Kanata-March Horticultural Society

April 2008

In This Issue

· President’s Message

· Next meeting: May 6th Self-contained

· KMHS website

· Annual Plant Sale

· Down the Garden Path

· Parks maintenance

· 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)

Acting President’s Message for May

Looks like we really have spring now, as the temperature has soared to above 20 degrees today and spring flowers are actually bursting into bloom. We have crocus, Dutch iris and pansies out. Tulips and daffodils are coming through, so be careful raking any leaves off the flower beds; you do not want to damage the new shoots.

During the spring clean up, don’t get too eager to start pruning. Remember you can only prune lilacs, azaleas, forsythia AFTER they have flowered. If you prune any spring flowering shrub now you cut off the flower buds that have over wintered ready for a bit of warmth.

Once the soil dries out a bit after the snow has melted, you can think about sowing annual flowers such as marigolds, zinnias and bachelors buttons—unless you are like our grandchildren who have already sown their marigolds in trays. They are delighted to see that they are 3-4 inches high and ready to plant out, after the last frost.

You can start melons, cucumber and squash seeds indoors or, towards the end of the month, in a cold frames. Planting out in the open should not be done until the night temperature is 13 Celsius. To help them along you can cover the ground with black polythene which does three things: it keeps the soil warm, keeps it moist and prevents weeds. Cover the prepared ground, make a small slit in the polythene and plant the seedling.

It is time to start thinking of the plant sale. We have 200 heritage tomatoes about 12” to 18” high and doing well. I just hope we can keep them watered and fed until the plant sale.

Any perennials that need dividing can be split now and the spare bits potted up for the plant sale. That way they will have a good chance to get well established in the pot. Our customers always like to buy healthy well established plants. Please remember to label what you have potted up.

Happy gardening.

David Davidson, KMHS Past President

Our Next Meeting: May 6th, 7:30 pm

Self-Contained: Sheila King

Sheila, who is the enthusiastic and hard-working president of the OHA District 2 committee, will be sharing her wealth of gardening experience wit us next week, as she inspires us to make more use of containers to brighten the garden throughout the summer. She will tell us about how she tackles container gardening, sharing some of her techniques and favourite plants with us and will also show us how she does this.

P.S. Don’t forget to bring your mug for coffee beforehand.

KMHS

KMHS Website

Looking After Ourselves (as well as the plants): if, like me, the recent warm weather brought a rush of blood to the head, which led to extended hours in the garden, your back has probably told you by now that new activities need to be undertaken with some caution and preparation. To help you with this, we now have a link on our website for a printable poster of some stretches and also to the Ontario Chiropractic Association, where you can find other exercises and information.

Local Nurseries: for those of you who may be new to the area or to gardening, we have a list of local nurseries up on the website, which may be of help to you. It is not comprehensive – it’s hard to keep up with new ventures starting up, but it should be useful as a starting point for your garden purchasing.

2008 Photo Competition: Check out the new Photograph Competition classes. With the help of Mary Stuart and Karen Haddon, we have modified the competition. Thanks to Mary for her wonderful ideas and creative imagination. So, everyone, get out there and start clicking your cameras. Pay special attention to Class 7 - Four Seasons. You might want to start on that one right away.

KMHS Annual Plant Sale: May 31st, 8am -noon

This is our main fund raiser for the club. We hope you will bring along some plants from your garden for the sale. We will also be dividing and potting up some of the plants from Tom Thomson & Molly Wilson gardens.

We will need help on the day, before, during and after the sale and also on the evening before—Friday, May 30th from 6-8pm. There will be a sign up sheet at the May meeting. We don’t expect people to be there all the time, so help times will be divided into 2 hour segments.

We will have our ‘Heritage & Heirloom Tomato Plants’ again this year. I have picked different varieties from the ones we had last year. A table of these is below.

Tomato variety	Description
Arkansas Traveler	A pre 1900 heirloom. Excellent tasting dark pink medium size fruit ready mid season. It is drought resistant and a very reliable producer.
Black Prince	Dark brown, medium size fruit. The mild flavour is sweet and rich. Ready mid season. Very good yields
Green Zebra	Introduced in 1985 this is a real eye catcher. The fruits are about 2” across and are green with yellowish stripes when ripe. Excellent tart flavour. Very high yields.
Isis Candy Cherry	An early cherry tomato. A great novelty and fun to grow. The fruits are multi coloured and tasty.
Moira	An early medium size tomato developed at the Smithfield Research Station near Trenton. Excellent taste and the very best interior colour. This used to be a very common tomato but is now very hard to find. Very good yields. Mentioned in the 2007 Harrowsmith Almanac as the most perfect tomato.
Montreal Best	Mid season compact vines produce lots of 4oz red fruits. A Canadian heirloom variety. Flavour is excellent.
Opalka	This mid season tomato was introduced about 1900 to Amsterdam NY from Poland. It is a 5 inch red banana shaped paste variety with very few seeds. Productive and blight resistant.
Pink Ping Pong	Developed in Ontario in the 1960’s Vigorous vines produce an abundance of gorgeous great tasting pink cherry tomatoes about the size of ping pong balls. An early very prolific tomato
Purple Calabash	These tomatoes have to be the ugliest ever seen! - But they taste great! They are a mid season and are purple in colour. Pick off some of the blossoms to get bigger fruits. A must for the serious tomato lover.
Red Brandywine	The heirloom standard for taste comparisons. Needless to say the taste is excellent. The fruits are medium size red and quite late. Dates prior to 1885
Ivory Egg	Early cream coloured egg shaped cherry tomato. Prolific producer. Great taste
Southern Nights	Mid season heirloom from Russia. Unusual coloration with dusky red bottoms half and greenish top half. Outstanding smoky tart flavour. Good producer.
Sweetie	A sweet cherry tomato. Produces 1oz cherry red fruits throughout the summer. Requires staking.

