My Dear Frustrated Gardening Friends,

March is here – it is apparently coming in like a lion!!! Cheers! That means that it will be better by the end of the month?? In like a Lion and out like a Lamb. Although looking at the snow still coming down, I think it might be a long month.

I understand that you really like my “spells”. Here is one to protect your home from burglaries. Get up before sunrise, and put a pinch of pepper on the threshold of one door and the sill of one window. As you place it there say: “Pepper sting rogue, knave or thief, who so breaks this bond finds grief. I really mean it for this sill and door, and all through this house forever more.”

I love this one. If someone or something (snowmobilers) trespasses on your property, find the footprints, or marks, and drive a nail through them. He (or it) will develop a dislike for your land and trespass no more!!!

All through the long winter, I dream of my garden.
On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth.
I can feel its energy and my spirits soar.
~ Helen Hayes

Never mind it won’t be too long now. I purchased some special seeds called a bat plant. Elyn at the greenhouses on River road has very generously offered to germinate the seeds for me. Hopefully we will manage to spread the plants around since there were only a very few seeds in the packet. The plants will be special – thank you again, Elyn.

"Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower." Shigenori Kameoka

"Happiness held is the seed: Happiness shared is the flower” Anonymous

I also have seeds for an egg plant. I grew one some years ago, but do not know what happened to it. I suppose it was passed on one way or another!

Mites seem to be a problem at this time of year. The two kinds of mites that probably cause most of the trouble on household plants are the two spotted spider mite, know as the red spider, and the cyclamen mite. These are very tiny insects, smaller, in fact than a pinhead, barely visible without a hand lens. The cyclamen mite usually attacks African violets as well as cyclamens, feeding almost entirely on the soft tender growth of leaves that are just opening, as well as buds and flower parts, causing deformed leaves, streaky petals and flowers. The red spider causes much the same kind of damage.

All plants that are heavily infested I think should go into the garbage. Get them out of the house and away from your healthy plants. If they are only slightly infested, treat them regularly once a week for about a month. Try washing them with soap and water to which you have added some vinegar. There is a House Plant Insect Killer that is good for red spiders, but be very careful – cover any fish tanks that you have, and do not use on cyclamen, maidenhair fern, lantana or shamrock.

For those of you who cannot wait to get outside (and there are many) I meet you all over the place. Wal-mart is where I meet the most, hanging around the plant and container department, looking over the seeds. So what can be done now? There are a number of chores – it is a good time to get that lawn mower fixed (I am waiting for grandsons to lift it into the back of my truck), shears and pruners sharpened, cleaning off plant pots and preparing your seed trays.

Begonias (tuberous) (be-GOH-nee-ah):

Begonias are a beautiful plant and if you are going to grow yours from tuber-corms, better get to it for it takes 5 months from planting to full bloom. Start them in pots or flats, tuber-corms have shallow roots. Use either a starting mix or potting soil to which you have added 1/3rd vermiculite, 1/3rd, peat and 1/3rd sand. Add a slow acting fertilizer - dried manure works well. Set each corm-tuber on the soil mix with the concave side upward and the rounded side down. Once it has sprouted, cover it with about ˝ inch of the soil mix. Place in a warm, bright, east facing window. Keep watering, but they should not be wet and certainly not "soggy". If you have used flats, once the tuber-corms have grown to about 2 inches move them into pots. If you are planning to keep them in this, pot one tuber - to a 6 inch pot or 3 tubers to a 4 inch pot if they are to be planted out in the garden. Give them a watering of liquid fertiliser right through the growing season. Plant out in strong light but not full sun.

Pruning and disbudding begonias:
If you do not prune at all, a large begonia tuber-corm should produce ten to twelve stems plus several branches, the flowers will be small, tangled and look quiet messy. To get the strongest plant that will withstand winds, remove all but the most vigorous stem. As side branches develop, prune off all but one or two so that the plant will have a strong shape. Then, to get the largest blooms, pick off the small single female flowers as soon as they form, so that they will not crowd the large double male flowers (sigh - deferring to males yet again!!) Each bloom lasts about two weeks. Pick them off as soon as they fade; a stake is helpful to keep them growing upright.

Possible Problems:
Usually when people have trouble growing tuberous begonias, it is because they have been either over or under watered. Bud drop can result from either extreme. When the plants are too wet, or the air is too humid, stem rot or powdery mildew can be the problem. Mealy bugs (wipe off with alcohol - where did my vodka go??), aphids, whiteflies, slugs and snails are attracted to this plant Watering carefully and using hanging baskets, help to prevent damage from diseases, insects and the weather. Do not plant or hang them under trees as the leaves will create too much shade, and if planted in the ground, there will be a lack of moisture for the tree will take it all. I will tell you later in the year how to put the corms away for the winter since they are fairly expensive.

