A new venue, called the Garden Advice Party (GAP), is proving very popular with home gardeners on Vancouver Island. The GAP combines the traditional Master Gardener clinic and the popular home garden tour so often hosted by many local garden clubs. A few highlights of a recent GAP illustrates both the venue and the spirit of the Master Gardener philosophy.
At her lovely home and acreage in Duncan, Martha Jean Clarke was the primary host for last week’s party. There were eight of us in all, including the host, the invited neighbours, and 2 master gardeners. Ms Clarke began the day with an overview of the history of her home (built in 1890) and some insight into the challenges she has encountered during her three years in this garden while we strolled through her orchard, formal garden, and incredible knot garden – a Renaissance-inspired maze of geometric boxwood compartments.
As we continued the stroll through hers, and the two adjacent neighbour’s gardens, everyone spoke up spontaneously when they had information to share about a plant, and this engendered discussions about plant ID and treatment of problems each had encountered. The spontaneity and peer teaching is the most unique and, I feel, most important aspect of this type of clinic. Each discussion became a hands-on learning experience – even for the master gardeners at times – as we looked for pests, demonstrated how to dead head rhododendrons, and talked about various cultivars. In the knot garden, which contained seemingly miles of boxwood, one of the participants explained problems specific to this plant which she knew well, such as Volutella buxi, the boxwood blight. And Martha Jean even introduced us to a mystery plant that none of us recognized: Ulmus alata, the winged elm or wahoo shrub.
A second merit of this venue is how, if a host or a guest had more questions about a plant, one of the master gardeners could hang back while the rest of the group moved on – see the image of Gwen Redcliff with umbrella. This flexibility lends itself to more in-depth conversations when needed. A few of us even got down and dirty to expose the flare of an ill-planted tree, seen in the image of MGs Sue Marr and Judy Raimondo with Martha Jean’s neighbour). Refreshments and snacks – kindly provided by Ms Clarke, ended a relaxed, fun, and informative afternoon.
If anyone has questions about how to run a GAP please contact VIMGA. The garden advice party has become a wonderful example of our mandate: “Keeping our Island green – one garden at a time.”
