It’s Still Just Dirt – June 2015, The Tillsonburg News
by Penny Esseltine

You don’t necessarily need a garden plot to keep yourself supplied with fresh herbs all summer long. With some soil and a few pots you can turn a sunny balcony, deck, patio or window into your personal herb garden. Herbs are flavour-filled and easy to grow however it’s knowing how to use them that often poses the biggest challenge.

Some of the more common herbs to grow in home gardens include parsley (either curly Italian or flat leaf), basil, dill, rosemary, mint, and thyme. Mint and rosemary are best grown in individual containers but you can easily pack a variety of other herbs into the space of a window box or a large pot.

Chef Les Kozachuk, a graduate of the Stratford Chefs School Culinary Program, has worked in the food industry since 1990. He has applied his craft at restaurants in Toronto, Italy, Ontario’s cottage country, and now in London, Ontario. Les brought his alternative ideas for using home-grown herbs to the Ontario Horticultural Society’s District 10 AGM.

First off Les recommends using fresh herbs to garnish a plate. “You get more punch from fresh herbs if you add them to your food after it’s cooked,” he says. For example:

• Basil is a delicate herb that is best used on the same day you pick it. You can add basil to olive oil and garlic for a basil sauce or pesto. Use whole leaf basil in a caprese salad with tomato, bocconcini, and olive oil.
• Lavender can be used in sweet baking like scones. Serve these with cream cheese and honey.
• Dill works as a garnish with salmon or fish and lemon. It’s also a great addition to a creamy dip served with raw vegetables.
• Parsley is a mainstay of Middle Eastern Tabbouleh salads and Argentinean Chimchurri sauces.
• Chives make a nice garnish. You can add chopped chives to potato salad, mashed potatoes, and soups. They’re also great for omelettes.
• Thyme has a stronger flavour similar to sage, rosemary, and oregano. These herbs can stand heat and are good with food groups like chicken and poultry.

To help you along in your quest to make excellent use of herbs from the garden here are some super quick recipe ideas, compliments of Chef Les.

Make creme fresh by blending together equal parts sour cream and 35 per cent cream. Let it sit on the counter for a day. The enzymes in the sour cream help to thicken the mixture. Serve creme fresh with sliced cucumbers, dill and shrimp.

Prepare a compound butter by starting with one cup of softened butter. Blend in two tablespoons of fresh herbs and the zest of one-half lemon. Shape the mixture like a sausage and put it in the freezer. When you take it from the freezer slice it into coins and put these under the skin of chicken or turkey for a nice herb flavour. Medallions of oregano and gorgonzola butter go well with beef. Simply put a medallion on top of each steak.

To infuse a vinegar with herb flavours start with ordinary white vinegar. Add a few cloves of garlic, then sprigs of rosemary or oregano. Les says to remove the garlic after the beginning stages. Left too long garlic can cause salmonella.

For a Margherita pizza grill a pizza dough crust and add toppings including slices of mozzarella cheese, tomato, and basil.

“Herbs are finished in your garden once summer is over,” Les says. “To preserve herbs you can dry freeze them. Wrap the herbs in paper towels, then foil or saran. Take them from the freezer when you are ready to use them. Chop them up and sprinkle on your food.”

You can infuse herbs like you infuse tea. Make the tea into ice cubes. The flavour is maintained and you can add these cubes to your soups and stews.

Home grown herbs are a great way to add a healthy, flavourful touch to any meal. Rather than having your herbs languish in the garden try using some of our Chef Les tips and enjoy these summer favours all year long.

During the summer the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets in different locations away from the Community Centre. In July a members garden tour is planned, and in August it’s a hypertufa pot-making workshop. For additional information check these activities out at tillsonburghorticultural.ca. Regular first Tuesday of the month meetings in the Senior Centre Auditorium will resume September 1.

It’s Still Just Dirt – May 2015, The Tillsonburg News
by Penny Esseltine

We’re coming up on May 24 this week and that date speaks to gardeners. It’s time to check out annual flower displays that abound at not just professional nurseries and flower shops but also at hardware stores, grocery stores and even convenience stores. Annuals can add instant colour, lovely smells and huge variety to your garden. Here, with comments from some Horticultural Society members, is some timely advice about annuals.

May 24 is traditionally the date to begin planting annuals in your garden. Jan Torrell says, “This is only a guide. It depends on the weather.” You can run the risk of loosing your annuals to a late spring frost if you plant too soon. That being said, many of us feel the time has come for some get-your-hands-in-the-dirt gardening activity.

