Environment Views: Scarborough Seedy Saturday and Green Fair set for March 30

By KATIE FULLERTON

The popular Scarborough Seedy Saturday and Green Fair returns for its 10th year on March 30.

This year’s event features more than 50 displays including the Seed Swap in which participants can bring their seeds to trade, organic and heirloom seed vendors, flower and garden associations, nature, park and eco booths.

Also, Park People will be hosting their annual Scarborough Park Forum.

A key part of the fair includes the gardening workshops. There are three this year – two of which are being headed by local residents.

The first workshop at 1 p.m. is Grow Without A Garden hosted by author Lara Lucretia Mrosovsky, a resident of Birch Cliff. Mrosovsky just spent the past year writing her book Grow Without a Garden: 101 Plants for Containers.

Just released, the book is a companion to her previous title An Illustrated Guide to Growing Food on your Balcony. Mrosovsky was inspired to write this book as a support for all those, especially apartment dwellers, who lack access to a garden and have a keen interest in growing.

This book provides information on how to grow 101 various plants in containers with details including container size, spacing, first planting, last planting, transplants , bloom time, light, watering, soil and more. In compiling the book, Mrosovsky acknowledged the help that she received. “There was a huge community of support – from mentoring, to suggestions, to editing, to consulting and to proofreading.”

She pointed out that key ideas came from the volunteers that she works with at Access Alliance on the Danforth – where she co-ordinates the rooftop garden. “Because of Access Alliance being so multicultural I have learned more about multicultural food plants – this is a book for a diverse Toronto.”

If you miss her presentation, she will have a table at the fair all day.

At 2 p.m., Upper Beach resident Virginie Gysel from SPOTT gardens landscape design and Leila Mireskandari from Urban Guilds Permaculture will present Bringing Nature Home and Permaculture in your Backyard.

The presentation will explain how to design and landscape your gardens so that they are beautiful, provide you with fruit and vegetables and most importantly support biodiversity.

“We will present a new way of looking at your garden” said Gysel. “It is about our personal ecology – planting native plants but also ones that can feed you.”
She calls it Ecoscaping and Foodscaping.

Gysel is well known locally as the creator of the St. Saviours Church Urban Orchard and Garden. With the help of the church and neighbourhood volunteers she transformed a grassy patch into a pollinator paradise and a fruit and vegetable food garden. She is also a founding member of TreeMobile – a not-for-profit group that sells and plants fruit trees, shrubs and vines. Sold at subsidized prices, all profits go towards supporting urban orchards and community gardens through the Edible Garden Grant. For more on the grant, visit www.transitiontreemobile.org

Mireskandari and Gysel will both have a display at the fair.

The final workshop at 3 p.m. will be of great interest to gardeners and Scarborough residents. The Toronto Region and Conservation Authority will present Beautiful Native Plants and The Meadoway in the Hydro Corridors.

Those attending can learn about the inspiring beauty and practical benefits of gardening with native plants. You will leave with the know-how to create a natural oasis that will enhance your property and benefit local wildlife and pollinators!

And you will also learn about the exciting plans for a pollinator friendly corridor on hydro lands (and how your native plant garden can support this.

The Scarborough Seedy Saturday and Green Fair goes from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is being held at the Blessed Cardinal Newman Catholic High School, 100 Brimley Rd. S., just south of Kingston Road. For more info, go to www.facebook.com/SSSGFair or email scarboroseedysaturday@gmail.com

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