvesting plants over 8 weeks through a variety of artistic and physical activities. We’re currently looking to hire a coordinator for the program, someone who will be returning to school in September. If you are or know of anyone who’d be interested, check out the attached posting and get in touch!

Great Garden Adventure Job

 

Your garden is trying to tell you something…

Last week at our first official workbee of the season we got lots of work done with the 6 volunteers who made it out. two new blueberry bushes were planted, along with red and golden raspberries, soon to be joined by some purple and black raspberries as well. We raked down the veggie bed, planting spinach, lettuce mix, kale and chard in one row, and carrots, beets and radishes in another. 3 varieties of peas were planted alongside the root veggies, as they are said to be excellent companions. We decided to plant only one row of each veggie, with another row to be planted this week or next week, so that we maintain a continual harvest through the season.

Last week’s mini-workshop looked at soil health: ways to test your soil’s pH and fertility, indicators of different nutrient deficiencies and a discussion of how weeds can be useful – as indicators of soil problems! This post will introduce you to a few of these weeds, how they look, and the soil problem with which they are connected. Hopefully it’s useful to you guys, I found myself becoming weed obsessed after researching this post; suddenly plantain and mullein were EVERYWHERE! Don’t forget that even though I’m describing these as “weeds” that doesn’t imply that they are all plants that you should pull out and stomp on furiously whenever you get the chance. On the contrary, many of these weeds have a variety of culinary or medicinal purposes, young dandelion leaves are excellent in salads, and a friend of mine makes a fantastic stinging nettle and coconut gratin. I’ll explore the idea of using weeds beneficially further in a future post, but for now, let’s just figure out what they’re telling you. 

Weeds that indicate: 

Alkaline Soil 

Henbane

Mustard

Bladder Campion

 

Acidic Soil 

Ox-Eye Daisy

Red Sorrel

Bracken Fern

 

 

Compacted Soil

Bindweed

Chicory

Quackgrass

Pineapple Weed

Goosegrass

 

 

 

 

 

Poorly Drained Soil

 

Horsetail

Ground Ivy

Yellow Nutsedge

 

 

Highly Fertile Soil

 

Purslane

Mallow

Chickweed

Lamb's Quarters

Red Clover

Stinging Nettle

 

Infertile Soil

Plantain

Queen Anne's Lace

Yarrow