Wreath Tips and an Award

Members of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society got into the Christmas spirit at the November meeting  as Conrad Grohl lead a workshop on wreath making for the holiday season. Conrad is the former owner of Brighton Greenhouse and an employee of the Root Cellar in Thomasburg.

Commercially purchased rings can be used for the base of the wreath. However, Conrad also uses wooden picture frames…oval, rectangle and square resulting in a very creative wreath! These wooden frames are sturdier than the metal rings. Wire is used to attach the greenery to the ring/frame and the wire needs to be tight. Rope can be used to make a garland…need to wire the greenery around the rope….garlands take LOTS of greenery!

He suggested that cedar be placed on the bottom of the wreath frame as it is flat…don’t forget the two colours on the cedar! A variety of greenery….pine, balsam, spruce and boxwood add interesting texture to a wreath.

“Bling” can be purchased at the many dollar stores in the area. He suggested buying supplies after Christmas when they are on sale and you will have them for the following year. Spray painting ferns, hydrangea, cone flowers, roadside weeds, pine cones, and seed pods from lilacs and milkweed can add “bling to a wreath.” Of course, these items can also be left in their “natural” state for a more country looking wreath!

Members were interested to learn the secret of making those gorgeous bows that everyone loves! Conrad demonstrated his hand-made bow maker to the group…he made it look so easy to create a gorgeous bow! He suggested purchasing ribbon at Costco ribbon as it  comes on 60 yard rolls and the “price can’t be beat” according to Conrad.

Many members were eager to get started on their Christmas decorating after Conrad’s presentation. He donated two wreathes to the draw….so two lucky members already have started their Christmas decorating!!!

Penny Stewart from the Ontario Horticultural Association spoke briefly at the meeting. She thanked the members for their hard work in the community. She presented the group with the “Sowing Seeds” trophy in recognition of the youth programs the group has been organizing. Members attributed the success of these programs to the hard work of President Joan Morton.

The Annual General Meeting was held. The financial report was presented for approval.

COMING UP….

November 8 @ 10:30…Children’s Workshop…3-D Snowflake at the library.

November 15…Deadline for Volunteer Hours for December 2013-November 2014…call 613-478-5535 for more information.

December 2 @1pm….Set-up for Christmas dinner at the Library.

December 2 @ 6pm….Christmas Dinner

Celebrate the Christmas season with members of the Hort Society. Spouses are invited! There will be a video presentation highlighting the many activities and guest speakers during 2014! Bring your favourite pot luck dish, plate, cutlery and wine glass for a fun filled evening!

December 6 @10:00...Children’s Workshop….Christmas Centrepiece. Children are asked to pre-register at the Library.

December 12…Christmas Luncheon at Club 213 at Loyalist College.

The creative carving skills of some of the hort members were on display at the November meeting.

Meat Free Food

The October meeting of the Tweed and Area Horticultural Society showcased dairy and meat free cooking dishes. The chefs for the evening were Wilma Mulrain, Twyla Dimitropovlos, Mary Williams, Linda Ronco and Jane Donato. Their presentation highlighted the use of tofu to create tasty and healthy dishes. Members were amazed as they tasted the variety of dishes prepared…”tasty” delicious” were comments heard throughout the room. As the chefs said….it is all in the seasonings that you add to  the dish that gives it that tasty flavour.  Dishes sampled included Lentil Tofu Burgers, Scrambled Tofu, Lemon Cheesecake. Recipes were distributed to the members.

COMING UP….

October 18…Fall clean-up of Tweed flower beds and Cenotaph @ 9 am

November 4...Conrad Grohl, member, former owner of Brighton greenhouse and employee of the Root Cellar will demonstrate making wreaths using fresh evergreens.

Bring your carved pumpkin from Halloween and win a prize! Bring a pumpkin treat to share…and don’t forget the recipe!

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING will be held. The financial Report for the 2014 will be presented.

November 8…Children’s Workshop….3D Snowflakes at the Tweed Library @ 10:00 am.  Please pre-register. Materials will be supplied.

November 15…Please submit volunteer hours from December 2013 to November 2014 to Jean Clark.

GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

District 3 Fall Meeting...Date to be announced.

