|
ESSEX & DISTRICT HORTICULTURAL
NEWSLETTER
May 23, 2007
A Message from
our President
Hello Everyone,
Today is my day off
from work and I am looking out the window at the rain gently coming down,
thinking of all the things that I need to be getting done outside.
Frustrating! However, it won‘t be long till I know I will be wishing for
nice gentle rainfalls to help our gardens grow. That’s just the way it is.
It’s amazing how well our May flowers have flourished, keeping in mind the
crazy April weather we had this year. Most Spring gardens have just been
beautiful. I know that all of us find the month of May one of the busiest
months of the year. There is just so much going on - in our gardens and
elsewhere. I hope you are getting the chance to enjoy your own gardens AND
to smell those roses as they say.
A few of your executive members attended
the District 11 meeting in Leamington early in the month and it was great to
connect with our other Hort groups in our district. All groups are very
busy, just like us. ...will give you an update later.
A reminder that our
June 27th meeting will not be held here in this hall. We are
going to meet at St Clair Gardens,
2736 County Rd 46, Ruscom,
1/10 kilometer east of County Road 31.
St Clair Gardens is owned by Dennis and Mary Hirt. It is not far from here
and they have some fabulous gardens to tour. Use the driveway beside the
pond; there is a parking lot at the back near the Garden Centre. When the
parking lot is full, the remaining guests are welcome to park across the
road from the Hirt’s property as there is a very wide shoulder. They have
over 400 varieties of HOSTAS alone! Be there perhaps an hour early and you
can do some shopping. Their regular closing hour is 5:30 p.m. However,
that evening they will have someone manning the garden centre the entire
time we are there.
ONE IMPORTANT
THING TO NOTE ! Please
respect the Hirt’s wishes for privacy while they and our guest speaker,
Shauna Dobbie, Editor of Ontario Gardener Magazine, have dinner on the
terrace. This means that while we are welcome to come early and shop in
the garden centre, they respectfully ask that we not tour the gardens on
their property until after
6:15 p.m.
As Mary reminded us, we can also do the tour after the meeting and our guest
speaker are finished, as it will be light until quite late.
We will try to start
the meeting at 6:30. You MUST bring a lawn
chair, or, if you prefer, a blanket for the ground. We are going to ask
other Hort clubs in the area to join us so if you have an extra plate of
cookies or other goodies to bring, even if you are not on the lunch
committee, it would be greatly appreciated,. We need a little extra help
this time. If anyone has a folding table please bring it along in case we
need it to use for the refreshments etc. We are quite excited that we are
having Shauna Dobbie as our speaker. The Ontario Gardener Magazine is a
terrific magazine as it deals with Ontario gardens and businesses. I hope
you all can come; it will be our last meeting before our break for the
summer.
Thanks to all of you who volunteered, baked
and provided the plants for our plant sale at the Train station this month.
It was a great day. As usual all the flurry was at opening, 8:30 to 10:30;
gardeners are truly early birds and as usual the early birds got the worms.
We made a nice bit of extra money for the club and I think one of the nicest
perks is we get to see and visit with a lot of people who come out to see
what we have to offer. We have some of the best bakers in the County, and
we have a following just for that. Thanks again.
Sandy
HERB
KNOW-HOW - ALL ABOUT HERBS
^ TOP ^
Pick herbs in the morning when they are
fresh and just after the dew has dried. During the day there is a lot of
opportunity for evaporation of the oils and stress from the sun, but that
same sunlight trapped in the plants during the day is turned into sugar and
vitamins during the night. Brushed with a little dew the herb is
replenished. By 6 a.m. the herbs are aromatic and juicy and it’s THE PERFECT
TIME TO PICK.
When you’re harvesting it’s also time to be
making herb oil and vinegar. In the fall and winter you’ll be craving them.
HERB OIL: So that the
taste of the oil does not compete with the
flavour
of the herbs, use a mild
flavour
oil such as sunflower or safflower. In a glass jar put in a good handful of
herbs and crush them lightly to release the essential oil. Pour in the mild
vegetable oil until the herb is completely covered. Put the lid on the jar
and stand in a warm place for about a week. A sunny window sill would be
fine. Leave for a week and then strain off the oil. Replace the herbs with
fresh ones and replace the oil. Repeat this process until you get a strong
flavour.
HERB VINEGAR: Fill 1/3 of a clean jar with
herbs. Top it up with cider vinegar and leave to infuse for three weeks.
