Canada Blooms is a family affair
By Mark and Ben Cullen on Mar 07, 2019
The largest annual flower and garden festival in the country opens Friday, March 8. We are really looking forward to this year’s festival, for many reasons.
The theme is ‘A Family Affair.’ Organizers have focused on creating a great experience for the entire family.
For the kids, look for the Li’l Sprouts area. Master gardeners will lead workshops to teach children about pollinators and the wide world of gardening. Each workshop will include a ‘take home’ project. We strongly recommend you pre-register to avoid disappointment.
For the millennials, the design committee has added a great variety of small space gardens. This year, the line up is better than ever, with new designers and some proven winners as well. Many of the gardens, including the 17 full-sized feature gardens, provide ideas for outdoor play spaces for kids, food gardening and gardening to benefit the environment. Bring your camera!
Another feature for the younger gardeners is the Landscape Ontario garden featuring Fusion Gardening. This is a set of best practices for sustainable gardening, something which is very important to younger generations and increasingly so to their parents.
One of the best things we can do for our fresh water sources is keep rainfall on our properties and let it percolate down into the earth, rather than shedding off into municipal wastewater systems. The Fusion Garden is a powerful illustration of best practices incorporated into a sustainable design.
For the boomers, like Mark, born during the ‘50s to early ‘60s “baby trend,” the 17 large feature gardens are an inspiration whether you are moving into retirement communities or enhancing the family property. If you like water gardens, you will love this year’s edition of ‘Blooms.’ There are feature gardens with moving-water, man-made streams and fountains. Look for still water features as well, that are perfect for attracting desirable wildlife like frogs, toads and fish.
The festival runs from Friday, March 8 to Sunday, March 17. Keeping with the ‘Family Affair’ theme, you will find us on the main stage each morning at 11am. We hope to see you there.
Details at www.canadablooms.com.
Mark Cullen is an expert gardener, Member of the Order of Canada, author and broadcaster. Get his free monthly newsletter at markcullen.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkCullen4 and Facebook.
