2009 September | You Grow Girl

September 29, 2009

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Barry’s Garden Open House

I have written here several times about fellow Toronto, Parkdale resident, Barry Parker and his exceptional backyard garden since meeting him this past spring, but I have never shown any wide view pictures. Well, as luck would have it, Barry is hosting a garden open house this coming weekend — those of you who live locally will have the opportunity to see his beautiful garden in person. So for the rest of you who can’t make it, I’ve got off my butt and compiled a series of photos showing some of the seasons in Barry’s garden as I have experienced them on my visits since the spring.

First, the details:

When:

Where:

Admission:

Additional:

paw-paw

persimmon

These two sculpted bushes break up the long, narrow space and are seen when you enter the yard.

Barry has been gardening in his long and narrow downtown Toronto backyard for 23 years. He’s an artist with plants. He knows how to shape them, pair them, and it is a pleasure to watch the garden unfold as plants have their season and then make way for the next. No space is left unnoticed or unattended.

Walking through the bushes takes you into a hidden back garden that is mostly comprised of woodland plants. Here’s what it looked like in early fall. I wish I had a springtime photo because it was absolutely incredible then.

Barry’s gardening style is quite formal and sculpted, but it is infused with his charm, warmth, and true sense of delight in plants that makes the garden very comfortable and inviting rather than rigid and stuffy like most formal spaces tend to be.

Looking to the east.

For that reason I have begun to think of Barry’s style as decisive rather than taint it with my own obvious bias against formality. He knows what he likes and pursues it rigorously. He likes to experiment and try out new plants but when he’s sure something isn’t working, he’s not afraid to pull it up and get it out of there. If only I had that skill!

One of the smaller break-away paths to the west.

Variegated Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum ‘Silver Wings’) this past spring.

Yellow Trillium (Trillium luteum), also photographed this past spring.

A view of the space looking north as you emerge from between the two bushes.

Two of Barry’s many clematis plants in flower this past July.

Clematis ‘Elvan’

Barry is an avid clematis collector. There is always something unique and incredible in bloom throughout the summer months, including shapes and sizes I had no idea existed in the clematis world.

Looking east at the front part of the garden.

Alpines flank the steps of the deck.

Alpines are another of Barry’s loves. When I first visited his garden, the sheer number of alpine troughs (both hypertuffa and stone) took me by surprise. Each one is lovingly tended and many have to be brought indoors to over-winter. That’s commitment!

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved
I think I like this pot stuffed tight with tiny sempervivums, best.

Or maybe it’s this small stone trough with neatly shaped compartments.

Or could it be this one with plants that hug the edges of the pot?

This table on the deck is used to showcase seasonal plants of interest. On my first visit it was covered in specimens from Barry’s extensive agave collection; and on another occasion, a particularly impressive begonia.

A wide view of the deck showing legions of alpine troughs. There’s that orange begonia in the background.

Barry had a small, unheated greenhouse built sometime after he bought the house.

There is always some fantastic experiment in the works inside the greenhouse. It currently houses rows and rows of unusual cyclamen that Barry started from seed.

I hope I have done Barry’s garden justice with this presentation. There is so much going on there, it would take days to feature it all. When I first visited the garden I was so overcome, I barely lifted the camera to take a photo. But while I may have been too stunned to take pictures, I rushed home invigorated to get back and do better by my own plants.

I don’t often feature gardens, but Barry’s has been an inspiration this summer and better than most botanical gardens I have visited. As I mentioned above, it’s not only that he puts an incredible amount of work into maintaining the space, but that it captures the charm and personable warmth of his character so well. Most gardens of this ilk are tended by many, and reflect that. Barry’s garden is all him and his infectious enthusiasm for plants. A true plant geek.

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September 25, 2009

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A One-Pot Garden Scraps Meal

Before I came down with the Great Attack of the TIFF Flu 2009 (named as such because the worst part coincided with the Toronto International Film Festival) a lot of our meals looked like some version of this one. They probably looked like this one throughout the flu debacle as well but 1. my memory is shot and 2. Davin did all of the cooking.

But getting back to my point, which is increasingly lost these days underneath a jumble of words and thoughts that refuse to string together (a lingering symptom of the TIFF Flu), we were eating like this because it was the end of the summer. And you know how the end of the summer is; all sorts of surprises are popping up in the garden, the fridge and counter-top bowls are overflowing with bits of this and that all poised to rot at any moment and a troop of fruit flies waiting on standby to get their big break. I had also just scored this little single-portion casserole dish/dutch oven on sale for half price, rekindling my love for the one-pot meal.

These meals are insanely easy to make and come with the added bonus of clearing out those little scraps of this and that, that linger in the fridge, too small to serve any other purpose. The meal depicted in the above photo was actually my lunch one weekday afternoon. I like this as a work-day lunch meal because it takes only a few minutes to prepare. I can then pop it in the oven, set the timer, go back to work, and resurface when lunch is done.