Since vinegar is a better preservative than oil, fresh leaves or flowers can
be left in the oil. When you buy herbs, buy only in small quantities;
freshness is critical. Always snip your herbs with scissors. Gently wash
herbs; then let them drip or pat dry. Strip leaves from the stems. Treat
them delicately. Mince, snip, chop, tear or add them whole. Try to release
their flavour.
Use fresh herbs as a garnish atop and beside the dish to which you’ve added
them. Avoid using too many different herbs and spices in one recipe. This
will confuse the palate If you’re the least bit uncertain about how a herb
will blend in a dish, add a bit of the herb at a time and taste test. Blend
herbs into the recipe as you cook or marinade to deepen
flavours;
then add fresh herbs again at the last minute for another dimension of
taste.
Make HERB BUTTER or
HERB MAYONNAISE with lots of finely minced herbs and very little butter,
mayonnaise or yogurt. Keep in the freezer to top eggs, fish, meat or
vegetables or use as dips.. Remember to add fresh herbs to sandwiches; try
basil, parsley, tarragon, chervil or mint. Now and through the summer we
will enjoy fresh green salads; enhance them with fresh herbs. Dill and fresh
mint go well with cabbage dishes. Add handfuls of single herb at the end of
a soup or stew. Try fresh caraway and mint with new potatoes or buttered
noodles. Baskets of fresh herbs are great as centre pieces and they’re
sometimes munched on.
BOUQUET GARNI: a small bundle of herbs,
often tied with a long string and put in a cheesecloth bag and used for
flavouring
soups, stews etc. When the cooking is completed, it is easily pulled out.
Parsley, bay leaf, thyme, basil, chervil, tarragon and rosemary are often
the herbs used.
DRIED HERBS To dry fresh herbs in the
microwave first clean the herbs and air dry. Set the microwave on full heat
for 4 minutes. If they’re still moist, turn the herbs and dry for a few more
minutes. They should be bright green and full of their essence.
FREEZING HERBS Freezing is a very easy way
to preserve herbs. Basil, fennel, dill, parsley, chives and tarragon do not
dry well but freeze well. They do tend to turn dark but they do retain their
good flavour.
Thoroughly dry herbs before freezing. Place leaves in freezer bags, expel
air, close bags and label. You can also freeze the cleaned leaves in ice
cube trays. Keep the frozen cubes in plastic bags and use as needed
—Evelyn Kogel
^ TOP ^
David Suzuki
Presentation - Lynn Imeson
I
had the pleasure of listening to a presentation by David Suzuki at the
Spring Song Bird Migration Festival Banquet at the Pelee Island Winery on
Pelee Island, Saturday evening,
May 12th, 2007. Also in attendance as MC was Canadian author and
CBC radio host, Paul Vasey; famed Canadian author and environmental activist
Margaret Atwood, along with her husband, Graeme Gibson, also an author and
environmental activist; and another Canadian author, Fred Bodsworth,
(turning 89 years young this fall), newspaper reporter and naturalist, who
wrote the novel The Last of The Curlews in 1954. It is a
fictionalized account of the life of the last pair of Eskimo Curlews
(birds).
It was a fun evening with
lots of laughs. The Pelee Wine Pavilion looked quite festive as there were
displays of kites on all the walls and some of the high beams. There was to
be an official kite display there the next day, using these mammoth
colourful
butterflies,
dragonflies and even birds of prey. Eventually there will
be a kite museum upstairs at the
Heritage
Museum
featuring these very kites.First the winning team of the birding competition
received the Botham Cup - they can touch it but not take it home, as these
people are generally from all over North America and sometimes beyond and it
would be inconvenient for them to have to return it to the Island for the
next years’ winners. Then after a wonderful meal catered by the chef from
Anchor Inn, Margaret Atwood and Paul Vasey led a rousing singsong; every
song had something to do with birds. Ron Thiessen, curator of the Pelee
Island
Heritage Museum gave a hilarious introduction to Margaret Atwood who in turn
gave an equally imaginative introduction to David Suzuki. From there the
evening turned more sobre as Dr. Suzuki described the state of our planet. Dr. Suzuki has recently been voted onto the top 10 most important
Canadians list; has 19 Honourary Doctorates; has received an
Environmentalist Medal from the United Nations; and founded the David Suzuki
Foundation.
Although he attended grade 9 at
Leamington
Secondary School he never had made it to
Pelee
Island before
this evening. After graduating from the University of Alberta in 1962 as
a geneticist he was hit hard (his words) by reading “Silent Spring” by
Rachel Carson. He started thinking very hard about where his career was
leading him and made a swing towards saving the environment. Carson, a
nature writer and former marine biologist, documented how the insecticide
DDT accumulates in the environment and harms mammals and birds.
