Flinging in Toronto

I’m back.  I’m exhausted but at the same time exhilarated.  I have just spent over 4 days, for at least 12 hours a day, in the company of an amazing group of people.  They were all gardeners – can you imagine?  I couldn’t either until I actually did it.  I was at the 2015 Garden Bloggers Fling, which was held in Toronto this year.

Being a relatively new blogger, I didn’t even know the Fling existed until earlier this year.  The more I looked into it, the more I wanted to go.  And since it was being held in Toronto, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity.

Royal Botanical Gardens
 

Each day I was out of the house before 7am and didn’t get back home until after 10pm, so I was essentially “away” over the entire time.  I had never left my husband to take care of the kids/house for more than a day, especially during school when there were lunches to prepare, homework to do and buses to catch, so I was a bit nervous.  I even asked my kids (who are 8 & 9) to make sure that Daddy didn't feed them too much junk/fast food while I was away, which was really my biggest concern…my husband isn’t exactly enthusiastic about preparing homemade meals (although he is VERY enthusiastic about eating them!).  I’m glad to report that everyone did a great job.

The Fling is like the ultimate garden tour.  It has been running since 2008 and takes place in a different city each year.  This is the first time it has been held outside of the United States.  I grew up in Toronto and then moved to the suburbs before settling down in a small rural town.  Even as a local resident, I had only visited a few of the places that we went to and, in most cases, it had been years since I had been to them.  I'm sure I don't have to mention that touring with a group of gardeners is a completely different experience than going with family or on your own which, to me, is one of the biggest benefits of the Fling.

Toronto Skyline from Ward's Island
 

And then there were the private gardens – I love sneaking a peak into other peoples gardens, so that was a definite highlight.

Private garden in Swansea neighborhood
 

Although the majority of gardens contained solely ornamentals, there were a few with interesting vegetable areas.  My focus right now is on edibles and getting those sections of the garden sorted out.  At some point, however, I will tackle the ornamental areas (beyond the weeding and mulching I’m doing now), so I found all of the gardens inspirational in one way or another.  Over the next several weeks, I’ll be doing a few posts on where we went each day.  I already know that being concise is going to be difficult, especially when it comes to pictures – I took hundreds of them...hurray for digital!

One of the greenhouses in the Niagara Floral Showhouse
 

The Fling was fabulous.  In fact, it was beyond fabulous.  The gardens were wonderful, of course, but what really made the fling memorable was the people.  I really can’t say enough about how amazing everyone was – enthusiastic, funny (oh so funny – at times I was crying, I was laughing so hard!) and so incredibly friendly.

Official Fling Photo
I prefer to be behind the camera rather than in front of it,
so I'll just let you guess which one is me
 

The organizers did an INCREDIBLE job – I can’t imagine the amount of planning that went into organizing 4 days of jam packed touring (plus an evening at Lee Valley) down to the hour – everything went off without a hitch.  They even made a deal with Mother Nature to hold off on the rain until we had conveniently finished some of the tours.  I’m not kidding…we had several downpours throughout the weekend and they were all perfectly timed.

Storm clouds roll in as we are waiting for the ferry
to head back to Toronto
 

I have a ton of catching up to do…lots of posts to read & write (my RSS reader is overflowing!) and, of course, LOTS of gardening to do.  I’m hoping that I can get to a “What’s Happening in the Garden” post over the next few days as things have really taken off with all of the recent rain.  I’m so sad that I had to miss Harvest Monday (although reading about everyone else’s harvests is on my to do list for tomorrow), but I’m hoping that I will have a good showing next week.

Next year, the Fling is going to be in Minneapolis.  I’m already picturing myself doing the old hat toss beside the Mary Tyler Moore statue, although I know my rendition will more closely resemble Rhoda ;)