My dear gardening friends,

What a glorious week for gardening - if you have planted your bulbs that short rain we enjoyed will have helped them. I have been busy planting, digging moving around and bringing in to the house!! I vowed not to do that this year, however, we have a plant sale coming up October the 12th at the Lakefield Horticultural Societies meeting at The Marshland Centre - 7.15'ish all are welcome. Come and bring a few plants that are taking up too much room, and of course take some home with you!!!

Yesterday was a wonderful day at the Ecology garden, there was a silent auction for pies, blueberry, key lime, lemon, apple piled high with fruit - now what else? Face painting, herbal wreath making, putting your garden to bed, puppets, music, tai chi - and wine making - that kind of failed - I had all kinds of tools and information, by this time everyone was feeling tired and a little cold -sooooo it turned into a wine tasting workshop - golden rod, dandelion, plum, apple - etc. all natural, no preservatives, no bad headaches the next day!!

There are still some plants and trees for sale and lots of beautiful compost - the sales will continue, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays until the end of October. It is a good place to pick up those special perennials that you cannot find elsewhere - speak to Cathy she will find you something that no one else is growing. Swamp roses are beautiful and there are still some left. Stop and visit Jack's garden - he might have a joke for you???

I will include some of the recipes that we discussed yesterday - one that I will include can be made anytime using frozen fruits - the mixed ones from Loblaws are perfect.

I keep hearing about evergreens -why are they dying??
A) They are not dying - what they are doing is natural at this time of year. Just as your cats and dogs are shedding their summer coats, so are the evergreens, those dried up brown leaves are coming off to make way for new ones. However you can help, especially since we usually get winds around this time of the year. Make sure that the ground is thoroughly soaked before the ground freezes. Place several inches of mulch material on the ground beneath the trees and shrubs, being careful to keep the mulch away from the trunks. I would suggest for newly planted evergreens that you build a shelter around them - do not wrap them, especially with plastic, as I see when I am driving around. The plastic gets very hot and actually bakes the poor plants that it is supposedly protecting. Put in stakes and weave burlap through the stakes making a screen that will not only cut the prevailing wind, but protect them from sunburn too, which is drying out the foliage and hence more brown and falling leaves!!! I only tie up the tall aborvitaes and junipers so that any ice and snow will not break them. Leave the rest alone, but after a heavy snowfall, go outside and very carefully clean it off the branches for the ice and snow are very heavy.

I have grown even more acidanthera's this summer. They bloom at odd times through the year, the old ones, bloomed in the summertime - quite early - maybe June. The newer ones, purchased in the spring, are still flowering - their heady smell is as beautiful as the flowers. What is it?? It is sometimes called a fragrant gladiolus because its growth form is similar, the stem grows longer and longer with flowers all the way up. It is a tender summer-flowering plant (depending on the age and the weather). As it grows from a corm, it is indeed tender and must be brought inside for the winter and placed in a frost free basement, etc. I grow mine in pots and I just bring in the whole thing; I fertilise them well when I take them outside in the early spring.

An interesting fact about flower spikes, the bottom to top kind:
The lower flowers have little or no pollen but plenty of nectar, so that the bees start low and work upwards. The upper flowers have little or no nectar, but plenty of pollen, so that when the bees fly off to find the more rewarding bottom flowers, they are well dusted with pollen. This makes it less likely that the plant will self-pollinate and more likely that cross-pollination will occur - making for a much healthier situation in evolutionary terms.

This is time to bring in your bulbs and corms; - I hope that you have already brought in those poinsettias and amaryllis - if not go out to the garden immediately although it may already be too late. I am sure that the impatiens will die tonight, and the temperatures are supposed to rise for the rest of the week. Isn't it always the case? - frost kills off the beautiful blooms and then the temperatures rise leaving our gardens looking so sad.

The "weatherman" keeps saying that this weather is going to last until November, thank goodness looking at all the work that is still left to do - I keep wondering - is it possible to "rent -a - husband?? Someone who lifts, and carries, makes shelves for those plants, that were definitely staying outside , and surprisingly have followed you indoors, who still loves you after you have had him dig yet another flower bed - someone who can fix anything??!

I spent ages today "fixing" my phone jack - wheee I did it!!! Now to clean those wretched storm windows and put them up - I am trying to do a little at a time - maybe if I can stop running outside to 'play" I will get the chores done.

