An Amazing Conversation Blooms With Frankie Flowers

• Blog author, Cynthia Ross Tustin.
• Innisfil, Ontario
• Back from the rainforest; and thrilled to have a conversation with Frankie Flowers
• Watch the vlog as Frankie shares his insights about gardening, retiring, and growing.
• There’s adventure everywhere!
• Posted Sunday, September 5thm 2021

Middletown Grange

Retiring to the garden.  What a romantic notion.  I rolled that idea around in my head when I made the decision to retire. 

Before we moved to our current location (15 years ago) all our homes had beautiful gardens.  I’d spent hundreds of hours planning, installing, and tending them.  Loved it.  Then we moved here; twenty-five acres in the country with mature trees and lawn.  Let’s call it Middletown Grange; grange is a swanky term for rural property.  And “lawn” is a generous term since I did invite Karen Stephenson over to show me all the weeds I could eat in the event of a zombie apocalypse.  But I digress.

Lots of lawn, and no gardens.  So now I’m retired, home from my Costa Rican vacation (where gardens grow rampant), and pondering the wisdom of installing gardens…

…at my age.

…at my current level of fitness.

…if I want to travel more.

…if I get a part-time job.

…if we’re thinking of selling and downsizing.

The Neighbourhood

You get the drift.  You should know that I live in the banana belt of Simcoe County, in what is technically considered the Holland Marsh.  It’s considered Ontario’s vegetable patch.  The fresh produce is extraordinarily abundant.  A great many of my neighbours are growers.  Early in our tenure at the Grange, I realized that a vegetable garden would be excessively prolific simply due to geography; and planting one on my part would make my efforts completely redundant.  Why spend the time when I could walk to the neighbours and “get all the fresh” with “none of the effort”? I’m lazy, a trip to ETF Farm wins hands-down.  So that leaves the gardening necessary for curb appeal and sheer pleasure.  And I’m embarrassed to tell you that our greenhouse sits empty.  Help.

The Neighbour

I needed guidance.  I needed an expert.  I needed Frankie Flowers.  Did I mention that many of my neighbours are growers?  Canada’s favourite gardener and the most trusted weatherman is the expert I called.  That’s right. I said it.  Frankie Flowers is my neighbour!  TV personality, four-time award-winning author, and perennially popular designer at Canada Blooms aside; Frank Ferragine comes from a long line of growers. 

Today’s vlog post is my conversation with Frankie Flowers; we talk about retirement.  Not just mine, and the ways I could make the gardening fit more seamlessly into my lifestyle.  But we discussed his bucket list of garden visits; and how his father and grandfather did more, and then less, gardening over time.   He had, as expected, sage advice for me; and he was very candid about himself and the generations of growers in his family.

Cool, right?!  Okay, so I’m not rushing out to dig dirt and plant flowers, more trees, and shrubs, probably.  The concept of xeriscaping – minimal water consumption sounds like an idea worth visiting more thoroughly, as does container gardening.  I want the curb appeal, but not the long-term commitment, that comes with beautiful garden landscaping.

Here are several links to the things we talked about; places to share extra produce, the gardens to visit, the cruise, and his website.

• The Holland Marsh
• EFT Farms
• Frankie Flowers
• Feed Ontario
• Grow A Row
• Royal Botanical Gardens
• Toronto Botanical Gardens
• Niagara Parks
• RHS Chelsea Garden Show
• Emerald Cruises

My thanks to my neighbour, for his generosity with his time.  And if I need more sage advice, I’ll catch him live Sunday mornings on his Facebook Channel.

Cheers,

Cynthia

I acknowledge that the land on which I live is the traditional territory of the Wendake-ionwl,  Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ , Mississauga, and Haudenosaunee peoples.