Garlic

Members of the Tweed and Area Horticultural Society were avid listeners as Paul Pospisil of Maberly spoke about garlic growing. It was apparent by the number of members and guests in the audience as well as the questions asked that garlic growing is a topic that interests many.

 Paul, editor of Garlic News shared a wealth of information with his audience through his personal experiences growing garlic and his “garlic props”.

Paul’s focus is to raise the bar on the quality of garlic that is being grown….and growing garlic does indeed present many challenges

The garlic clove is planted in mid-October. In April as the days get warmer, the plant starts to grow. May and June is a rapid growing time for garlic and it is usually harvested in July. It requires good soil, irrigation, sun and no weeds growing along side it…really not very different from other vegetables we grow in our gardens.

 Disease, leek moth, bulb and stem nematodes and simple greed and ignorance are the main factors that Paul feels contributes to the poor quality of garlic grown. Presently Canada does not have a standard for garlic seed that other fruits and vegetables have.

According to Paul, growers can’t get rid of the leek moth but they can manage it through identification, early detection, prevention and good growing practices.

On the other hand, bulb and stem nematodes can totally DESTROY a crop of garlic. The nematodes are living organisms in the soil and very difficult to destroy. One of the best practices is growing mustard in the field where the nematodes are living to get rid of them.

Suggestions Paul gave to the audience…plant a variety of garlic to obtain a range of flavors and buy organic as there is less chance of having a damaged and diseased clove.

Members were invited to purchase Paul’s garlic seed which he said was as clean and disease free as humanly possible!

COMING UP….

September 9…Fall clean-up of Tweed flower beds. Meet at Moira Garden @5:30 pm.

October 7…Food!....Three ladies who teach cooking night classes at Centre Hastings Secondary School will make three dishes that are meat and dairy free. Cookbooks will be available for sale.

October 11…Carving demonstration with Adam Haley @ 10:30 am for children and adults at Tweed library. Bring in a carved pumpkin to be judged by Adam. First prize winner takes home Adam’s carved creation of the day!!

GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

October 9...Land O’Lakes Meeting….Carolyn Klickerman from Ottawa will discuss “square foot” gardening which is the art of growing lots of plants in 12 inch by 12 inch beds. Meeting starts at 6 p.m.

Volunteers of the Year!

Congratulations to the members of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society. Tweed Council selected the Society as the recipient of this year's "Volunteer of the Year" award for the work the Society does in  both helping to keep the community beautiful and educating those who are interested in gardening.

From left to right: (front row) Mayor Joanne Albert, Linda Holmes, secretary of the Society, Joan Morton, president of the Society, Darlene Elson, Society director; (back row) Councillor Jim Flieler, George Thompson, Society member; Elizabeth Churcher, first vice president of the Society; Edna Johnson and George and Sheila Scott, Society members; Councillors Don DeGenova and Brian Treanor.

Eat and Walk

This is a picture taken at the Society's annual outdoor potluck dinner....only it's not outdoors and they don't seem to be eating dinner. But the DO look happy! The potluck this year was held at the Thomasburg hall followed by a walk at Vanderwater Park (pic below) lead by Cathy Anderson (right in the bottom picture).

Making Hypertufas

Our president hard at work.

Many members of the Tweed Horticultural Society enjoyed a “hand-on” workshop making hypertufa containers during the June meeting. The workshop was held in the garden of President Joan’s home and many members took a walk around her beautiful lush flower beds and veggie patch!

The members arrived carrying a variety of containers, hosta and rhubarb leaves as well as bug spray and bug jackets. However, gentle breezes kept the bugs away as everyone worked on their creations….or perhaps everyone was too busy creating that they did not notice the bugs!!!

A cement mixer mixed the various mixtures for the participants and the mixture was wheelbarrowed to a giant wagon where everyone worked and helped each other. Advice and assistance was readily available for “newbies”. Members added decorative stones to their creations and lines for the veins in the leaves and of course everyone was reminded to sign their name on their “work of art”!

Finished products were bagged to be taken home. Everyone was instructed to keep the planter in the bag for at least 24-36 hours to allow for slow drying.

