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Kanata-March Horticultural Society |
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Sept 2009 |
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A hearty welcome back to all KMHS
members as we get ready to continue a fantastic year of excellent
speakers. We start with Peter Knippel who is always very informative
and entertaining. I'm not exactly sure how to summarize our summer
so far, other than it appears to be great weather for growing grass,
but not so good for any heat-loving crops like those Heritage &
Heirloom tomatoes from our plant sale this year. My Marisol Magic
plant has produced some lovely orange sweet cherry tomatoes but only
in the volume of a tease. My Trophy plant is not getting enough heat
to produce any red tomatoes, well two, which I wouldn't even call a
tease. Let's discuss some business at
hand; we broke for the summer with a very simple message…WE NEED
YOUR HELP. All of the executive positions (President, Treasurer and
Secretary) will complete their normal term at the end of October and
our club would only be enhanced if new blood steps in at our AGM in
November to lead us for the next term. Please consider nominating
yourself or someone else whom you think would be interested to these
positions. Please approach us (the executive) at the monthly meeting
in September and October or email/phone (contact info is in your
calendar on page 5). Additionally we are in desperate need of more
volunteers to help out on small projects—much work is always made a
lot easier with many hands. Disappointedly, when I look at the
volunteer hours that KMHS reports to both the City of Many of you who have gotten to
know me know that
Throughout our travels I could
not help but notice Orchids everywhere. There seem to be endless
varieties in this warm and humid climate and they grow naturally
throughout the country. Every meal or drink we had came with an
orchid flower on top—what a shame, as I would have preferred the
plant!!! Needless to say, I did find a place which packaged baby
orchids for export and managed successfully to bring them back home
through customs. Yippee, when's my next trip? Robert Barta. KMHS President |
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Next Meeting:
Sept 1st
Winterizing your Garden with Peter Knippel Peter Knippel will be giving us a
series of very practical tips about how we can get the garden ready
for the inevitable approach of winter. Those of you who have heard
him speak before will know that he is a very entertaining, amusing
and down-to-earth presenter. His extensive gardening experience,
both here and in Elizabeth Stokely, KMHS Program Director
Editor’s note: don’t forget to bring along
your mug for coffee |
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Molly Wilson Garden
The new embankment garden at the It appears that the poor top soil
was badly lacking in nutrients and, with the addition of the mulch,
any nitrogen that was there has been absorbed by the wood mulch.
Some weeds do seem to thrive even in these conditions. We have invested in a number of
bags of cow manure compost being sold off at the end of season at
less than half price. We need some willing hands to get this into
the garden before the fall. Make a date in your diaries for a
work session on Wednesday
Sept 16th with a rain day of Thursday Sept 17th.
Both from 6.00 until dusk. Norma Davidson, Parks Maintenance 2009 Photography Competition
It’s time once again to remind
all members of the annual KMHS photo contest. There are 12 classes
of pictures that you can enter and they are listed in the Society’s
web site. The description of the contest also gives the rules and
some guidelines regarding what kind of picture fits into each class. Get ready to submit photos,
slides, or digital files by
November 3rd so they can be judged in time for the
Christmas pot luck supper, where winning entries will be displayed. The rule that really helps the
judge the most is the one that says print entries MUST be marked on
the back with the name of the entrant and class number that you
think most appropriate on each slide or print. Digital entries are
preferred – last year was the first year that ALL entries were
digital. Please use file names for digital entries that include
entry class and your name. A short description of the entry would
also be appreciated, particularly if the flower or scene is from one
of your travels. This information can be embedded in the file name
for digital entries. Submissions should be made by
November 3, 2009 to Karl Siemens at a monthly meeting, at
Karl Siemens,
Photography Committee 2010 Yearbook
In order to have the 2010
Yearbook/calendar ready for you at the Christmas Pot Luck Supper, we
have to get started on it now. As you have read above, Karl needs
your photo entries early in November, so they can be judged and the
winners prepared to grace the yearbook’s pages. In addition, we are
again providing small spaces for advertisers inside the covers.
There are about 15 spaces available. If you know someone who might
be interested or you can persuade your favourite nursery to make use
of this very targeted publicity, please get in contact with
Elizabeth Stokely at 613-271-2969 or
estokely@sympatico.ca 2009 Garden
We had five excellent garden
tours this year. A big thank you to all of you who opened your
gardens, persevering in the very wet weather, and made each visit an
experience to remember. We hope that all of you who visited learnt
some more about gardening in the KMHS 40th Anniversary
As some of you may know, 2010
marks the fortieth anniversary of the founding of KMHS in 1970. We
would like to make this an extraordinary year, with some special
activities and events to recognise the longevity of our society.
