Fiesta Gardens New Partnership With Landscaper Jonas Spring

By Sarah Battersby on April 26th, 2012 No Comments »
Jonas Spring's Ecoman - new Landscape Design Partnership at Fiesta Gardens

New Partnership: Garden Designer Jonas Spring in Fiesta Garden’s tree and shrub area.

Fiesta Gardens is happy to announce a brand new ser­vice. Now when you need help with with design­ing or installing a gar­den, Fiesta Gardens has the per­fect per­son to point you toward, local Landscape Designer, Jonas Spring.

Jonas Spring’s cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in Landscaping comes from Ryerson University as well as a BSc. in Agroecology from the University of British Columbia. (Agroecology is the appli­ca­tion of ecol­ogy to sus­tain­able design in food-related ecosys­tems) Jonas’ Landscaping com­pany, Ecoman has great cre­den­tials and many happy customers.

“Ecoman trans­formed my front gar­den from an ugly patch of unhealthy grass to an ele­gant land­scape of rock walls, stone court­yard and grace­ful grasses. It’s the envy of my street.

More than that, though: Jonas Spring and his crew of stone­ma­sons and gar­den­ers were a delight to have around, punc­tual, hard-working, painstak­ing, cre­ative and fun. It’s not often you can say that going through any kind of a ren­o­va­tion was fun, but with Ecoman it def­i­nitely was!” ~ Bronwyn Drainie

Jonas brings the hor­ti­cul­tural goods.  He has also taught Horticulture at Ryerson University for their Landscape Design pro­gram. This year, he, with gar­den designer Victoria Taylor, put together a fan­tas­tic instal­la­tion at Canada Blooms, using recy­cled con­crete, that won a SEED award.

For the last ten years, Jonas has brought his pas­sion for hor­ti­cul­ture, ecol­ogy, food and liv­able cities to his local land­scap­ing busi­ness.  Ecoman spe­cial­izes in dry shade, urban gar­den design, both plant mate­r­ial and hard­scape, includ­ing patios, steps, walls, and green roofs.

We at Fiesta like that Jonas is active in the com­mu­nity and local affairs. We’ve had a long rela­tion­ship with him, being the sup­plier for the gar­dens he cre­ates. Garden Centre man­ager Dino Virgona says, “We are thrilled to offer a ser­vice to our cus­tomers that has such a nat­ural fit.” So, look for that friendly man with the bowtie next time you are in the gar­den centre.


⇪ Posted in Articles, Front Page, Garden.

Garden Design Tips: Take Note of Plant Shapes

By Sarah Battersby on April 24th, 2012 No Comments »

Alliums have a strik­ing spher­i­cal shape on a tall spiky stem, pro­vid­ing ver­ti­cal interest.

To lessen your over­whelm when you go to the gar­den cen­tre, it helps to have some prin­ci­ples of design and orga­ni­za­tion under your belt. Often we get daz­zled by what peren­nial plants are cur­rently in bloom, and we end up want­ing one of those, and one of those because of the colour­ful blooms.

But colour isn’t every­thing. Good gar­den design takes into account the shapes of peren­ni­als. Remember that peren­ni­als bloom for only about three weeks, so the foliage and over­all shape have to have season-round attrac­tions. A vari­ety of plant shapes gives the gar­den a sculp­tural qual­ity, pro­vides con­trast and visual inter­est. There are five key shapes in peren­ni­als. Remember that odd groups of three, five or seven are bet­ter than just one plant alone.

Spikes: Delphiniums, Foxgloves, Hollyhocks. Tall Bearded Iris, Lupins, Campanula Persicifolia, Alliums, Foxtail Lilies, Liatris, Feather reed grass (Calamagrostis), Snakeroot (Actaea race­mosa) and many taller Veronicas, like “Purpleicious”.

Mounded: This is a huge cat­e­gory, just make sure you don’t choose all plants for your gar­den from this group. Johnson’s Blue, Rozanne, and other Geraniums, Lavender, Euphorbia Polychroma, Hostas (not all, some have a foun­tain shape, like “Praying Hands”) Lady’s Mantle, Chrysanthemum, Autumn Joy Sedum, Pulmonaria, Matricaria, Dwarf Asters, Dianthus, Fleabane, Gaillardia and Candytuft.

