How to Celebrate Earth Day

How did YOU celebrate Earth Day? We declared a mental health day, and made a road trip across the province and down the south shore in our trusty Yaris. First stop: Ivan Higgins’ nursery, Cosby’s Garden Centre, in Liverpool. Ivan’s had a busy winter, teaching classes, doing commissions, and for the garden centre’s evergrowing display of his artwork, creating a whole series of concrete sculptures, including a set of acrobats—lifesized acrobats, a la Cirque du soleil.

Of course, a trip to Ivan’s means a chance to find a plant that absolutely HAS to come home with me…in this case, it was Hamamelis ‘Diane’; she nestled quietly in the back seat of the car as polite as could be.

Next stop: The Port l’Hebert Pocket Wilderness, owned and maintained by Bowater Mersey, or whatever the company is called these days. Anyway, the pocket wilderness is one of our favourite spots in the province, with wonderful walking trails through pristine hardwoods, along the shore and up to a placid brook. We were hoping that mayflowers would be in bloom, but they’re not quite ready—seems everything in the province, even on the milder south shore, is behind this spring.

Note to flower lovers: PLEASE don’t ravage wildflower plots, especially of lovely and not-that common plants like our provincial flower. It drives me nuts to see people selling bouquets of mayflowers every spring—huge bouquets, which have been pillaged and ravaged from wild stands of these plants. Take photos of them, smell them, enjoy them…and leave them alone for future generations to enjoy, okay?

Next stop was Shelburne, and a quick tour around Spencer’s Garden Centre. A few small perennials needed to get in the trunk of the car, of course. (Blue flower lovers, rejoice: I picked up two Lithadora ‘Grace Ward’, which has lovely blue flowers. We have to treat them as annuals in these parts, of course.

Then it was on to Barrington, Clarks Harbour (Cape Sable Island, home of the famous Cape Island lobster boats—best lobster boats in the world!) and then to stop and take photos of the wind turbines at Pubnico Point…

And the last stop on our Earth Day festival was at Ouestville Perennials, where Mick the cat greeted us at the cash…

And Alice and I had a fine old chat as I drooled over her plants, while Lowell and Julien talked about more manly type obsessions. We’re going to get a couple of her red oaks in about a month’s time. One I’ll plant in memory of Lowell’s cousin Lawrence, who died a couple of weeks ago. The other, I think I’ll plant for all our young soldiers serving in Afghanistan—especially those who have paid the ultimate price.

Now, if only we could get rid of that asinine fool who is the so-called minister of the Environment, and all the others like him who are trying to say Kyoto is a bad thing… (I don't know, maybe we could send them all to Tralfamadore, Kurt Vonnegut's planet of many dimensions... this lot of what one author calls Deniers and Delayers (of global warming) are obviously from another dimension!) maybe our Earth would start to heal. and we could make the spaceship out of Hummer/SUV parts, and fuel it with the hot air out of all these non-green politicos. It's a good thought...