The Garden in Winter

Hydrangeas and sedum still look great in January in front of the brick wall at the Tweed Public Library.

Happy Holidays

The Tweed and District Horticultural Society held their annual Christmas Potluck dinner on Tuesday December 4, 2012. The tables were beautifully decorated with poinsettia plants, fresh evergreen boughs trimmed with ribbons and dozens of colourful balls. A delicious turkey and ham dinner complete with stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes gave the members an early Christmas feast. And the desserts….well the table resembled a bakery with several varieties of pies, squares, Christmas cookies and even yummy toffee! The poinsettias and beautiful outdoor arrangements were won by several lucky members.


Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2013!

The next meeting will be Tuesday February 5, 2013 at the Tweed Library. Memberships will be on sale at the meeting…. $12.00 individual and $16.00 family.

Food, Flower Bulbs, and more Food!

Steve Nicholson of Thomasburg was the guest speaker at the October Meeting of t he Tweed and Horticultural Society. Steve is a chef and instructor in culinary management at Loyalist College. During the meeting, he used local produce to cook some unique and interesting dishes for members to sample!


Bulb Fundraiser…There are two types of bulbs available….Crocosmia and Camassia. There are 3 different varieties of each. The number of bulbs per package will vary but all are $7.00 per package (with $1.00 from each package sold going to our club). The forms and pictures are at the Library. All orders must be in to District 3 by November 1st.


November Meeting: Annual General Meeting.

Members are asked to consider taking an active part in the club by becoming a member of the Executive. Elections will take place at the meeting.

Members are asked to get into the spirit of Christmas by bringing a decoration or food (to be share at the meeting) made with cranberries.

Looking ahead…..

Annual Christmas Pot Luck Dinner on Tuesday December 4th beginning at 6 pm. Bring your favourite dish to share, plate, cutlery and wine glass and of course your appetite!

Christmas Luncheon at Loyalist College will be held Friday December 14 at noon.

Decorating With Corn



An intense working session! A few of the members creating corn husk dolls.

Lauri Alderson of Stirling had both children and adults working to create corn husk art at the September meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society.

Lauri brought a wealth of natural materials…milkweed pods, wild flowers, rabbit fur and a bucket of corn husks. Lauri had softened the corn husks by allowing them to soak in a mixture of water and bleach. Members worked together to create corn husk dolls, cornhusk angels and even corn husk warriors! Simply by tying, snipping and gluing, the husks were transformed into corn husk art…even members who claimed they had no artistic talent were busy trying their hand at creating the dolls.

October Meeting: Steve Nicholson, chef and instructor at Loyalist College will be cooking some unique dishes using fresh garden produce. There will be samples for everyone to try so bring your appetite.

Looking ahead…..Christmas Luncheon at Loyalist College will be held Friday December 14 at noon. More details to follow.



Flowerama

Another successful Flowerama at Memorial Park in Tweed on Canada Day. Great display of both indoor and outdoor arrangements from members. To see more photographs from the display, click on the photo link in the sidebar at right.

Landscaping with Stone

Elizabeth Otonicar was the guest speaker at the June meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society Elizabeth, a former French pastry chef, is now the owner of Creative Gardens, a landscape and design company located in Westport, Ontario. Her company specializes in natural stone walkways, patios, fire pits and retaining walls. According to Elizabeth, Westport is the “stone mecca” of Eastern Ontario.


This is Elizabeth’s seventh year of business and she now employs a staff of 5. Her beautifully designed gardens can be found in Westport, Perth, Portland and Smith Falls. This year for the first time, she has 2 staff members who solely “clean-up and redesign” gardens that have become over- grown. It is definitely a challenge to take apart an overgrown garden and redesign it to be an oasis of beauty with little maintenance…something her customers usually want.

Word of mouth has been the best advertising for her new business and many of her customers are repeat customers.

Elizabeth’s power point presentation highlighted the elements of design that are essential in the designing of a garden or outdoor space.

It is important to look at the “whole picture” when designing…not just the garden space….look at the house, street, existing landscape. Texture, colour, variety, sequence and balance all play an integral part in landscape designing. She uses the natural lay of the land to build gardens, walkways and patios that enhance the area, the house and most important her customers’ gardening abilities. The numerous garden photos that Elizabeth shared during her presentation certainly illustrated these qualities.

