It’s Still Just Dirt – the Tillsonburg News, March 19, 2014
by Penny Esseltine

June and Roy Stewart live about 15 minutes south of Tillsonburg and on their property they grow vegetables in a very large space as well as all kinds of flowers. June grows most of the plants from seed. She says she started this about 20 years ago because it’s cheaper to buy seeds than to buy plants.

June starts the seeds in flats on tables in her basement using Pro-Mix as the growing medium. The Stewarts buy Pro-Mix by the bale at Underhill Farm Supplies. June says she uses two to three bales of this each year to fill about 12 flats for flowers and 12 for vegetables.

Right now she has lights on all of the time, a mix of fluorescent tubes and incandescent bulbs. They warm the room until the seeds germinate. After that she will have the lights on about 12 hours and off about 12 hours each day to simulate natural light. The flats are covered with plastic domes which keep the condensation in. If the flats seem dry she mists them using a watering can. The lights are positioned 12” to 18” above the domes.

June has already planted seeds for mauve and purple petunias, trailing and upright lobelia, eggplant, burgundy beans, honey snack carrots, bolero peas, radishes, Spanish onion, Brussels sprouts, dwarf marigolds, corn, and late cabbage. Around the first of April she will move them into the greenhouse that Roy built. Seeds for tomatoes, peppers and onions will be started right in the greenhouse. Then gradually all of the plants will be moved outside into the gardens around the 24th of May.

Sometimes, June says, she has trouble with plants damping off or rotting below the ground. She went on the internet to see what is recommended to prevent this and chamomile tea was one of the suggestions. Before planting seeds this year June wet the Pro-Mix in the flats with chamomile tea.

Petunias, peas, and beans are some of the easiest seeds to grow June says. Blue poppies are very difficult. June says she has tried blue poppies four times with seeds she brought home from Kew Gardens, from Scotland, and from the Stratford Garden Festival. The last blue poppy seeds June tried came from Horticultural Society friends Marian Smith and Joan Massicotte. No matter where the seeds have come from June says she hasn’t been successful with blue poppies yet. Sometimes carrots and parsnips can be difficult. “For two years in a row”, June says, “I have planted parsnip seeds right into the ground but they never came up.”

This year June is trying eggplant. Her granddaughter is getting married and would like baskets with gourds and purple eggplants for the decor.

June says that about half of the seeds she plants she has harvested from her garden the previous year, and the other half she buys, often through seed catalogues from Stokes, Veseys, McFayden’s, or the Ontario Seed Company (OSC).

Some of the seeds that June bought this year are Crazy Daisy Chrysanthemums, heliotrope and loose-head flowering purple cabbage.

Among the seeds she has harvested are coneflower, ligularia, lavatera, lupins, datura, castor beans, ornamental beans, Korean bellflower and non-climbing clematis.

If you are harvesting seed in the fall June says to make sure that they are dry. “Seeds that are brown are ripe but if they’re white they’re not.” Put the seeds in pill bottles with a little bit of silica to keep them dry.

With everything that June grows from seed she has enough plants to fill her flower gardens as well as a vegetable garden that Roy estimates measures about 100 yards one way and 20 yards the other. June says that she plants the rows fairly far apart so that Roy can keep the weeds down between the rows with a gas-powered Rototiller. For the flower gardens Roy brings in a truckload of mulch to keep the weeds down and the water in.

For the Horticultural Society’s Annual Garden Auction on May 20 June is growing hibiscus trionum seeds called Simply Love. The flowers will be white with a chocolate purple centre.

June says what she enjoys most from planting seeds is that it’s just fun. “It’s fun to watch the plants grow and you get a whole lot of plants.” For those who are looking to venture into the world of growing plants from seed June’s advice is to “start small.” Roy on the other hand says, “don’t.” Both agree the success in growing seeds in really a matter of “by guess and by gosh” although temperature and sunshine are especially critical at the greenhouse stage.

Next Meeting
The Tillsonburg Horticultural Society will meet on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. Our guest speaker is landscape designer and horticultural consultant Denise Hodgins who will talk about “Strangers in Your Lawn and Garden”.

For more information about the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society visit our website at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

It’s Still Just Dirt, February 2014
by Penny Esseltine

“Right now lawns are sleeping under the snow waiting to come alive,” says Jim Galbraith talking to the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society earlier this month. Jim is Manager of Landscape Services, Facilities Management, at the University of Western Ontario, and we all know that they have lovely lawns there. “Lawns are an important part of our green world,” Jim says.

Here, for all of us who labour to grow grass with anything from poor to mediocre to lush lawn results, are just 10 of the tips that Jim says will help us make lawns that are “thicker, healthier, and greener than our neighbour’s.”

In the Spring

1. If you roll your lawn, roll it when the soil is dry. Rolling your lawn in the early spring when it’s wet compacts the soil and sets the stage for bad growth.

2. Aeration can improve compaction in your lawn. Aerate your grass when it is actively growing, between May and early June (or between Labour Day and mid-October). Don’t rake the plugs off the lawn. Just let them break down.

3. “Soil structure is the most important element in a healthy lawn”, Jim says. Adding a layer of soil to turf is called top dressing. Apply top dressing immediately after aeration. This can be hard work.

