Trevor Ashbee could be considered a perfect transplant to Centre Wellington.
He was born in Sussex, England and his father was a gardener who was good enough, in fact, to have worked in his later years with Christopher Lloyd, the renowned British gardener and author of numerous books, many of which are still read avidly today.
It was only natural that young Trevor Ashbee followed in his father’s planting furrows and became a gardener, too. Doing that in England, serious about gardening and famous for its gardens, is different than in Canada.
“I was born and raised in a garden,” he said with a grin.
He did a three-year apprenticeship and eventually became the head gardener in Rye, in Sussex County, at the southern tip of Great Britain. Then he emigrated to Canada in 1969, bringing all his skills and love of plants and gardening with him. For 20 years, Ashbee worked in Guelph in the horticultural department, and the beautiful and much admired Riverside Park was his workplace.
From there, he decided to go into his own landscape design business, and did that for five years. Then, Cambridge needed a horticulturist, and Ashbee commuted from Guelph to Cambridge for the next eight and a half years.
Around the turn of the century, he and his wife moved north of Fergus to a “rural property” consisting of 23 acres that had been pretty much untouched for years. It was the time of county amalgamation, and Ashbee accepted a new Centre Wellington Township position of horticulturist. It was, he noted the first such position ever in Wellington County and, “the last one, so far.”
His first turf, if such it may be called, was an old greenhouse at the former site of Centre Wellington District High School. He managed to obtain some old benches and using those, began growing plants for the township parks.
Eventually, Centre Wellington was able to obtain two greenhouses measuring 72 by 20 feet, and placed them behind the Fergus community centre. When he ran into budget difficulties and had no cash for benches to set all his flower pots and boxes on, he used bricks as a base and covered them in old snow fence culled from the roads department – and that system still works fine today. From those greenhouses, Ashbee grows and spreads greenery and decorative flowers across the township.
Right now, he said, is the time to start planning to plant, even with a good deal of snow on the ground and the earth still frozen.
“I think it starts this time of year,” he noted, looking at his work bench, which had a container half full of cuttings that will sprout to become decorative plants.
“Especially if you have grow lights; start seeds at home or in a nice, sunny window sill.”
He said now is an optimum time to take cuttings for such things at coleus and for flowers for hanging pots. It is also good to start annuals like petunias and marigolds.
He has some advice, too, for perennial growers. “If you’re starting them now, they will grow summer to fall. They won’t flower until into next year.”
There are other plants, biennials, such as foxglove, and some purple coneflower, which flower every couple of years.
“It depends on what people purchase,” he said, adding gardeners working with such plants should simply ensure those plants are watered well into the fall to ensure their survival and good growth.
Ashbee recommends a “soil-less” mixture for starting plants. He said it should contain 90% peat moss and 10% vermiculite. He said it is “clean and it holds moisture well.”
For vegetables though, it is a different matter, and he suggested waiting a while. He warned that starting tomatoes and peppers too early means they will grow too elongated. Waiting a few weeks to get those started allows them to be “hardened off” (gradually placed outside to get them ready for the outdoors).
“No earlier than the end of March or early April,” he said of starting tomatoes and peppers. Many gardeners insist vegetables should not be planted outdoors until the week after the May 24 long weekend to protect them from frost.
Ashbee said with the economy in turmoil, many have predicted food prices are going up, and he has a simple solution to fighting that; planting a garden. He said the best way to use local food is to grow it. Plus, he said, garden produce can be canned, preserved and made into other foods, such as chutney. “The way gas prices are, prices [of food] are going to skyrocket.”
Ashbee is aware the days where families fed themselves from their efforts in the garden are generally long gone, particularly in towns.”
“They can’t be bothered,” he said, citing a list of reasons, not least of which is time and effort. “They have to spray, maintain.” He noted, too, people these days have homes on smaller lots and little time for upkeep of a garden.
But, he said, for the beginner, getting started is easy. People can purchase trays, seeds, soil and cuttings from any one of several nurseries or hardware stores in the township, all of which offer not only equipment like pots, trays, and cell packs, but also advice.
Then they are ready to start seeding. And, he said, people can always phone him (his cell phone number is 519-994-0217).
Ashbee said all of Wellington County is becoming known for planting trees, a situation of which he approves. The United Nations recently cited the county’s Green Legacy tree planting program as one worth emulating around the world.
As for what types of trees, Ashbee said, “People should try to stick with native plants. They’re hardier and need less watering. They put up with the winters we get.”
Among those types are maple, ash, every type of spruce, pine, as well as oak and tamarack. That last one has qualities Ashbee particularly appreciates because it loses its needles and changes colour.
He said when it comes to planting trees and shrubs, “Look for something that is going to have some winter interest.” He said dogwood turns red, and makes a nice contrast in the snow, and other shrubs with variegated foliage produce a view of interest.
When it comes to shrubs, Ashbee added, “Don’t be afraid to intersperse shrubs with perennials and ornamental grasses.”
He particularly likes those grasses, and said they are becoming very popular. “Most nurseries sell them,” he said. “Cut them back in early spring and they’re there all summer. They give movement in the summer, colour and structure,” and they also provide wildlife habitat. When shrubs are interspersed with perennials, they will attract butterflies to the yard, for even more colour.
Despite the decline of vegetable gardens, he said, Centre Wellington and several other places in Wellington County are home to avid gardeners and active horticultural societies. Many people are still keenly interested in growing things, and only a few years ago, gardening was considered one of the top avocations and hobbies among Canadian citizens.
He is particularly impressed with Centre Wellington’s interest in not just plants, but all kinds of trees, too. There is a group surveying the urban forest of Centre Wellington and there are tree plantings going on regularly.
As for Ashbee, his greenhouses provide all kinds of plants for decorative baskets hung along Fergus and Elora streets, as well as in planters and street plots. He also supplies all the local parks with greenery and flowers, trees and shrubs.
He has another duty, too, although not many people would be aware of it.
“Any building with landscaping has to be passed through me,” he said, explaining that when people apply for zone changes to develop, they have to create a site plan. That includes landscaping requirements, and Ashbee comments on those proposals. His job is to ensure the developer plants the proper species, which, in his mind, means native plants that will thrive.
He likens the county Green Legacy program that sees planting trees everywhere in Wellington to “a green movement,” and added, “I can’t imagine a town any place without plants and trees and shrubs. It’s not just the environment but the wildlife and beautification.”
And at the end of the day when he returns to his home in the country, Ashbee keeps busy with his own 23 acres. He said he has so far done serious work on two of them, building a garden in the best British sense.
Of course, it might seem rough, going from work at work to work at home, but, he said, “I don’t classify it as work. It’s a hobby … It’s relaxing. Very relaxing.”
