Hits & Misses: Refreshing mums & tomato blights
Question of the Week: When can I harvest my onions?
Science & Technology: Fuel for thought

For the past few years it’s been a family tradition to head up to Jasper for a little hiking prior to the long weekend in September. We’ve had both cool and warm weather on that last weekend in August, although, historically, it’s always been dry—until this year when our luck ran out. When we began our hike up Whistler Mountain, we were greeted with sunshine. But it gave way to cloud, then showers, then ice pellets and, finally, at 1,500 metres, a good dump of snow that continued all the way to the 2,300 metre summit. Getting soaked and chilled in that flurry reminded me of …cabbage. One of the “joys” of my vegetable farming days was harvesting the last of the cabbage for winter storage. Invariably, that late fall task entailed brushing snow from the cabbages so we could slice the heads from the stems. Trust me, snow-covered mountain rocks and snow-covered cabbage heads look eerily similar. But a 20 acre field of snow-capped cabbage just doesn’t compare to a mountain view.

Hits & Misses
Hit: Refreshing Mums
What do you do when bedding plants begin to fade late in the season? Airlift in a few garden mums. They’re the perfect late-blooming plants for rejuvenating containers or flowerbeds. Garden mums come in a multitude of colours, endure cool weather and require little more than a good regular drink of water to stay in great shape. I always pull out fading annuals and drop in the mums as the calendar turns to September.

Miss: Tomato Blights
Tomatoes don’t like the weather we’ve had; they hate it. Over the past several weeks, many gardeners have seen their tomatoes turn brown before their eyes. The culprit or culprits (as may be the case) are blights that have a penchant for tomatoes. Both early blight and late blight (two similar but distinct plant diseases) can transform green foliage to brown foliage in short order. When these diseases are floating about, all they need to infect susceptible tomato varieties are the right conditions—moderate temperatures and a lot of rain showers—to infect and damage plants. Unfortunately, August provided the perfect environment for these blights, and tomatoes in our region are paying the price. If caught very early, damaged tissue can be pruned out, although that won’t guarantee the blight won’t spread. There is no cure, so plants usually have to be removed. As a preventative measure, avoid overhead watering, whether via a garden hose or Mother Nature. And, yes, I know that’s much easier said than done.

Tomatoes affected by blight.

Question of the Week
When can I harvest my onions?
You can harvest onions as soon they’ve reached a size you like. But if you’re looking to store the mature bulbs, leave them in the ground until the top growth has fallen over and dried. Always ensure that the “necks” are dry, or the bulbs will not store well. To speed up the drying process you can cut the roots. Once dry, cure the onions in a warm (24˚C), dry, well ventilated place for at least a week before putting them into a cool, dry location for winter storage. They’ll last well into the following spring.

Science & Technology
Fuel for thought
Put a cactus in your tank? Researchers are investigating the potential of various agave species as biofuel sources. That’s because agaves use water six times more efficiently than plants such as wheat, and can be grown in poor quality soils. In California, Agave deserti that received just 4.3 cm of rainfall produced 7 dry tonnes per hectare per year. That’s a lot of juice for tequila…er fuel.

Did You Know?
A four-month-old rye plant has over ten thousand kilometres of roots and billions of root hairs.

“Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.”
–Langston Hughes


As you may have guessed, there’s a long to-do list when you move a business. For us, it’s more than just physically relocating; it’s also about changing how we identify ourselves. We’ve developed a recognizable Hole’s Greenhouses & Gardens brand, which has, of course, changed and grown with the business. Now we have to consider how the Hole’s brand will play within the larger context of the Enjoy Centre. Similarly, we have to define the relationship between the Enjoy Centre and the café, bakery, spa and other partners. There’s a long list of items to consider including packaging, forms, signage and advertising. We have to decide, for example, whether our uniforms will have the Enjoy name or the Hole’s name on them, or both. The branding process also involves picking colours and fonts, as well as determining how and when to use the names. Our graphic designer has been unearthing the possibilities to help us decide. Here are some samples.

first published August 19, 2010

Recently, while reorganizing a stack of trade journals in the publication graveyard, I re-discovered a slightly yellowed Pike’s Seeds catalogue dating back to 1942, as well as Dad’s somewhat frayed university textbook, Basic Horticulture, published in 1948. As I thumbed through their pages, what really intrigued me—other than Dad’s five-digit home phone number written on the inside flap of his book and the $1.75 flowering crabapple tree in the catalogue—was some of the common horticultural practices from the 1940s. Trust me, if you adopted those gardening protocols today, you wouldn’t be invited to your neighbourhood block party. Here’s a little of what I found.

