London lawns more than grass

A pesticide-treated lawn in London, Ontario.

Recently I watched a very enjoyable video on lawns in London. It was well written, nicely shot and well edited. Unfortunately, it missed the story.

According to this reporter/videographer team, Londoners have started letting their lawns be. Why? They have no choice, London banned pesticides for lawn care and soon after the province followed suite. Lawns in London "have become … less perfect, more wild."

There are more weeds than before.

It's true that lawns in London and throughout Ontario have suffered in recent years. With 2, 4-D banned, weeds grew quickly and soon invaded lawns right across the province. The once popular herbicide was feared by many Ontario residents despite being declared safe at the time by Health Canada. Still, the stuff had a checkered reputation and banning it wasn't unreasonable. Read the Toxipedia entry on 2, 4-D.

Personally, I wasn't sad to see 2, 4-D go. Treated lawns stunk and the odour ruined an otherwise pleasant walk.

But, the chemists fought back. They fought back against the provincial ban and against weeds. Now, there is a new chemical on the block and on London lawns and on lawns across the province: iron.

According to Nutri-Lawn, a company that boasts they provide ecology friendly lawn care:

An excessive uptake of chelated iron (FeHEDTA) is toxic to broadleaf weeds. They absorb the iron differently than turf. Turfgrass is not affected by the application of  FeHEDTA but weeds die. So Killex (2, 4D) is out and Fiesta (FeHEDTA) is in.

Scotts Weed B Gon contains FeHEDTA.

I've noticed a number of lawns in my neighbourhood sporting signs advising folk walking by that the grass has been treated professionally. But this iron stuff is readily available at garden centres and many more lawns are being treated than posted.

Many lawns in London and other communities throughout the province are weedy now but this may be a short term thing. Fiesta, and weed killers like it, are gaining in popularity and the reviews of these chemicals are very positive at this moment. Read this release from the University of Maryland on iron-based herbicides.

What I love about lawns in my area of London is that many are not lawns at all. More and more home owners are choosing to plant trees and flowers and shrubs in place of grass. One neighbour has removed the lawn completely and replaced it with a rock garden.

A grassless "lawn" in London, Ontario.

Many others have simply reduced their use of grass. In extreme cases the grass is less lawn and more accent colour. Grass is just part of an overall look. Whatever approach has been taken, it looks great and gives my London neighbourhood the appearance of a well kept park.

Is any of this unique? I doubt it. A lot of home owners love gardening — young and old. You don't have to be a so-called baby boomer to love getting your hands dirty.

The only constant in life is change

Large, opulent and deserted.

Back in the '60s a friend told me: "The only constant in life is change." This, I believe, is a quote from Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus. It's nice to seem some things last.

I think change helped hollow out our cities and ruin our downtowns. Change doomed many a grand movie house and change destroyed many an opulent downtown hotel.

Saturday I saw how change can affect a small, forgotten bit of elegance lost deep in a small town backyard: A solid concrete swimming pool built with hard work and love.

The entrance to the pool is amazingly intact.

Ernie built concrete, in-ground pools for a living. When Ernie built an in-ground for himself and his wife, he built a well crafted beauty.

Ernie died more than a decade ago and his pool was forgotten. His wife, in her eighties, didn't use the pool and living alone she was unable to maintain it or even close it down properly.

Sadly, no neighbour, no relative, no one spent much time thinking about the forgotten, concrete pool. It sat neglected.

It is mainly frogs that enjoy the pool today.

The water grew green with algae and the laughing of young nephew and nieces was replaced by the croaking of bull frogs. The concrete deck gently heaved and weeds grew between the concrete slabs.

But Ernie made a good pool. Rainwater and snowfall replenished the pool water that evaporated and the old, solid pool held; It didn't leak.

Ernie's wife died recently and the pool has been rediscovered. Despite its green-thick water, despite the frogs, despite the weeds and forlorn flower gardens, the pool was a real estate plus. The home sold quickly and the new owners, a young couple, are going to restore the old, concrete pool.

I wish them luck.

The pool has new owners and the change may bring it some permanence.

Morgan Featured Marque

My Morgan, I've had it for almost 43 years, is the green one in the foreground.

