Set aside the cedar hedge pruned with cisors
And petunias feeded with 20-20-20 fertilizer.
Store overalls and straw hat.
Forget your preconceptions about gardening.

Here’s Extreme Horticulture!

Must admit that the traditional gardening as practiced by many baby boomers, has shown its limits. The young generations do not have the same interest as their elders in large manicured beds of roses and perfectly pruned cedar hedges, they prefer edibles grown in a more informal manner. This once friendly image of a gardener in overalls wearing a straw hat is no longer corresponds to the current market, which is growing steadily. In fact, statistics show that North Americans buy more plants than ever and are always more interested in gardening. However, both young and older people are now practicing horticulture in a radically different way that they were a decade ago.

More than 50 % of the world population currently lives in urban areas. As land is cramped and condos more popular, gardeners must find creative ways to grow plants in the most unusual places – on balconies, roofs and even walls. One can certainly qualify them as extreme gardeners. Thus, extreme horticulture is an original and suprising way – sometimes downright mystifying – to grow edible and ornamental plants where normally the nature perhaps would not, using a maximum of imagination and creativity. It is not necessarily avant-garde techno, but rather a vision of an utilitarian urban horticulture, focused on recovery and recycling, addressing food and environmental challenges of tomorrow. That you’re gardening on a downtown roof or in a suburb community garden, extreme horticulture helps being creative human beings!

Every week I will have the pleasure to share with you my passion for horticulture, particularly that relating to the extreme. Whether it’s inspiring new ideas for your garden, original and creative horticultural techniques or plants with amazing features, I will present each time an unsuspected aspect of gardening, which will make you say that extreme is great!