Thinking of ideas for events is easy. The hard part is choosing what
to do and what would have most impact both for our members and the
community. To assist us in focussing these activities, we would like
to adopt a theme for the year, plus a slogan if possible. A few of
the ideas we have had are around preserving our environment, eating
locally, natural gardening, native gardening etc….. We would like your ideas on a
theme that could appeal to a wide audience, while reflecting our
interest in the natural world and gardens. Therefore, we are going
to hold a competition for all KMHS members, except the executive, to
find the best theme and slogan for 2010. Members will vote on
submissions later this year. Our theme should complement our
society’s objectives, to be found at the beginning of your Yearbook. We will shortly put more
information about the competition on the website for you, with
closing dates and voting process. To help you get those creative
ideas flowing, you might like to know that small prizes will be
awarded for the best and second best entries: these prizes will be
two orchids from 1st Prize) Takawara Kristy Loe
Ascocenda Orchid [colour: Red]
Margaret Turner, KMHS Newsletter Editor |
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(Notes from the KMHS history files.) I hope that you all had a great
summer and beautiful gardens, despite the rain and the mosquitoes.
Gardeners must not be discouraged by Mother Nature’s actions, but be
patient, because another summer will come full of promises! Now down
memory lane again:
No more backaches:
The automatic sprinkler system
installed at
Frosty meeting:
1992 was the year that
gardeners from near and far would visit
Looking through the lens:
The KMHS photo competition was
a popular event from 1980 until 1992. That year the contest was
cancelled, as only one person registered. Fortunately, renewed
interest the following year brought forth a large display at the Pot
Luck Supper. Members continue to enjoy beautiful photos from the
competition in our annual calendar-yearbook.
One more time:
Our yearbook won the second
prize in the 1992 OHA competition. Gisèle Robertson, KMHS Historian |
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A
follow up to June’s topic:
in the last newsletter, I discussed gardening
with children and books that were helpful in getting them started.
Norma Davidson has pointed out that Costco is now stocking three Cat
in the Hat type books that are of great interest to would-be young
gardeners or botanists. These are: “Oh Say Can You Seed?”, “I can
name 50 trees today” and “On beyond Bugs”. Norma’s grandchildren
love them!
1.
If you are
inundated with vegetables, a peril of this time of year, especially
after all the rain we have had this year, the Kanata Food Bank is
accepting fresh produce at
2.
As always, I am
drowning in zucchini, so any recipe that uses lots of them is a sure
fire winner with me. Here’s one for Zucchini and Oregano soup, which
I can thoroughly recommend. It’s simplified from one in Soup, an
excellent Williams-Sonoma publication. There are lots more good soup
recipes, plus many seasonal ideas on the Williams-Sonoma website.
Ingredients
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2 tbsp oil
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1 onion, finely
chopped
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6 (yes, I said 6)
zucchini
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1 ½ pints stock –
vegetable or chicken
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2 tbsp oregano –
finely chopped Saute
onion and zucchini until soft, then add stock and oregano and simmer
until vegetables are tender. Purée, add seasoning to taste and
serve.
3.
Finally, the web
is a wonderful resource for recipes from the totally mundane to the
exotic beyond belief. One site I find very useful is listed on the
left. They have lots of recipes for making good use of those
enjoyable, but often overwhelming vegetables. Margaret Turner, KMHS Newsletter Editor |
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Sept 12 – 13th:
The Friends of the Farm sponsor
Eastern Townships"Fête des
Vendanges" (Tasting Fair) Bus Tour. For more details, see their
website on the left.
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Sept 12th, 3:00 pm:
The
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Sept 12th:
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Sept 16th, 7:00 pm.
The Greater Ottawa Water Garden Society offers a presentation on
Water features that made me
lose my breath! Villa D’Este,
Greenboro
Community Centre,
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Sept 22nd, 7:30 pm.
Ottawa Horticultural Society
presents
their
September Flower & Vegetable Show
and the
Knowledge Café.
Tom Brown arena,
Looking ahead
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Oct 4th,
2:30pm.
Manotick Horticultural Society
is delighted to sponsor a very special presentation, Aberglasney:
The Restoration of an
RA Centre, |
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Contact us |
Newsletter
Input
One of the areas where your input is most valuable is in generating
ideas and articles for our Members’ Corner section. Perhaps you have
been trying to grow a new plant this summer, maybe you’ve visited a
stunning garden on your travels, or perhaps you’d like to make
contact with others who are struggling with the same challenging
plants as you. All your input is most welcome: please get in touch
with me if you have an idea. I can work with you to make it real.
Contact me, Margaret Turner, directly at
sheepsville@gmail.com
Input for inclusion in the next newsletter is due to me by the third
Friday of each month.
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