At the British Sports Car of London sponsored show at Bellamere Winery in the northwest end of the city Saturday, Morgan was the honoured marque.

The quintessential British sports car may be a very small car producer but it is a successful one. That's more than one can say for General Motors. After more than a century, Morgan is still in business and, unlike GM, it does not have a bankruptcy skeleton in its closet.

That's right, Morgans are still being made! And some models, yes models, the Morgan Motor Company makes a line of cars, harken back to the early years of the last century.

I bought mine in Windsor, Ontario in December of 1968. It's been a fine car. My wife and I have driven it across the continent to California twice in the past six years. I've kept it for almost 43 years and if I want to keep driving a Moggie, I've got to keep my old girl on the road. Treat her with love.

You see, Morgans are still being made but they are no longer sold in Canada. It has been decades since one could buy a new Morgan in Canada. The Morgan company has been unable to meet all the demands of the Canadian government when it comes to meeting the multitude of rules regulating the importation of new cars.

It was hoped that the Morgan 3 Wheeler, brought back into production just recently, would be available Canada, entering the country under regulations governing motorcycles. Think Can-Am. They are legal and considered roadworthy. Morgan trikes, with a solid heritage going back to 1910 are not being cleared for sale.

Click on the links. Check out the Morgan line. Check out the new-old 3 Wheeler. And remember, what some claim is the greenest car in production today, the Morgan is not sold in Canada. A pity.

Cheers.

Not Made in London, Ontario

There is a big move to make London Ontario a more successful community, a better place to live. The folks behind the push think of themselves as forward thinking but, in a certain sense, they are talking about bringing back the past. (Not that that is always a bad thing.)

I have written about some of the large and small companies that flourished in London in the past and which have either been bought and closed or bought and folded into a larger company. Over the years many businesses and many jobs have left the city, many have left Canada. (For more info, see: The Forest City: A rich past of fading memories)

One of the companies I mentioned was McClary appliances. Born in London around the 1850s, it grew into a major Canadian supplier of home appliances. Today it has departed the town of its birth. Its memory has faded. Its London plant has been demolished.

Last night I was in an appliance store and checked where the appliances, Inglis and Amanda, were made. It was a short but interesting read. Inglis is a bit like McClary.

According to Wikipedia, the Inglis name originated with John Inglis of Dundas, Ontario. The machine shop he opened with Thomas Mair in Guelph, Ontario, in 1859 grew into the company that made the engines for the Canada Steamship Lines. By the mid 1960s, Inglis was the leading producer of Canadian-built laundry machines. Inglis, like McClary, was a long running Canadian success story.

Today the Inglis name is still on the marquee but the show is over, closed by the Whirlpool Corporation of Benton Harbour, Michigan. The large Inglis complex in Toronto has been demolished and the land is being redeveloped as housing and commercial space. The appliances I examined may have carried the Inglis and Amana names but both brands are controlled by Whirlpool and made in Mexico, Shunde PRC or assembled in the United States. There's no mention of Canada.

If alarm bells are not ringing in your head, let me clue you in and then please watch the following video. Benton Harbour, the Michigan town Whirlpool Corporation calls home, the town mentioned on the manufacturer i.d. plates on the appliances I examined, is a town famous for being an ongoing economic disaster. Benton Harbour suffered an urban collapse possibly worse than that suffered by Detroit. Years ago The London Free Press sent a reporter and a photographer to Benton Harbour to document the town's economic collapse and to determine if London could learn from the small Michigan town's experience.

If you have the time, please watch the following video.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In London, the conversation has turned to making London a creative city. What is being ignored is that London was once, and not that long ago, a creative city.

McClary, Labatt, Blackburn, Carling, Jarmain . . .  all are part of a long list of creative, successful Londoners. These creative types brought wealth not only to themselves but to their city.

The McCormick cookie and candy plant sits closed, empty.