It’s the meal that practically makes itself!

Every dish is different depending on what’s on hand, but if you’re looking for some ideas, here’s how I make mine:

First, pre-heat the oven to about 350-400 F. Cut up the vegetables into manageable pieces, toss in a sprinkling of olive oil, add chopped herbs (thyme, parsley, oregano, and sage) from the rooftop garden, a pinch of grey sea salt (I have a weakness for fancy salts) and throw in some kind of protein to finish. Fresh, new potatoes are a good addition, too. I’ve been known to add a few capers, a squeeze of lemon, or oven-dried tomatoes. I add a single leaf of the rounded German ‘Berggarten’ sage from my community garden plot when I want to be fancy. I am not against adding a melting cheese in the last minute or a sprinkle of Parmesan to finish.

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September 17, 2009

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‘Chinese Ornamental’ Hot Pepper

I know it’s been a slow week around here. I’ve been fighting off the worst cold/flu/virus I can remember in recent history and have been in bed all week feeling like utter crap. Today is the first day I have felt confident about sitting up for more than an hour-long stretch or forming complete sentences (sort of). Poor me.

Not the best picture but I am very proud of my little ‘Chinese Ornamental’ hot pepper this year. I grew it from seed in spring 2008 and brought it inside over the winter. This is its second year producing lots of tiny peppers and it won’t be long before I bring it back indoors again.

I grow mine in a very small pot (about 5″ tall) as a test to see how well it will thrive and produce when pushed. Grow yours in a bigger pot and you’ll turn out a bigger plant and a lot more peppers.

Don’t let the word ‘ornamental’ fool you. These diminutive peppers are fiery, but definitely edible. My hot pepper days are long behind me; however, I like to put a few of these in my pickles to give to friends who like theirs spicy.

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September 16, 2009

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‘Cherries Jubilee’ Nasturtium

With so many options available these days, I wanted to grow a nasturtium variety this year that I had never tried before. I’ve enjoyed these bright blooms but I have to admit that ‘Empress of India’ are still my favourite variety to grow.

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September 11, 2009

23 Comments

Snack Foods for the Apocalypse

This is how I see canning: making snack foods for the apocalypse. Because in truth, with the exception of the plain tomato jars and sauces, many of the items I put up tend to be condiments, pickles, and intense fruit preserves — food I could probably live without. If, say, we were to suffer through an ice storm or prolonged power outage this winter, I’m not sure how long we would stay alive on tomato salsa, brandied peaches, elderberry syrup, and chutney.

Although, that’s hardly the point, is it? I’m not really putting up food for emergency preparedness. It’s really about having that extra something special to enjoy during the off season. That and the fact that the process of canning makes me feel good.

I canned up a storm this summer. It’s really not appropriate to speak of it in the past tense because frankly, I’m not done yet. I went way overboard this year, and even put up a few batches of foods I won’t and can’t eat myself. I think the reason why I went so nutty was that I needed a come-down off of the book project that was active and creative. I didn’t feel like doing any of my regular go-to creative outlets. I just wanted to play with food.

I’ve been canning long enough that it has become like meditation in motion. It’s one of those activities that allows me to focus one part of my brain on the doing while another part relaxes and opens up. I gave myself permission this year to jar up anything that caught my interest and experiment to my heart’s content rather than sticking to healthier fare. For that reason I was able to be much more creative and at times even focused on making purely aesthetically pleasing jars rather than worrying about the nutritional content.

This is my current favourite jar, pickled crab apples. It is the only thing I have ever canned that I couldn’t (and still can’t) visualize as a flavour. I used the blemish-free crab apples that I had schlepped all the way from Montreal. They were perfect for it. I followed a book recipe exactly, rather than experimenting with my own ideas and flavours (how I usually do it). The recipe called for both vinegar and a TON of sugar. This is not something I would ever make in a typical year but I made it anyways. And it was so worth it. Man, is this jar beautiful.

I know that making food I won’t or can’t eat makes no sense and sounds wasteful, and if it were another year I would not have gone that route. However, I can’t tell you how many times I have stood, savoring the visual delight of those pretty jars and it’s not even fall yet. During the winter months I occasionally sit on the kitchen floor next to the main storage cupboard (everything else is stashed away in boxes here and there) and pull out several jars, soaking in the colours that are so desperately lacking in mid-January. I’ll give away the extra food we can’t eat as gifts to friends who will enjoy them, so why not?

As a part of my series on kitchen gardening (scroll down to where it says “Microfarming with Gayla Trail”), The Globe & Mail recently published an article I wrote on canning tomatoes, including three recipes: plain tomatoes, catsup, and green tomato chutney. You can also see a slide show of me canning in my cramped kitchen. Proof that you do not need a lot of space to can.

I also gave a workshop on canning tomatoes at The Workroom last Friday. Karyn has done an amazing job recapping the event on her blog. She also recounted her follow-up experience here.

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