Reading the textbook section on “Control of Plant Ills” revealed that plant pests—diseases in particular—weren’t well understood, nor was ecology on anyone’s radar. The controls discussed in the book focused almost entirely on killing pests with chemicals. Products such as arsenate of lead and Paris green (a copper-arsenic compound) were readily available to home gardeners back then. Fortunately, the highly toxic lead arsenate, which contaminated soil, started to be replaced in the late 40s by a synthetic insecticide. Unfortunately, that insecticide was the notorious DDT…let’s just call that a lateral move in the world of pest control.

OK, so clearly the 40s weren’t the enlightened age of chemical pest control, but even though there were some heavy-duty chemicals available then, in practice, gardeners did more hand picking of bugs than today’s gardeners do and, from what I can gather, had a greater tolerance for insect damage. I know Mom always said that when she was growing up, the gardening mantra was “One plant for you; one for the bugs.” I can’t say I like the odds skewed that much in favour of pests. Fortunately, today’s arsenal of pest control products are tough on the bugs but a heck of a lot easier on everything else.

On a less environmentally distressing note, I also noticed a distinct difference in some of the 40s lawn grass mixtures. Although you could buy pure grass seed mixtures, Pike’s also offered white Dutch clover blends that could be used for “patching up old lawns.” Clover is a wonderful nitrogen fixing plant that provides nutrients for lawn grasses and was a rather common constituent in lawn mixtures. But today, clover is often vilified because of its aggressive nature. Those who love golf-green-like lawns spend a lot of time and effort trying to eradicate it. Despite that, I like clover’s lush appearance, but the likelihood of it becoming trendy again is about as likely as 40s zoot suits and fedoras re-emerging as fashion staples.

Today, not only have we city folk restricted our thinking regarding what we can grow as lawn, we’ve also put restrictions on what we can do with it in our backyards. Recently, in various cities across the country, urban chickens have become a rather contentious issue. But that wasn’t always the case. In the 1942 seed catalogue, Pike’s marketed “chicken lettuce” described as “four-feet high, used for feeding poultry and rabbits.” Even in the 40s, I don’t imagine chickens were as commonplace in city yards as dogs and cats were, but I’ll also bet that lettuce-munching leghorns didn’t get that big a second look from anyone. Today, however—bylaws aside, there’s a stigma about live chickens in urban environments that makes many people uneasy. Were a chicken to cross the road in any Canadian city today, getting to the other side would be just the beginning of its legal problems.

I always find looking back at horticulture standards to be a fascinating study. Ornamental horticulture around the Second World War period was alive and well, of course, but growing fruit and vegetable gardens wasn’t just a hobby. It was an absolute necessity for many people. And while what I read about some of the practices back then gave me a chuckle, I suspect that a garden writer in 2080 will have a good belly laugh at some of my horticultural practices.

On a side note, not all the gems I found in those old horticulture publications had to do with gardening. Opening Dad’s textbook, I also noticed a rather fragile, Edmonton transit ticket poking out from between two pages. Dad had obviously used it as a bookmark. I, on the other hand, squeezed a little more transit out of it. What better way to do a little time travelling…

Hits & Misses: Blooming complements & a love-hate relationship
Question of the Week: Why are maple leaves more intensely coloured some autumns?
Science & Technology: Fertilizer analysis

Last week when Edmonton was cloaked in smoke from the BC forest fires, I followed the public health warnings and avoided outdoor aerobic exercise. So instead of going for a jog, I went to the park with my family where on one of these days we roasted marshmallows. Well, by the time I factored in the smoke from the green twigs and grass that the kids threw on the barbecue, I’m pretty sure I’d have been better off running in Edmonton’s forest-fire-filled air than spending 20 minutes fighting through the campfire smoke to see if the marshmallows were brown. Even under the best of circumstances, roasted marshmallows should come with a health warning. Not only do you breathe in ash while trying to create the perfect smoldering embers to roast the marshmallows over, but you also ingest a small log’s worth of charcoal when eating the often-charred marshmallows. Oh well, the kids were happy…plus I did my part for the environment by sequestering carbon—in my body tissues.