Prostrate: (Groundcovers) Periwinkle, Creeping Thyme, Sedum Acre, Hens and Chicks, Ajuga, Sweet Woodruff, Phlox Subulata, and Aubretia.

Fountain: Daylilies, Ornamental Grasses, (Miscanthus sinen­sis) ‘Morning  Light’, Crocosmia, Peonies, Bleeding Heart, (Dicentra) Some Hostas, (ie “Sagae” “Krossa Regal” “Green Fountain”)

Fan: Meadow Rue, Goats Beard, Joe Pye Weed, Goldenrod. (Solidago)


⇪ Posted in Articles, Front Page, Garden.

Garden, Art & Food Merge at Eigensinn Farm

By Sarah Battersby on April 19th, 2012 No Comments »
& Food Merge at Eigensinn Farm">

I was lucky to attend a pre­view of The Singhampton Project—an intrigu­ing food, art and gar­den extrav­a­ganza planned for August at Michael Stadtländer’s Eigensinn Farm out­side of Toronto. (Eigensinn in German means ”single-mindedness” or ”obsti­nacy’) The farm is a com­pletely sur­pris­ing mix of the rus­tic, slightly odd, enchant­ing and prac­ti­cal. The rus­tic is a col­lec­tion of seat­ing and din­ing areas dot­ted through­out the prop­erty made entirely of reclaimed wood and pal­lets, the slightly odd is a mas­sive bar­beque sprout­ing antlers, and a grassy laneway fes­tooned with long bor­ders of count­less wine bot­tles on either side. That’s a lot of wine. The enchant­ing is the mix of reclaimed pot­tery and rusted farm imple­ments mak­ing up the sculp­tures, and out­door cook­ing devices.  The prac­ti­cal is the tossed oys­ter shells on the roof of the dubbed Oyster Temple of Love, fat tree trunk stools in a wooded glen, a com­pletely func­tion­ing kitchen with a wood fire in the mid­dle of a for­est, and sim­ple boards and shells as serv­ing dishes.

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⇪ Posted in Articles, Environment, Events, Garden.

Two Easy-Care Shrubs for Attracting Wildlife

By Sarah Battersby on April 17th, 2012 No Comments »
A butterfly on a pink butterfly bush flower.

The nec­tar of bud­deias calls loudly to but­ter­flies in August, a lovely sight.

Birds, bees and but­ter­flies are a wel­come addi­tion to any gar­den, and herba­ceous peren­ni­als and annu­als aren’t the only way to attract them. Shrubs do the job in a super easy care way, and ben­e­fit your gar­den by giv­ing it struc­ture and win­ter interest.

Butterfly Bush (Buddleia) is a but­ter­fly mag­net, and flow­ers in August, when many other gar­den plants do not. They come in colours from white, blue, pur­ple to deep vio­let. They should be in everyone’s gar­den. You can buy tall or dwarf vari­eties, like “Blue Chip” and “Buzz.”

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⇪ Posted in Articles, Environment, Garden.

Lawn’s Got Bare Spots? Time to Seed

By Sarah Battersby on April 5th, 2012 No Comments »
Bare feet on a lawn of clover

A mixed turf lawn of grass, clover and the odd dan­de­lion is the most eco-friendly one.

It’s the per­fect time to spruce up any bare patches in your lawn. Grass seed likes the cool weather of April for ger­mi­na­tion, plus there’s ample rain.
Success with lawn revi­tal­i­sa­tion starts with soil prepa­ra­tion. Sowing grass seed onto hard, dry, packed-down earth just won’t do. Follow these steps for best results.

  1.  Give the lawn a good rak­ing, to lift dead leaves and twigs. Raking also helps to ruf­fle up the sur­face of the soil a little.
  2. Sprinkle the bare patches with a good gar­den soil mix, from the gar­den centre.

    3. Continue »


⇪ Posted in Articles, Environment, Garden, How to.

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