YES, the plant fair will be back this year, somewhat different than before. We are scaling it down from the usual 4 hour larger event by focusing on selling plants, with the addition of a garden-related jumble sale.
We will be ordering in choice and interesting plants from a few of nurseries for resale, and are hoping members will contribute plants to be sold by growing vegetable, herb and annual seedlings in potting mix, as well as your houseplant offspring. If you'd like to contribute please send email to plantfair@parkdaletorontohort.com
Plant division's from member's gardens will be accepted only under strict conditions. You’ve undoubtedly heard about the jumping worms. Clement Kent talked about this invasive pest that has the potential to change our indigenous boreal forests as well as our backyard soil. It is a very real threat to our ecosystem.
Therefore divisions will only be accepted if the donor has followed strict soil removal by careful and thorough root washing and re-potting in clean potting mix. We'll be guiding members with Jumping Worms best practices through the newsletter and in meetings in the months leading up to the Plant Fair.
Please check this webpage for more info as we post updates.
To volunteer for the Plant Fair in any capacity please send email to plantfair@parkdaletorontohort.com. Start thinking about garden related items you might want to donate to the jumble sale!
Meanwhile if you want to find out a little more about these invasive pests please check out these links.
Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA) info about about Jumping Worms.
OHA Plant Sale Best Practices document.
Canadian News video about the Jumping Worm. YES they are in parts of Toronto.
Jumping Worm Research Update
video of talk given by Dr Lee Frelich, University of Minnesota for the Kelodale Garden Club. Very detailed and very interesting!
Here’s a video about how to prepare plants for divisions you will donate, which is is kind of ironic because they are digging up an invasive plant for replanting to show how to remove an invasive pest.