Annuals (as opposed to perennials that last years, decades, or seemingly forever) go through their whole life cycle in one growing season. They sprout from a seed, grow leaves and roots, produce flowers, create seeds and then die. They are popular with gardeners because, with reasonable care, they bloom their heads off all season long.

Annuals allow you to change the look of your garden from year to year. A garden with a backbone of perennial plants can get interest from different annual accents each year. Christine Nagy says, “Adding annuals is also a nice way to tie your container gardens to your landscape gardens with excellent results.”

Some gardeners choose the same kinds of annuals year after year. They may be sentimental favourites or reliable growers in special garden conditions. Judi Misener says, “Marigolds are really hardy, brightly coloured in various shades of yellow and orange and they keep bugs away.”

Catherine Burke says hot pink geraniums are her favourite. “They are low maintenance, brightly coloured, and they last the whole season long.” Speaking of geraniums, Matt Fenn told horticultural members that when he opened Tillsonburg Garden Gate a few years ago red geraniums were, by far, Tillsonburg’s best loved and best selling annual.

My daughter likes zinnias. They come in short and tall sizes, bloom for a long time, and are drought resistant. But most of all their multiple mixed colours are gorgeous.You can buy them as bedding plants or start them from seed right in your garden.

For gardeners looking for new annuals Landscape Ontario publishes a first look at new cultivars coming to Canadian garden centres this spring in its Garden Inspiration magazine. Sometimes they can be new colours of old favourites. Last year I tried a lovely pink petunia with a bright green edge on the flowers. I think it was called Pretty Much Picasso or possibly Picasso in Pink.

This year there’s Supertina Limoncello described as a vigorous annual petunia hybrid bred to keep blooming in a hot sunny spot. Limoncello has soft yellow flowers with darker yellow centres. Landscape Ontario recommends the medium to large size flowers for filler or spiller in containers, but also in landscapes near the front of the garden.

Sunpatiens impatiens introduced several years ago are a great alternative to traditional impatiens as they are somewhat resistant to impatiens downy mildew. They will grow in sun or shade, rain or shine, and provide non-stop colour from spring until frost. Sunpatiens is available in several new colours including pink, magenta, scarlet, and white.

As well you could choose Jurassic Rex begonias described as ideal for gardens and containers in deep shade environments. The foliage comes in bold colours and patterns that will stand out in the landscape. Jurassic begonias can grow up to 16“ tall and 12” wide. They flower late in the season.

Take your pick from forever favourites or new beauties, or you can even choose one of everything that looks good. Annuals are pretty much guaranteed to get your garden growing and glowing. Enjoy! May 24 has come.

The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. For additional information check us out at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

It’s Still Just Dirt – April 2015, The Tillsonburg News
by Penny Esseltine

It’s important to warm up and stretch your muscles before and after gardening to help prevent injuries. Occupational Therapist Brenda Fields, speaking to garden enthusiasts at the annual general meeting of District 10 of the Ontario Horticultural Association says some simple preparation can help you garden longer and garden stronger.

“Gardening takes us through a wide range of different movements,” Brenda says, “like squatting, bending, gripping and lifting.” This can result in common gardening injuries like back strain and wrist or knee pain.

When you bend over to do a job like lifting a bag of garden soil you add 100 per cent more load to your back. Brenda says if you twist as well when you bend over and lift you can increase the load by as much as 600 per cent. “The maximum load an average-sized woman should lift is 28 pounds, and for a man it’s 68 pounds.” A 30 litre bag of triple mix weighs in at 28 pounds. There’s a lot of lifting to be done and most gardeners will move a number of bags at one time. Brenda suggests we pace ourselves. “Vary the jobs that you are doing so that you’re using different muscle groups. Do the heavy jobs when you have the most energy.”

“Practice safe lifting techniques,” Brenda says. “Your feet should be shoulder width apart and lift with your legs. Your nose and toes should stay in a straight line. Keep your back straight, and your shoulders back.”

Some additional strategies for safer gardening include:

• Get help if you have an awkward or large load.
• Use a wheel barrow.
• Use tools with handles that have a comfortable grip. The more you squeeze something small the more your muscles will fatigue.
• Wear knee pads or use a kneeling stool.
• Keep tools sharp. It takes less energy to dig or cut with sharper tools.

