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
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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
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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/