In horticulture and garden making, experience is important. With a year-long cycle from spring through winter, we get to “try again” every 365 days. It’s not like trying new dinner recipes!
Despite being a late starter, I have 27 years experience as a gardener, not only in small urban backyards but also on a large site—an acre of paradise—with perfect soil in Ontario’s banana belt. I’ve gardened in clay, silt, loam, sun, and shade. My first attempt at a garden, in Toronto’s High Park neighbourhood, taught me that there was a lot to learn about what plants need to thrive.
I have a diploma in Organic Land Care from Gaia College (2019) that included valuable courses in landscape design. My ad-hoc learning includes courses at Mohawk College (Deciduous Trees), the Landscape for Life “Train the Trainer” course at Texas A&M, and many webinars with the Ecological Landscape Alliance. In November 2023 I completed the Pollinator Partnership’s Pollinator Stewardship Certification Program.
Way back… I did a degree in English Lit at York University, a partial diploma at George Brown College in Editing, and a diploma from Seneca College in Retail Merchandising.
My early days of gardening were active in the “activist” sense. Before the Ontario-wide ban was enacted, I was part of a noisy group that brought a cosmetic pesticide ban to London Ontario.
I’ve worked in sales at a retail garden center, swung a spade as a professional gardener (the old hips can’t handle that any more!) and, for a brief time, dabbled in a little retail business selling organic soil amendments and garden specialties. After becoming an Organic Master Gardener in 2016 I taught an OMG course in Hamilton.
In 2021 I became a certified Master Gardener with MGOI (Master Gardeners of Ontario) via the Halton Region group. Since January 2025 I’ve worked with the Thousand Island Master Gardener Group, from my home base in Brockville Ontario. The Master Gardener organization has taken great strides towards an ecological approach to horticulture. It’s been a good experience so far. I love to work and teach with enthusiastic, knowledgable, like-minded gardeners.
More recently it’s volunteer work that provides the most opportunities for learning and community service. In 2012 I began volunteering with the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. Later I began volunteer gardening at the RBG’s Helen M. Kippax native plant garden at Hendrie Park. From 2021 to 2024 I led a terrific crew of volunteer native plant enthusiasts.
Speaking of terrific crews, doing invasive shrub removal with the Hamilton Naturalists Club made a huge difference to my awareness and approach to natural systems. As founder of the Hamilton’s Monarch Awards, I worked for eight years to help shift the dominant garden aesthetic. The Monarch Awards continue under the leadership of the Halton Master Gardeners. In 2023 I co-founded Garden Journeys Open Days with a fellow Master Gardener. A founding member of the Crown Point Garden Club, I worked on public gardens and fostered a love of gardening in my east Hamilton neighbourhood between 2016 and 2024.
Doing garden design has been another steep learning curve, not only from a technical standpoint but also to meet difficult site challenges, especially deer, black walnut, and deep shade. I have gardens percolating in my head most of the time.
I enjoy speaking to groups about ecological gardening and native plants. Here are some of the presentations I’ve done recently. Please visit my Contact Page if your group is looking for a speaker.
– Getting Started with Ecological Gardening
– Learning About Native Plants
– Water Management for Gardeners
– Dump the Thugs You Used to Love: Invasive Plants
– Shrink the Lawn: Making a Garden from Scratch
– What is a Garden Pest: Making Peace with Wildlife
– Joy of Weeding
– Biodiversity Planning: Tools and Resources
– Invasive Jumping Worms
– Fun with Botanical Latin–Does Pronunciation Matter?
– Plant ID Minus the App. Learn how to use a dichotomous key to identify plants. Includes a short presentation about how to look at unknown plants and a hands-on ID workshop using real plants or photos of them.