January News letter

A new year and with a new year comes new goals; let’s continue to promote beautification through the main

streets of this town of Essex; let’s continue to plan and plant the flower beds of Essex and help with some of

that maintenance. Let’s grow and learn more of the theory and practice of gardening. Let’s promote

gardening whatever way we can by participating in trips, friendly competitions, and distributing plant

material through plant and seed exchanges. And above all, let’s concentrate on our ENVIRONMENT; how

are we are going to protect it and encourage others to do the same? Our county, that’s right, Essex County

One of our speakers back in 2004, Henry Kock, died on December 25^th. He had been at Guelph for almost

25 years and was dubbed, "Mr. Arboretum". Henry had received the Governor General's Award for Forest

Stewardship in 1998. His greatest legacy is the Elm Tree Recovery project, which Henry initiated when we

lost so many elm trees to the Dutch Elm disease several years ago. With the death of our Ash trees, now we

are confronted with the ash tree borer infestation in our local ash trees and it is travelling steadily eastward.

We need to act now for our future. With these being our main objectives we plan for our year ahead.

SCHOOLS IN BLOOM is a competition that promotes pride and beautification. Our objective is to make the

schools aware that this project exists and to emphasize the importance of growing trees for future

generations, hopefully connecting with ERCA. This project is still in the works; if you can help with this

please talk to Carol Ann, or me. COMMUNITIES IN BLOOM, along with SCHOOLS IN BLOOM is being

introduced to 4 schools in the ward 1 area. I'm hoping that parents become more aware of their community

and hopefully it will filter into the COMMUNITIES IN BLOOM project. We have been working on a list of

programs and hope to have our flyer available for you for this meeting. Thanks ever so much to Lynn for

The Ontario Horticultural Association is celebrating it's 100 th Birthday this year, so let's celebrate with them.

Let's plant a tree for them also. Have fun this year. Enjoy life both in and out of your garden.

FROM YOUR SECRETARY…… ^Top ^

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and I wish you all the Best of Health and Happiness in 2006!

As I am writing, it is 10 degrees outside and certainly doesn’t seem like January!

I have just informed Heritage Essex that we are not going to assume full responsibility for the upkeep of the

Heritage Gardens. However, I did let them know that as a Horticultural Society we are still very interested in

helping whenever we can. Please, if you are near the Gardens, take a walk through and pick up a few pieces

of garbage or pull a few weeds. This Millennium Project has been a wonderful success for the Community as

You will be hearing more about Communities In Bloom this year and we are going to contact the Elementary

Schools of Essex Ward 1, to see if they would be interested in applying to Schools In Bloom.

"One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of garden seeds."

For years we have had bird feeders in our yard but had never seen a Chickadee in the yard or at the feeders. It was

disheartening to hear our friends constantly mentioning the sightings of Chickadees at their feeders. Since most of

these friends live in towns I had thought that the Chickadees preferred the much calmer winds of villages and

towns compared with the gales we have out here. When the snows started in December, 2005 we were absolutely

delighted with the arrival of what we thought was a grouping of 4 Black Capped Chickadees. It has been so

wonderful to hear them singing "chickadee-dee-dee" as we unpack our purchases from the car. We marvel at their

comings and goings at the feeders. It is so hard to count them as they happily flit from branch to branch and tree

to tree, never seeming to stay still more than 3 seconds. In the bird books they are described as being "tame". We

certainly find this to be true. They do not seem to mind our presence at all while we replenish the feeders or hang

suet packs on the arbour and in a hanging, swaying net on a red maple. In fact they seem to watch for us and are

immediately quite close, sometimes within 4 feet, twittering away. What a friendly little sound that is. The suet

packs we use are made from the recipe Evelyn Kogel has provided us with several times in the newsletters over

Between Christmas and the New Year celebrations, when all our family had gone back to their homes and the

house was again quite, we resumed our habit of sitting at the large front window to watch the birds at a few

feeders. While I was reading, Neal was being ever watchful out the window. "What’s that bird" he asked. I looked

up to see a pale gray bird about the size of a blue jay busy on the ground with his back to us. At first I could not

identify him. Then he turned around with a poor dead little Chickadee in his beak!!! I was sure he was a Shrike

and checked the bird book. Sure enough he was a Northern Shrike. Shrike are "hawk like in behavior" and do

normally prey on small birds. Once again we are providing predators with a killing field!!! While I was happy to

see yet another new bird to the yard, I certainly did not want to see him again at the expense of our new found

friends, the Chickadees. He may have been back but we have not seen him. Meanwhile, we still have at least 4

Chickadees, so there must be more than we originally thought. When we had the January thaw we thought we

We were quite surprised to see buds on the centres of each branch of our pussywillow opening up around January

4th. Considering the weather, I guess we were not that surprised; dismayed would be a better choice of words. I

have not been out to that section of the yard to check again, but will be sure to do so soon.

A tree will be planted in memory of Henry Kock in the Wall-Custance Memorial Forest, University of Guelph, and Arboretum. Dedication service Sunday, September 24, 2006, at 2:30 p.m.. (www.wallcustance.com)

Beautiful nature all around was created with nature frames. We glued mini pine cones, Spanish moss, berries, and

imitation snow to our frames. After everything was dry our best winter picture was glued in. What a great desk

top decoration and keep sake for the winter of 2005. Than we talked about winter’s cold and how the winter birds

stay warm. The science experiment was with oil and water. The group saw how that the oil and water did not mix as

well as the effects on a feather. This lead into our next activity making suet for the winter birds with bacon

grease, bird seed and large pine cones. I think the group had just as much fun wearing the gloves. Our last

activity was making a pinecone head. We first wet the dirt. It was like making mud pies. Than the pine cone was

patted down with the wet dirt and rolled in grass seed. It was than put in a clear plastic cup. Everyone had the

instructions to put a little bit of water on the bottom of the cup and placed it on a sunny windowsill. Once, it has

grown there was the option of gluing eyes on it to finish the look of the head. Snack and water provided at the

Remember a few years ago we printed info on a seed starting procedure using the cold outdoors instead of the

warm house. If you haven’t used this method, try it this year ; at least on some of the seeds you are starting.

Potting soil (equal parts of perlite, vermiculite, peat moss soaked in boiling water)

Fill the pots with soil; scatter the seeds over the soil and press them in. Seeds are not covered with soil,

Even the larger ones are just pressed in. Then top with a layer of chicken grit. Label with the date

including the year. Water by placing pot in a dish of water. Put outside under a roof overhang, if possible so they

won’t get too much rain. Some seeds may not germinate for one or two years. Seeds germinate outside are not

Most instructions for transplanting seedlings state that you can transplant the seedlings as soon as the true leaves

appear. You can do that but don’t be in a hurry. Allow your seedling to grow a bit before transplanting. When

you are ready to transplant, empty the pot onto a plate or tray The soil less mix will fall apart; then it is easy to

pick up each seedling and you will not have broken roots. Never do this in full sun and remember to hold the

FROM OUR PRESIDENT

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