Hits & Misses
Hit: Blooming Complements
Last Friday after doing my open line gardening stint on CBC radio, I ran into Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel in the downtown core. In our conversation, he let me know how thrilled he was with the containers and hanging baskets adorning Churchill Square and other areas in the city. It was great to hear from “the guy at the top” that the flowers we do up every year for Edmonton are so well received. St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse recently made similarly effusive complements about the containers we provide in St. Albert. So now, I feel it’s my duty to pass on the credit to those who really deserve it—our staff members who nurture and plant the flowers, deliver and place the containers, and then water and fertilize throughout the summer. And, of course, a big thank-you to all the residents and visitors who provide feedback on how much they enjoy the results.

Miss: A Love-hate Relationship
I love the cool fresh taste of mint. But while the flavour of mint is cool and refreshing, the plant itself can generate a lot of perspiration and anxiety if left to its own devices. Mint is from the Lamiaceae family, which also includes the herbs lavender, oregano, savory and thyme. But unlike most of its relatives, mint has a very aggressive creeping root system that’s capable of taking over a yard, unless contained. If you’ve struggled to keep mint under control, you probably won’t be surprized to learn it’s also closely related to creeping Charlie—one of the toughest-to-control weeds.

Aggressive mint roots.

Question of the Week
Why are maple leaves more intensely coloured some autumns?
Intensity of leaf colour depends on both the species and the weather. Bright, warm late-summer days with cool nights produce the best fall display because these conditions increase the production of anthocyanins—the leaf pigments responsible for red foliage. But regardless of the weather, sugar maples naturally have the most intensely red leaves while others, such as Manitoba maples, produce mostly yellow leaves.

Science & Technology
Fertilizer Analysis
Vitamin B–1 is sometimes included in fertilizer formulations where it’s listed as a “bio-stimulant.” While it’s true that plants need vitamin B–1, plants actually produce lots of their own. The bottom line is using fertilizers with vitamin B–1 will do no harm, but neither will it simulate plant growth when added to your soil.

Did You Know?
Seeds of the jojoba plant contain about 50 percent wax.

“The love of beauty in its multiple forms is the noblest gift of the human cerebrum.”
–Alexis Carrel

As we prepare to relocate to the Enjoy Centre, we’re also seeking to preserve some of our past. To commemorate our history, we’d like your stories for the Memory Project, an exhibition dedicated to you, our community. This project will be the first exhibit to be featured at the Enjoy Centre.

We hope to continue to dedicate space for future exhibits—everything from art shows to community history projects and initiatives such as wetland conservation displays in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited.

To contribute to the Memory Project, fill out an online form, or print one and mail it in or drop it off at our garden centre.

Hits & Misses: Evergreens galore & prickly encounter
Question of the Week: What’s cutting out big circles in my rose leaves?
Science & Technology: Keeping above water

Dusty, dirty, hot and sweaty. That pretty much describes my week, which I spent sanding my long-neglected, cedar deck. Of course, I could have resealed the cedar years ago but no…that would’ve been too easy! Instead, I left it to the point where the cedar turned a bleak, sky-grey colour and had cracks that looked more like crevasses. To my credit, before starting I thought I’d done my due diligence and insured none of the screws were poking out of the boards. But sadly, eight torn, coarse-grit sandpaper belts later…I’m still not done. The way I figure it, by the time I’m finished, the hedge of cedar trees next to my deck will have grown large enough to use as new lumber.

Hits & Misses
Hit: Evergreens Galore
There was a time when the word “evergreen” would immediately conjure an image of a tall pine or spruce tree. Today that’s all changed and, I must admit, it’s become hard to keep track of all the available varieties. The biggest shift is the increased selection of dwarf and semi-dwarf varieties—great for small and big yards alike. Besides ranging from stately to miniature, evergreens can be coarse or fine textured, spreading or upright. They also come in a surprisingly large range of colours, including variegated tones. One of my favourites is the dwarf Norway spruce, simply because it’s dense and very tough. As summer winds down, don’t forget evergreens also transplant well in the fall…what’s not to love?

