Happy first week in March!

Spring beckons….hurrah.

We both are looking forward excitedly to a new, second gardening season ahead, having both caught the vegetable gardening bug last year for the first time.

We were fortunate to be guided last year by our friends and guest bloggers who shared generously of their time, knowledge and tips for success. Their gardening scope and knowledge was vast – from flowers to trees to vegetables to fruit trees and bushes.

Links to Our Gardening Blogs of 2020

Here are quick links to these past blogs for anyone who wants a quick refresher and/or inspiration for the upcoming planting season. Shout outs and our thanks again to guest bloggers Wanda, Shanthi, Audrey, Leslie and Ross.

Gentle Spring Blooms (Guest Blogger, Wanda, April 2, 2020) https://wordpress.com/post/friends4trees4life.com/1218

Gardening Therapy, Community and Climate Action (Guest Bloggers Audrey, Shanthi, Leslie and Ross, May 14, 2020) https://wordpress.com/post/friends4trees4life.com/1602

Vegetable Gardening 101 – Part Two (Guest Bloggers Audrey and Shanthi, May 21, 2020) https://wordpress.com/post/friends4trees4life.com/1648

Favourite Fruit Trees – Part One (May 28, 2020) https://wordpress.com/post/friends4trees4life.com/1708

Growing Your Own Fruit Trees – Part Two (Guest Blogger Shanthi, June 4, 2020) https://wordpress.com/post/friends4trees4life.com/1748

Catherine is thinking about adding a raspberry patch to her garden this year, and found the June 4, 2020 blog to be a timely reminder and review of tips for success. This will include patience and taking the long view, as it would be 2022 before any berries are produced for harvesting by plants that are planted in the 2021 season.

Shanthi’s Moon Garden

As a fledgling gardener, Catherine was intrigued when she learned about her friend and veteran gardener, Shanthi’s plans for a moon garden. All the more so, upon learning that Shanthi had not set out to plant a moon garden….”It just happened…”

We are excited to bring you a narrated walk through Shanthi’s Moon Garden in this 7-minute videoclip – we find it so inspiring to witness her creative process in action and see her multi-year vision begin to take shape so quickly already in one growing season. She began planting and creating it last summer, and at our request she took this video walk through her garden in Fall 2020, in order to share generously once again with our Readers. Thank you as well to her son, Iniyan, who so thoughtfully added a slide show at the end to help us identify and name all these many, many plants with white flowers and silver foliage. We can just imagine their beautiful shimmer, fragrant blossoms and magical, calming spell cast under a bright moon light! Enjoy!

Catherine especially loves the name of the “Magical Avalanche Coralberry” plant shown in Iniyan’s slide show. For gardening season 2021 she plans on sticking to vegetables and perhaps branching out to add a fruit. But the moon garden ‘seed’ has been planted in her imagination and you just never know where it may lead in seasons to come…..We look forward to learning more and watching Shanthi’s Moon Garden in bloom later this year.

What a magical space Shanthi has created in her home in Ontario, and we look forward to seeing photos or another video of this amazing garden when it is established and in full bloom both in the daylight and under the light of the full moon. Here is a list of the flowers she used:

• Artmisia
• Garlic Chives
• Bamboo Green Panda
• Variegated Bishop’s Weed
• Variegated Hosta
• Magical Avalanche Coralberry
• White Creeping Thyme
• Creeping Baby’s Breath
• Butterfly Bush (White Profusion)
• Variegated Ground Ivy
• Bridal Wreath Spirea
• White Drift Rose

For those curious to read and learn more about Moon Gardens as a ‘thing,’ thanks go to Nora for sharing this informative article on ‘Silver Herbs,’ by Sandra Henry in The Magazine Rack. Sandra starts her piece with a poem and then goes on to share her plant knowledge for creating what she describes as – “A moon garden is a romantic and enchanted place that has been planted with silver and grey herbs, utilized for their light reflecting qualities.” https://bit.ly/3kBolLr

Happy garden dreaming, planning and planting to all!

Women for Forests: A Special Initiative

March 8 is International Women’s Day. One Tree Planted writes, “Women play a vital role in mitigating climate change. Especially when it comes to reforestation!”

“In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8th, One Tree Planted and Planet Women are uniting with female smallholder farmers to plant trees, support healthy communities, and restore the environment.”

“When women are empowered with resources for forest restoration and management, the resulting benefits are more productive farms, healthier families, greater biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential, cleaner water resources, and more resilient communities.” To learn more about the Women for Forests initiative, including how you might donate (one tree planted for every dollar donated), go to https://women-forests.raisely.com/.