Garden Monkey Celebrity Hijack #7

I have a strong suspicion that the subject of this week’s hijack might well be some kind of a superhero - one with the ability to stop time. It's the only way I can see that she manages to achieve so much.

Her name is Gayla Trail and she is a woman of inspiring dynamism.

Although not that widely known in the UK, references to her site and blog have been popping up regularly in British garden magazines of late.

Of course the online gardening community have known about her for ages, which isn’t surprising, since her site You Grow Girl™ was started in February 2000 and has just had its eighth anniversary. It is “a thriving online community that speaks to a new kind of gardener, seeking to redefine the modern world relationship to plants. This contemporary, laid-back approach to gardening places equal importance on environmentalism, style, affordability, art, and humour.”

In addition, Gayla is the author of popular urban gardening book, You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening and many magazine articles as well as being a photographer and graphic designer. Some of her groovy design stuff can be found here.

Added to which, she has three (yes three) gardening sites - her own rooftop deck, a community garden plot, and a guerrilla garden.

And if all that weren't enough, she has other in-progress projects on the go, including a photographic project about gardeners called Green Minds.

PHEW! It exhausts me just thinking about it all.

Nevertheless in amongst this maelstrom of activity Gayla found time to answer my hijack questions for which I'm hugely grateful.

What are the five best things about blogging?
Well, I started the site way before blogs existed. The site was technically an online magazine until about a year or so ago. While I did have “Garden Journals” on the site from years back, each writer’s entries were hand-coded by me. Hand-coded!!
1 - Given that background (above) the #1 best thing about blogging is no more hand-coding.
2 - Blogging allows me to write much more informally than if writing an “article.” It also means I can broach a wider breadth of subjects and from an experiential approach…. More like, “This is what I did today” than “Here’s how to do this.” I take both approaches and I think readers are as interested in what I am doing personally as they are in how-to.
3 - The informal nature of blogging allows for less psychological distance between the writer and the reader. While I like to think I know a thing or two about gardening, I have never been interested in touting myself as an authority. That angle expects a kind of hierarchy that I find useless and old-fashioned. As gardeners we are ALL always learning.
4 - As continued from above, blogging allows me to learn from readers. It certainly has its downside but is a more reciprocal relationship.
5 - On a personal level it has become a nice record of garden memory for me over time. I have gone back to old writings many times to find out when things happened or just to recall incidents that I had forgotten.

What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you in your gardening career?
While I don’t really design gardens for a living, I have, at times, designed gardens within the context of a larger job related to public education/workshops/presentations/television/etc. What this means is that I am often dealing with “clients” who are somewhat out of touch with reality in that they are either used to being able to fake things to get a look they want, or they just plain do not comprehend the limitations of nature and working with seasons. This has lead me into some predicaments that involve wiring tomatoes onto plants, “faking plants,” sticking harvested spinach into the soil, or making dead plants look alive. Once, for television, I was asked to do an outdoor gardening demonstration at my community garden DURING A SNOWSTORM!! These situations make me feel like I’m more in “props” than gardening. And of course they almost always fail miserably! …Which is maybe more embarrassing/sad than funny. The “funny” part is really in how often this comes up. It is a sad testament to how out-of-touch we humans can be.

We are all guilty of impulse plant purchases. What was your most unsuitable impulse plant purchase?
The one that sticks in my mind most is the Plume Poppy (Macleaya cordata) plant I bought at a local plant sale several years ago. Oh how naÔve I was back then. I actually believed the so-called expert at the sale who it turns out was pulling his expertise out of his behind. The plant started as a wee little thing and stayed that way for the first year. But then come spring the next year…. HA! Mine just LOVES that spot up against the warm brick wall and has grown to be the largest plume poppy I have ever seen, hands down. I compare it to every plant I see and so far none have rivaled. Every spring I am rewarded with the “fun” of pulling out the runners that have spread to every inch of the garden. Thankfully that garden is bound by a brick wall, sidewalk and road – the plant can only spread so far. The problem is that I really like it and don’t want to remove it entirely. It’s really is a lovely plant with massive tropical-like leaves and a spray of feathery plumage up top. Unfortunately, it is also incredibly opportunistic and a bitch to rein in.

Which of the Seven Deadly Sins does gardening bring out in you?
Probably “Pride.” It’s not that I am too proud, but that I sometimes struggle with the feeling that the gardens aren’t good enough and must be prettier, better, or more manicured. It’s insane because these feelings completely contradict my philosophy when it comes to gardening and life. Nothing is perfect. We learn from our mistakes. Perfectionism is boring.
On a day-to-day level I find the gardens very satisfying. These feelings only come up when TV cameras, famous gardeners or complete strangers come for a visit to see or capture the gardens on video/film. So in that sense it is vanity, pure and simple.

What would your superpower be?
Grow money on trees. In fact potted plants would be preferable given the nature of my gardens.

It was once said by Henry Mitchell that “Nothing in all gardening requires so much work for so little return as a rock garden”. What is the most thankless gardening task you’ve ever carried out?
It’s not so much about the task as the location, but just about anything I do related to my Street Garden/Guerilla Garden is thankless. Each garden season begins with excising the copious quantities of random dog feces and empty liquor bottles that had accumulated underneath the snow, both of which continue to propagate throughout the growing season. In between I put time, money, and muscle into tending and nurturing a garden that is owned by the City AND despite the fact that is consistently attacked and scandalized by unknown assailants and neighborhood dog walkers. It is entirely thankless but I love that space and am too stubborn to walk away from it. I wrote a piece that explains it http://www.yougrowgirl.com/thedirt/2007/04/26/12-reasons-why-i-dont-grow-edibles-in-my-street-garden/

Who would be your dream team for a TV gardening show?
What kind of show are we talking about here? From the team aspect I am guessing you mean some kind of “Ground Force” style team-up. To which I would HAVE to immediately add Charlie Dimmock. I love that woman because she paved the way for women to be tough, get dirty and go braless on television. She may think too much has been made of it but “they” (TV executives, etc) would never go for here. They don’t even like that I wear glasses. The sky would fall if I took my bra off. Garden personalities are VERY clean and manicured over here. French Tips in the garden – COME ON!
Michael Pollan for sure. Of course I am on this show because, well, it’s my show… I want to be present for all the behind-the-scenes drama. I feel like we need someone mildly cantankerous to stir things up… Can we throw Anthony Bourdain into the mix even if he’s not a gardener? He could be the food guy. My final choice would be Lorraine Johnson. I think she’s great and would round things out nicely as the native plant expert.

What's the strangest thing you've ever dug up in a garden?
Living in the city, I have found more than my share of rather unfortunate items in the soil. However, the strangest would have to be an almost fully intact slice of pizza found buried in a window box. I think a squirrel had buried the slice, saving it for later.

Bovril, or Marmite?
Neither. As a Canadian I grew up with Bovril but not Marmite.
Gardener, or Horticulturalist? Gardener

Potager, or parterre?
Potager. In fact I prefer to say “kitchen garden” because even “potager” is quite upscale.

Sunrise, or sunset?
Sunset (I’m all about the magic hour).

Garden Chemicals - Plant Protection Materials, or Poison?
Poison

Firethorn, or Ice plant?
Neither.