Members were encouraged to bring their planted hypertufa to the Tweed Fair in July as part of the group’s display at the Fair.

COMING UP….

July 4-6…Tweed Fair. Members are encouraged to bring some of their planters or flowers to set up a Club display on Saturday at the Fair. Set-up is 8 am on July 5^th.

Members are encouraged to enter some of the categories that the Horticultural Group is sponsoring at the Fair. A $5.00 fee per entry is required by adults and there is no charge for juniors. For more info please contact Linda @613-478-6850.

GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

July 18-20…OHA Conference in Cornwall. 

Some Cool Stuff

Marjorie Mason

“Really Cool Plants” was the topic of Marjorie Mason’s presentation at the May meeting of the Tweed and District Horticultural Society. Her power point presentation showed members the “cool” plants for 2014! After this long cold winter, the audience was eager to hear about the newest plants and even more excited to be able to purchase plants that she had brought from the from the Mason House Gardens greenhouses.

Throughout her presentation, Marjorie gave little snipits of information about gardening. The trend now is that foliage is more important than the actual flowers on plants!

Tender plants, like the coleus family need to be acclimatized slowly to the outdoors…especially this year with the very cool or should we say cold spring we have been experiencing.

Did you know that dahlia tubers can be eaten…why not try substituting these tubers in place of zucchini…. instead of zucchini loaf you can bake a dahlia loaf!!!

Impatiens…..SHOULD NOT BE GROWN THIS YEAR!!! Even Mark Cullen has said that growers should not be growing the bedding impatiens (the ones we buy by the flat for instant garden colour). Why?? The only way to get rid of  the Impatiens Downy Mildew disease is to stop growing the plant until this disease has disappeared…the New Guinea impatiens do not carry the disease. Marjorie suggested using begonias, dragon wing begonias and  spider plants in place of the impatiens…and her photos certainly proved that these plants are equally as appealing as the impatiens...if not more so!

Another tip….elephant ears and cana lilies make a dynamite combination together.

For bird lovers…plant Wendy’s Wish salvia that blooms all summer and attracts hummingbirds.

2014 plant of the year….Panicum Northwind… an outstanding grass perennial!

Allium Millennium…blooms in summer (how exciting is that) and the foliage does not turn that sickly yellow (now that IS exciting)!

TIP….always open the soil ball of a plant before planning to ensure that the roots will spread out to get the moisture. This will also cut down on watering!

Audience members shared their concerns about Echinacea and the fact that it does not overwinter well.  Again Marjorie had a tip…..the plant needs to develop a “clumping” at the base of the plant to help with over wintering. To do this, she said that it is best not to have the Echinacea bloom during the first year…groans could be heard throughout the audience….so Marjorie had another suggestion….allow just one bloom, cut it and place it in your favourite vase to admire it and then cut back the main stem on the plant to promote this clumping….the rewards the second year will be well worth the wait!!!!

Marjorie invited the audience to visit her greenhouse at 3520 Regional Rd #1 (Brock Road), RR#4, Uxbridge, ON

905-649-3532  info@masonhousegardens.com

 COMING UP….

May 10…Spring Cleanup of flower beds. Meet at Moira Garden @ 9 am.

May 17…Annual Plant Sale at Tweed Memorial Park @ 8am. All plant material should be at the park by 7 am. Please attach a label with the name of the plant. For more info, please call Joan @ 613-478-6115.

May 23….10:30 am at the Library….Scarecrow making workshop for children. Participants are asked to bring in old clothes, hat and accessories to make their scarecrow. Straw will be supplied.

Please pre-register at the Library for this event.

May 27...Planting town planters and flower beds. Meet at empty lot across from ValuMart @ 5:30 pm.

June 3…Hypertufa Workshop starting at 6:30 @ 240 Uens Rd, Thomasburg. Please dress for both bugs and weather! There will be a small fee for supplies. Please bring your own plastic container or leaves to make your hypertufa container.

GENERAL INTEREST EVENTS…

July 4-6…Tweed Fair. Members are encouraged to bring some of their planters or flowers to set up a Club display on Saturday at the fair. Set-up is 8 am on July 5^th.

July 18-20…OHA Conference in Cornwall.