Oh Canada! Our Visit to Toronto

Hi friends,

We just spent the weekend in Toronto, Ontario for a brief trip over the U.S. border with a few videos planned there.

Toronto is a great example of a green city, by the standards of those we saw on the Top 10 lists we’ve been using for our Green City Spotlights. They have great public transportation, many parks throughout the city, and a great recycling program. Right outside the city hall building was a huge wind turbine, clearly visible when entering the city. There were throngs of people walking everywhere we went throughout Toronto, surely a healthy sign of an active city.

We were planning to do an interview at Zenn Motors in Toronto, which produces neighborhood electric cars. Unfortunately our contact there had to change plans and go to Chicago, so that didn’t work out. That’s OK, because with our videos at Tesla Motors and GM we got two different perspectives on electric cars from the two companies that will most likely be playing key roles in the future of the auto industry.

We did travel north of Toronto to Wildflower Farm for an interview with Miriam Goldberger, who runs the farm. They produce Ecolawn, which is a grass seed blend that provides a much more sustainable alternative to the traditional grass we’re all used to. Ecolawn looks like normal grass but doesn’t need to be watered, uses no fertilizers or pesticides, and it grows slowly to need less mowing. The secret is the long roots that grow down into the soil almost a foot, which aerates the soil, pulls water and nutrients from further down, and the roots grow close together to crowd out grubs and shallow-root weeds like crabgrass. It grows well in either shade or sun in a variety of climates, and is non-invasive so it won’t spread into anyone else’s yard. Check them out at www.Wildflowerfarm.com.

Wildflower Farm also produces seeds for hundreds of wildflower varieties, and they have many demonstration beds to show that wildflower gardens can be a very easy, low-maintenance and beautiful alternative to big lawns. Miriam talked about the history of lawns and why we in the U.S. came to be so obsessed with surrounding our homes with “green carpets”, and the bizarre turn in the last 60 years of using however many gallons of water and chemicals necessary to “conquer” the lawn. It was an eye-opener, believe me. Many of us have lawns so Carrick interviewed Miriam about rethinking lawns and open space to be more sustainable, beyond switching to a reel mower!

We also visited Niagara Falls since we were driving through – we didn’t do any filming there but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. The Canadian side of the falls is shaped like a big horseshoe and we went aboard the ‘Maid of the Mist’, a boat that brought us to the bottom of the falls. Standing on the deck of this boat (getting soaked) and seeing the giant falls up close, was an amazing sight. The height and power of the water sure made me feel very small! I could feel the shaking of the engines working hard just to keep the boat in place.

That’s all for now – onto upstate New York!

Be well,
Colin
www.OurRenewableNation.org