There are a couple of names that are not on the list despite being two very creative guys who have made a big impact on London. These men are Marc Leder and Rodger Krouse, the founders of Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm that has bought and closed three London plants in just four years. Following from The London Free Press and The Tribune:

• In 2007, Sun Capital Partners closed McCormicks the cookie and candy factory on Dundas St. E. in London, cutting 275 jobs, denying workers severance, vacation pay and pensions.
• McCormicks workers fight two years in court to win vacation pay and have to pay their legal bills from the winnings.
• One 48-year employee now earns a pension of $300 a month.
• In 2008, Sun Capital Partners closed closed H.J. Jones in London while denying severance. Employees had to fight to get a deal paying them half of what they were owed.
• In 2008, Sun Capital Partners was involved in the closing of the CanGro Foods in St. Davids, an Ontario canning plant and the last remaining fruit canning plant in all of North America east of the Rockies. The plant had been in operation for more than 100 years.
• In 2008, Sun Capital Partners was involved in the closing of the CanGro Foods canning plant in Exeter, Ontario. The closing of the two canning opertions resulted in the loss of 268 hourly and 27 salaried positions as well as all seasonal positions.
• In 2011, Sun Capital Partners closed closed Specialized Packaging Group in London. Talks are to begin on determining severance packages.

Attracting the attention of these two creative fellows may not have benefited London or London workers but somewhere there must be a creative city, a dominant spike of prosperity, benefiting from Sun Capital Partners. Who knows, maybe it's Boca Raton, Florida.

Sun Capital Partners founder Marc Leder's 15,000 sq. ft. home in Boca Raton, Florida.

When Lisa Leder filed for divorce she claimed her husband, Marc, was worth more than $400 million. He denied the figure, offering his wife a settlement of more than $100 million.

The couple agreed they enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle with a 15,000-square-foot home near Boca Raton, a vacation retreat in Stowe, Vt. and six vehicles including an Aston Martin DB9 convertible, a Bentley Continental convertible, a Cadillac Escalade and a Lexus LS. They traveled by private jet.

Well, Lisa enjoyed it. Marc worked. In court papers she claimed she had been essentially a single parent as her husband devoted long hours to his business.

For more about Sun Capital Partners and the two gentlemen behind it, read the New York Times story: In a Romney Believer, Private Equity's Risks and Rewards. 

And for an update to the McCormick factory story, please read: Imported candies marketed as Canadian.

The wasteful development of our farmland, our birthright, continues.

Upper Cornell is a New Urbanist medium-density plan in Markham, Ontario.

In the mid 1970s I worked for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources out of the Richmond Hill office. At lunch many of us would sit at picnic tables and "chew the fat" along with our sandwiches. A popular topic, and one often discussed in some depth, was the rapid and massive loss of rich farmland that we all saw being bulldozed as we drove to work.

According to Ontario Farmland Trust:

"In the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) alone, more than 2,000 farms and 150,000 acres of farmland were lost to production in the two decades between 1976 and 1996. This represented approximately 18% of Ontario's Class 1 farmland."

I now understand why the loss of GTA farmland was such big topic of conversation. The dramatic loss of Canada's birthright, Canada's farmland, was a shocking story unfolding right before our eyes.

Which brings me to a story in my local paper, The London Free Press, by Debora Van Brenk. The Strathroy-Caradoc Township council appears ready to approve the loss of 80 acres of good Southwestern Ontario farmland for the construction of 214 suburban homes.

From the description in the newspaper, this is not Class 1 farmland but it does have its own set of advantages. It is light, well drained soil that has come into its own with this spring's heavy, day-after-day rainfall. The paper quotes renter Larry Cowan who farms this land: "In a year like this, we'd like to have 500 to 600 acres" of this light soil.

Cowan is not just an area farmer but he's a former director of the Ontario Corn Producers' Association and a Strathroy-Caradoc Township councillor. He defends the development, telling the newspaper: "You can't stand still."

It may surprise Mr. Cowan but the construction of 214 suburban homes on 80 acres is standing still when it comes to the world of urban growth in 2011.

These numbers reflect yesterday's low-density approach to housing. Housing from a time more than hundred years past often had a higher density and realized their high density goal with greater style and aplomb.

• Mount Brydges:  2.675 homes per acre
• Oak Park (New Urbanist development near Oakville): 22.5 homes per acre. (Oak Park encompasses 204 acres supporting a dense urban neighborhood with 4,600 homes on a radial grid planned for 10,000 residents.)
• Traditional town house blocks have as many as 36 homes per acre.
• New Urbanist suburbs weigh in at an average of 15-30 units per acre.