Dr. Suzuki stated there are 6.5 billion people in the world and
he believes that the world is dying of human consumption because we all
think we need so much “stuff”. In the last several years the size of a
human family has decreased by 50%, our living spaces have increased in size
by 200 %, but, he asks, are we 4 times happier?
Regarding the Kyoto Protocol, Dr. Suzuki agrees that it is flawed
but worth pursuing and improving...he believes we have not reached the
target because the Canadian government has not tried hard enough - by
hearing from thousands of Canadians he knows that they want
Canada to try
to make the target. Canada is way over omissions per capita compared with
the rest of the world .Dr. Suzuki had a pamphlet in his hand; “World
Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” published November, 1992,
which was virtually ignored by major news outlets as not newsworthy.
Instead they chose, and continue to choose, to cover, over and over again,
lives of people in West Hollywood etc. ad nauseum.
Concerning that Warning to Humanity, the following is taken, word
for word, from the website Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/1992‑world‑scientists‑warning‑to‑humanity.html
“Some 1,700 of the world's leading scientists, including the majority of
Nobel laureates in the sciences, issued this appeal in November 1992. The
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity was written and spearheaded by the
late Henry Kendall, former chair of UCS's board of directors.”
“Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course.
Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the
environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current
practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and
the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it
will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental
changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will
bring about. ”Dr. Suzuki’s main message was “We have 60 minutes to save
the environment and we have passed 59 minutes”
Please
take a few minutes to visit his website
www.davidsuzuki.org , click on Solve Global Warning, then
“what you can do”, and also click on Building a Sustainable Economy (within
a generation).
LAVENDER
- Had you ever imagined that we might have lavender fields in Ontario? Did
you know that there
are around 70 varieties of lavender and each has a unique fragrance?
Recently - I saw an article - February/March 2007- regarding this in
a publication called OUT Here - - which is mailed to those of us in the
farming community and put out by Ontario Farmer Publications, London.
Actually I also found it online ...
www.outhere.ca The article describes the efforts of John and Toni
Murrell, originally from England, and later living in the middle of lavender
country in France,
deciding to move to Stirling, Ontario. In the 4 years that they were in the
Stirling area they developed many high quality skin care products using
lavender oils. The weather has proved too harsh for their 10,000 plants in
that area so this Spring they were planning on transplanting them to their
new location near Brighton, a mile from Lake Ontario. Lavender farming is
labour intensive, particularly since they have to hand removed
every weed. Just like good grape vineyards, it takes 4 to 7 years to
establish good lavender stock. The Murrells grow 8 varieties. They feel
that English lavenders produce the best grade of oil so are working mostly
with them. Once the Murrells are established they will be setting up a
store and will welcome bus tours - TOO FAR AWAY FOR A DAY TRIP,
SANDY????
If you
wish to order any of their products, please go to
www.lavenderhills.biz
-Lynn
Imeson
^ TOP ^
Plastic Water Bottles
Not only
do plastic water bottles fill our landfills, if one tries to be prudent and
use a bottle over and over again, using their own tap water, we have learned
that the chemicals in the plastic break down over time and enter our
bodies. The other danger is our encountering bacteria left in the bottles
if we choose to re-fill the bottles from our own water source. The safer
alternative is to buy a reuse-able water bottle which is easier to sanitize,
and carry it with you, filled with clean filtered water.
Chris, a
Master Gardener from Temiskaming, reports this spring, 2007, that “Bottled
water is a sensitive issue for me. My husband had an e-coli infection and
the hospital in Milton blamed it on water we were drinking from re-using water
bottles. Several months later, I read in the Toronto Star that there were a
dozen or more cases in that area. That was 4 years ago.”..... No one....
“Should drink water from refilled bottles. There is no way to properly
sterilize plastic water bottles.”
On
buying water from our streams.....
From
Rebecca Last, another Ontario Master Gardener;
“The
issue of commercial water usage is a thorny one and will only become more
controversial as climate change and over-use continue to deplete water
tables. Maude Barlow and the Council of Canadians have been sounding the
alarm on this topic for years and were successful in ensuring that Canada
will not allow bulk water exports, although the Harper government seems to
be trying to get around that prohibition. “Sent your concerns to David
Ramsay, The Minister of Natural Resources.
david.ramsay@mnr.gov.on.ca
Although
he did not mention this on Saturday May 12th in his presentation
on Pelee Island,
David Suzuki has suggested on his website that everyone can do ONE THING for
the environment - DO NOT BUY BOTTLED WATER
^ TOP ^
Helpful hint from Claire Renaud
- to get rid of ants in your house organically, set out small containers of
a mixture of baking soda and icing sugar. Although they may not carry this
to the queen, this mixture will cause any ant who has ingested it to
virtually explode.
