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Volume:11 Issue:6 Web site address: www.squamishgardeners.com Date: June 2008 |
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Letter from the Editor: "Down the Garden Path" by Ellen Grant
Gardening is a long road, with many detours and way stations, and here we all
are at one point or another. It's not a question of superior or inferior taste, merely
a question of which detour we are on at the moment. Getting there (as they say)
is not important; the wandering about in the wilderness or in the olive groves
or in the bayous is the whole point. Our regular June 16th meeting should allow members some time to “travel” down other’s garden paths as we take time to discuss problems, observations and the joys of our own garden’s. With the weeding and final preparations for the Tour, the executive have decided not to ask a formal speaker to step into our June meeting. We seldom know how much time to allot because of the nature of the pre-tour organizing but we will have some time to share our experiences with each other. It has been many months since we’ve had the opportunity to discuss our own gardening successes and failures and to seek the advice of fellow Squamish gardeners. Another ‘garden path’ travelled this month was around Van Dusen gardens with a Squamish Gardeners group. We started at the laburnum walk under planted with globe alliums. This time the rhodos were in full bloom. Our guide escorted us down a new path through the azaleas beds. The scented varieties filled the air with their intoxicating perfume. We spent some time admiring the oriental tree peonies. Their huge tissue-paper like blooms seemed unreal. An artist was busy capturing their images on paper. I used my camera…so much faster! A pair of ravens filled the air with screams. A fledgling had left the nest before it had proper control of its wings. The panicking parents were at once trying to encourage it to get air bourn and warning us to stay clear of the gawky youngster. We continued past the lakes where the water lilies were just beginning to blooms. The black koi came to visit us as we watched the turtles sunning themselves on an island. We discussed the various forms of horse chestnuts and saw were the new expansive of the buildings will occur in the holly field. We finished the tour back at the garden shop where many of us bought plants to add to our collection or garden themed gifts. Our third “garden path” this month was our speaker, Carolyn Herriot , who’s business in sustainable gardening is called the Garden Path. What a rousing talk she gave to stir us to plant food crops to ensure a healthy, secure source of nourishment from our own gardens. Her recipe for a layered vegetable plot was intriguing. Starting with lime and fresh manure, then adding compost, soil, leaf mold, rotted manures, grass clipping etc. in layers until a raised bed is formed. After planting even more mulch is placed around the plants to conserve moisture and keep the weeds at bay. I also enjoyed the way she recycled plastic film to make her springtime holding trays of seedlings. The solution to keeping in the heat at night and allowing daytime heat to escape was so simple yet so effective. I am sure that in the next few years we will see a resurgence of the backyard food garden and canning and freezing will again become the popular summertime activity that I remember as a child. I know that many of you have never stopped creating your own jams and pickles and conserves but it is about to become the stylish as well as practical thing to do. |
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I’ve been down many garden paths this month as the Garden Tour committee visited prospective gardens for our annual tour. What a delight! From acreage to trailer park plots, the contrasts in size, focus, plant material and individual uniqueness was exceptional. This year all our gardens are in the upper part of the valley from the Mamquam River to the upper part of Paradise Valley. We had no entries from Squamish or Valleycliffe. We also tried to include a predominately vegetable garden but we fell short on this item too. Although we have included several gardens that have a small component of edibles, the main interest will be the perennials and shrubs in most gardens. If you haven’t yet signed up as a volunteer please contact Carol. Volunteers get their ticket at half price and you get to view one garden intensively for a 2 hour session. It is fun because you also have the opportunity to talk to people with the same hobby as yourself and exchange observations about plant materials, the weather and even annoying bugs! Remember to bring along some cash to purchase a ticket or two on the raffle. Merchants have been generous again this year. Check our web site for a list of our sponsors and a connection to their web sites.
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And of course I have wandered down my own garden paths many times this past month as I planted and weeded. No, I have not yet resurrected my own vegetable garden but I plan to prepare it for next year. Several years ago I changed it into a holding bed for plants that were waiting for me to find them a home in the rest of the garden. Some have been there several years and still have no space to call home. These raised beds will need to have their soil replaced before any serious growing can take place. Perhaps I’ll try the laying method. I have just finished taking the tender plants out of my sunroom and the storage shed. Usually this is done near the beginning of May.