Before you start to garden warm up by walking briskly around the yard or around the block. Get the blood flowing. Perform gentle stretches and hold each for five to 10 seconds. You can find an outline of good before-you-garden stretches from the Ontario Physiotherapy Association online at opa.on.ca/pdfs/smartgardening.

Looking Ahead

9th Annual Garden Auction
The Horticultural Society’s Annual Garden Auction is set for Tuesday, May 19 in the Lions Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. In addition to decorative pots of colourful annuals, masses of amazing perennials, and a variety of largely native shrubs and trees, the auction features a miscellany of bags of gardening soils, seeds and fertilizers, and an enticing selection of garden art and artifacts.

Also for sale in the auditorium you’ll find yummy edibles, gardening books and magazines, herbs and vegetable plants and lots of home-grown and divided perennials. Each year the garden auction raises thousands of dollars that the society uses to support members’ gardening efforts in public spaces.

Keep Tillsonburg Beautiful Day
On Saturday, May 9 environmentalists of all ages will gather to take part in Keep Tillsonburg Beautiful Day. After meeting at the Annandale Baseball Diamonds (Concession Street east of Maple Lane) at 9:00 a.m. volunteers will plant about 1,000 seedlings, the beginnings of a forest for the future in an area separating the baseball diamonds from the railway track to the North. Be sure to bring a shovel. As well as planting trees, volunteers will get to work cleaning up local parks, trails and natural areas.

Lastly, the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. For additional information check us out at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

The Evolution of a Garden
It’s Still Just Dirt, March 2015 – The Tillsonburg News
by Penny Esseltine

Master Gardener Sean James, speaking at the Stratford Garden Festival, says, “You need to be patient with a garden and think long term. Some of us take a wad of money on the 24th of May weekend and buy what looks good to plant in the garden and that’s it for the season.” Sean is president of Fern Ridge Landscaping, Eco-Consulting, Design, Installation and Maintenance in Milton and he says he fell into landscaping and has since spent much of his life doing what he loves. So here, well in advance of the 24th of May, are some of Sean’s guiding principles for planning your garden.

Sean says to do only as much as you can look after in terms of the size and sophistication of your garden. Start with a plan and it will evolve. “Figure out where things will work best. Modern wisdom is to match plants to soil type whether it is clay or sand.” There’s a huge list of plants for each type of soil.

If it’s hardscaping (walls, patios, ponds, stairs, gates) you’re thinking about it’s important to use proper construction methods for everything. “Do what you can afford to do,” Sean says, “but do it right. Phase things in.”

Gardeners aren’t good at being ruthless Sean says. Think about the problems you have in the garden. Perhaps there’s a tree affected by bronze birch borer or a black pine with brown tips. Think about what will work better in that particular space. “For trees in distress, add six to eight inches of pine mulch from just about the edge of the trunk out to the drip line. This will do more for the health of the tree than any other thing.”

Ten of Sean’s gardening tips

• For energy efficient landscaping plant in the southeast and southwest sections of your property. These garden spaces will help to keep your house cooler in the summer.
• Columnar trees are good for screening but they can get wider than you think. Be sure to allow space. Pick the right plant for the right place.
• Native trees attract all kinds of little critters that will feed on garden pests.
• Avoid invasive plants like English ivy, goutweed and periwinkle. Search for grow me instead information at growmeinsteadontario.ca.
• Planting just one kind of plant in a large area will give it power. Large drifts have visual impact.
• Some of the best plants for shade are solomon’s seal, big root geranium, and flowering raspberry.
• If you are moving a perennial plant be sure to divide it first and plant it in several places.
• Slowly replace sod with more garden by edging your gardens bigger every year.
• Overgrown junipers can be salvaged by pseudo bonsai-ing to downsize them and show their form.
• Using loppers, cut multi-stemmed deciduous shrubs or trees down to ground level in late winter. This is called coppicing. Clear the detritus. Many plants will make new growth from the stump or roots. You can rejuvenate many different shrubs and trees like dogwood, smoke bush, willow and birch using this technique.

Now, back to that big wad of 24th of May cash. Sean recommends dividing it into six parts. Then visit your garden centre each month from May through October and buy the plants that are blooming then. If you plant these in your garden you will have added interest in your gardens all growing season long.

