Spring Home Improvement Guide l’'s never too early to get going on a garden plan Spring comes early to the Island, and planning will help you take advantage of it in your garden. A garden plan will assist in controlling expenses on your 1991 garden. It will also help ensure that the time and money invested in your home landscape is well spent. According to the Canadian Gar- den Council, a well-landscaped home can add anywhere from seven and 14 per cent to the selling price of a home. Most homeowners think a pro- fessional landscape plan is out of reach for them. They envision such a plan requiring a visit by a landscape architect in order that the owners’ needs, problem areas, and desires and dislikes be thor- oughly discussed. True, it is most important that the family’s present and future needs be considered, and that building in flexibility and staging in the garden plan will take time. However, there is no reason the homeowner cannot perform many of the prepatory steps, thus saving valuable professional time. To this end, the Canadian Gar- den Council is about to release a garden planning kit that will be available to homeowners from par- ticipating garden centres at no cost. It will also receive major distribution through Canadian periodicals. The kit will be a quality production with national sponsors, and may even offer cou- pons for discounts on garden prod- ucts. The kit is basically a three-part package consisting of: an introduc- tory section with instructions on how to draw a simple rendering of your garden, using recognized symbols; a detailed questionnaire designed to have the homeowner make basic decisions as to what kind of garden is desired and what features needed; and grid paper on which to draw the garden, as it With the questions answered, the homeowner then takes the kit back to the garden centre where it was obtained, or if obtained from a magazine, to a local landscape/ garden centre. A garden plan can then be developed in a short yeriod of time, and at very little zost. Even though the Garden Plan- ning Kit is not yet available (look for it in garden centres in most parts of Canada in early to mid- April), if you are hoping to make major landscape changes or altera- tions to your lot this year, now is the time you should be giving thought to some of the key ques- tions in the kit. For example, how much time and energy do you now devote to your garden? How much do you see yourself devoting to this pleas- urable pastime once the improve- relates to the house with space to include at least one photo of the garden as it exists. ments are made to the garden? How important is a low- maintenance garden to you? Some of the most important questions to be asked of oneself have to do with the functions and role the garden is expected to fulfill. Examples of considerations are: do you have a swimming pool now, or will you want to install one in the future; do you have, or antici- pate having children, and thus do. you want an area for play equip- ment now or in the future; would you like to raise some of your own vegetables, and if so, just how intensive an interest is this; where would you like to have a patio or deck, or both, and how is it to be shaded; and do you require a storage area on your lot for a boat or trailer, that would need to be camouflaged with plants? Most important in deliberations on just what kind of garden is desired, are the gardener(s)’ Continued from Page C2 DONATIONS WANTED The St. Vincent de Paul Society needs good, usable items for distribution to people in need through the Social Concem office. Blankets, sheets, pillows, kitchen utensils and cutlery are desperately needed, as are kitchen tables and chairs and beds with clean, usable mattresses. Pick up of donations can be arranged by calling 727- 0808 or donations may be left at the St. Vincent de Paul outlet, 9788B 2nd Strect, Sidney, B.C.(10) SAVE THE CHILDREN FUND The Sidney chapter of the Save The Children Fund holds its meeting every second and fourth Wednesday each month at the Margaret Vaughn-Birch Hall on Fourth St. New members are welcome to attend the meetings, which run from 2 pm to 4 pm. For information, call 656-4420 or 656-1149.(7) SAANICH PIONEERS SOCIETY The Saanich Pioneers Society History Museum and Archives will be open every Monday from 9 am to 2 pm at 7910 East Saanich Road. For information, call 652- 1775 or 656-5714.(7) TABLE NEEDED The Sidney Museum is looking for a donation of a table and chair for the Volunteer Room. Please call 656-1322.(7) SIDNEY PRESCHOOL Sidney Preschool, a co-operative, is now accepting registration for its three and four year-old classes, which begin in September. For information, call 652-1777 or 655- 4857.