Not on the garden path yet certainly part of the joy of the garden lies in the wild life it attracts. May Day usually sees a batch of ducklings hatch. This year was no exception. The little ones have been bumming bird seed at the door each morning. In the apple tree a chickadee is raising a flock in an ornamental nest that I bought last fall at the Brackendale Fair. I didn’t think it was habitable but she seems to like it. We also have hummingbirds and Stellar jays in the evergreens but the red-winged blackbirds don’t seem to have chosen our pond to nest in this season. I miss their rollicking song. Judging by the vocal chorus of frogs it seems that they are rebounding from their almost complete absence a few years ago. Don and a photographer friend rescued a poor frog from a snake one day in the pond. The frog was slowly been swallowed feet first. The men pried the snake’s jaws open with sticks and freed captive. Both creatures went on their way. Since both help keep down the slugs and insects I encourage both to reside in my yard. The snake was a particularly aggressive one. The next day my granddaughters and I spotted it repeatedly diving under a log in the pond. We suspected that it was eating frog eggs this time and not frog legs! I do hope that you can all manage to get out on Sunday June 22 to visit the gardens the committee has selected for this years Garden Tour club fund raiser. I hope your journey down these ten garden paths will give you some ideas for your own yards and perhaps think of entering your own garden in next year’s tour. |
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Odds and Ends
ReminderThere will be a weeding “bee” at the library before our regular June meeting June 16. Please try to find time to join us as this is very much the weedy season following all our rain! Some Trivia...for fun
Much has been said about using vegetables as decorative items within flower gardens...try these:
But a warning: Do be careful not to mix berry bearing edibles with similar appearing poisonous berry plants.
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This year I have waited, hoping for a prolonged warm stretch of weather, so the geraniums, fuchsias, callas and cannas and even the dahlias wouldn’t suffer a set back when I put them out for the slugs to feast on. But the warm, sunny spell has eluded us so I finally have just pulled them out so I could clean things up. They are all a little pale but I am sure they will survive. Many I just keep in their pots and set them into the garden among the perennials or they spend the summer on the patio. This year I will try to keep the orchids in a sunnier place and avoid over watering them. I had better luck this winter with the extra light that they received in the sunroom. I have purchased some “hardy” amaryllis this year. They really aren’t that hardy but they are recommended for summer garden blooms and must be brought in with the glads. I always like to try something new each season. April was a great month for flowers. The rhodos were (and still are) filling the garden with brilliant colours. The clematis, irises and roses are just beginning to flower but they are promising to put on their usual June showing. Spring really is the most exciting time of the year. It is nature’s time of renewal. The purpose of flowers is to produce seeds and reproduce the plant. For the most part, summer and autumn are times when gardeners just try to extend the display by manipulating exotic imports and bedding plants from seeds.I don’t get the same enjoyment out of this part of gardening.
I am wondering if Squamish gardeners have noticed that the variety of plant material offered this year at our local garden outlets is not as great as in the past? I wonder if this is because of the weather conditions, problems with suppliers, or just the competition for customers (eg. too many outlets for the number of local buyers). I have noticed that some are now beginning to get in some of the basket stuffers that we usually see at the beginning of the season. They seem to want to sell the baskets fully developed instead of the makings. When one of my old plastic baskets broke this past month spilling the contents down onto the patio and crushing a planter below, I even had some trouble locating a replacement pot of the same size. I certainly couldn’t find the same colour in any size. Last month I bemoaned the fact that I have always had difficulty getting tulips to rebloom after the first year or so, An article I read this last month may have solved the puzzle. Don’t give tulip bulbs too much water during the summer months. Let them die back and the bulbs harden. I know that here in the rain forest this is difficult but this year I will try to withhold extra moisture. Since the spring bulbs are planted in beds with all my other plants and summer annuals this will be most difficult. Perhaps I will have to resort to planting the tulips in bulb flats and lifting them to dry for the summer. I’ll replant them as I dig the dahlias.
