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Kanata-March Horticultural Society |
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April 2008 |
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In This Issue
· President’s Message · Next meeting: Apr. 1st Organic Gardening & Lawn Care · Gardening 101 · Eating Locally · Down the Garden Path · Volunteers needed · Upcoming events
Our Meetings
Meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month (except July and August) at the Old Town Hall, March Road, Kanata.
Come at 7:00pm for a coffee and gardening chat.
Guests are most welcome - $5.00 (can be applied to membership of $15.00 single, $25.00 family)
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Acting President’s Message for April
It may not feel like spring but remember the plant is coming up on 31st May so get planting those seeds you obtained at the seed exchange and nurture the little guys through this snow covered spring. I think things are going to be late in getting started in the garden this year, so we will need as many of the home grown seedlings as possible.
Starlings and robins are back but will they stay or go back down south until the snow clears? If you are forcing tulips in the house watch that they do not bolt in the heat of the house. They are probably through by now so keep them as cool as possible.
Do you want some spring colour or have an entry for the OHA flower show at Ottawa Blooming? Cut some branches ( about 3”) from flowering shrubs or trees in your garden, such as forsythia, pussy willow, crab apple, apple, cherry etc. Take them into the house , mash the bottom of the branch, bathe the branch in warm and water out the branches in a vase of water. Now watch and wait, making sure the branches do not dry out. In a few weeks the buds will swell and then burst into bloom. Try different branches at different times. It is better for both you and the branch if you cut it on a warm day.
We are doing well with volunteers for Ottawa Blooming show. Still a few vacancies available, so if you want to give 2 hours of your time helping and get a free entry ticket, send me an email. You do not need to be a gardening expert to help at the OHA reception desk or baby sit the silent auction, so don’t be afraid to volunteer.
With this long winter we are going to have to get busy quickly once the snow clears to get the gardens in shape. Assuming that the snow clears by May 1st, we will have a clean up day in the Tom Thomson Park on Sunday 4th May and in Molly Wilson the Sunday after Victoria day long weekend, May .
David Davidson, KMHS Past President
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Our Next Meeting: April 1st, 7:30 pm
Organic Gardening & Lawn Care: Neil Ritchie
Neil, from Ritchie’s Feed and Seed in Stittsville, will talk to us about how we can reduce or eliminate our use of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers, both in flower and vegetable gardens and in creating and maintaining robust and attractive lawns.
Ritchie’s Feed and Seed is one of the longest established garden centres in our area. They have a great web site and offer a number of interesting seminars, which are listed online.
http://web.mac.com/ritchie_feed/Lawn_and_Garden/Home.html
P.S. Don’t forget to bring your mug for coffee beforehand. |
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Useful web sites
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Gardening 101 Growing Seeds: since our February seed exchange, we hope that many of you have had chance to get some seeds started. With luck (and good management) some of them should be coming up by now. Heather Lee will be doing a short follow up at our next couple of meetings, to see how you are doing and to answer any questions people may have about the process and their particular challenges. What to do when: a few members have expressed interest in
receiving some basic gardening information. The following link, from the
Montreal Botanical Gardens, offers some fantastic, detailed information to
get you started on your Elizabeth Stokely, KMHS Director
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Key links
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Eating Locally I’m sure many of you have seen recent articles about the idea of “Eating Locally” or, as this concept has become known, “The 100-mile Diet”. For those of you who have not heard about this, the growing interest in reducing the distance our food travels (food miles) to the table has resulted in a movement to eat local produce. Local in this case is defined as produced within a 100 mile radius of your home. As gardeners we are in a great position to support this idea, whether by growing a few of our own vegetables, if we have room, or by shopping as much as possible at our local produce outlets. We are very lucky here to have many excellent sources of local meat, fruit and vegetables on our doorsteps, at least in the summer. Not only do they offer locally grown food, but as an added bonus, it is often organic. I became interested in this approach after reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver, in which she recounts her family’s struggles and successes in moving to an almost totally locally grown diet for a year. A Canadian book on the same topic is “The Hundred Mile Diet” by Ailsa Smith and J. B. McKinnon. Once having read one of these books, I found it impossible to think about food and shopping in the same way. I am aiming for a more locally grown diet this summer for my family. I am not about to forswear all non-local produce, but from May to October I plan to acquire more than half our food locally. Not an earth-shattering target, but a doable one, I hope. Is anyone else interested in trying this, even in a small way? It would be great to compare notes and share information. Margaret Turner
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Down the Garden PathThis will be a regular item in our monthly newsletters, a way to share some of our association’s achievements.
