And now a word from Mark Cullen...

Excerpted from Mark Cullen's Monthly newsletter, which can be found at www.markcullen.com

“All gardeners live in beautiful places

Because they made them so.”

~ Joseph Joubert

It is the month of May. Time to get serious about the garden.

I don’t quite mean this the way that it sounds: serious is not a word that we should ever attach to the gardening experience. After all, you got into this thing for the fun of it right? May is the month that we really dig in, if a great looking garden is in the plan for this year at all. That is what I mean.

As I travel the country talking with gardeners it is becoming clear to me that the emerging generation of gardeners have some lessons to teach those of us who have been doing this for a time: #1 “There are no rules”

We now mix up vegetable plants with perennials – in the same container! And most every plant that goes in the garden also goes into containers… and most everything that can hold some soil is a container for planting most everything else. No rules.

Where to start: THAT is the question!

Vegetables to plant:

For most of us Canadian gardeners it helps to look at May as two months – early (when frost can still occur) and late (when the threat of frost is much less likely).

Plant in the first half: all ‘frost hardy’ vegetable seeds. There are many that thrive in cool soil and will tolerate some frost once out of the ground.

Radish, carrots, all members of the onion family including spring sets, Spanish onions, leeks and multipliers. Plant peas now, both the ‘snow’ peas and the podded peas, (plus, for the record Sweat Peas), lettuce – leaf, head and bib varieties, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts (providing you can find someone to eat them). In fact virtually all of the ‘gassy' vegetables can be planted early –like now.

Later, when the threat of frost is no longer a consideration plant out your tomato plants and peppers, seed potatoes, squash, pumpkins and beans. Corn should be planted when the leaves of your oak trees are the size of a squirrel’s ear. If you lack squirrels, come over to my place and help yourself.

Containers.

I have a way to cut your watering down by up to one half this summer. Water Wicks are a new product in the Mark’s Choice line up that I am very excited about. Each ‘Water Wick’ tea bag absorbs up to 400 times its’ weight in water.

When you prepare a hole for planting, drop a pre-moistened Water Wick tea bag into the bottom of the hole and place the plant directly on top of it. Firm the soil around the plant as per usual. Now, as the soil dries out the plant will draw moisture from the Water Wick. When you water your plants the Water Wick is automatically recharged with water.

The results are that you will water much less and your plants will become deeply rooted in their search for water at the bottom of the planting hole.

How do we know these work? We tested them ourselves. But not until the Ontario Flower Growers applied them to over one million potted plants that were shipped to retailers across the country. The Water Wick concept was such a hit that reforestation projects are now using them when planting tree seedlings. We (Home Hardware and I) have the exclusive use of the product in the retail market.

Give them a try and let me know what you think. I have used them in the veggie garden, under newly planted perennials and in containers with great success.

Water Wicks are made in Canada and are a 100% Canadian concept!

The BEST Wheel Barrow. Ever. It took us a while to perfect this one, but the new Mark’s Choice wheel barrow is a winner. I know this because my wife has claimed mine as her own.

It has a generous 5 cubic foot capacity, a low centre of gravity (so it will not tip unless you really try), it is perfectly balanced (the part that we worked on the longest), it has two heavy duty wheels, a thick gage high impact plastic hopper and a comfortable wrap around handle for ‘one handled’ work (so you can hold a beer in one hand and walk a load around the yard with the other!).

Mark's Choice Product of the Month

Mark’s Choice garden soils – at last ! We have been working for 3 years on the perfect formulation of soils for the 3 main jobs that you have around the garden.

Container mix for planting in hanging baskets, window boxes and all other containers. Home Hardware item# 5053-500

Weed Free Lawn Soil for getting grass seed and sod off to a great and fast start. Home Hardware item# 5053-686

Flower and Vegetable Soil , which also contains the very best ingredients for growing all vegetables and flowers in the garden. Home Hardware item# 5053-695