Taken from Eclectic Gardener @ www.teachinggarden.org
Written by Alan Hickman

Browsing the news feeds last week, one item just leapt off the screen. It was reported that Steven Harper: "emphasize(d) that his goal is for Canada to have "the lowest corporate income tax rate among developed economies."" Politicians have a reputation for talking, but they’re usually not quite so candid.
To be useful, a goal needs to meet several conditions. First it should be clear, simple and not be open to later modification, equivocation or ‘explanation’. A goal needs to be measurable so that one knows if one is progressing and when one has arrived. A goal must also have a time-frame, if not expressed then at least implied. Finally, a goal must be reasonably doable.
In its stark simplicity, Harper’s stated goal meets all the requirements for good goal setting.
By comparison, Stephane Dion’s concurrent proposal: within five years, to cut the number of Canadians living in poverty by thirty percent and the number children living in poverty by fifty percent, seems rather cumbersome; it is not self evident how such a result might be achieved and the project is sort of lacking in punch. Dalton McGuinty’s famously imprudent undertaking, to close all the coal-fired power stations in Ontario, ran in to the problem of practical do-ability.
A stated goal of Peel Teaching Garden this year was to double the amount of food grown and delivered to one of the local food banks/eateries. Last year some 1,300 lbs. of fresh produce were delivered so, this year, the area planted to vegetable crops was doubled and the target was raised to a nominal one ton.
The objective was clear, simple and apparently doable, but, one plus one doesn’t always equal two.The past dozen months or so have been really tough on gardeners generally and, in the shelterless, windswept conditions at the fairgrounds, PTG students and volunteers have had to fight a long and uphill battle just to stand still. Last fall was all backwards. When the fair closed last year, instead of the usual warm afterglow of summer, it was cold, wet and miserable until November when it was too late to do much of anything. When it was supposed to be spring, winter wouldn’t go away and there was still ice in the ground three weeks later than usual. Then came summer, blazing hot and dryer than in any year in a lifetime.
Until a few weeks ago, the heat and drought persisted unbroken, except, ironically, for the three days of the September fall fair. On those days it poured rain and was so cold that events were cancelled, gate receipts were down and the whole thing ran at a not inconsiderable loss. At four o-clock on Sunday as exhibitors were packing up and leaving, the sky cleared, the sun came out, and the ground was quickly restored to dust and the consistency of concrete.For a pioneer farmer with a family to feed, this year’s weather would have been a catastrophe. The planning was for 600 kilos of pumpkins and squash, the result was maybe 50 kilos. The potatoes were small and scabby and only onions seemed to do well. Overall, doubling the area under cultivation produced barely the same amount of food as last year.
So the whole thing was a failure, right? Well, no, in fact quite the opposite. Looked at narrowly, had the area not been doubled, the crop would have been only half what it was last year, so at least the food bank was no worse off. But the food crop is only a byproduct of Peel Teaching Garden’s reason for existence.
‘Conserving the Gardener’s Craft’ is the motto of PTG. Rediscovering and applying the practical skills and knowledge that were once common to everyone from newby apprentices to head gardeners, but which, especially since the Second World War, have almost disappeared, is what PTG is all about.
Over winter, the classroom sessions examined topics from why one should buy a cheap spade but an expensive fork, to why neutral on the pH scale is seven. In the vegetable area, there were experiments with tomato-staking methods. People, who thought it was a good idea to ban all pesticides, found out first hand what it is like to pick 600 Colorado beetles and their larvae a day off a thirty foot square patch of potatoes.In the display gardens, the creation of two large shrub borders demonstrated the use of sand to create planting areas without the toil and sweat of hand cultivation. Even the unusual weather was instructive. Supposedly drought-tolerant marigolds burned brown and died. Dwarf salvias survived, just; but cannas - considered to be water-loving - managed to thrive and produce huge succulent tubers.
While goals can be useful, they are not necessarily ends in themselves. Goals are often just way-points in some larger, maybe less definable, overall scheme. For McGuinty, it might have been to cut the number of deaths attributable to atmospheric pollution; for Dion, perhaps the alleviation of social disadvantage. For PTG, the overarching process is the discovery and dissemination of practical knowledge for home gardeners.
Registration for the 2008 winter series of free PTG classes is now open and gardeners, both long-experienced and new, are invited to participate and learn. Please see www.teachinggarden.org for more details and for registration.