EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS
Herbal Salve Making, August 25
Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard Harvest Festival, Toronto, August 26
FRESH – the movie, August 26
Build your own Cold Frame Workshop, Everdale Farm, August 28
McVean Open Farm Days http://madmimi.com/images/icons/preview-module.png?1282662854 and Harvest Celebration, August 29
Third Annual Savour Simcoe – Celebrating of Heritage, Agriculture & Regional Cuisine, August 29
Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, September 13
Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, September 14, 15, and 16th
Food For Change, September 16
Carrot Fest, Everdale Farm, September 18
The New Farm Harvest Festival, September 18
2010 Tour de Greenbelt, September 11, 12, 25 & 26
Foraging for Wild Edibles Workshop, Everdale Farm, September 25th
Stew Hilts Retirement Celebration, Toronto, September 30
JOBS AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Compost Volunteering at The Stop
Volunteering with The Cutting Veg
Garden Group Volunteer – Gardening and Stewardship Group and Food Stewardship Group
Plant Guru Volunteer – Native Plants and Food Plants
Toronto Community Garden Network Volunteers
Focus on Food Program: Now Hiring!
FoodShare is Looking for Fabulous Volunteer Food Educators
NEWS AND RESOURCES
Sorauren Park Farmers Market, Mondays, 3:30-6:30 pm – Free
Community Supported Agriculture Programs in the GTA – Sign-up for our Summer/Fall Share!

And much more!! If your interested in Vegetable gardening or just gardening in general my recommendation is to sign up for their news letter today!

Coming up with Frankie Flowers:

Thursday evening August 26th I will be hosting Taste of the Garden at the Toronto Botanical Garden. This event is close to my heart as the residence of Villa Colombo, Paul Zammit and myself planned the ultimate Italian Garden this spring so finally we get to enjoy the fruits of our labour!!

Check out my pink wig @ www.areyourunning.ca/celebrities and join the fight against Cancer.

One element of a good landscape is selecting the right hardscaping materials. Hardscaping refers to materials used in the landscape such as stone retaining walls, wooden arbours, steps, pools etc.

The world of both fabricated and natural stone has changed tremendously over the last several years. Today you can find stone from all over the world: China, India, US and of course Canada from the shores of New Brunswick to the Niagara Escarpment to Northern Ontario!!

Selecting the right stone is essential to creating a landscape that fits with your home and its surroundings. Hardscape are sometime the only elements that give our landscapes winter interest. Hardscapes are both functional like steps and retaining walls and purely ascetic like arbours and waterfalls. Ultimately hardscapes help to create on overall look and feel making dull spaces interesting functional spaces.

My favorite location to check out stone is Beaver Valley Stone located right at 407 and Yonge Street. Below are some pictures of their yard including the stone guru of Toronto Tino!! The pool picture located in Horseshoe Valley is an example of the use of square cut flagstone. Beaver Valley website is www.beavervalleystone.com

Looking for a landscape Designer or Installer??? Your best source is going to the source www.landscapeontario.com (Trade Association Website)

Wow what a summer so far in fact some are saying we’ve had some of the warmest summer months that we’ve ever seen across the globe!! Summer can be pretty stressful for plants especially those that prefer cooler conditions. Lobelia, Pansies, Petunias, Alyssum to name a few struggle through hot humid conditions unlike last year where they thrived (last summer was record setting for cool temps and moisture). Container plants may be looking a little stress at this time of year. The reason: if you don’t fertilize the amount of water you have used to keep them growing will have washed the remaining nutrients out of the soil leaving them looking for food. The hotter it is the fast plants grow and the more food they like this especially holds true for containers.

The fix:

CUT THEM BACK:
For tired annuals (lobelia, petunias, pansies and alyssum) cut them back and don’t be shy. By giving them a good hair cut you will rid your plants of tired growth and spent blooms helping to promote a push of new fresh healthy stems and bunch of new blooms.