The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets on the first Tuesday of each month in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. For additional information check us out at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

It’s Still Just Dirt, The Tillsonburg News – February 2015
by Penny Esseltine

Garden festival season is coming up in our part of Ontario. First off the block is the Stratford Garden Festival which runs from March 5 to March 8. Last year it was named the 2014 Festival of the Year by the Canadian Garden Tourism Council so of course it’s a must see for local gardeners. The theme this year is Blooming Beautiful and that is what you will experience with their display gardens created by area landscape businesses. The event takes place at the Stratford Rotary Complex and you can find directions online at stratfordgardenfestival.com.

Among the speakers lined up for Stratford are local favourites Brenda Sutherland and Judy Larkin (Lilies and Daylilies: Eye Candy for Your Garden), Beckie Fox (New Garden? What to do First) and David Hobson (Great Plants: Great Gardens).

David will also speak at the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society’s March 3 meeting and his presentation there is titled Plants to Impress Your Neighbours. Another must see! That’s Tuesday, March 3, starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. All welcome.

Culture Tillsonburg is celebrating spring with a bus tour to Canada Blooms on Friday, March 20 (the first day of spring). The cost for a ticket is $60 plus HST and for Cultural Improvement Alliance members (which includes Historical Society and Horticultural Society members) the cost is $50 plus HST. This includes a ticket for the show plus the coach ride.

Started in 1997, Canada Blooms is Canada’s premiere garden festival and altogether it runs from March 13 through March 22 this year at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto. Let’s Play is the focus for Canada Blooms and among the feature garden designs competing for space at the show are ones with themes like Pollinator Playground, Backyard Sanctuary, Tic-Tac-Toe, Outdoor Exercise Garden, and Fairy Frolic.

Well-known gardening speakers at the show include Mark Cullen, Denis Flanagan, and Frank Ferragine (aka Frankie Flowers). Speaker presentations are scheduled most days between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. and for a complete schedule visit canadablooms.com.

In London on April 18 there’s a Carolinian Canada event called Go Wild Grow Wild with workshops, speakers and special exhibits for those who consider themselves native plant gardeners or birders, adventurers, backyard gardeners, seed savers – things like that. It’s at the Agriplex Arena in the Western Fair District. Workshop and speaker information is still being confirmed but for additional information you can visit gowildgrowwild.ca.

I’m writing this column on a day when snow is all around – filling backyards, front yards, sidewalks, and roadways. Temperatures (with the windchill factor) are expected to sink to minus 35 degrees. It’s hard to imagine that on the other side of winter, spring waits. Then we will be able to take our personal garden festival experiences and put them to work in our own gardening spaces. Hurrah!

The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. An annual membership in our group costs $15 and comes with a number of great benefits (like a $10 discount on the Culture Tillsonburg Canada Blooms bus excursion). Check us out on line at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

Weather means more when you are a gardener
It’s Still Just Dirt, The Tillsonburg News – January 2015
by Penny Esseltine

Right out of the gate, early in January, CFPL TV’s former star meteorologist Jay Campbell came to talk to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society about weather. Weather can be a preoccupation for area residents especially during the winter months, but for gardeners, it’s of year-round interest.

Jay says weather is what happens daily and is measured every hour. You can retrieve extensive information about weather in newspapers, on radio, and on TV, or on line at the Weather Network. There’s an easy link to that from the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society website tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

“Climate,” on the other hand Jay says, “is based on a 30 year average of parameters and is updated every 10 years. The global temperature has been increasing .5 degrees centigrade every year since 1973,” Jay says. “We are getting significantly warmer.”

Some people use folklore to forecast the weather. Things like if the cows are laying down in the field it’s going to rain. There’s red sky at night, sailor’s delight.  Ring around the moon, rain will come soon, is another. Jay says if you count the number of stars inside the ring that will tell you the number of days before rain will come. “I have always been fascinated by folklore,” Jay says. “I have thousands of them.”

Meteorologists on the other hand use any number of instruments including thermometers and barometers. A hygrometer measures humidity and an anemometer measures wind speed. Weather balloons measure weather higher up in the atmosphere and weather satellites track large-scale air movements.

Many factors affect the weather. Extraterrestrial forces is the big one, Jay says. Others include volcanoes, ocean currents and lunar activity, acid rain, ozone depletion, the orbit of the earth, comets and asteroids and greenhouse gases.

For weather specifics we can look to publications like the 2015 Farmers Almanac which gets its information from Environment Canada’s Climate Services. The almanac says that the growing season length in nearby London is 151 days. The last frost of the spring is expected on May 9 and the first frost of the fall on October 8. Unfortunately this information has not been updated in many years. It’s based on 1951-1980 norms.