KMHS Honorary Patron : on May 18, 1971 Mr. William (Bill) Teron, the founder of Kanata, became Honorary Patron of the KMHS and was presented with a certificate to that effect. Mr. John Mlacak, Reeve of March Township paid tribute to Mr. Teron’s original concept of Kanata as a planned community with open green spaces, parks with trees and gardens as well as space for many recreational and cultural activities.
Plant Sale: the first KMHS plant sale was held on May 29, 1971 as part of the Kanata Mayfair celebrations. The residents of Kanata-March were asked to donate plants for the sale. The proceeds from the sale were $85.79. Prize: in 1973 the KMHS won an Honourable Mention for Tom Thompson Park in the “Beautify your Community” contest sponsored by the Ontario Horticultural Association.Gisele Robertson, KMHS Historian
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Contact us:
Email us at KMHS with your ideas and comments
Key Links |
Volunteers needed
Door Prizes: as you know, we have a small set of gardening related door prizes that we hand out at the start of each meeting. These prizes are often donated by our members for the use of other gardeners. Hanny Ernst has undertaken the job of getting these collected for the past couple of years, but would like to hand over this role to someone else. Please would you email us if you would be interested in doing this.
Ottawa is Blooming: as David mentioned in his President’s message, we have had some people step forward to help at the garden show in April, but could still use a couple more. Remember that volunteering for two hours translates into a free ticket for show entry. Email David at David Davidson or use the email on the left. KMHS Executive
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Key links
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Upcoming Events March - April:
March 31st. All Photo Competition entries for the OHA District 2 competition must be submitted to Owen Munn. Please call 613 596-1213 or e-mail emunn@magma.ca with any questions.
April 1st. All Decorative Classes in Division 2 for the OHA Flower Show must be pre-registered with Sheila King: 613 692-6281
April 5th 9. 00 am to 3.30 p.m. Spring Gardening Seminar. The Stittsville-Goulbourn Horticultural Association will present an all-day seminar on how to make the best use of your gardening time and money this year. St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Main Street Stittsville. Cost $25.00.
April 12th, 1:30 p.m. Ottawa Valley Rock Garden and Horticultural Society presents Peter Korn, talking about “Building for Growing: Creating Habitats for Plants”. Room T117, Building T, Algonquin College, Woodroffe Campus
April 18th – 20th Ottawa is Blooming. Ottawa’s annual Lawn and Garden show, which this year includes the OHA District 2 Flower Show Nepean Sportsplex, 1701, Woodroffe Avenue, Nepean
April 22nd 7:30 p.m. “A Vine for All Locations.” The Ottawa Horticultural Association presents Mary Reid of the Green Thumb Garden Centre. Tom Brown Arena, 141, Bayview Avenue.
April 28th 9.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. District 2 AGM, “ A Country Picnic”. Keynote Speaker will be Bruce Henbest of Upper Canada Village talking about “Heritage Vegetables”. For those who wish to attend, the registration package will be available at our next meeting or can be found on the web site on the left. Kinburn Community Centre, 3045, Kinburn Side Road, Kinburn
Heads Up:
May 13th, 7.30 pm The Ottawa Botanical Garden Society will have Des Kennedy talking about “The Gardens of Ireland”. St. Paul High School Auditorium 265 Draper Avenue, Ottawa
May 24th – 25th Upper Canada Village presents and “Heirloom Plants and Gardens Weekend” with heirloom varieties for sale, plus experienced horticulturalists on hand to answer your questions. 13740, County Road 2, Morrisburg
June 21st 10.00 a.m. – 2.00 p.m. Rockwall Gardens in Perth will be offering a Leaf
Garden Art Workshop. Join fellow KMHS members and guests at a fun, hands-on
workshop where you will create a "garden art leaf" to take home
July KMHS is planning a society bus tour to the Montreal Botanic gardens. We last did this a couple of years ago and it was a great day out. If you haven’t visited these splendid gardens, take a minute to look at their website to see what you’ve been missing. We’re only in the planning stage at present—we should have more details at next week’s meeting.
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Newsletter Input All input is due to me, Margaret Turner, by the third Friday of the month. All ideas and articles are most welcome. Please help make this a newsletter for you all. Email me at: Margaret Turner
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