Vert-à-Go

(right: Gnome Suzuki. Admit it. You want one. Bad.)

The other night we had someone from the Saskatchewan Environmental Society come to the door about their Pesticide Reduction Project, which has had great success over the past two years. The SES has surveyed over 400 Saskatoon residents, and almost 80% of those surveyed have agreed to try going pesticide-free for this growing season. Approximately two-thirds of all those surveyed also agreed with the idea of implementing a bylaw to eliminate the use of cosmetic pesticides (similar to what has recently been enacted in Ontario).

We have already eliminated the use of pesticides in our gardens and were happy to put up one of their Pesticide-Free signs in the front garden (from the Canadian Cancer Society, who, along with everyone else here, classifies insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides, and fumigants under the banner of ‘pesticides’). The SES is still looking for volunteers to help with the 2008 Pesticide Reduction Project:

We need lots of volunteers to help with our door to door surveys. Yes, this means knocking on doors and asking people about their pesticide use and attitudes about pesticides. Overall, doing these surveys has been a very positive experience. It is a great way to get out and meet your fellow citizens, to discuss important environmental issues with them and to make your city a safer and healthier place to live. If you are interested in helping out, please contact the SES office at 665-1915.

The SES also has a great bunch of information sheets about how to maintain healthy lawns and gardens without the use of harmful chemicals here.

If you’ve taken the plunge and gone pesticide-free in your green spaces, you might want to show off your handiwork by entering the David Suzuki Digs My Garden contest. Send in a photo or video of your garden, and you could win prizes–including a chance for Gnome Suzuki to pay a visit. By signing up, you’ll also get tips on growing your garden ‘drug-free’, and find out how to take action to ban pesticide use in your home province. I’ll definitely be entering our newly remodelled front garden!

One solid 11-hour day in the front garden later, the erstwhile lawn has been transformed! There is an anemone border extending along the front with day lilies and hostas in the right-hand corner, and two new fancy day lilies in the bed by the tree (Black Stockings and French Lingerie, oo-la-la!). I’ll be planting carrots along the other edge (I’m not sure how they’ll do in the front, but should provide some pretty foliage if nothing else! I’ll also be adding lettuces, spinach and other greens that do better in a shadier setting, and sticking in some clumps of chives too.

I dug in some flat stones to create a pathway to where we’re hoping to place a chair from the Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op. I’ll be putting ferns in the empty bed to the left of the herb spiral. We repositioned our larger rocks so they accent the corners and foundation much more nicely. We also will probably add a willow-branch obelisk in the v-shaped bed next to the shrub by the sidewalk, and train some scarlet runner beans up it. I got an ornamental chilli pepper which should look quite cool along with it!

I’ve rearranged a lot of the plants that I already had to make more purposeful and attractive groupings (shade-loving plants close to the house (hostas, lamium, campanula; dianthus along the edges of the beds for colour) and will be receiving donations of other plants from kindly neighbours (including irises–this will finally be the year when I put in bulbs for some spring colour! Right now it’s pretty much limited to some tulipa tarda and the lilac bushes).

Because the soil was in pretty poor condition where the lawn had been, I added a fair amount of cow manure to the new beds. This year I got it from the The Cyclones road and track club, a competitive club for disabled athletes, who was fundraising by selling well-composted organic manure from a local acreage. A 50-lb bag is $10 (buy 10, and get 1 more for free). They have a booth at the Farmer’s Market, or you can call Dale at 374-9046 or Becky at 955-9194. This is a great cause–one of the Cyclones has qualified for the Olympics and will be heading to Beijing!

I made a new friend yesterday as I was finishing digging up all the new beds. This robin trailed me around the garden the entire day, at times only 2-3 feet away, fixing me with a beady stare as he grabbed mouthful after mouthful of worms. His maximum seemed to be three worms at a time, but he kept trying to cram just one more in!