Similarly, the Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone Map was revised in 2000 using weather data from 1961-1990. This map places Tillsonburg in hardiness zone 6A. Zone 6A plants will tolerate temperatures as low as -17 to -23 degrees celsius. Often  gardeners in our area use zone 5 as our guideline. Perennials from zone 6 will likely be sold as annuals here since they aren’t guaranteed to last the winter. Seed packets and catalogues usually indicate zones for trees, shrubs and flowers.

Looking ahead through 2015 Jay predicts that spring temperatures in March, April, and May will be near normal, possibly slightly higher than normal, but precipitation is expected to be lower than normal. This can result in dryness in the soil. He says he expects June, July, and August temperatures to be above normal.

Jay says Grandma Campbell got him interested in forecasting weather. “I still look at it everyday and I’m always optimistic about the weather. I have four favourite seasons. There’s always something good,” he says.

For gardeners for whom weather is always of interest too, we can listen to the forecasts, use weather instruments of our own, and rely on climate statistics. As well, coming up on February 2, we can watch for Wiarton Willie (the albino, weather-prognosticating groundhog) and his forecast for spring this year.

The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets the first Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. An annual membership in our group cost $15 and comes with a number of really excellent benefits. Check us out on line at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

Create your own family-friendly Christmas containers
It’s Still Just Dirt, Tillsonburg News – December 2014
by Penny Esseltine

Tillsonburg Garden Gate’s Matthew and Thea Fenn brought Christmas greenery and arrangement ideas to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society recently. We are very near to Christmas. If you haven’t already you might want to try your hand at some original outdoor decor that will last well into spring.

You can create your arrangement right in an urn or pot or use an insert that you can drop into a larger container. The soil from fall plants that’s already in the pot can hold your arrangement or you can use a block of oasis. Matt also suggests that sand works well because it’s especially firm once frozen.

“Filler, spiller, thriller and chiller,” are the components of a winter container arrangement Matt says.

For thriller you can start with red twig dogwood or white birch. These stand tall and stay upright. Red twig dogwood gets redder as the temperature falls. You could also use artificial red, lime green, or silver branches, or white or gold twigs. “New this year are battery operated lighted branches,” Matt says. You could use these as well in your urn.

White pine, spruce, yew, boxwood, and holly make good filler. Fraser fir has a nice blue tinge. British Columbia cedar has a nice droopy look and is good for spiller. Matt says the more layers of greenery you have the better your container will look.

“Chiller,” Matt says, “can be things you have in the garden that have hardened off after the frost.” Think about blossom heads on hydrangea stems. You can use these in your arrangements too.

Matt says things look good in odd numbers like three or five. You could use three white birch branches, all of the same length or in different lengths.

You can make your Christmas container arrangements look good on just one side or all the way around depending on where you are going to place them. For all-around containers keep spinning the container as you add pieces so that it will look even and full.

For seasonal decor choose things like large silver balls, gift-wrapped presents on a stick, a top hat, or artificial apples. Pine cones and bird nests will give a more natural look. “The big colour for Christmas this year is blue,” Matt says.

Bows can be important. Use 20 gauge floral wire wrapped in green floral tape to gather ribbon loops into a bow.  As well Matt suggests using Geo Mesh ribbon. “It’s made of a fabric that is really bright and has a good show factor. It’s easy to use too. Take about one and a half feet of the material to make a loop on a stick and insert it in your arrangement.” At the museum this past week staff from XQZT Flowers were working with crafters to construct geo mesh wreaths.

If you’re thinking it’s a little late in the season to be putting together Christmas urns I’d suggest it’s a great family friendly, pre-Christmas activity. Collect branches and greenery by trimming the trees and bushes in your yard, or in open areas that you have access to. A winter adventure for sure. Of course greenery is also available at area garden centres.

It can be equally pleasing to create indoor arrangements and table centrepieces using oasis in a bowl or dish as your base and again natural elements from outside. Be sure to add fresh flowers too. Water-laden oasis will keep everything fresh.

Matt says, “To get good value from your outdoor Christmas containers, simply take out the Christmas decor pieces after the New Year and leave the greenery through until spring.” Merry Christmas!

The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society’s first meeting of 2015 is set for Tuesday, January 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. Jay Campbell, former star meteorologist with London’s CFPL TV, talks about weather including our latest climatic outlook. Everyone is welcome.

