Playing in the Dirt

Canada Blooms is holding a contest for free tickets this year. The venue has changed from its usual Metro Toronto Convention Centre locale to the larger Direct Energy Centre at the Canadian National Exhibition. Here’s how you can win:

Enter our Facebook Fan Page contest! One lucky winner will win four tickets to the Canada Blooms Early Morning Tour on Saturday, March 21. Experience a behind-the-scenes look with a guided tour of the gardens. To enter, become a member of our Facebook Fan Page by visiting facebook.com/canadablooms. Draw date is March 1, 2010. Prize is valued at more than $160.

Tickets to Canada Blooms make the perfect Valentine’s Gift for that special someone. Special $16 discounted tickets are available online at canadablooms.com.

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I received this message today from USC Canada, and thought I’d pass it along. (It reminded me that it’s Seedy Saturday season!)

If you’ve had enough of salting and shoveling for the season, get ready to dream of spring and attend the 3rd Annual Seedy Saturday Garden Show in Pickering. The event takes place on Saturday, February 6 at East Shore Community Centre (910 Liverpool Road South, Pickering), and includes displays and seminars with more than 30 local vendors and garden associations and a seed swap.

USC will be there too! Kate Green, who manages our Nepal program and campaigns in Canada and internationally on food sovereignty, will be on hand with plenty of USC DVDs, seed maps, and our new Jottings newsletter. And she would love just to chat about the work of our farmer friends overseas. So while your gardens sleep under their blanket of snow, why not come out for a visit?

Seedy Saturday runs from 10am-3pm on February 6, and admission is just $3. Bring seeds to swap if you have any. There’s plenty of free parking. Find out more about the event from Mandy at 905-683-8401.

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Graham and I went to the Orono Fall Fair yesterday afternoon with our friends, Andy and Kelly and their daughter Sophie.  It was a beautiful early autumn afternoon, and since it was Friday afternoon, there weren’t too many people on the fairgrounds, yet.  There were a lot of school groups there, though, with little kids learning about how to milk cows and all about tractors and growing crops.

Pumpkins at the entrance to the agricultural exhibits.  The big white squash on the right was the winner!

One of my favourite things to do at any autumn fair is look at the agricultural displays, including the vegetables that are grown locally and entered for prizes.  There seems to be a real fascination with vegetables that are either freakishly large or just…freakish.

Look at the size of these beets!  They were each about a foot long.

This tomato won a prize for Most Oddly Shaped Vegetable.  It looks a little like a purple calabash tomato to me, a variety that does grow in very strange, “lumpy” ways. (See my purple calabash harvest from a few years ago.)

And finally, here is everyone’s very favourite large vegetable, the giant zucchinis.

To give you some perspective, you can see the giant beets in the background.

I’ve always wanted to enter some home grown tomatoes into the fall fair, but have never committed to it.  Maybe next year!

5732 Comments »http://playinginthedirt.ca/2009/09/12/a-visit-to-the-orono-fair/A+Visit+to+the+Orono+Fair2009-09-12+13%3A25%3A34Amy

At the September 2009 meeting of the Durham Organic Gardeners Doug Kennedy, Owner of Green Side Up Environmental Services will present:

NATIVE PLANTS AND GARDENING!

Find our what you need to start a native garden in your yard.

ALSO…prizes for largest green zucchini and largest tomato!

Doorprize, refreshments.
Everyone welcome!

Please join us on Wednesday, September 23, 7:30 p.m.
Durham District School Board Administration Building
400 Taunton Road East, Whitby, Room 2007

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I’ve taken a bit of time to update the Events page on this website, so if you live in Durham Region and want to spend some time learning about plants, meeting other gardeners or touring local gardens, take a moment to check out the schedule of gardening events taking place in this area over the coming months!  There are club meetings and talks, garden tours, fall fairs and other great opportunities to flex your green thumb, even as our prime garden season is wrapping up.

5695 Comments »http://playinginthedirt.ca/2009/08/28/autumn-gardening-events-in-durham-region/Autumn+Gardening+Events+in+Durham+Region2009-08-28+21%3A24%3A52Amy