FERTILIZE CONTAINERS:
During the growing season fertilization is a must. My favorites are water soluble fertilizers. The best time to fertilize is after a rain or just completing your watering this allows the plant to take in the fertilizer as their roots are open with the moisten soil. Fertilizer is so important to keep you potted plants looking healthy as most are planted in a soil less mix meaning the soil lacks and natural nutrients.

After cutting and fertilizing your plants may look a little worst for wear but within two weeks you’ll notice the difference and your friends, family and neighbors will be asking you for advice!!!

Frankie

Follow me on twitter @frankferragine
Have a question frankieflowers@citytv.com

They are creepy they are crawly and legend has it the will climb into your ears while you sleep at night EARWIGS: First things first Earwigs do not seek or desire to climb into a human ear (check out an article from snopes on Bugs in Ear http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/bugear.asp)

Earwigs are creepy and they are nocturnal. The reason why they are in your garden is they love consuming decomposing materials. In fact by doing so earwigs are beneficial. Earwigs love areas that are cool and dark. That’s the reason why your find them hiding under pots, rocks and even boxes as they seek to keep away from the sun.

Ways to control them:

1. Keep your garden clean and get rid of any decaying materials. Wood piles are notorious for being homes and havens to earwigs. Having them located close to the foundation of your home is just asking for having indoor earwig trouble.
2. Build some traps: Rolling up newspaper and banding them together with elastics create little hiding spaces for earwigs in your garden. Place them in location where you see earwigs. In the morning pick them up and tap the newspaper into a bucket of soapy water and presto you got them.
3. Earwigs love oil…cooking oil that is. Take an emptied container of tuna or salmon, do not clean and fill partially with vegetable or olive oil. Bury the cans just enough so earwigs can find their way in but after being caught in the oil they can’t find there way out.
4. Spray cracks, door jams and window ceils with Ortho Home Defence Max. By doing so you will prevent earwigs from entering your home.

For more info check out this article from Health Canada http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pubs/pest/_pnotes/earwig-perces/index-eng.php

Wow I can’t believe that June is rolling to an end. The garden is bursting with colour and the bugs are buzzing with activity. All of the rain over the last month has the mildew and moss growing even the odd mushroom is popping up from my lawn!! The forecast thou has things drying up over the next several days and once the heat returns over the next several days my tomatoes will be back on track.

My small vegetable boxes have been a great success this year. I’ve already harvested radishes, spinach, leaf lettuce, Boston lettuce, Swiss chard and most currently peas! I most excited for the heat loving crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchini. I have struggled with some powdery mildew on the zucchini however I’ve kept it under control by removing leaves and keeping the garden clean. With that out of the way my zucchini and blooms are here to stay!! If your familiar with growing zucchini you will know by the end of the season you will have loads of zucchini so my suggest while you wait is to enjoy some of the zucchini blossoms. Here’s one of my recipe:

Fiori di Zucchini Ripieni
Fried Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms
Ingredients
Filling
• ricotta cheese
• chives, minced
• parsley, finely chopped
• nutmeg
• salt
• black pepper
Batter
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup club soda, chilled
• pinch of salt
Directions
• To prepare the flowers, clean out dirt or insects from the inside of flowers and remove the stamen. Gently rinse them one-at-a-time and pat dry on towels, being careful not to damage the delicate petals. Cut any long stems to 1 inch.
• Put vegetable oil in a heavy bottom cast iron frying pan- about 1 inch deep. Heat oil to 360-365 degrees on a candy thermometer.
• In a bowl, combine a good amount of ricotta and the remainder of filling ingredients to taste. Mix well.
• Fill a pastry bag (a zip-lock bag with the corner snipped-off would be fine as well) with the cheese mixture.
• Slowly and gently, squeeze a small amount of the filling into each flower (don’t overfill) and twist the ends of flower closed. Place one-by-one on a plate.
• In a large bowl, whisk flour, club soda and salt until combined. Add more club soda to thin if needed and form a thin crepe-like batter.
• As soon as the oil is at the desired temperature, gently dip each blossom into the batter. Coat completely. Let the excess batter drain off and place into the hot oil (please be careful not to burn yourself as the hot oil could splatter).
• Repeat with each blossom. Work in small batches of 3-4 blossoms at a time. No more than that in the pan, or the oil temp will drop too much and your blossoms will be soggy, not crisp.
• Let each blossom fry for 30- 60 seconds and then turn with a small wire strainer. Fry on the other side until golden in color. Remove with the wire strainer, let drain and transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.
• Season each while still hot with additional salt.
• Continue until all blossoms have been fried. Serve immediately.
From: www.italylogue.com

ENJOY and Happy Canada Day!!!

