Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Snow is beginning to give way to patches of grass, which makes for perfect timing for the Tamworth/ Erinsville Grassroots Growers to host their first talk of the season, April 2 at St. Patrick’s School at 7 p.m.
Paul Zammit, director of horticulture at the Toronto Botanical Garden, will serve as the evening’s guest speaker. His talk, titled “Container Gardening: Drama for Every Season,” will include tips on what to plant to have something to look at in a garden all year round.
“We’ll be talking about designing a garden that will have year-round appeal,” said Zammit. “One of the ways to do that is with containers that can reflect all four seasons.”
He’ll be offering a demonstration for how to plant in a container as well as giving advice on interesting arrangements as well as what to plant to encourage wildlife to visit a property.
“Also we’ll look at how to help support things like pollinators, which is very timely as everyone is concerned and rightfully so,” said Zammit. “We’ll be talking about plants you can add to help support butterflies, hummingbirds and honey bees.”
A portion of the talk will also cover adding edible plants to a container garden as well. As always, a seed exchange will follow the presentation. Admission is by donation.
Well-travelled and well-decorated, Zammit has appeared in print, television and on the radio several times to discuss his passion for gardening. From 2016 to 2018, he had a weekly gardening advice appearing on CBC’s Here and Now radio program.
In 2017 he was selected by Garden Making magazine as one of Canada’s top 20 shaping gardeners across Canada. He has also presented talks across Canada and the U.S. as well as Germany, Switzerland, Bermuda and South Africa. Earlier this year he was awarded the Garden Communicator of the Year by Landscape Ontario.
For more information on the talk, visit www.te-grassrootsgrowers.weebly.com. St. Patrick School is located at 6041 Hwy 41 in Erinsville.