Martin shares a few secrets behind this bountiful garden
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Don Martin of Tillsonburg has a trade secret when it comes to growing giant plants.
Buy ‘jumbo’ seeds.
It may seem obvious, but as it turns out, not every plant grows jumbo size. A few of his sunflowers grew to an impressive 10 feet this summer, and some didn’t come close even though they were all planted at the same time.
“It depends on the moisture and sun, I guess. This one,” he said noting a smaller sunflower plant of a different variety, “didn’t grow as big. I don’t know…”
He also grew some jumbo potatoes in his backyard garden plot. And some big juicy tomatoes.
“I give some to all my neighbours, so my neighbours like me. Everyone on this street, I think. My wife did some canning but she’s not doing any more so I’ve got lots to give away. So if you want more later, come back.”
The garden takes up a sizeable chunk of his backyard, but there is room for flowers and flowering trees and vines.
“I’ve never seen so many flowers out,” says Martin walking to the garden, looking up at his American mountain ash, which has clusters of berries every other year – loved by birds. “And I’ve been here 14 years.”
The sunflowers also benefit the neighbourhood birds.
“The blue jays love them.”
His backyard is also home to two varieties of lilac bushes/trees.
He has wooden fencing on two sides of the garden, and a row of flowers on the other two sides to attract pollinators. He prefers zinnias and grows four different colour varieties. And jumbo marigolds. You can call that another trade secret.
“Just for looks, some of them grow a little higher than the others,” Martin laughs, adding with a wink, “and the bees come in here, which helps the tomatoes and peppers and the cucumbers.”
It wasn’t a great growing season this year for his cucumbers and peppers, however. He said it might have been a bit wet.
“I’ve been gardening all my life more or less, my mother had a big garden, said Martin who grew up in the Courtland area, later living in Delmer.
“I didn’t stay at home very long. When I was 16 I stayed in the busy, worked at a sawmill. Portable sawmill, everything by hand, all over the country. Port Rowan, Port Perry, Bowmanville, Aylmer, St. Thomas.
“There was eight of us in the family, I was the fifth.”
In 1965 he started Martin’s Auto Body on Mall Road near Norfolk Mall and operated it for 25 years.
On Aug. 21, Martin will be 93, and in addition to playing cards at the Legion he still loves to garden.
“My wife (Gwenda) says, ‘you’re getting too old,’” Martin laughs. “We’ve been married 70 years.
“I’ve been around Tillsonburg for 70 years, a body man, and maintenance for three or four years. I can remember when tubeless tires came out in 1953 or 1954.”
cabbott@sunmedia.com
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