It’s Still Just Dirt, The Tillsonburg News – November 2014
by Penny Esseltine

Christmasfest in Tillsonburg launched this past week so we know it’s not too soon to offer up some great gift ideas for gardeners. Chances are the gardeners on your list will love these suggestions, fresh from Tillsonburg Horticultural Society members. Gardening gifts at Christmas are a great way to stretch out the fall gardening season, or to take a leap ahead toward gardening in the spring.

Benoit Janssens tells us that last Christmas his son gave him an Accu-Rite Digital Weather Station that he totally enjoys. Ben says it consists of two parts. The sensor hangs outside and the receiver screen can be placed wherever you like – on a desk or mounted on a wall. The weather station tells you the temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure at 6, 12, and 24 hour intervals. “It’s not a real gardening gift,” Ben says, “but it certainly helps with planning gardening activities.”

Jan Torrell says that the one thing that was very pleasant to receive from her hubby for Christmas was a collapsible bag that you can take into the garden. “As you trim or remove dead plants, or even deadhead or weed, you can throw everything into the bag to take to the compost pile. When you are through, the bag collapses down to almost nothing and will hang on a hook or a nail in the shed.” Jan says there are several sizes and she has received two different ones. “The largest one,” she says,”is too big for me to handle when it’s full so Al has to help in the garden as well, which is an added bonus!”

You may have seen these bags in the window at Sinden’s Paint & Paper store not so long ago. Drew says he still has a dozen or so and they sell for $12.99.

“My most favourite gardening gift is a pair of rose gloves,” says Christine Nagy. “They were given to me at least 10 years ago and they are still going strong.” The gloves are gauntlet style, in a supple leather and the hand of the glove is quite fitted which allows for greater dexterity. The gloves extend almost to the elbow so they protect most of the arm. “These are great for any prickly pruning jobs and since I just use them for this task they are lasting a long time.” Christine says she can’t remember where her friend purchased them but you can find them at www.bionicgloves.com.

Mignonne Trepanier remembers a year when her youngest daughter Renee purchased two plate dahlia tubers for her through one of the garden catalogues. “She included pictures of them in her gift card.” One was two colours of pink, a lighter and a darker shade, and the petals of the second were coloured white at the base and then a hot pink at the tips. “They were delivered in the spring,” Mignonne says, “and I planted them. By the end of the season they had grown taller than me. They were spectacular.”

Joan Massicotte says the best garden gift she ever received was a gift certificate for a massage, to be used after that first full day of gardening in the spring.

For the budget conscious gift giver or for one who likes to give hand-made items, Monique Booth suggest “collecting the seeds from your annuals and putting them in special envelopes or labelled containers. Pass them on to family and friends who love to garden along with a picture or planting instructions.”

Here, in shorter form, are some additional suggestions well worth considering.

• Carol Acre says unique garden art objects, or solar lighting to show off the garden in the evening make great gardening gifts.
• Catherine Burke suggests that for aging parents, a gift of garden or lawn care services would be much appreciated. “For stocking stuffers perhaps some twine, fertilizer, or garden label stakes.”
• Marian Smith recommends gift certificates for your gardener’s favourite garden centre.
• Judi Misener suggests a subscription to Canadian Gardening magazine. “It would last all year long and it’s full of tips and advice and do-it-yourself information.” For eight issues the cost is $20.95 per year. Visit canadiangardening.com.
• Lastly there is Lee Valley, which a number of our members have recommended, for gift certificates, or for in-store or on-line shopping (www.leevalley.com). Lee Valley has a solid reputation for its wonderful selection of quality gardening items including tools and gifts.

My best garden gift idea was a lovely hexagon-shaped, hand-crafted pottery garden stone like the one I picked up at Don Zver Pottery in Troy. It reads, “Life without gardening? I don’t think so!” Sadly they have sold this year’s supply, but promise to produce more in the spring.

Don’t forget as well that you can stuff gardeners stockings with a 2015 membership to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society. This costs $15. With this membership you can attend all of our monthly meetings and learn a lot from our speakers and other members of the group. There are great gardening trips that you can sign up for, and often you will receive a discount at local garden centres when you show your membership card. For information about memberships check out our website at tillsonburghorticultural.ca and look under About Us. You can contact us too at tillsonburghorticultural@live.ca.