Where should I plant my new Hostas? Yellow leaved Hostas tolerate morning sun and afternoon
shade, green best tolerate dappled shade, and blue hosta best tolerate all
shade.
IRIS
- Did you know that iris borers are not a problem west of the
Rocky Mountains?
However,
in the summer and fall east of the
Rockies borer moths lay eggs on the foliage. In the spring borers
hatch, chew into the new leaves, and bore down through a leaf. Have you
ever seen long wet streaks on your iris leaves? That is the trail the borer
leaves. If you can see them in the leaf, just kill them by squeezing them
before they get to the rhizomes. When they get to the rhizomes they eat and
eat. The rest of the rhizome rots.
To those
of us living east of the
Rockies, Schreiner’s
Iris Gardens in Salem Oregon, (www.schreinersgardens.com)
recommends using Murphy Oil soap to battle the borer if we do not want to
use harsh chemicals. Mix 9 parts water with one part Murphy Oil Soap.
Sprinkle over entire iris plant, starting early in mid April and continuing
once a week, and also after a rain, until late July. This method may not
eliminate all of them, but it apparently gets rid of the majority of
them. I have started this treatment this year and will
give you a report on the results later this year or next Spring. Of course,
one way to keep a lot of them from over wintering is to maintain clean beds,
picking up and destroying all the dead debris from among the rhizomes before
winter sets in. - Lynn Imeson
More Organic remedies, this time from the
June 2006 Chatelaine
Garlic spray Soak
two garlic cloves, mashed, in 4 cups of water for 12 hours at room temp.
Filter. Mix 2 tbsp garlic water, 3/4 tsp rubbing alcohol, 1 tsp vegetable
oil and 16 cups(4L) water, Keep refrigerated. Spray directly onto insects.
Insecticidal soap Dissolve 2 tbsp liquid biodegradable dishwashing soap
in 16 C or 4 L water, add a few drops of vegetable oil. Use as a spray
against aphids, caterpillars and thrips. Tomato Leaf spray Boil 15 tomato
leaves per liter of water and steep for 24 hours. Remove leaves and use the
solution as an insecticide wearing gloves when spraying. CAUTION: The
leaves and stems of tomatoes are toxic if ingested in large doses.
^ TOP ^
NAME
OUR NEWSLETTER and
win a prize CONTEST - We have noticed that most horticultural newsletters in our
area have a catchy name. Ours does not and we would like to have one. You
can help! Please submit your ideas by
September 10th, 2007, to any board member and/or to Lynn Imeson, 839-4751,
lynneal@gosfieldtel.com
. The board members will decide on a winner on September 11th at
the Director’s meeting and announce it at our September 26th
general meeting. Don’t forget - there is a prize going to the winner !
-Prize undetermined at print time - details later
Please
continue to LUG A MUG to our meetings to save on supplies and also to
keep that much more junk from ending up in our garbage and therefore in our
landfills.
You
may wish to take in meetings of other local
societies
Belle
River meets the 3rd
Wednesday of the month at the K of C in Emeryville except July and August;
their bbq and flower show is in June.
Fort
Malden meets the 4th
Tuesday of the month at the Community building next to the arena in
Amherstburg, except for June, July, August and December.
Kingsville
meets the 3rd Monday of the month, at
7:30 p.m. at the Lions Club Hall,
21 Mill Street South, except
July, August and December.
Tilbury meets the 2nd
Wednesday of each month at the Tilbury Area Public School Library on Mabel
St. In Tilbury, except for January, July, August & December, . Their annual
dinner meeting is in November. This year it is being held at the Car Barn
in Wheatley on November 21.
Leamington meets the 3rd Wed. of each month at the
Leamington United Church, 9
John Street except for July and August. Their December meeting is their
annual Christmas dinner And remember that our own
Essex
Hort. meetings are the 4th Wednesday of the month, not
necessarily the last Wednesday of the month. We do not meet in July, August
or December.All above Horticultural Society meetings start at
7:30 p.m.
unless otherwise announced.
^ TOP ^
COMING EVENTS
May 23
General meeting - speaker Arlene Welsh on Sunny Perennials
May
26-27
Fort
Malden Garden Tour and Garden Fair Weekend PLEASE NOTE;
Although the GARDEN TOUR IS STILL ON, THE GARDEN FAIR IN THE ARENA WILL
NOT BE HELD, due to a possible contract dispute involving the arena
employees. If you do not already have tickets, tickets can be purchased in
front of the Navy Yard on Dalhousie Street as in other years.