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of to-day."
-Indian Proverb

"Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened Into the rose garden.”
-T.S Eliot's Four Quarters

“Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them.”
-Chinese proverb

I have been reading a book called "Mind, Body and Spirit". I loved this:

“On that fateful day when you look in the mirror at a lined and haggard stranger, wondering if you could possibly afford a face lift- The good news is that you do not need a plastic surgeon - Start with a smile- it is the finest face lift and free - It will not only raise your spirit but the hearts of those around you. Acknowledge that those lines of experience have given your face its character, you (we) have earned them. Confidence and feeling good about ourselves is the first rule of beauty care.”

If you have English Ivy growing in the direct sun outside, it will need some protection over the next few weeks, otherwise it will get sun burnt. Try some of those evergreen branches or your old Christmas tree if it has any needles left on it. If you are growing rhododendrons or azaleas, just check that their winter protection is still in place. Make sure that the compost or leaf mulch is still drawn up around them. If you used a cone protector, make sure that it is still filled with leaves. The tender branch tips can easily be burned by the bright sun over the next few weeks.

Those double tulip pots that were planted last fall should be ready to come out of storage and into the warmth (see I told you that winter is drawing to a close and spring is just around the corner).

"An Island Made in a Hurricane"
– by Eleanor McLean

The people of Flint, Mohawk of the Six Nations, tell a story that puts Hurricane Hazel in second place among the worst storms to hit Toronto. This story claims that the very name Toronto was born in a turmoil of wild winds, rain, violent crashing waves, land and water in a great upheaval that swallowed the earth and forest.

It is an old story, as old as the centuries, handed down by word of mouth and repeated over and over again in the long house. Indians being of a deeply religious nature, called the Great Spirit the ruler of all things who spoke with the voice of the winds: the east wind that brings the morning, the west wind that chases the night over hills and valleys, the south wind warm and soothing, and the north wind, wild and cruel. The Great Spirit expressed his moods with the winds. When he was angry, his people knew it.

On a day long before the coming of the white man he was in a mood of anger, and as he often expressed himself forcefully, the winds that day came with a terrific roar. Laid the forest flat as matchsticks, whipped the waves tall as treetops on Lake Ontario and made the earth tremble with their violence.

The waters of the lake rose and fell. It had never before been known to make such a sound as it hissed, bubbled, slapped and tore at the land. The movements of the water were of such variety and violence that they were beyond description and the rumbling earth put fear into every living creature.

Thunder rocked the earth and lightening split the darkened sky with whip-like fury and crackling. The great winds blew in the same area where Toronto is now. This was the centre of the storm. Along the lakeshore, a collapsing movement began - the land started sliding into the water submerging, thrusting upwards on and on, and the forest went with it.

The most terrible sight was the disappearing forest - the great trees ripped, torn and shredded, threshing in the howling wind, broken jagged ends in a tangle of twisted roots, branches and splintered trunks. Not gently and not peacefully the land continued to be swallowed by the waters.

There had been no Island, but once the storm ended off the northern shore of Lake Ontario, an island had been formed, now known as Toronto Island. It had risen and made a great bay. The Indians called this bay a box; the Indian word for box is Oronto, a Mohawk word meaning a log in the water.

Into this bay or box between the mainland and the newly formed island, the great twisted trees had been tossed into a heaving, grinding pile, dangerous to any living thing.

The Indians never traded in this part of the country where they got their seed corn and tobacco. Instead they went to the lakeshore to see the miracle of the power of the Great Spirit.

It was a sight that remained for almost a century and many people told their children how they had seen this great thing, this box or bay, filled to the brim with heaps of trees so big that some of them were 20 feet in diameter at the bole. This story has not been forgotten even today.

The Indian word to describe this filled bay or box was Tur-on-to or floating box. This twisted mass of logs, settling in time to become earth finally became Toronto.

That is the story that the Indian people tell. It has been told amongst them for a long, long time.

Good gardening to us all - do not forget your Hat, Gloves, Sunscreen (very important). Take your geranium cuttings, plant your begonias, seeds and any other 'goodies’. Do not forget to smile. Take it easy out there shoveling snow - you will need a healthy back later on to dig !!

Lovingly, Beryl