Dwarf Norway spruce

Miss: Prickly Encounter
My wife noticed a weedy vine growing through our cedar hedge last week and decided to yard out the offending plant. Big mistake. The vine was common hops and it has what the botanical textbooks describe as, “retrorsely prickly leaves.” In plain English that means sharp, backward-pointing spines that will rip through your skin—should you be foolish enough to grasp and tug on them with your bare hands. Chalk up one for the hops.

Question of the Week
What’s cutting big circles in my rose leaves?
Most likely the holes were made by leafcutter bees, which also feed on other shrubs such as dogwoods. Unlike honeybees, leafcutter bees don’t live in colonies. Instead, individual female bees build brood chambers for their eggs, using those leaf circles as construction material. The damage is purely cosmetic, and since the bees only cut leaves for a short period, new growth will eventually hide the damaged leaves.

Leafcutter bees took perfect bites
out of this golden dogwood.

Science & Technology
Keeping Above Water
Japanese researchers recently discovered two genes that help one rice species outgrow rising waters. Appropriately named Snorkel 1 and Snorkel 2, they allow the rice stems to stay above water and, literally, breathe. Other rice species eventually die if submerged for extended periods of time, but the snorkel-gene rice keeps enough foliage above the waterline to survive. In experiments, some of the rice grew to a height of five metres. The researchers hope new rice varieties can be bred from these giants to withstand devastating floods.

Did You Know?
Aspergillus niger, a soil-inhabiting fungus, is used to produce citric acid for food and drink products, as well as lactase, the active ingredient in products made to help with lactose intolerance.

“Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents; it was loaned to you by your children.”
–Kenyan Proverb

It’s a given that colour brings spaces alive—something we’ve always been attuned to in the plant selling business—and last week our staff got a sneak peek at the palettes we’ve chosen for the Enjoy Centre interior. Our final choices, represented in drawings and sample boards, seem so obviously suited to each other that you might not know how intense the process of picking tones and combinations was.

Given that the Enjoy Centre is such a large, open-concept space, we wanted a common colour thread and for our choices to bring warmth to the space, which features lots of glass and natural light. We also wanted to include several different accent colours so that when you’re in the building you will consciously (or maybe only subconsciously) recognize that you’ve moved from one area to another. For example, the café will feature taupes, greys, and some blacks and have lime-green accents. Whereas the wine bar and café restrooms will feature an intense raspberry-purple with accents of taupes and greys in their palettes. Throughout the building, the décor will also include a variety of textures and surfaces to absorb sound.

We chose colours inspired by nature—in keeping not only with our business but also with our new building’s spectacular views of Big Lake and the prairie sky. Organic shapes and materials such as wood and stone will also be used. As an example, stone water features will flank the face of the mezzanine wall within the conference space. These features and colours are part of what will make the Enjoy Centre a place to reflect, relax and reconnect. We can’t wait to see the colours in place.

first published August 12, 2010

My love affair with maraschino cherries is over. That’s right. A new cherry has captured my heart; her name is ‘Carmine Jewel.’ It took but one bite of this tart cherry covered in rich, dark chocolate for me to know I’d never eat chocolate-coated maraschinos again. I discovered this delectable candy featuring the prairie grown and bred cherry while at the Cherry Festival in Bruno, Saskatchewan last month.

Cherries and chocolate are a well-known combination, but not many people associate cherry growing with Saskatchewan. But that’s about to change. Not only do sour cherries grow remarkably well on the Prairies, but Bruno has also become an epicenter for the sour cherry movement. And as I can now attest, the festival does a fine job showcasing the town’s cherry legacy.

In Bruno, the history of Carmine Jewel (without chocolate) and other sour cherry varieties began about eight years ago when researchers from the University of Saskatchewan planted large fields of them. Fruit specialist Dr. Bob Bors (a.k.a. Dr. Cherry) led the charge breeding cherries that produce high-yielding, high-quality fruit. Dr. Bors’ passion for cherries is evident when he speaks, as well as in his naming of the varieties. In addition to Carmine Jewel, he developed the Romance series, which includes ‘Crimson Passion,’ ‘Cupid,’ ‘Valentine,’ ‘Romeo’ and of course ‘Juliet.’

These sour cherries are a different species than the dark, sweet cherries grown in the Okanagan and Niagara regions. But what you may find surprising is that most sour cherries contain as much sugar as sweet cherries. It’s the higher acid concentration that imparts the tartness. And while for fresh eating it’s the sweet varieties that get the nod from most cherry enthusiasts, they can’t compete with sour varieties in juices, jams and pie fillings because their flavour doesn’t hold when cooked.