2.675 homes per acre; All too sad. Talk about standing still. These numbers are not even back to the future.

The Forest City or how London took a negative and made it into a positive.

Some quibble over whether or not London can call itself  The Forest City.

The London Free Press is running a series "about figuring out who we are as a city." The paper sees this as "a  difficult but worthy task."

As part of the series, the paper looked at the possibility of rebranding London. According to the reporter doing the majority of the writing: "(The Forest City) means little outside London. Never heard of it before I came here and is so generic it describes nothing. Plus it’s not true." (As you can see by my photo, blurting out "it's not true" is a little extreme, but admittedly London could do better.)

Once I would have readily agreed with the reporter but having lived in London for more than three decades I have come around. The Forest City name has a long history; It goes back more than a century with roots deep in the early years of our southwestern Ontario city. The city has a trademark tree logo which they stick everywhere. Talk about branding.

The London tree symbol on the roundabout/overpass at Hale and Trafalgar.

What do the numbers say about London and trees?

• Estimated number of trees in London: 4.4 million (source: The London Free Press)
• Number of trees per London resident: 12 (source: The London Free Press)
• Forest City's approximate woodland cover: 24.7% (March 2011 report)
• Species of trees growing on City-owned land: 120 (City of London)

When the paper recently interviewed some Londoners, one of the participants in the panel discussion said:

When I'm in a different town I notice — they don't have the mature core or, like, where's the trees?

We are The Forest City, of course, and you notice that when you're not in The Forest City that we really do have a beautiful downtown. And I've noticed that with family that come into town. They say, "Look at the trees. I can't believe there's trees down all these streets and it's gorgeous."

London has lots of pastures and farmland on its outer edges.

I'm surprised that the woodland cover for London hits 24.7 percent. London contains a lot of farmland and pasture. I'd have thought that all the open land would have dragged down the city's coverage number.

In Ontario, London has a larger tree canopy than Brampton, Kitchener, Mississauga and Toronto. When it comes to cities in the States, the London coverage is just below the American average. Clearly we can do better but we aren't bringing up the rear with our tree coverage numbers either.

Oh well, I prefer to believe my eyes. This city has a lot of trees: Tall trees, twisted trees, green trees, red trees, flowering trees, broad-leafed trees, evergreen trees . . .

The Forest City: It's a beautiful name for a beautiful city.

Tall trees, twisted trees, green trees, red trees, flowering trees . . .

* Check the numbers. We are a Forest City!

One last thing on branding: It was pointed out to the local paper that no one this blogger spoke with in Brighton & Hove, England, knows a thing about the rebranding of Hove with the snooty "Hove, actually."

Even reporters at the local paper in Brighton & Hove say it never happened. "Hove, actually" is still interpreted as somewhat snooty and uppity and better left unsaid, unless you laugh as you say it. You must make your humorous intent clear or risk coming across as an upper-class-wannabe twit.

In defence of the paper's story the reporter said: "The point was how Hove took a negative and made it a positive." But Hove didn't! London did! In the beginning The Forest City label was not said as a compliment but over the intervening years London successfully put a new spin on those words and now owns them.

The Forest City was once home to a Canadian version of a Carolinian Forest.

Hove to, actually

The London Free Press is pushing the benefits of branding to successfully market a city or a town. As an example of successful branding the paper is using Hove, England. The paper tells us visitors to the area often confused Hove with its larger and very close neighbour, Brighton.

"Oh, you live in Brighton," the visitor would say. The Hove resident would invariably reply, "Yes, well, Hove, actually." That phrase - Hove, actually - became the town's brand and identity. At least that's the story according to The Free Press. It's a good story, but possibly not so true today.

The paper based its report on an interview with Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at the Schulich school of business at York University. Middleton grew up in Brighton with his parents who later moved to neighbouring Hove. The paper could not have picked a better source to gain insight into the branding of Hove.

Still, I questioned some of the stuff in the story. For instance, why does the movie Love Actually enter into this discussion? Why would a film that has nothing to do with the little coastal town give the branding phrase a bit of a pop? Not one person I contacted in my investigation saw any connection between the Hove response and the romantic-comedy set in London.