(7) ARTS COUNCIL For information on the newly created community arts council call secretary Dianne Cross at 656-4201. Contribute creative talents to making the Peninsula equal to ‘Carmel by the Sea’ or ‘Niagara on the Lake.’(7) CONCERT The Civic Orchestra of Victoria, the San Juan Singers of Friday Harbor and soloists Ginny Langham, Elizabeth Taylor, Hugh Sinnott and Robert Menes will perform in An Evening of Melody and Nostalgia concert at the University of Victoria Centre Auditonum, March 9 at 8 pm. Info, 658- 5659. ACOA RALLY Register early for the Victoria Adult Children of Alcoholics sixth annual rally Apmil 5, 6 and 7 at the Victoria Conference Centre. Tickets are $35 until March 1 and $40 after that date. For tickets or additional information, call Linda at 386-0267.(8) RENTAL LISTING The Association for Street Kids is spon- soring a free listing service for both landlords and youths seeking accommoda- tion called First Start. The youths are 17 and over, either employed or receiving social assistance and attending school. For information call the Victoria Association for Street Kids at 383-3514.(8) HEART SOCIETY The Heart and Stroke Foundation of B.C and the Yukon has an office at 1008 Blanshard St., Victoria. Free brochures available. Heart sweat shirts, the Light- hearted Cookbook, Seafood Cookbook and information on cholesterol available. Vol- unteers needed for special events, door to door canvassing. Call George Douglas, regional coordinator, at 382-4035 for infor- mation.(7) PARENT RESOURCE A parent resource group for parents to share information, support, guest speakers and more meets weekly, sponsored by the Capital Families Association. Info, 474- 7181.(7) thoughts on what type of plants are preferred. For example, evergreens (pines, spruce, junipers) provide year round color and interest vs. deciduous trees and shrubs (maples, poplars, lilacs) which: have a major presence really only during the spring, summer and fall. Obtaining nursery catalogues now and browsing through them is a good way of making up your own mind as to your likes and dislikes. These questions may well require some thought involving at least two members of most fami- lies, and if you are ready with the answers now, you'll be well on your way to helping a garden centre designer plan a practical ~ garden design just for your family. Magical cycle made by nature All living things — plants and animals — are linked by the cycle of nature. This natural process gives humans oxygen to breathe, food to eat, and heat to keep warm. The sun provides the energy that tuns the cycle. Plants use sunlight to make their own food, and they give off oxy- gen during the process. Humans and animals eat the plants and breathe in the oxygen. In turn, they both breathe out carbon dioxide. Plants combine the carbon dioxide with energy from sunlight, and water, and minerals from the soil to make more food. TheReview Wednesday, March 6, 1991 D10 Leeks are for onion lovers Anyone who is fond of onions, either in a soup, or as a vegetable, or just used as flavoring for stews, etc. will almost certainly love another member of the alium fam-. ily — the leek. Leeks are planted, usually in March, as small black seeds, spread sparingly over the soil in a four-inch pot, then covered lightly with more soil, watered from the bottom, and put in a plastic bag to keep seed moist while germinat- ing. This doesn’t take long. Remove the plastic when thin grass-like shoots appear, and transplant leeks outside in May or June. When you are ready to plant your seedlings, drop your four- inch pots into a pail of barely warm water. Remove the pot and swish the small plants around until all the earth has fallen off the roots. The plants will now be easy to separate. Dig a trench about six-inches deep, put compost or a mixture of decayed manure and soil in the bottom, and cover with perhaps an inch of dirt. Now pick up seedlings one by one, and, before planting, (using scissors) snip off roots to about two-inches in length, and tops to about three. Spread roots out in all directions, and cover with about ane inch of soil. Place leeks about five-inches apart in the row. As your leeks grow, fill in the trench, and finally, hill them up to blanch the stems. Even this past winter with all that cold and snow, when our leeks, still out in the garden, felt hard as iron bars, they survived without harm. When digging leeks, you will find they have enormous roots, so spade deeply around each one. Cut tops back to about six- inches of green, and, to clean, slice each one in half, lengthwise. This will allow you wash out every speck of dirt before cooking. -We steam leeks cut into about one-inch lengths until they appear limp, then drain them and pour overtop a plain white sauce. 2 2 = SERVIGES| ie 856-9920 4. ee rm, is SPRING CLEAN UP fiom... 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