Norma Davidson, Parks coordinator

Down the Garden Path

Equipment: in 1975, garden tools and equipment were purchased and made available to the members on a loan basis.

Mayfair parade: in May 1975, a float was entered for the first time in the Mayfair parade and won a prize.

Bursary: from 1975 to 1995, KMHS offered a bursary to a qualified student who was graduating from a Carleton Board of Education secondary school and was pursuing further post-secondary education in horticulture or a related field.

LONG TIME MEMBERS

Congratulations to the following members who have been with the KMHS for the past 30+, 25+ and 20+ years.

30 YEARS + 25 YEARS + 20 YEARS +

Arnold By Stella Koros Dieter Hedlich

Cheryl Ford John Koros Shirley Monkhouse

George Malcolm Karl Siemens

Norma Malcolm Jean Siemens

Some membership lists from the early years of KMHS were not available. If I have missed someone from the years 1970 to 1988, please contact me and I will add your name to the records.

Gisele Robertson, KMHS Historian

Email us at KMHS with your ideas and comments

Parks Maintenance

It’s that time of year again! We need to get the Tom Thomson and Molly Wilson gardens into shape. We find a big effort at the beginning of the season makes it easier to keep the gardens looking good for the rest of the season.

We had a sign up sheet at the April meeting and are still short of people for Tom Thomson. The May 4^th clean up, planned for 2-5pm, has been postponed due to lack of volunteers. It has been rescheduled to Wednesday, May 7^th, 6-8pm.If you can help, even for a short time, on this date, please give Jean and Karl Siemens a call – 613 591 0522

The dates for Molly Wilson clean up are Wednesday May 14^th from 6-8pm and Sunday May 17^th, from 2-5pm. The sign up sheet will be at the next meeting May 6^th. If you have any questions give me a call at 613 832 4615 or email to davidnorma@rogers.com

Norma Davidson, Parks Coordinator

Key links

St. John's

OHA

Red Trillium

Friends of the Farm

OBGS

KEN

OVRGHS

Upper Canada Village

OVRGHS

OBGS

Rockwall Gardens

Upcoming Events: May - June:

May 3^rd 10:00 am. “Colour in the Garden.” St. John’s Anglican Church, our gardening neighbours, presents this Garden and Labyrinth Event. Peter Cullen will present on Colour in the Garden and there will be an opportunity to become familiar with the outdoor 42 foot paved Chartres-Style labyrinth at the church.

Refreshments will be served. Footwear for damp conditions may be needed.

St. John’s Anglican Church, 325, Sandhill Road, Briarbrook, Kanata.

May 6th 7:30 p.m. “Annual for Season Long Blooms.” The Ottawa Horticultural Association presents Kelly Noel, Master Gardener.

Tom Brown Arena, 141, Bayview Avenue.

May 10^th and 11th . “Red Trillium 18^th Annual Studio and Garden Tour Brochures for the Spring Studio and Garden Tour are available at many retail locations throughout the Kanata / West Carleton area; on both 'tour days’; copies of the brochure are also available at the Panmure Road (Hwy 17, Exit 163) parking area and at each studio location. Visit the website for more information and to download the brochure

May 11^th-12th 9am -1pm. “Rare and Unusual Plant Sale.” Friends of the Farm present their annual Mother’s Day plant sale.

Parking lot, K.W. Neatby Building, Carling Ave, Central Experimental Farm

May 13^th, 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 13^th, 7:00 pm The Kanata Environmental Network will have Ed Lawrence, everyone’s favourite gardener, discussing low-impact gardening and answer your gardening questions.

Glen Cairn United Church, 140 Abbeyhill Drive, Kanata

May15^th, 1:30 p.m. Ottawa Valley Rock Garden and Horticultural Society presents John Gyer, talking about “The Secret Life of the Trillium”.

Room T117, Building T, Algonquin College, Woodroffe Campus

May 24^th – 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 12-15^th The Ottawa Valley Rock Garden and Horticultural Society will host the AGM for the North American Rock Garden Society here in Ottawa, on the Ottawa U campus. Delegates re expected from all over North America.The title of the AGM is One Valley: Five Habitats. The focus is on five field locations in the National Capital region that were selected for their significant biological diversity: Purdon Conservation Area, Mer Bleu, the Burnt Lands alvar, Gatineau Park, and Marlborough Forest. Each has its own special topography and flora, and guides will help visitors to appreciate the many lovely plants, especially wild flowers, grasses, and ferns, that can be found there. Guest speakers at the NARGS AGM are Ottawa-based academics with a strong interest in the natural environment of the Ottawa Valley, and its preservation.

June 14-15^th The Ottawa Botanical Garden Society provides “Over the Hedge”: a country garden tour with a twist. Visit ten beautiful country gardens located in Manotick, Merrickville, Kemptville, and Burritt’s Rapids. The “Twist” factor is the exciting option of participating in a Car Rally (slightly modified) on your own or with friends while you make your way to visit the gardens.

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
for your own garden. Enjoy a day in a beautiful setting, (there are approx
20 display gardens) and perhaps do some shopping in the well stocked garden
centre.

Tickets will be available at the May meeting at a cost of $51 for
members, $60 for non-members. All materials and supplies are included. You
must supply your own transportation and of course, car pooling is
encouraged. Class size is limited, so purchase your tickets early to avoid
disappointment! More details are available on their web site.

KMHS Questionnaire

Don’t forget to fill in your questionnaire that you should have received in the mail last week. We need your input to ensure that our speakers and events reflect your interests and curiosity.

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