I decided I must contact Alan Middleton. He was very gracious and answered my e-mail immediately. He wrote: "the basis for the phrase had nothing to do with the movie (no idea where that reference came from)."

My guess is that the reporter asked Mr. Middleton a question linking the movie and the Hove phrase. Mr. Middleton being very gracious simply made a reply based on the reporter's question. When I worked at the paper I watched many a skillful reporter coax supporting quotes from an unsuspecting people during interviews.

Randy Richmond, the London Free Press reporter, has argued that London, Ontario, would benefit from a rebranding exercise. London needs to find a clear identity and boldly brand itself. Of course, this would be an official branding exercise. Was this ever done in Hove? Mr. Middleton told me he didn't know whether the phrase 'Hove, actually' was ever used officially. It did appear on a postcards, he said.

Using the Internet and social media, I was able to talk directly with people living in the Hove area. I asked them about the success of the phrase "Hove, actually" in promoting the small, English city. I was told the phrase is not used to promote the area. The response carried, and still does, a bit of nasty "we're better than they are" baggage.

I talked by phone with senior reporter Anna Roberts at The Argus, a newspaper in the area. She made it clear to me that today Hove is no longer a town or a city but simply part of the English coastal town of Brighton & Hove — the two communities effectively merged in 1997.

When asked about the use of the phrase "Hove, actually" in the sense of branding, neither she nor anyone else in The Argus newsroom could recall any official use of the phrase. When read the part of The London Free Press story referring to Hove she said emphatically, "That's not true." When I brought the movie Love Actually into our conversation, she was puzzled. Contrary to what was reported in The Free Press, the "Hove, actually" phrase got no boost from the movie, she said.

Today there is a free monthly paper that reflects today's municipal reality and usurps yesterday's separatist catch phrase. It's the Brighton & Hove Actually monthly community and business directory .

I received an e-mail from Ruth Allsop, marketing officer for Brighton & Hove. She confirmed that the phrase is not part of a branding initiative but "a bit of an in-joke among residents" who see Hove as being slightly more up market than Brighton. Allsop assured me that "this isn't the case."

Today, if the area has an official branding phrase, it's "London-By-The-Sea", a name that goes back some two and a half centuries according to the Capture Project launched by Eurotowns in 2004. This is a network of 19 towns and cities from 11 EU countries formed to stimulate the economic development of its members, with a particular focus on the knowledge economy. Through their membership the Brighton & Hove City Council aims to expand the knowledge economy and create better local jobs. Today, the twin city is an important educational centre with two universities and many English language schools.

Actually by Brighton artist Amanda Taylor.

I was also able to reach Brighton & Hove area artist Amanda Taylor who has a Website Illustrious Brighton showcasing her work:

Hi,

"I live in Brighton and both my mother and daughter live in different parts of Hove. We've all moved here within the last 4 years.

I had no idea that Hove had tried to use the 'Hove, actually' phrase officially. So I guess the public attempt at branding, as you call it, has been abandoned.

But it is a phrase used all the time. I guess it started along the lines of  'Do you live in Brighton?' 'No, Hove actually.'

We are joined now . . . Brighton and Hove needed to merge . . . the larger community has both areas bringing their strengths to the table."

She confirmed that the 'Hove, actually' response is felt by many to be tainted by a tone of aloofness, of superiority. Another person told me it is always best to follow the phrase with a laugh to ensure not being misunderstood.

Oh well, Brighton & Hove are at least booming through the global economic downturn: Right? Wrong! You see, despite the glowing story in The London Free Press about attracting employment through branding, The Brighton and Hove Free Press reported last December:

"Unemployment remains a key issue in Brighton & Hove:

A new report from the Office of National Statistics shows unemployment levels in Brighton & Hove are the highest in the country, with four people unemployed for every job vacancy in the city."

For rebranding purposes, the phrase "Hove, actually" appears to be dead in the water; Hove to, actually, you might say.
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Hove to: a sailing term indicating a boat's sails have been set in such a manner that the boat is no longer sailing forward, it is no longer making headway; It is almost stopped, drifting sideways.