Fort
Malden
Rhodo Sale
June 2
Bus Trip to London
Leaves at 7 am SHARP from the Bargain Shop Parking Lot on
Wilson
PLEASE REMEMBER: Anyone over 65 and expecting a discount on their
lunch at the Mandarin in London must bring ID. This is the
Mandarin’s strict policy and they, not E&DHS, will be asking for the ID.
June 12
Board Meeting
June 20
Youth Gardeners Club local artist(s) painting nature scenes
June
27
A
reminder that our June 27th meeting will not be held here in this
hall. We are going to meet at St Clair
Gardens, 2736 County Rd 46, Ruscom, 1/10 kilometer east of County Road 31.
Our meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. You MUST bring a lawn chair, or,
if you prefer, a blanket for the ground. We are going to ask other Hort
clubs in the area to join us so if you have an extra plate of cookies or
other goodies to bring, even if you are not on the lunch committee, it would
be greatly appreciated,. We also are looking for folding tables for the
goodies, etc.
St Clair
Gardens is owned by Dennis and Mary Hirt. Use the driveway beside the pond;
there is a parking lot at the back near the Garden Centre. When the parking
lot is full, the remaining guests are welcome to park across the road from
the Hirt’s property as there is a very wide shoulder. St. Clair Gardens
features 2 acres including a huge pond; over 400 varieties of hosta;
butterfly gardens, grasses, lilies, alpines, flowering shrubs and hyper tufa
troughs
Be there
early and you can do some shopping. Their regular closing hour is 5:30
p.m. However, that evening they will have someone manning the garden centre
the entire time we are there.
ONE
IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE ! Please respect the Hirt’s wishes for privacy while they and our
guest speaker, Shauna Dobbie, Editor of Ontario Gardener Magazine,
have dinner on the terrace. This means that while we are welcome to come
early and shop in the garden centre, they respectfully ask that we not tour
the gardens on their property until after
6:15 p.m.
As Mary reminded us, we can also do the tour after both the meeting and our
guest speaker are finished, as it will be light until quite late.
July 8
Kingsville Hort Society Garden Tour - tickets available from the Kingsville
Tourist Information Booth.
July 14
Essex Hort. Flower show during Fun Fest at the air conditioned United Church
Auditorium
August
10th - August 12th
- Annual OHA Convention in District 8 - Owen Sound –For details - see
Sandy
Ellenor or log on to
www.gardenontario.org
Sept 11
Board meeting
Sept 15
THE STRATFORD GARLIC FESTIVAL, Stratford Fair Grounds, 10 am –– 5 pm sample great garlic
dishes, cooking demos from celebrated chefs, learn the how-to’s of growing
great garlic, health benefits, and meet local producers, see gardening
clinics, craft making, gourmet cooking demonstrations and information on
garlic’s health benefits. The Growers Market features some of
Ontario’s most innovative producers. Distinct local varieties of
garlic will be available to sample or purchase for the table or garden,
unique crafts and specialty foods, storytelling for children, music from
local musicians and magicians.
All
Stratford Garlic Festival proceeds go to Kiwanis programs for children. For
information on tickets, the sites, and the growing program of activities,
presentations and vendors, please check the website at
www.stratfordgarlicfestival.com.
Sept 19
Youth Gardeners Club
Sept 26
General Meeting - speakers Marjan and Craig Willett from Wheatley Woods
Nursery Plants On Native Plants - We will also have our fall Plant and
Seed Exchange
Oct 9
Board meeting
Oct 17
Youth Gardener Club
October 18
Watford Horticultural Society is hosting Paul Zammit. He is a dynamic
speaker with a degree in agriculture from the University of Guelph, and is
perennial department manager at Plant World in Toronto. He spoke at our
District 11 Convention in Windsor and 2003 and also at the London Convention
in 2004. Their meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. and they will probably take a
donation at the door. Some of us plan on attending. If this sounds
interesting to you, look for further details in upcoming
newsletters.
Oct 24
General meeting - Speaker - Jay Terryberry from St. Clair College - also our
Silent Auction
Oct 28
District 11 Annual Meeting hosted by Belle River - Emeryville K of C - 9 am
Speakers TBA
Nov 13
Board meeting
Nov 28
Annual Dinner with Elections of Officers 6pm - Pot Luck - bring your own
(Christmas) place setting
Christine Martin - Cindy’’s Gardens speaking and demonstrating Green
Christmas Arrangements - also demonstrating making a bird seed wreath
^ TOP ^ |