Worldwide, most commercial sour cherries come from Poland and the Ukraine. Closer to home, the state of Michigan is the largest producer in the USA, although it holds only a small percentage of the market. But unlike the hardy Saskatchewan varieties, those sour cherries are tree form, have lower sugar content and don’t have the rich, red colour cherished by consumers. In fact, most commercial sour cherries that get made into pie fillings and preserves require the addition of dye, whereas both the skin and flesh of the Canadian varieties are brilliantly coloured. These characteristics are something growers in Saskatchewan are trying to capitalize on.

For home gardeners, it’s also important to know that sour cherries aren’t difficult to grow. All you need is decent loam soil, lots of sunlight for good yields and a minimal amount of space. That’s because the sour cherry varieties are dwarf types, which means they range in height from a metre up to about three metres. And, as Dr. Bors joked, with the abnormally heavy rainfall in many regions of Saskatchewan this year, we now know that sour cherries are also fairly flood tolerant.

At this stage, prairie-grown cherry products aren’t yet a grocery store staple. But that is the goal of the fledgling industry in Saskatchewan. And events like the Cherry Festival are a wonderful way to showcase the best of what the cherry growers have to offer. Who knows, perhaps next year, festival organizers could include a production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with a homegrown twist. Romeo and Juliet would live long productive lives, while Mercutio’s twin, Maraschino, would suffer an untimely death…perhaps from a tiny, red, cocktail sword.

Did you get your dose of Shinrin-yoku this week? Not sure? Well, it can reduce blood glucose levels, lower blood pressure and you may even have found it in your own backyard. So what exactly it? Well, Shinrin-yoku is not some pill or elixir. It’s the Japanese term for “forest-air bathing and walking.” That’s right. Apparently, the act of walking through a forest and breathing the fresh air has numerous beneficial effects on human health. Seriously? Who would have guessed that getting off the couch and walking through verdant, fragrant forests would have positive effects on one’s health. I mean, given that meandering through forests and sucking in air has been something our ancestors have been doing for, oh, a couple of million years, I’d be surprised if Shinrin-yoku *didn’t* make us healthier. But, hey, if an esoteric term is all the motivation one needs to say sayonara to the couch, who can argue with it?

Hits & Misses
Hit: Hidden Potential
One of the difficulties of growing transplants in the greenhouse is that transplants are…well, transplants. What I mean by that is it’s difficult to get a sense of what a bedding plant will become judging by what it looks like in a greenhouse pot. Take, for example, bananas. When I transplanted a Red Abyssinian banana into one of my deck pots last June, the leaves looked good but weren’t anything that would stop you in your tracks. However, every 7 to 10 days since then, a new banana leaf has unfolded, and each week’s leaf is larger than its predecessor. In fact, the last banana leaf that emerged is triple the size of the leaves that were on the banana at transplant time. The extra root space of my large deck pot along with the longer summer days have undoubtedly contributed to the production of spectacularly gigantic banana leaves. And that’s my point. Too often, some truly outstanding bedding plants aren’t taken home because they’re judged by how they look on a greenhouse table at the transplant stage. The lesson here is that a cornerstone of choosing bedding plants is understanding a plant’s potential. That means knowing you’re starting with a high-quality transplant and not being intimidated to ask a garden centre person what it is exactly that you’re looking at.

Miss: Too Much of a Good Thing
Our Angel’s trumpet (brugmansia) plants are not only huge but also loaded with large, yellow, fragrant flowers. I love them, and so do our customers. So why are they this week’s miss, you ask? Well, the Angel’s trumpet is so big that it won’t fit into anything smaller than a half-ton truck. They will fit into the back seat of a convertible (top down, of course), but because of their gargantuan dimensions, you might receive some frowns from the local constabulary.

Question of the Week
Why have the bottoms of my tomatoes turned black?
This condition is known as blossom-end rot and is caused by calcium deficiency. Calcium keeps cell walls solid. Without it, cells literally fall apart and leak, causing the blossom end of the tomato to shrivel and turn black. Tomato plants that aren’t kept consistently moist can’t absorb enough calcium from the soil. So pay careful attention to soil moisture. Note that tomatoes grown in containers are more susceptible to blossom-end rot because the small volume of soil can dry out quickly. Blossom-end rot can also affect peppers and zucchini.

