Key speaker: Anna Leggatt presenting “Japanese Gardening”. 

Anna Legatt has a BSc. in Botany from London University, a diploma in Nature Interpretation from Humber College, and a diploma in Horticulture from Guelph.  She is currently employed as a Nature Interpreter at the Kortright Centre for Conservation.  Anna teaches at the Toronto Botanical Garden (Civic Garden Centre) and also lectures to horticultural societies.  Anna is
Past Chair of the Ontario Rock Garden Society and former editor, Past Director of North American Rock Garden Society, Program Director for East York Garden Club and Toronto Master Gardener Emeritus.  She has also written articles in Toronto Life Gardening, Landscape Ontario, the Globe and Mail, Trellis (the Toronto Botanical Garden’s publication,) the Journal of the Ontario Rock Garden Society, NARGS and other non-profit organisations.  Anna explains, “I am basically a mad gardener, gardening in a comparatively large garden in Toronto with lots of shade and deer and groundhogs.  I love shrubs, bulbs, rock gardening, wildflowers, Japanese effects, working with stone and changing my garden design. I want to grow vegetables. However, deer and groundhogs would like me to as well.”

September 15, 2010 Meeting:

Key speaker: Chris Graham presenting “New and Underused Plants”

Chris is a Horticultural Consultant specializing in plant selection and maintenance for public, commercial and residential landscapes.  For 27 years, Chris was employed by Royal Botanical Gardens where he was Director of Horticulture. He is a graduate of the University of Guelph with a BSc. (Agr.) majoring in Ornamental Horticulture. 

He has lectured on a wide variety of horticultural topics at Universities, Colleges, and Horticultural Societies across Ontario and beyond.  Chris has hosted and appeared as a guest on several television programmes and open-line radio garden shows and regularly contributes articles to gardening publications.  He co-authored Shrubs and Vines, part of the American Garden Guides series.

He now resides in Eugenia, at the top of the beautiful Beaver Valley, where he is developing Kimberley Cottage Garden, a micro-nursery and display garden specializing in unusual shrubs, vines and perennials.

June 16, 2010 Meeting:

Key speaker: Darren Heimbecker presenting “The Building of Whistling Gardens”

Darren worked at a nursery for 18 years as a propagator, shipper and field manager before branching out on his own.  Whistling Gardens (www.whistlinggardens.ca) got its official start in 2006.  Since then he has attracted garden savvy plant collectors from Windsor to Montreal and beyond. 

Whistling Gardens Ltd. is located in Wilsonville, Ontario.  The 56 acre property features an 1881 field stone home and a one of a kind garden centre and nursery.  The 2 acres of lush gardens surrounding the house are quite mature with several Sugar Maples well in access of 100 years old.  

The nursery now produces about 10,000 evergreens a year as rooted cuttings and grafted liners for different nurseries in Ontario, Quebec and the USA.  The garden centre specializes in varieties and species of mainly rare trees and conifers.  Many of Darren’s offerings can only be found at Whistling Gardens.

May 19, 2010 Meeting:

Key speaker: Maureen Hulbeert presenting “Practical Garden Design for the Small Garden”.

Maureen got hooked on gardening about 15 years ago when she bought a house on a ravine with a large, though rather bare, backyard. She began to educate herself about gardening and design, further developing her knowledge and skills through studies in landscape design and plant material at Humber College and the University of Guelph. She started her own firm, Down to Earth Gardens & Design, in 2004, which focuses on unique garden designs tailored to individual needs and installation of plant material by knowledgeable gardeners. She joined the Toronto Master Gardeners in 2007, where she is currently the presentations editor, and has been educating the public through advice clinics, the children’s program Growing Under Glass at Allan Gardens, and has talked to community groups ever since.

Key speaker: Glenn Brunetti presenting “Glenn’s Top Ten Herbs”.

Imagine being only able to grow a handful of herbs.  Which ones would you choose?  For some, parsley would be more than sufficient.  For others the choice would be daunting.   This scenario is a reality for many of us who have only a small amount of space in the garden, patio or balcony to grow a few plants.  In response to questions about which herbs to start with and which ones are easy to grow in containers, this program delves into ten of the most versatile herbs to grow and use.

Glenn Brunetti lives in Hamilton, Ontario and has been an avid gardener all of his life.  He started teaching at the Royal Botanical Gardens in 1995 and has since offered hundreds of herb, food and gardening programs across Ontario and the U.S. including Mohawk College, First Canada Place, McMaster University, Canada Blooms, the Ontario Garden Show, the Harbourfront Festival of Herbs.  In the past, he has appeared on a variety of local, national and international media promoting the use of herbs.

Key speakers:  Natalie Iwanycki and Alex Henderson presenting “Climate Change and Gardens”.

October 14, 2009 Meeting:

Key speaker:  Christina Sharma presenting “Project CHIRP!”

Christina Sharma has been a volunteer educator with the Canadian Wildlife Federation since 2001. In 2002, she received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for her public education on how residential properties can support wildlife conservation. In 2007, she founded Project CHIRP!. Christina uses the design of her property as a teaching tool for songbird conservation. Her initiatives have been featured in the Toronto Star, on CBC Radio and in a variety of publications. Project CHIRP! Appeared on CBC Television in the autumn of 2008.

Project CHIRP! is a songbird conservation initiative in which the survival needs of songbirds are met through the creation of Canadian Wildlife Federation-certified songbird habitats on residential properties. 

To learn more about Project Chirp, please visit www.projectchirp.com.

September 16, 2009 Meeting:

Key speaker and topic: Catherine Kavassalis presenting “Evolution of Trees in our Area”

Catherine Kavassalis is an educator, public speaker and consultant who generally focuses her energy on public environmental education, preservation of biodiversity and of course gardening. As the current president of Oakville Horticultural Society and a director for the Royal Botanical Gardens, Catherine encourages interest and improvement in gardening and horticulture.  She shares her passion and learning, by giving presentations and writing articles, many of which are on her website: EGardening.

In 2006, Catherine began a campaign to protect heritage trees. Working with Oakvillegreen Conservation Association, the Town of Oakville, and the Ontario Urban Forest Council, Catherine chaired Oakville’s Heritage Tree Committee and served on the Mayor’s Advisory Group for Tree Protection. Her work led to the passage of a heritage tree bylaw in 2008 and to the initiation of Heritage Tree Hunts. Two successful tree hunts have helped identify exemplary trees and raise public awareness of the importance of Oakville’s urban forest. These hunts also gave Catherine an opportunity to study and learn about the trees of the region and prepare a presentation entitled Our trees – a walk through time.

By understanding how our present urban forests have evolved, we gain insights for the future. Come and learn how our complex mixed woods evolved and how our choices as gardeners will shape our urban forests for the next millennia.  

Jacky has been employed as a Social Worker at The Credit Valley Hospital's Addiction and Concurrent Disorder Centre for almost twenty years.  Her office features a large assortment of plant material and is a healing environment for those new to recovery.

1) John Lohuis, Director of the Mississauga Recreation & Parks Department making a brief presentation

2) Cloverleaf Garden Club member Manuela Neto presenting a colourful slideshow of many of the beautiful residential gardens she visited last year in the Buffalo Garden Walk.

November 19, 2008 Meeting:  Pot Luck Social

Message from the President as published in the October 2008 Cloverleaf Thymes: