Master Gardeners Technical Update, 2012

Gardening enthusiasts listen attentively to speakers Darrell Bley, Liz Hood and Sonia Day

by Amy on January 16, 2012

On Saturday I attended my first Master Gardeners Technical Update, held at the Toronto Botanical Garden. It was my first time visiting the TBG and I admit that I was hoping very much for at the very least, a brief walk through a greenhouse. I’ve been craving that greenhouse smell, the green and earthy aroma that is ever present inside a greenhouse. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Under the umbrella of “The Practical Gardener,” the topics of discussion presented were:

The Importance of Soil: Getting it Right – Darrell Bley, Instructor and Curator of Woody Plants at Niagara Parks Commission talked about soil texture, soil composition, soil amendments and touched briefly on soil testing, as well. I took a lot of notes during this talk and I’m planning to expand upon what I learned here on the blog in a future post. To sum up, soil is really, really cool, and there are some practices I need to change in our own garden beds.

Durham Master Gardeners puzzle over identifying a selection of twigs.

Tree Identification in Winter – Liz Hood, Education Director at the TBG provided a fabulous, easy-to-follow guide to identifying trees in winter by examining their bark, twig patterns, leaf scars and branching arrangements. As it was extremely cold outside, centrepieces containing twigs of all of the trees she discussed (with the exception of the Red Osier Dogwood, whose brilliant red stems would have been an instant giveaway) were provided on each table so we could practice identifying the trees.

Sonia Day gives a talk, "Perennials: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

Sonia Day gives her entertaining and controversial talk, "Perennials: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"

Perennials: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly – Sonia Day, author of the Toronto Star column “The Real Dirt” gave a very entertaining presentation featuring beautiful, bright slides of her garden north of the city, providing her picks for the best and worst perennials. This talk was purely subjective; there were a few plants on her list she considered to be ugly which are undoubtedly among my favourites, including Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla mollis.

One of the other highlights of the day was seeing the name Helen Battersby on the name tag of another attendee and recognizing Helen before running over to introduce myself. Helen is a fellow garden blogger and writer who has always been so lovely and kind to me on Twitter, where we’ve exchanged words, and I was really pleased to meet her. Helen and her sister Sarah write a terrific garden blog called simply, Toronto Gardens. I didn’t know that Helen was also a Master Gardener, although I should’ve suspected it, so bumping into her was a real treat.