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.

It’s Still Just Dirt – The Tillsonburg News,  July 23, 2014
by Penny Esseltine

Last month we talked about Refreshing the Tired Garden with information from Carlo Balistrieri, Head of Horticulture at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. For July we’re continuing with this theme by talking to Tillsonburg Horticultural Society members about changes they’ve made in an effort to refresh their own tired garden spaces.

If you remember Carlo said gardens can tire in three ways – through the natural process of aging, from weather or cataclysmic events, and through neglect.

Natural Aging Process
I’ll start with the story of a 24 foot angel stone planter garden at the front of my porch. For almost 20 years 12 glossy green boxwood shrubs filled it up. Starting out at less than a foot tall, they grew to about four feet and were trimmed annually to maintain that height. Being glossy and green all year long is an especially nice characteristic of boxwood. This past winter claimed several. Glossy green changed to dry yellow. Seven small mugo pines now take their place. Fingers crossed that they will be slow growing and provide a lush front look for years.

Weather/Cataclysmic Event
Christine Nagy says weather had a part to play in changes in her garden this year. Due to the especially harsh winter she lost a number of plants including two butterfly bushes which she chose to replace with hydrangeas. Christine expects the hydrangea to be hardier than the butterfly bushes. As well she lost three roses and about half of a beautiful rose vine growing over an arbour that has always been a prolific bloomer (the rose vine, not the arbour). “I had to take the hedge clippers to the rose vine to clear the damaged parts. Amazingly it has come back better than ever after this especially hard pruning.”

Jan Torrell also lost butterfly bushes this past winter. “The extreme cold killed them for lots of people,” she says. “Plants that were exposed above the snow had trouble, whereas those that were covered with snow were okay.” Jan replaced her butterfly bushes with newer, hardier varieties.

This summer too Jan has replaced some of her oriental lilies with day lilies because of red lily beetles. “The beetles don’t eat day lilies,” she says.

Neglect
Judi Misener and her husband Bill moved to a new home in Courtland late in 2013. 2014 is the first growing season for them there. Judi says they took down 22 spruce trees on the one-and-a-half acre property that were substantially past their prime. In their stead they have planted blue spruce, a red oak, a willow, and two pawpaw trees. Pawpaw is a rare and endangered species native to the Carolinian Region. Judi says the once gorgeous property is largely just plain overgrown. She and Bill have thinned out plants and are now waiting to see what spaces remain to be filled. “We have a four-year plan,” Judi says. “In the first year we’re figuring out what is there and what we want to keep. In Year two we’ll be planting. Year three will be for seeing what takes hold and looks especially good, and when we get to year four it will quite likely be a time to reorganize again.” No tired garden on the horizon here.

Coming Up
In August we plan to continue with the refreshing the tired garden theme. Here’s an invitation to gardeners (horticultural members or not) to share your personal refreshing the tired garden stories through the column. If you prefer to ask for advice about how to solve a particular tired garden problem at your home we can answer questions too. Send your story or query to tillsonburghorticultural@live.ca.

The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society will launch its fall season of meetings on Tuesday, September 2 with guest speaker and gardening guru Ken Brown. If you’re looking to try something new this fall be assured that annual memberships at $15 are still available and membership benefits are outstanding. For information visit tillsonburghorticultural.ca.