Throughout the presentation, little tips were offered to the group. Watering shrubs, trees and perennials in the fall is an excellent practice as the water freezes around the roots and less winter kill results. Never plant a rose bush in the same hole…they just won’t grow! Red plastic under your tomato plants will produce tomato plants like you have never seen before! And fire pits are “hot” landscape items!



FLOWERAMA…Sunday July 1st (Canada Day) at Tweed Memorial Park

Members are asked to bring planters, cut flowers arranged in vases, house plants, hypertufa containers or any other garden related project to the park by 8:30 am. All items will be displayed “under the tent” for the public to enjoy.



New this year is a Photo Exhibit. Members are invited to submit 4 x 6 photos mounted on 5 x 7 cardstock to be displayed under the marquee.

Suggested themes for the display are

•flowers and planters

•four seasons

•children and pets in the garden

•bugs, butterflies and birds in the garden

NOTE: Submissions for the Photo Exhibit must be made by June 17, 2012 to Sheila Frost or to Cathy Anderson. Name must be on the back of each exhibit.



POTLUCK SUPPER...Tuesday August 7th @ 6pm. Remember to bring your “Pot Luck” item, plates, silverware, mugs and of course your lawn chair to sit back end enjoy the garden. Hope to see everyone there!

Paul's Talk

Linda Holmes, Paul Zammit and Joan Morton



Paul Zammit, Director of Horticulture at the Toronto Botanical Garden drew record crowds to the May meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society. Paul’s energetic presentation was filled with a wealth of information for the avid gardeners attending. His talk was entitled “New and Amazing Annuals and Perennials worth the Hunt!”


The days of gardening with a vegetable patch at the back of the garden are long gone. As Paul said “Mix everything up…perennials, herbs, annuals and vegetables.” A popular plant he shared for doing this was basil and planting it among your perennials for colour and texture and as an added bonus…. fragrance.

Paul admitted that he was guilty of cutting flowers off plants (especially geraniums) when he was working at Plant World in Toronto….he simply wanted the customers to enjoy the wonderful foliage these plants can contribute to a garden. Mix Indian Dunes Geranium with Oxalis Zinfandel for a real wow punch! Paul suggested planting Geranium Roxanne for those gardeners who want a perennial geranium that blooms all summer.

Hostas can add great colour and texture to a garden through the variety of foliage they offer. Varieties “worth the hunt” are….Dark Star, Halcyon, El Nino, First Frost, June, June Fever, Remember Me. Purple Heart Hosta and Raspberry Sundae Hosta have a touch of red in their leaves which adds interest to the plant….according to Paul, “a touch of colour when it is least expected”

Paul cautioned the audience to read labels. All plants are small when you buy them at the Garden Centre in the spring…however, Baby Tut will grow to be 4 feet while King Tut can grow to 16 feet..and they are the same size when purchased in the spring! Read those labels!!!!

Watering, if you really have to do it should be done early in the morning and at the base of the plants. This will help to prevent mildew and fungus from growing. Plants need good circulation so just cut away some of those stems!

Paul’s enthusiastic presentation had the audience laughing but at the same time nodding their heads as they agreed with some of the things he was talking about…always using a Dracaena in the centre of a pot of annuals! How many gardeners are guilty of that? The wealth of knowledge Paul shared during the evening had the audience eager to start looking for some of those “amazing annuals and perennials worth the hunt.”

AWARD

Penny Stewart, Secretary of District 3 presented the Tweed Horticultural Society with an award for the garden at the Municipality of Tweed Public Library. The garden, funded by the Tweed Hort Society, was planned by Jean Clark and many members assisted with the planting and maintaining the garden. Congratulations!

JUNE MEETING…Tuesday June 6, 2012

Gardening with Stones…..Elizabeth Otonicar of Creative Gardens Landscaping of Westport will show members how to use stones in the garden, walkways, patios and walls.

PLANT SALE

The annual plant sale will be held at Tweed Memorial Park on Saturday May 19 starting at 8am. There will be lots of perennials to purchase.