This page was exported from Caledon Citizen [ https://caledoncitizen.com ] Export date:Sat May 23 22:46:03 2026 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Frankie Flowers takes on CPL’s Seedy Saturday --------------------------------------------------- By Riley Murphy Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Caledon East Community Complex was bustling and busy on Saturday as hundreds of members of the Caledon community showed up to take part in Caledon Public Library's (CPL) third annual Seedy Saturday. In a partnership with Albion Hills Community Farm and Palgrave United Community Kitchen, CPL holds Seedy Saturday to celebrate gardening and sustainability. There were numerous ways the community could celebrate their green thumbs at the event, from plant exchanges to CPL's seed library to the numerous vendors around the complex. But the free seeds were not the only big draw this year. With the support of the Friends of Caledon Public Library, attendees enjoyed a presentation on gardening by Frank Ferragine, better known as “Frankie Flowers,” a gardening expert and weatherman. Ferragine is a two-time recipient of Landscape Ontario's Garden Communicator of the Year and an eight-time winner of Toronto's Favourite Weather Personality (Toronto Sun Reader's Award), and also a four-time bestselling author, consultant, garden writer, and philanthropist.  But he also works next door alongside his family at Bradford Greenhouses, “one of Ontario's largest combined greenhouse and garden centre operations.” Seats were completely filled as Ferragine gave his presentation, with a mix of his best gardening tips and tricks, many jokes, and even a quick weather report for the following days. To see hundreds of people gathered around him that day, listening, Ferragine said, was humbling, recalling days when only one or two people would come to hear him speak. “I'm a guy that came from Bradford, a small community, and I just started speaking. When I started, one person would come out, and then more people would come out. It's humbling, but then I just really hope I helped maybe one or two in the group, maybe all in the group,” said Ferragine. He says he was excited to come speak at the third annual Seedy Saturday for numerous reasons that day. “I love Caledon, number one,” he said. “What a great community, a community here that really knows about nature and knows about agriculture.” “If we can get more people in the garden, touching plants, I think we'll have a happier community, and I always just want to make people smile. If I can teach people how to grow something and have a good smile, that's the best thing.” Programming and Outreach coordinators with CPL Nancy Early and Leo Scardicchio talked about what made the third annual Seedy Saturday so special. “Two words,” said Early, laughing. “Frankie Flowers.” Aside from their guest of honour, Scardicchio said they love to bring the community together with their partners. “With Caledon being a green community, we wanted to tie it all together. All of the efforts that the Town of Caledon does with the library, we just wanted to pair it and bring it together for the community,” said Scardicchio. Early adds their underlying themes of seed, soil, and sustainability, were intertwined into the entire event. This year brought the new free giveaway seeds, the plant swap, and a book sale to support the Friends of CPL, she said. Truly a community event, each vendor also brought something for the raffle, which ran throughout the event, and offered attendees a chance to win dried flowers, soups, and even a raised garden bed. “Leo started this a couple of years ago,” said Early. “Just by virtue of its growing, we've got more vendors this year than ever.” Scardicchio explained that Seedy Saturday began at Palgrave United Community Kitchen, and as the event grew, they needed more space. Through a partnership with CPL, they were able to not only provide the space but also the opportunity for PUCK to bring everything together through the library. “There's so many people in our community that are gardening, and we're a big heavy gardening community, and everyone is about sustainability,” said Scardicchio. “I think it just makes perfect sense to continue it year after year.” “One of the things we're looking to enrich, enlighten, and entertain – the three Es, and I think through this community building initiative, we're achieving all three,” added Early. --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2026-03-12 11:37:45 Post date GMT: 2026-03-12 15:37:45 Post modified date: 2026-03-19 11:11:49 Post modified date GMT: 2026-03-19 15:11:49 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com