The Project Begins!

Compost, Seed & Tools
(click on image for a larger view)


In the previous blog entry I mentioned two extraordinary individuals who have donated their time to EcoSource Mississauga on various Green Neighbour initiatives. It's our great pleasure to be working with them on the Green Neighbour pilot project as they help us transform our suburban yard and garden into a 'green' organic plot with a healthy organic lawn and flower garden, with a focus on native plants.

Gabriele Davies is a graduate of Humber College and is a certified Horticulturalist and Landscape Designer. Among her many accomplishments, she developed the Urban Wildlife Garden for the Humber Arboretum. Gabriele is helping us redesign our front yard from a rather 'blah' look into an inviting landscape dominated by native wildflowers and plants. This will take some time as it involves structural changes including extending our front porch and adding some stone walkways.

Michael Chudy is a physics grad turned organic gardener who runs a business called Garden Gnome, which offers organic lawn and garden care services. Mike uses only environmentally-friendly materials and uses no power tools that pollute the air. Mike is helping us condition our lawns and treat them organically with no pesticides.

Gabriele and Mike are both in the process of getting their new businesses organized. As soon as their websites are ready for public access, I'll add their links to this blogsite.

After a couple of preliminary meetings to look at the property and assess what the next steps would be, we started in earnest on Sunday, April 17 (2005).




Gabriele's Landscape Drawings
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It was a busy start. Gabriele and Marion concentrated on the landscape plans, fine tuning the layout and deciding on what kind of stonework would be best for the pathways. Mike started work on our side yard, showing us how to lay down a layer of compost and rake it over the surface, overseeding the lawn with additional grass seed. Soni Craik from EcoSource volunteered to help and worked with Mike while I finished raking another part of the yard to remove spring debris, with occasional breaks to take photos of work in progress. We looked like a miniature farm, with all hands busy. The weather was glorious -- a stunningly beautiful, warm April afternoon.




Mike & Soni Spreading a Layer of Compost
(click on image for a larger view)


The landscaping plans called for the removal of some boxy, uninspired-looking shrubs, to be replaced with flower gardens. Marion tackled their removal with Mike and Soni digging out the root structures.




Marion Removing Old Shrubs
(click on image for a larger view)


The hard work was interspersed with tea, coffee, cookies, fresh strawberries (thanks Soni!) and much laughter. When we finished for the day, we capped it with dinner of lentil chili and fresh salad. This coming Sunday, if the weather is good, Mike will bring additional compost for the back lawn and the flower beds. We will also be installing a City of Mississauga composter so we can start recycling our kitchen and garden waste.

It was an exciting start and Marion and I are beginning to learn some of the basics of organic lawn care. More photographs of the day's activities can be viewed here:
www.northernjourney.com/photo/ecogardening/17-Apr-2005/

Green Neighbour Program

A serendipitous event introduced me to EcoSource Mississauga. I received an email from Jen Turgeon inquiring about using some of my Port Credit nature photos in materials EcoSource was preparing for their Youth Program. Jen was, at the time, EcoSource's Youth Education Coordinator.

My curiousity was piqued. Just as Marion and I had decided to focus on 'green living', here was an organization devoted to the cause, and based right in our village, in walking distance. I called Jen and while discussing the photos, asked more about EcoSource. We arranged a meeting to discuss photography and to answer some of my questions about composting.

I came away from the meeting highly impressed. EcoSource Mississauga is doing wonderful work in the community. In their own words:

EcoSource Mississauga is a leader in grassroots environmental education, delivering hands-on interactive educational programs to youth and adults, promoting responsible personal environmental actions. We are working to involve Mississauga residents to create positive changes in the health of the planet and our city.

They have three major programs under way: a 'Green Schools' Program to work with the schools in educating students about environmental issues and waste reduction, a 'Green Community' Program aligned with Evergreen to help naturalize Mississauga parks, campuses and school yards, and start community gardens, and a 'Green Neighbour' Program to encourage and assist the community of Mississauga in 'growing a green community'. The Green Neighbour Program intrigued me:

The Green Neighbour Program is an exciting initiative designed to engage the people of Mississauga in truly “Growing a Green Community”.

We are all Neighbours, so anyone can be a Green Neighbour!

It just means that you’re putting some effort into making choices and changes that are good for your health, your wallet, your community and your environment!

Being a Green Neighbour includes Greening your Home, Greening your Garden, Greening your Car and more.

It means having a beautiful garden or lawn without the use of pesticides.

It means saving money on your energy bills and cutting back on heating and cooling needs.

It means putting a sticker on your mailbox to limit the amount of junk mail you get. It means taking a cloth bag to the grocery store and avoiding plastic bags.

It means thinking about the products you buy—where they come from and how they’re packaged.

You can be a Green Neighbour by doing just one of these things, or you can do them all and more! Be yourself, start with the changes that work for you and your family, and be a part of growing your own green community.

As EcoSource helped me with my questions about composting and organic yard care, it became apparent that Marion and I were potential candidates for their Green Neighbour Program pilot, about to start. We met with Martha Norman and Nada Sutic to discuss where we were going with our plans and to see if they fit with the EcoSource pilot. Our interests lay in eliminating pesticides, reducing waste, focusing on native plants, and planting to attract birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects. We were also willing to talk to others in the community and to communicate freely about our efforts.

The match was made and Martha and Nada then arranged a broader meeting that included EcoSource staff, Marion and me, and two extraordinary individuals who had agreed to donate their services to the Green Neighbour pilot: Gabriele Davies, a landscape designer who specializes in native plants, and Michael Chudy, who operates an organic lawn care service.

The next steps were for Gabriele and Mike to work with Marion and me on getting the Green Neighbour pilot going. It's a big step for all of us -- working together as a team to realize a shared dream. To say the least, we were all excited and eager to get started.

First Steps

My wife Marion and I decided last fall to cancel our yard maintenance contract because we wanted a pesticide-free lawn and garden. Neither of us was quite sure of the next steps -- we're new to organic gardening and lawn care. We figured we'd do some research and bumble our way into it, learning as we went.

Although the state of the environment has been on our mind for years, we've been busy professionals scarcely coping with the pressures of careers and family. Marion is a professor at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, and I'm an IT professional. Until recently I worked for a large insurance corporation based in Toronto.

A bout of poor health forced us both to take time out from the workforce and that sobering experience caused us to re-examine our priorities and lifestyle. In our earlier years we were avid naturalists, enjoying birding, plant identification, and walks in the outdoors. Somewhere along the way we lost touch with that. As we near retirement, we are re-establishing our bond with the earth and endeavouring to live more lightly on the planet.

We felt the place to start was at home. For us, that means paying more attention to how we recycle, how and what we purchase, what we do with kitchen and garden wastes, and eschewing the use of harmful chemicals on our lawns and gardens. We will be learning how to compost, how to treat lawns, and what native plants can be added to our gardens.

This will be a journey of learning, and the purpose of this blog is to record our steps as we enter into a new relationship with our environment. Our hope is that our fledgling efforts will encourage others to consider "green" gardening. We're not experienced at this and we believe that if we can do it, anyone can.

Fortunately, we're not doing this alone. There's an abundance of literature on green gardening in bookstores, libraries, and on the Internet. And there are many excellent organizations willing to answer questions and teach green-gardening methods and techniques.

It was our extreme good fortune to establish a link with EcoSource Mississauga, based in the village of Port Credit, Ontario, where we reside. The wonderful people at EcoSource have taken an interest in our efforts and are helping us learn our way into organic gardening. We will introduce them and their activities as this blog develops. For now, you can visit their website at www.ecosource.ca where they have posted excellent guides and links.