Science & Technology
Shoot First; Count Spores Later
Sphagnum peat moss is a common component of most potting soil mixtures, and virtually anyone who gardens has used it at one time. According to the latest issue of Science, sphagnum, while rather diminutive, is rather aggressive when releasing spores. It seems spore capsules of Sphagnum fimbriatum behave like an air gun, trapping and pressurizing air to blast its spores for dispersal into peat bogs. Approximately 20,000 to 240,000 spores are released from each capsule and at velocities as high as 30 metres per second. Who knew this innocuous-looking brown stuff might also feel at home on a gun registry list?

Did You Know?
Roots of apple trees grow from 3 to 9 millimetres per day.

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.”
–Sam Keen

Being Inspired
by Bill Hole

As the Enjoy Centre progresses, I continue to be inspired by how the architecture reveals itself a little more every week. And I’m not the only one. The guests we bring to tour the building are impressed by it, too. Those tours are also a time when I reflect on how things have changed since the days of my parents’ garden market and how much the business will change again in our new facility. Last week, my brother Jim had a chance to talk about those changes with Rod Kurtz of CBC Radio Edmonton, who interviewed him at the site. As Jim said in that interview: “Both Mom and Dad would be so proud to see this facility because it’s really taking what they started to a new level.” Jim and I both think they’d be inspired by it, too. To listen to Jim’s CBC interview, go to our Unearth the Possibilities website.

first published July 22, 2010

Typically, flower children and guerillas have little in common. But traits of both earth-loving spirits and radicals are definitely evident in a new hybrid—guerilla gardeners. Their approach is a trend that’s taking root (pardon the pun) in urban areas. Guerilla gardeners transform bleak-looking areas in cities by anonymously planting seeds, perennials or shrubs. The catch is they’re using someone else’s land without permission.

In its simplest form, guerilla gardening is about planting a few annuals in a neglected public planter or on the bare ground beneath a tree. On a larger scale, it can escalate to commandeering long-vacant lots. From what I can determine, guerilla gardeners believe that bare patches of soil are eyesores in desperate need of makeovers or, more drastically, that they’re affronts to nature and humanity. Certainly, Mother Nature abhors barren swatches of fertile ground and does her best to fill them in. So, from that perspective, guerilla gardeners are simply acolytes speeding up the natural process by putting their personal green signatures on the ground.

However, whether their purpose is to naturalize, beautify, improve biodiversity or provide food security, what they’re doing is technically illegal. So, guerilla gardening is sometimes done under the cover of night or by employing creative strategies to avoid trespassing, one of which is a technique called seed bombing. How it works is seeds along with compost mixed with clay are packed into a biodegradable, tennis ball-sized “shell.” The ammo is then tossed into a desolate plot where it serves as a great bunker from which the seeds can grow and become anchored in the soil. Another interesting, albeit dangerous, practice I’ve heard about is to fill street potholes with soil and seeds or transplants. Of course, a pothole isn’t the best environment for plants—nor is dodging cars a safe practice.

While the two examples I’ve given are rather radical, the majority of guerilla gardening activities are a lot more conventional. In fact, many guerilla gardeners are inspired simply because they can no longer tolerate empty flower containers or tree wells filled with cigarette butts and trash. Let’s face it, regularly walking past an eyesore can wear on one’s spirit. Fortunately, even a few flowers can have a remarkably positive affect on one’s outlook. However, before you decide to become a gardening guerilla, keep in mind that random planting of anything on municipal property is against the bylaws in most cities. And it’s not always practical either. Even though grass on city boulevards may look boring, it’s easier for maintenance crews to mow around trees and prune when there aren’t ornamentals planted around the tree bases.

Of course, you also need to remember that trees don’t like plants and soil pushed right up against their trunks. So, while the thought is in the right place, you might instead want to participate in programs, such as Partners in Parks, where municipal officials are more than happy to partner with would-be-guerillas.

So, am I advocating the spread of guerilla gardening in cities and towns? Well, I like the altruistic philosophy of guerilla gardening but shy away from some of the approaches, which could get you in trouble. However, every time my car hits a crater in the road, I can’t help but think how some plant-inspired pothole fixes would save my suspension.