Share * Inform * Inspire

I am now a certified (certifiable?) Toronto Master Gardener, having fulfilled the course and volunteer requirements. Alex, Penny and Rob came to the ceremony at Toronto Botanical Gardens in June, and then we all went out for dinner after to celebrate. A wonderful evening. 

As part of volunteering with TMG this past month, I have continued to manage educational outreach with the Toronto Public Library but I also worked a couple of 'Ask a Toronto Master Gardener' shifts and offered advice at the Leaside Garden tour. Quid pro quo for staffing the tour was being able to peek into the backyards on offer.  

Over thirty ago I joined the East York Garden Club, and when returned to speak as a panelist in late May, it made me realize how much I have learned over the years, and how much more there is to discover!  Questions from members were provided in advance, and as I was researching the answers I learned new things about pruning fruit trees, transplanting lilies and dividing dahlias. 

In June, I also went to several pop-up tours which were offered by EYGC members. Someone organized a special afternoon where eight of us could all visit each other's gardens together, sequentially, to see what was growing. Many of these gardeners have provided revelations for me in years gone by and continue to inspire. I was delighted to be asked to participate and also somewhat intimidated because my own garden was included and so many of the others are truly spectacular. Bonus: I picked up some plants along the way.

I love these local tours because they give me a chance to explore 'the art of the possible,' that is, what grows in the area, micro climates, and seeing what can be accomplished in gardens of various sizes and budgets. There is also the welcome surprise of certain plant combinations and designs. So much incredible diversity and each garden really does reflect the gardener.

Growing Understanding

To fulfill requirements to become a Master Gardener, interns are required to complete an educational component with passing grades. So it is back to school for me. 

As my first course,  I chose Soils and Plant Growth, from the University of Guelph. One of the assignments is to observe plants over a period of weeks as they transform from seed to flower. I was looking forward to planting something in the dead of winter and headed to the East End garden centre to pick up supplies.

The shelves were bare, so I wondered how long the seeds had been on the shelf and hoped my Red Gems were viable. It would take 7-10 days for me to find out, as the seeds took their time to germinate.

I positioned the pots in my kitchen where they would get the morning sun. Through the window I could see my back garden buried in snow. Were the pots too close to the cold?

Ah! The seeds eventually worked their magic and eight days later sprouts were emerging! During the second week I took photos of each seedling as they made their first appearance.

They doubled in height within a day; and then again. 

Meanwhile, the course progressed. I haven't taken a science course since high school and to say it's not coming easy would be something of an understatement. Do I really need to know the formula for respiration? Details of cell division? 

Yet the way the stems were growing and splitting reminded me of the complex cell division and reproduction, (mitosis and meiosis), that was taking place within the plant membranes. I learned most plants have between five and 30 chromosomes. If we were to measure the length of DNA in all the chromosomes of a single cell, they could be 10-20 meters long. Wow!

Respiration and photosynthesis are essential to all life on earth. Plants would not exist without them, and we would not exist without plants.

I diligently memorized the formulae for respiration and photosynthesis, and then woke up one morning with the realization that the six carbon dioxide molecules and six drinkable water molecules (C6H1206 + 602) that resulted at the end of photosynthesis were the same string that began the process of respiration. Revelation! How did people figure this all out in the first place?

As Robin Wall Kimmerer so eloquently puts it in her book Braiding Sweetgrass, “The very facts of the world are a poem… Respiration - the source of energy that lets us farm and dance and speak. The breath of plants gives life to animals and the breath of animals gives life to plants.”

While it’s true you don’t need in-depth knowledge of biology to plant a seed and watch as it pokes its way through the soil, learning more about how plants grow only increases my wonder.

Braiding Sweetgrass

What a wonderful book. It dovetails so nicely with the course material I'm studying to become a master gardener. Sometimes I wonder if knowing all the formula is really necessary. 

The way the author, Robin Wall Kimmerer,  approaches the subject matter makes it more relevant for me. Rather than just straight facts and numbers she helps tie it to the natural world:

Carbon dioxide plus water combined in the presence of light and chlorophyll in the beautiful membrane-bound machinery of life yields sugar and oxygen.

Sugar combined with oxygen in the beautiful membrane-bound machinery of life called the mitochondria yields us right back where we began - carbon dioxide and water.

Respiration - the source of energy that lets us farm and dance and speak. The breath of plants gives life to animals and the breath of animals gives life to plants.

The very facts of the world are a poem. Light is turned to sugar. Salamanders find their way to ancestral ponds following magnetic lines radiating from the earth. The saliva of grazing buffalo causes the grass to grow taller. Tobacco seeds germinate when they smell smoke. Microbes in industrial waste can destroy mercury. 

...

Plants know how to make food from light and water. Not only do they feed themselves, but they make enough to sustain the life of all the rest of us. Plants are providers for the rest of the community and exemplify the virtue of generosity, always offering food. What if Western scientists saw plants as their teachers rather than subjects?

 pp 345-346