Speaking of winter - I used to dislike white flowers, they reminded me of winter - until I actually grew some, now I love how they stand out in the twilight , yes we are usually still outside pretending that we can see well enough to be gardening - and who said that only children knew all the excuses to stay up/out late?? White blossoms also attract moths, which in turn fertilise the plants in the evening. White flowers are so cool looking during a hot summer. I have treated myself to what I hope is a single white peony. When it flowers, I do not think that the colour will matter at all. Just as your baby is exactly what you wanted when it is placed in your arms - you do not know it will grow into a teenager - isn't that what weeds are? Teenagers!

I am hoping that Joe and Hazel Cooke will bring some of their extras to the meeting. They have planted hundred of peonies, it will be a joy and treat for us all next year when we go to visit their gardens. They are our speakers for this month’s meeting - be sure to come and hear what they have to say. They are our delphinium specialists and now are diverging into growing peonies. I hope that the ones they have planted over the past three weeks will be happy living in their gardens!!

I read something very interesting - Jack used to hate Christmas trees, "kill a tree for Christmas" I heard many times, although I pointed out that ours was an artificial one. Someone else had the same thoughts. So, one Christmas they had been to a horticultural meeting and saw a flower arranger, using a variety of ingenious containers. One was a short section of eaves trough. Her husband (was he rented?) produced a length of aluminium troughing the length of the mantelpiece, with the ends clipped up and neatly sealed. She bought enough blocks of florist foam to fill the whole length. Raiding the garden for evergreens to make it a little more traditionally Christmas - using dark red candles and pink lilies it was spectacular. I think that I am going to try to make one - why wait for Christmas? Thanksgiving is followed by Halloween, ummm maybe a few of those little jack lantern pumpkins, some Indian corn, and a few red leaves.

Oh I must tell you about my first Thanksgiving here at the lake - my beloved mother-in-law was very tolerant of her new English/Canadian daughter-in-law. I went out and picked those beautiful red leaves with the white berries up the stem. She was horrified. Yes that is right I had picked poison ivy - she was so allergic to it, in fact, she had once inhaled the smoke from someone's bonfire, her throat had swollen and she almost died!!!! Me?? Nothing happened. It has taken up to last year before I have had any reaction to it. The cat rubbed against my neck and there it was. Arrid extra-dry deodorant sprayed on liberally cured it.

How many of you have tried 'eranthis', winter aconite? Looks like yellow buttercups with many leaves just under the little yellow blooms. This is a spring flower that does not grow from either bulb or corm, instead it grows from a little irregular tuber, and they should be planted now. They are attractive when planted in flower beds, but I like them scattered throughout the garden - especially tucked under shrubs, they give us the very first hint of spring. Soak the tubers in water before planting and plant them about two to three inches deep, water again and cover with leaves. Mark the spot so that you do not dig them up - and wait for spring.

Question: Why do mice eat the bark off our evergreens over the winter? How can we stop them?
Answer: They are after salt. I suggest that you leave out a feeding station with bird seed, chopped cedar boughs and leaves and provide a salt lick. This way neither the mice nor the deer will eat the plants that you are trying to protect.

Question: How can I prevent winter kill on evergreens??
Answer: It is not really winter kill, rather it is early spring dehydration. When the early spring winds blow they dry out what moisture is left in the foliage, the ground is still frozen, so there is no water to replace the loss. You can try spraying water on the foliage on days like that, and prevent a lot of it from happening. This is why I keep telling you - lots and lots of water before the ground freezes - so that they go into the winter saturated - but slowly and easily, if it is too forceful, you will wash the soil away from the roots, and this we do not want to do.

Today I emptied a few of my containers over the roots of my ornamental grasses. Do use the container soil to build up your roses and fill in any "holes in the garden". Put the dead annuals in the compost, all will be neat and tidy.

Once again I have been asked about pruning back now - No!!!! Wait until the springtime - you need to catch the snow to make a comforter to keep your precious plants warm. Plus you will be able to see the damage that has occurred during the snowy months, and what repairs need doing This is a good time to empty your compost onto the garden even if it hasn't broken down completely it will by the spring. Just throw some leaves over the garden - and the "lumps" they will all be broken down by spring.

There my dears, I have given you just a little work outside - hopefully you will try to make some wine , and do try the mantle decoration - Hats, ( yes still) gloves, sunscreen hats - I do not think that you will need any more insect repellant.

Lovingly, Beryl