4. First aerate, then top dress, then overseed. Use perennial rye grass to overseed in the spring. At just $4 to $5 a pound you can fill a fertilizer spreader with it and away you go. Perennial rye grass is drought tolerant and will come up in three to five days. Generally use one half to one pound of seed per 1,000 square feet of lawn.

5. “Try not to be the first person in your neighbourhood to mow your lawn in the spring,” Jim says. “Be the last and mow at a height of two to two and a half inches.”

Throughout the Summer

6. Never cut more than a third of the height of the grass at a time. As the temperature gets hotter, raise your mowing height to three inches. Avoid cutting your lawn in the heat of the day (between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.) and be sure to keep your lawn mower blades sharp. Mow when rain is forecast.

7. Mulching is the best way to return grass clipping nutrients to the soil as fertilizer.

8. If you irrigate, water early in the morning or late at night. How much should you water? Jim says if you water to fill a tuna can every five to seven days that’s good. “A little stress will help the roots to go deeper,” he says.

In the Fall

9. The very best time to fertilize is Labour Day weekend. Use a slow release fertilizer which lasts for six to eight weeks. “It will give your grass steroids for the winter,” Jim says.

10. Overseed with Kentucky Blue Grass which Jim says is the nicest looking variety of grass. “This is the cadillac of grass seed,” he says. “It germinates in 30 to 35 days and you might think it isn’t coming up but you will see it next spring for sure.”

Jim invites us to take a walking tour of the UWO campus in the summer. Check out the grass but enjoy too the Arboretum (where most of the trees are labelled), the Beryl Ivey Garden in the centre of campus, and the Art Gallery which has a nice sitting area. There’s an excellent Walking Tour brochure available. Visit Western on the web at www.uwo.ca.

The next meeting of the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society is set for Tuesday, March 4 when Hetty Teuber from Silverthorn Landscape Supplies in St. Thomas talks about Hardscapes in the Garden. Start time is 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. Everyone welcome.

For additional information about the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society check out our website at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

It’s Still Just Dirt, January 2014
by Penny Esseltine

Nothing beats winter more than the promise of warm weather ahead and that’s just what Lynn Bisschop brought to the January Tillsonburg Horticultural Society gathering with her presentation on Hostas. Lynn owns Shades of Green Hostas, a garden centre just south of Aylmer.

Lynn tells us that there are 43 species of hostas and from these there are now more than 8,000 different varieties. Hostas are native to Japan, Korea and China. Lynn says they can survive in a variety of habitats including woodlands, marshes, grasslands and near rivers and streams. “Hostas are shade tolerant,” she says, “but that doesn’t mean deep dark back of the garden shade”. Generally full sun to part shade suits them fine.

Hostas can be propagated by division or by tissue culture in a lab. “The odds of mutations are much higher with tissue culture,” Lynn says, but tissue culture provides the means to keep up with gardeners’ increasing demands for hosta plants. Some hostas are more difficult to propagate than others and that’s when the cost goes up. Lynn says she has spent 10 years working at splitting a hosta called Gunther’s Prize. She says it’s a difficult one.

Gardeners use interesting terms to describe hostas. Leaves can be wavy or bumpled, rippled or seer-suckered. Flowers can be tubular or bell-shaped in shades of lavender and white. Stems are called legs. But it’s in naming different varieties that word play really shines.

From the species called Sagae a family has grown to include varieties like Big Hobber, Clifford’s Forest Fire, Fat Cat, Kiwi Skyscraper and Liberty. From Blue Mouse comes Mouse Ears, Itty Bitty, Church Mouse, Mouse Trap, Mighty Mouse, and many, many more.

Blue Angel is a great big blue hosta that can measure seven feet across. Beckoning is like Blue Angel but the centre goes yellow. Earth Angel’s margins are yellow. With Guardian Angel the centre is misted.

The names of hostas that have been derived from Striptease are especially fun. There’s Lady Godiva, Full Monty, Gypsy Rose, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, Risky Business and again, a whole lot more.

A hosta called June is one of the most popular hostas year after year, and Empress Wu is touted to be the biggest in size. Both Elvis and Stephen King have hostas named for them. Lynn says one of her favourites is Heavenly Tiara which is green with a wide white margin and it comes from a line that includes Golden Tiara, Diamond Tiara and Diamonds are Forever.

If you would like to see for yourself what any of these hosta look like visit Lynn’s website at www.shadesofgreenhostas.ca. Photos are displayed alphabetically and the chance of you finding the hosta you are looking for is extremely good.

The Hosta of the Year for 2014 is called Abiqua Drinking Gourd. It’s a dark blue-green hosta with seer-suckered leaves that form deeply cupped foliage. It’s medium sized, about 22” high and 46” across. Near white flowers bloom in mid summer.

In other hosta news, the Ontario Hosta Society will be holding its annual one-day Hosta Forum on Sunday, April 6 at the Glencairn Golf Club in Halton Hills. For info about this visit their website at www.ontariohostasociety.com.

And speaking of websites, be sure to check out the totally revamped Tillsonburg Horticultural Society website at tillsonburghorticultural.ca.

Take the Yawn Out of Your Lawn is up next when the Tillsonburg Horticultural Society meets on Tuesday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Senior Centre Auditorium at the Tillsonburg Community Centre. Our guest speaker is Jim Galbraith from the University of Western Ontario. An annual society membership costs $15 and it’s just $2 for non-members to attend each meeting. Everyone is welcome.