Hello my Dear Gardening Friends,

Last night, Saturday I went to the most wonderful surprise 50th wedding anniversary party, for my dear, dear friends Mike and Aileen Dean. Good company, good food and the most pleasant part, was watching the children of Mike and Aileen. They have grown into very serious, responsible, loving adults, with children of their own. Where oh where has the time gone?? Congratulations to a wonderful couple; may we all dance at your next 50th!!!

The wind is bringing down the very last of the dried up leaves. Hopefully most of the outside chores are done. Have you put up and filled the bird feeders? It is time. Do it as soon as possible if you wish to have visitors all winter. The cheeky chickadees are usually the first to find your feeders.

Fuchsias are one of my favourite plants. In their native Mexico, New Zealand and S. America countries they are actually shrubs, even trees. Here we grow them indoors for the most part, or in a very cool greenhouse. We bed them outside for the summer months, in a cool shady spot in the garden. Fuchsias can be left to grow, fairly rapidly, into bushy specimens or trained into standard forms (tree like). How do we do this? It is really very simple. You need one central stem, pinching out all and any side shoots, leaving the leader alone, do it carefully and systematically and you will be delighted with the results.

The hybrid fuchsias need little description for their beautiful bell shaped flowers, with their ballerina skirts are very well known as garden, hanging basket and indoor plants. There are so many kinds and colours, single, semi-double and double varieties in a wide range of colours, but mainly pinks, reds, purples and whites. The ones that are grown as pot plants are usually hybrids, making a compact pot plant. Old specimens are really best discarded, unless you have trained them as a standard. Then they should be re-potted each spring.


Some helpful hints to bring fuchsias through the winter:
Temperatures – You should try to aim for around 50oF to 60oF (10oC-16oC). Avoid high winter temperatures.
Humidity – Mist the leaves occasionally when/if the plant has foliage.
Position – Good light, but not direct sun in either winter or summer.
Watering and feeding – Water freely from Spring to Fall whilst the plant is growing vigorously, then sparingly early and late in the season. Water very sparingly in the winter if the plants are dormant – just enough to prevent the plant from drying out completely. Continue to water any cuttings in leaf to help sustain any and all growth. Feed from early spring to late summer.
Care – It is natural for the leaves to fall off in the Autumn. If it is possible keep the plants in a cool, light place for the winter, new growth will appear next spring. Shorten the old and new shoots to keep the plant bushy. You can prune quite hard as the flowers form on the new growth. The propagation is quite simple, just take cuttings from the new growth, dip in rooting hormone and place in soiless mix. Once the roots have formed, pot up in 2 inch pots, with a rich potting mix, to which a little sand should be added.

After you have finished landscaping your windowsill in time for the holidays, brought in the bean poles and generally cleaned up the garden, consider taking charge of any tree growing in front of your house. Most of these trees are owned by the municipality. But in many real ways, because you do enjoy their beauty and shade multiple times through the year, they are yours – and they are in trouble.

The average lifespan of a tree in a downtown site is just a few years. Only half the available city planting spaces actually contain trees at any given time. For every tree planted, approximately four are removed, for every dollar spent on street maintenance only pennies go to trees.

Why are our trees doing so poorly??
The winter takes a dreadful toll in North American cities. Where winter driving conditions are hazardous, high salt levels in the soil decrease the availability of water to the roots, causing a chemical drought. Chloride ions are taken up by the roots and can accumulate to toxic levels in the leaves, resulting in marginal leaf necrosis or “scorch”. Barriers to root growth resulting in containerisation of street trees are a common occurrence. Utility pipes, asphalt and concrete curbs, rubble in the soil and basements, as well as soil compaction all limit the amount of soil that tree roots have to find water and nutrients. Compaction may limit root growth directly by mechanical digging, etc. or indirectly by reducing soil pore space, and oxygen to the root zones.

Urban soils can contain anything from good topsoil to brick rubble and builder’s fill. Many of these materials contain limestone, especially in this area. Street pit soils are often alkaline, which limits the availability of some nutrients such as iron and manganese. The soils can be extremely variable in fertility and toxic substances as well. Gray water is often poured into street pits in a well-meaning attempt at watering, however, if this spent wash water contains bleach or other toxic chemicals, it will be lethal to the trees and do much more harm than any good.

The hotter the air temperature is around tree canopies, the faster trees lose water, and deplete their underground supplies. Vandalism is often blamed, but cars, bicycles, trucks, lawnmowers and construction causes more damage than branches broken by people. Trees planted too close to curbs suffer regular damage by careless parking.

What can we do to “take charge of our trees?” Water, water, water. Because of its restricted rooting space and increased heat load, street trees often experience water stress – not enough water to meet its needs. For a small tree you can slowly pour about 10 gallons of water every five days during periods of little rain and/or very hot weather. Also it is a good idea to very gently loosen the soil surface to about a two inch depth so that the water may be absorbed more easily.

Keep the soil around the tree free of garbage, garbage cans, bicycles or construction materials. This will help to protect the trunk from abrasion. Protect the soil surface so that oxygen can move freely into the soil and down to the roots. Do not add extra soil on top of the root zone. Do mulch the surface in at least a three foot radius around the tree with coarse shredded bark or wood chips, do not put this mulch up the tree itself. Not only will this help to retain moisture, but reduces compaction around the base of the tree.

Should you plant ground covers around the tree? Yes and no. No because these plants will compete for moisture. Yes because the small flowering annuals, for example impatiens, will remind you to water the ground. It may even discourage dogs. Whilst the occasional dog “visits” should not harm the tree, excessive dog urine is toxic to tree roots, and we all know where one dog -------many follow.

Use sand or granular fertiliser on your drive ways, either are better than salt. Shovel any salt-laden snow away from any tree roots. In the spring, when all that salt laden snow has vanished, water, water, water and wash as much of it away as possible.

Finally enjoy your trees, see how they give character to the neighbourhood, how they give us shade and help to cool our homes in summer and shield us from winter winds, trapping dust particles, provide homes for birds and buffer street noises. Talk to your council, if you have an over eager “city crew” who want to cut down our precious trees because it makes clearing/cleaning the sidewalks easier!!!!!

Have you done these jobs for October?
• Dug, dried and stored summer-flowering bulbs
• Raked leaves from lawn, or ran the lawn mower over them one last time
• Prepared and dug new flower beds
• Put your ponds to bed
• Cut off dead foliage – to make it look tidier, left some to catch the snow
• Finish planting spring flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils – together, crocus, etc.)
• Dug and stored any dahlias, gladiolus, tuberous begonias cannas that were still out there
• Planted amaryllis for Christmas bloom (to be politically correct that should be holiday bloom)
• Removed and distributed almost finished compost, gathered leaves and added to the compost pile
• Seeded your new lawn – but do not tell me that you have done so – put in a flower garden instead.

November chores that should be almost finished:
• Fertilise the lawn (that you no longer have ?)
• Make sure that evergreens are well watered for winter – not wrapped like mummies
• Protect young trees from rodents
• Plant even more spring bulbs for forcing – great Christmas gifts

That is all for this week. Good gardening my dears, hats, gloves, sunscreen, hats, look for a gardening wish list.
Loving, Beryl