It’s Still Just Dirt – The Tillsonburg News, September 2014
by Penny Esseltine

When Ken Brown came to talk to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society he was right in the middle of harvesting amazing vegetables grown from seed at home in his 50 foot by 50 foot Zone 6 backyard garden on the North shore of Lake Erie. Ken has taken to growing vegetables vertically so that the yield keeps increasing in his limited, mind you quite large, amount of space. That’s what he came to tell us about. Ken says that growing all kinds of vegetables from seed each year probably costs less than the last pair of shoes he bought. “Growing from seed is all about variety and choice.”

Ken says sugar snap peas are the most wonderful vegetable in the world. “You can eat the whole thing.” He plants sweet peas with sugar snaps and soaks the peas overnight before he plants them. A free standing circular wire cage gives the peas a place to climb high on.

“Put things together that you wouldn’t necessarily think go together.” Ken says. “Beans and morning glories for example.” Try sinking an eight foot tall, four by four inch post in the centre of a 12 inch square frame on the ground. Run strings from the frame on the ground up to the top of the pole and the beans and vines will grow right up the strings.

“With a little encouragement you can train cucumbers to grow up an obelisk,” Ken says. “They will climb as high as eight feet and there will be no slug holes and no yellow spots on them.”

Similarly if you have a fence along the back of your garden you can lean two by twos on the fence and let melons grow up the two by twos. They’ll take up less space and again, no yellow spots or slug holes.

Continuing with the vertical gardening theme, you can grow squash up a lilac bush and it will use the branches as a natural support.

As well, Ken suggests gardeners get as much vegetation out there as you can so that the sun can’t get to the soil and therefore weeds won’t grow. Use lettuce as a filler all over the place. Broadcast beet and carrot seeds over the soil. No weeds will grow and you can constantly thin so more vegetables will come up.

Asparagus planted in the back of a bed becomes lovely asparagus fern in the back of the bed later in the season. Ken says if you plant asparagus once it will grow for 30 years. The first stalk up each year goes straight into his mouth.

Ken says potatoes are not part of the root system. They grow on lateral branches off the potato stem and that is why it’s important to hill the dirt up around the stem as the plant grows. Potatoes flower and the colour of the flower matches the colour of the potato. A 13” X 18” pot will grow 15 pounds of potatoes. Remember to water them daily after the middle of July and fertilize every second or third time you water.

If you’re wondering about Ken’s advice on growing tomatoes I’m going to suggest you look on line. It seems pretty complex. Something about trimming the plant to a single stem and getting that stem to grow up a rope. Visit www.gardening-enjoyed.com for more details.

Here are a few simpler things to wrap up.

• Brussels sprouts that have been frosted a few times are much sweeter. This should be the last crop you pick.
• Always have rhubarb. A nice tart rhubarb pie is the world’s best breakfast.
• A garlic plant needs six to eight inches of space all to itself. Plant individual cloves in the fall and harvest them the following August.
• How about Swiss chard and parsley growing together in a public garden in a town park? “Very pretty,” Ken says. He figures people walking by are slow to recognize these as edible greens.

Ken is enjoying his harvest now and looking forward to gardening again in January (when he starts studying seed catalogues) and in February (when he orders seeds). As he gets older Ken says, “Every year is the year I’m going to cut back.” It’s a hard thing to do. Although he works two to three hours in the garden each day it’s never work. It is pure pleasure.

Check out Ken’s Dallying in the Dirt weekly e-zine on line. And for more information about the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society visit tillsonburghorticultural.ca. We’ve had a few enquiries about how old you need to be to join the Horticultural Society. Perhaps because we meet in the Senior Centre Auditorium some think members need to be older adults. Not so. Anyone 18 years and up is welcome and very much encouraged to check us out. Again, visit tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

Tillsonburg Horticultural Society takes in Buffalo Garden Festival
It’s Still Just Dirt – August 2014, The Tillsonburg News
by Penny Esseltine

At the end of July, Tillsonburg Horticultural Society members crossed the Canada/U.S. border for an international bus tour taking in the Buffalo National Garden Festival (throughout the area) and Garden Walk Buffalo (370 gardens located in clusters within a three mile radius in the city). Our guide Sally Cunningham says, “We are real proud of what’s happened in this region. Twenty years ago 16 neighbours said let’s do a garden tour and now there are 370 gardens in Buffalo that are now seen by as many as 55,000 people in just one weekend of Garden Walk Buffalo.”

