Ann Crichton Harris
Ann died recently, after a long and varied career. High Park residents remember her for helping to establish the mini-gardens on Roncesvalles. Although now passed on to a landscaping firm, for many years these gardens were created and maintained by local residents.
Ann enjoyed gardening and ran her own landscape design business. But, she was a woman of many facets, fully described in this obituary. A few highlights: raised in Birmingham, she became the UK's first female electrician and worked at the Garrick theatre, while modeling and appearing on the BBC. Moving to Canada with $50 in her pocket she married, raised children, became involved in the 60s-70s women's movement, did research for Peter Gzowski, obtained bachelor's degree in Italian, wrote two books on African medical history, and so on and so forth.
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Climate Change and Gardening - notes from all over
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- Peat is a main ingredient in many sterile potting mixes, and some use it as a mulch or work it into their soil to
 improve the organic content. But peat is the remains of thousands of years of moss growth in bogs and stores a very high amount of carbon in northern countries. When dug up and applied to gardens it breaks down into CO2 in a few years, and the bogs it is harvested from are damaged. So, as reported by the Guardian, sales of peat to gardeners in England and Wales are to be banned by 2024 and to professional horticulturists by 2028.
- Most cities are full of biotic deserts - parking lots, freeway edges, etc. Japanese botanist and ecologist Akira Miyawaki (died last year) developed methods for re-establishing thriving, ecologically diverse "Miyawaki forests" in such deserts that grow and mature quickly. In the beginning, he searched for Japanese native forest trees to use, but almost all of Japan's abu
 ndant forests had been cut and replaced with plantations of non-native trees. However, around temples the tradition was to leave the trees alone, and there he was able to discover remnants of the original forests.
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- Now Miyawaki forests are being planted in European cities such as Paris, Toulouse, in Belgium and in the Netherlands, reports the Guardian. When will we get them in Toronto?
- "Biophilia", or love of nature and living things, was popularized by double Pulitzer Prize winner and exceptional biologist E.O. Wilson (1929-2021) in his 1984 book of the same name. He helped coin the word "biodiversity" in 1988. In 2014 Wilson proposed we should set a
 side half of the Earth in each ecozone to arrest the 6th Great Extinction, which we are the cause of. Recently I read Tony Hiss's very fine 2021 book Rescuing the Planet: protecting half the land to heal the Earth. Hiss engagingly tells the stories of many people working to save plants and animals around the world by saving their habitats. His first chapter takes us to Canada and the Boreal Forest, which we are in danger of losing.
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More than 100 years ago - Rennies Seeds of Toronto
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William Rennie was born in a log cabin in Scarborough in 1835 to Scottish immigrants. His excellent life story at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography by Pleasance Crawford tells how he started his own farm in Markham and found himself importing hardier seed stocks from Scotland than English merchants of the day supplied. He started his own seed company in 1870 at Adelaide and Jarvis, whose 1890 catalogue cover is shown below (it's labeled "The Return from the Insect Fair").
Rennie's company stayed in business until it was bought by Steel-Briggs Seeds in 1961. In 1889, he handed the business to his sons and bought a farm along Ellis Avenue, just to the west of High Park.
Here he built a brick house (pictured above around 1900). Retirement didn't suit him so in 1893 he became Superintendent of the Experimental Farm at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. He practiced and wrote about the latest methods in farming and horticulture and published two books, while establishing in Swansea the beginnings of the Morningside Church and the Swansea Public School. Some of the Rennie land was donated to the city of Swansea in 1934 and became Rennie Park, but the house and farm were redeveloped and its ornamental terraces can no longer be seen when looking west from High Park.
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The Board is Baffled. We'd love to have a 2022 Plant Fair but we have no idea whether we can be indoors or must find an outdoor space. If you'd like to volunteer your ideas and efforts, please drop a line to plantfair@parkdaletorontohort.com.
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Discounts to Paid up Members
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Many of us need to renew our memberships for 2022. If you do you'll be receiving an email from our Membership committee soon to remind you and tell you how to renew.
We all love getting discounts on plants and garden supplies, and sure enough there are suppliers who are willing to give you a break. At the end of March we will be sending emails to paid up members only with discount codes they can use. The March Bulletin will whet your appetite with a list of suppliers.
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Contact Information for the Hort
The 2022 Board members are:
- President - Ron Charlemagne, president@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Past President - Barbara Japp
- Vice President - Clement Kent, newsletter@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Treasurer - Emieke Geldof, treasurer@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Secretary - Helen Vorster, secretary@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Projects - Judy Whelan, projects@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Member at Large - Annelies Groen
- Member at Large - Sarah Michelle Rafols
Other email:
- Maria Nunes - Volunteer Coordinator, volunteers@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Membership, membership@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Dues payments and membership information, www.parkdaletorontohort.com/join-us/
- Clement Kent, Bulletin/Newsletter editor - newsletter@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Plant Fair Team, plantfair@parkdaletorontohort.com
- Education & Outreach, educationandoutreach@parkdaletorontohort.com
- General information, info@parkdaletorontohort.com
Email sent to board@parkdaletorontohort.com reaches all board members.
Website: www.parkdaletorontohort.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/parkdaletorontohort
Post: The Horticultural Societies of Parkdale & Toronto
P.O. Box 30023, 1938 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario M6P 4J2
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