We are all weather-watchers at this time of year. With April in sight, it could just be a matter of weeks before our window gazing is replaced by that first tentative walk through the garden to assess winter's aftermath.
Will a winter's worth of research and inspiration provided by glossy magazines, seed catalogues, browsing the Internet, or going through last year's photos be enough to inspire us to achieve all the wonderful things we would like to do in our gardens this year?
There is still some time left for planning. Fortunately this is the time of year for garden shows and the opportunity to reconnect with local garden experts and gardening friends we haven't seen in awhile.
Coming up in Winnipeg is the Orchid Show co-hosted by the Manitoba Orchid Society and the Assiniboine Park Conservancy March 20 to 22, followed by the eighth annual Gardening Saturday hosted by Gardens Manitoba on March 28. The Home Expressions Show will run March 27 to 29 and in Brandon, on April 18, Westman Gardeners will host Horticultural Day.
These local events are important because they connect us with ideas, products and solutions that work right where we live. Many gardeners take in as many shows as they can, with some travelling to Gardenscape in Saskatoon and Canad Blooms in Toronto, both held each March. A few will even make the trek in May to London's Chelsea Flower Show, now in its 26th year.
How about indulging in some cross-border gardening this spring? On April 11, the Grand Forks Horticultural Society, in partnership with North Dakota State University Extension Service, will host P. Allen Smith, one of America's most recognized and influential plantsman at their annual spring show, known also as Gardening Saturday.
A master of his craft, Smith is a best-selling author and host of two weekly PBS television programs as well as a syndicated weekly TV series. A frequent guest contributor on NBC's the Today Show and active through social networks, he reaches millions of gardeners each week. Smith is a professional garden designer, who also owns and operates a garden centre.
Earlier this month, I talked with Smith. His enthusiasm and delight in all things home and garden are seriously seductive. Educated in England where he studied garden design and history at the University of Manchester in England (he is a certified fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society), Smith is a member of the horticultural elite without being an elitist in any sense of the word.
In fact, Smith could be your neighbour over the backyard fence, as interested in your garden as you would be in his.
"My great grandfather used to say that what mattered was to administer to peoples' understanding so that always resonated with me," says Smith, whose family came to America in the 1690s, settling first in Charleston then moving westward to Tennessee.
With a background steeped in farming and the nursery industry, Smith, a lifestyle expert, is about more than carrying on a family tradition. Inspired by his surroundings and family teachings, he has built a solid reputation on not only his innate creativity but also his passion for sustainability, conservation and preservation that is the underpinning of his work.
This extends to heritage plants such as his collection of Noisette roses, the first class of American rose developed in Charleston in the early 19th century. Poultry figures large in Smith's life, as well. Founder of the Heritage Poultry Conservancy, Smith raises seven breeds of chickens with the goal of preserving genetic diversity.
"This interest in heritage, preservation and conservation is a theme that has run through my entire career, if not life," says Smith. "I think that it started with my recognition of the need to conserve resources and a natural love of beauty."
Smith's home is a labour of love, a replica of an 1840s Greek Revival farmhouse called Moss Mountain, which is situated on more than 500 acres overlooking the Arkansas River Valley just outside of Little Rock.
When he studied in England he had the good fortune to see some of the finest landscapes ever created and to learn about the underlying philosophy and purpose of their design. Smith was introduced to the idea of creating garden rooms and intimate spaces, each with a different purpose. Elements of lighthearted fancy or whimsy as well as a hint of mystery piques the interest of the garden visitor.
"A lot of these very old techniques, such as framing a view, are timeless and universal and they are there for us to use at our disposal," says Smith. "These principles have made great gardens time and again."
"There was also this marvellous mixing of herbs and flowers and fruit trees in unique ways," says Smith. "This was not going on in America when I was in school and I really got turned on by this idea of juxtaposition of grasses to perennials, annuals and bulbs."
Smith also likes the mingling of contrasting forms and textures and has developed a sort of fearlessness and expression of freedom in the creative use of plants. "There's something about the juxtaposition of big leafed vegetables and tall spiky plants, the kind of thing which we now see more regularly and is a feast for the eyes."
It was when Smith was in England that he began to assimilate his 12 principles of design, which formed the basis of his first book, Garden Home (Clarkson Potter, 2003). He uses the principles whenever he designs gardens, scaling them to each individual's site, preferences and budget.
"There's a fear factor sometimes in making creative decisions," says Smith, who designed the principles as a means to help organize one's space. "What I was trying to do with my first book was to take something that everyone knows which is a house and use it as an analogy for creating rooms in the garden similar to the rooms in one's house."
From there Smith designs comfort zones with a defined point of interest, interesting focal points or furnishings that echo both interior and exterior elements of the home. His preference is for broad sweeps of colour that he says are more effective than small dabs.
Smith, who has partnered with Proven Winners for the P. Allen Smith Platinum Collection of 40 different annuals, perennials and shrubs, all grown and tested in his own gardens, recommends using no more than one colour theme for each garden room, preferably one that ties in with the house or some other exterior feature.
For Smith, one of the most important garden rooms is the one that supplies sustenance for the family. He loves to cook and entertain and says much of his interest in horticulture emanates from food and food production.
"I think that more significant than just the nursery or horticulture part of my background is the fact that my family had the ability to take care of themselves off the land and be good farmers and good stewards."
Smith is a natural teacher who acknowledges he is also a perennial student, always interested in learning from others. Active in 4-H as a child, today Smith influences a new generation of young gardeners through hands-on activities that invite school groups of children into his own garden to develop gardening skills.
"When you garden with a child," says Smith who has never forgotten the teachings of his elders, "the garden sticks with them for their entire lives. They learn that they can take care of themselves." Smith is a firm believer that the act of gardening and growing things helps to take away a lot of the neurosis and anxiety that is in our culture.
Smith is an advocate of an organic approach to the garden and views each one, no matter how large or small, as an ecosystem. "So what if your cabbages get chewed or there is a problem here and there," says Smith who adds the greater benefit is that gardeners are creating a habitat for a wide range of beneficial and diverse species.
It's great food for thought. I plan to take in as many garden shows as I can this spring and hopefully my passport will be renewed in time so I can attend Smith's presentation. Regardless, my friends say they are ready to go without me. Bonus: there are no duties or import fees on new ideas and fresh inspiration.
colleenizacharias@gmail.com
For more information on some of this season's garden shows, visit:
