When it comes to gardening, keeping things simple is the key to making it fun.
With more than 20 years in the nursery business, Katie Dawson says she is seeing more and more people taking a back-to-basics approach to gardening, opting for perennials and vegetables.
Whether planting for clients or filling the greenhouses at Cut and Dried Flower Farm near Glencairn, she looks for plants that are easy to grow, flower for a long period and are drought tolerant.
Dawson also seeks out plants that have interesting foliage, giving the garden lasting texture, while waiting for those pops of colour. It helps to play with contrasting colours, says Dawson.
Ornamental grasses can be very effective in the garden because they give height and texture but also like the heat and won’t wilt.
There is a trend toward the cottage country garden, incorporating the tried-and-true standbys that grandma used to grow. Sometimes there are new twists on the old classics, with growers hybridizing new colours.
“People are happy with a general mix, as long as there is something blooming all the time,” she says. “People love things that are easy. Everyone is busy. You want gardening to be fun and not a chore.”
While the gardens are trending towards perennials people are using annuals in container planting. Pots and hanging baskets can be used effectively as focal pieces at doorways and on decks. Think thriller, filler and spiller when composing a container, says Dawson.
The thriller is the central plant, maybe something with some height, in the middle, then add a plant variety with bulk to fill out the container and finally, add a trailing vine-like plant that will spill down. For example, a tall ornamental grass, with petunias and a sweet potato vine makes a nice combo.
Customers can either buy the plants individually and arrange them at home or Dawson will start planters in the greenhouse early in the season to give them a jump start so they have already filled out when its time to put them outside.
In the last few years, there has been a resurgence in the popularity of growing vegetables at home, all stemming from the organic and eat local movements, says Dawson.
The vegetable plants at Cut and Dried Flower Farm are never sprayed. Dawson uses biological controls to target certain pests when necessary. People are growing the staple veggies with a particular interest in heritage tomatoes, of which the farm has 10 varieties.
Cut and Dried Flower Farm is a family business.
Dawson works with her husband Chris Martin, together they also own and operate Complete Outdoor Services.
Their eldest daughter Roslyn is working on the farm on weekends and the boys, Daniel and Ben, can be seen at the Creemore Farmers’ Market on Saturdays.
Visit www.cutdriedflowerfarm.com.