Our first Festival stop is Marcia Sully’s Hidden Gardens of Eden, in Eden, New York. Sally says this is one of the most respected gardens in the region. Marcia likes to under grow plants under plants, and many, many pots. Marcia says it takes her three hours each day just to water the pots. She has hypertufa (hand-made) pots as well as old fashioned tin washtubs, filled with hosta pots, and even birdbaths pot filled with as many as 12 different kinds of succulents.

For the hardier plants Marcia pulls pots in close to the house in the fall and tips them on their side so that water won’t accumulate too much. For the more tender plants in her garden she digs them up and takes them, bare-rooted in pans, all the way to her Florida winter home where she plants them in the garden there.

Tillsonburg Horticultural Society tour organizer Christine Nagy says that in the 15 years she’s been touring gardens this is the best she has seen. “The imagination and creativity is amazing.”

Smug Creek Gardens in Hamburg, New York is next. It’s home to King of the Hosta World Mike and Day Lily Queen Kathy. Mike tells us they have four gardens, all in virgin woodland, including four terraces up the hill with plants like day lilies, hydrangea and rudbeckia, a garden of small hostas (up to 12 inches tall) in rockery in the shade, a garden in a bog with raised beds to keep the roots out of the water, and a hosta glen. The deck too is a garden with more than 100 plants in pots. Thirteen acres in total and everything is labelled.

Thursday morning starts in a modest income area of central Buffalo where Garden Walk Buffalo began. On 16th Street Joe and Scott’s amazing place has every kind of coleus known to man. One hundred and fifty pots planted with annuals each year. Joe says, “It’s always evolving, something different every year, mostly coleus. I sprinkle Miracle Grow in the hole before I plant.”

Dom and Arlan’s home on Norwood Ave was built in 1890. For 25 years now they have been focussing on the gardens, doing it themselves. Don says it’s important to remember that, “If you don’t know what you are doing at least be neat.” There are two silver maples the same age as the house, statuary, potting benches, a fountain and strawberry plants between the steps to the enclosed patio. Lastly there’s a miniature Alpine garden with moving train and a running water wheel on the way out.

On Summer Street in the cottage district (small homes built in the 1800s) we see the space between the houses and the sidewalk and the sidewalk and the street filled with 6 foot high gardens with shrubs and perennials like menarda, cone flowers, flocks, and hollyhocks. Wood houses are painted yellow, orange, blue, and shades of green with pretty fences, lane ways and walkways through to backyards. There are trumpet vines laden with orange flowers and glorious hanging baskets.

Later we move to Lancaster Avenue with its Queen Anne, Italianate, and Victorian style homes. There are large relaxing, plant-filled front verandahs everywhere.

Picture day lilies filling the space between white picket fences and the sidewalk, huge angel wing begonias beside pathways and 12 foot tall dahlias in colours ranging from magenta, to orange, to maroon with white centres, and yellow with pink centres.

There are large potted coleus on three tiers of an elegant metal shelf, passion flowers blooming on garage walls and salmon coloured canna lilies hiding a backyard porch. We wonder, are the gardens on steroids? Sally says the gardens have never looked better. “Probably due to the ample rain and coolish weather.”

Further along sunflowers fill the space between the sidewalk and curb, black wooden window boxes hang from second storey windows with lush red begonias and beautiful trailing vines. At least eight different wind chimes sway in a mature maple tree, and 36 original birdhouses hang on a neighbour’s garage wall at the back of a garden.

Finally, in the side yard of an 1897 Dutch colonial revival home there’s a Harry Potter garden with children’s climbing apparatus and gardens filled with plants called mimbulus mibletonia, flaxseed, scurvy grass, wolfsbane, dittany and gillyweed.

Andrew Sprung writing in TheAtlantic.com says, “A Buffalo-style garden will have the patina of a well-used, customized space, often with complete disregard for garden design conventions. Buffalo gardeners take advantage of the sides of houses and fences by hanging artwork, sculptures, grates, mirrors, plants and more. In Buffalo, you’ll find small urban gardens that pack a big punch including cheerfully brash juxtapositions of colourful perennials and unique annuals, minimal or no lawns, and creative uses of found objects and architectural artifacts as sculpture.”

For information about Garden Walk Buffalo visit gardenwalkbuffalo.com. National Garden Festival information is available at nationalgardenfestival.com and for information about the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society visit tillsonburghorticultural.ca.