Frankie

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To have a great garden you really don’t have to bust the bank. There are several things you can use and re-use in your home. Here are just a few:

Egg Cartons = excellent seed starting trays

Egg Shells = crushed up and added to the soil to improve calcium, crushed and place on top of the soil around young plants will help prevent damage from crawling insects.

The left over milk in the milk carton: Add water to the little bit of Milk left over in the carton right before you but it into the recycling bin. The water combined with the little bit of milk watered on to Tomatoes helps to reduce the occurrence of blossom end rot.

Wood Ash = a great soil amendment to reduce acidity or PH. Has also been know to reduce damage from crawling insects when place around plants.

Old Nylon Stockings = rip them up and use them as staking ties to keep plants off the ground and reduce disease.

Coffee Grounds = nothing like a good cup of Nabob and nothing like re-using the grounds as a free fertilizer that is rich in Nitrogen. Great for those plants that love to be green!!!

Sugar and Borax = a 50/50 mixture of these two placed in small mounds around or near ant mounds will help to rid your problem!!

For more frugal Frankie Flower tips click on to the segment above!!

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I love getting kids involved in the garden! There is nothing my satisfying than seeing a child get excited about plants and feel soil between their fingers, toes and teeth on occasion!! This weekend was all about kids gardening. Ryerson Early Learning centre invited me to judge containers created by children and parents. The containers ranged from a Lady Bug made out of a basketball, a mobile with sprouts coming out of egg shells to even a guitar pansy planter. The kids had full control on what and where to plant! Will all the plants live ….most likely not but that’s not the goal. The goal is to get children enjoying and understanding the amazing world of all things plants.

For my own children this year I installed two 4’ x 8’ x 12” raised veggie gardens. Both Gavin and Matheson helped me plant and pick what we would grow this year. I have to admit I guided their direction but they felt like they had complete control over their choices…except Matheson he’s only 1 so he’s more into just eating dirt. Well over the weekend we harvested our first crop of Leaf Lettuce, Boston lettuce and radishes this became our Sunday Salad and Gavin was so proud of bringing the harvest home to mommy. I can’t wait for the cherry tomatoes, beans, peas and Gavin favorite cucumbers.

My lessons when gardening with kids:

1. Make it fun!!
2. Give them choices!!
3. Let them get dirty!!
4. Let them plant where they want and when they have a nap just fix it!!
5. Make it interactive!!
6. Be creative!!
7. Grow something they can eat!!
8. Grow plants that give fast results!!

Finally…whoever does the wash in the house watch out!! Gardening with kids creates bulk purchases of laundry detergent.

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The wonderful world of water gardening is really within reach of anyone. If you have the money or win Lotto Max the size and scope of your water garden can be as beyond your dreams however if you lack space or knowledge one of the best ways to start water gardening is to begin small with a patio pond! Patio ponds are available at most garden centres. As a matter of fact you can find some even at your local grocer the folks at Loblaws, Zehrs and Fortiono’s as known as President Choice featured a Patio water garden pot in their Insider’s report this spring. http://eflyer.presidentschoice.ca/cached_Banner_pages/publication.aspx?BannerName=pc..

Today on BT I featured a Patio Pond from Aquascapes http://www.aquascapeinc.com/index.php?page=articles&a_id=132. The key to success just add water, place in sun but don’t put no more than 2-3 fish in! Most importantly don’t over feed the fish. A pond with too many fish or fish that receive too much feed is the certain road to algae growth.

Click on above for my BT Segment.

Patio Ponds range from:

$30 to $400

Enjoy!!