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Gardening

TheReview Wednesday, August 7,1991 — AI16

Callers’ questions can’t stump garden columnist

Very early the other evening
Don Smith called and asked if we
were going to be home for a few
minutes, and when I said, “Yes”
he said, “I'll be right down.”

Within five minutes he was at
the door presenting me with a
bouquet of broccoli. It was
actually one giant head, and, when
we ate it, so tender the stalk hadn’t
even needed peeling.

Usually Don does this to me

with com...his always being at~

LEAST a week ahead of mine. He
does love to tease, that man, and
wonderful for us that he
does...makes for awfully good eat-
ing!

Saw some very interesting
plants this last week that might
intrigue you. One of them was a
very low growing verbena, in the

- mest brilliant red, being used as

patches of ground cover. The area

was both hot and dry, and the

verbena appeared to love it.
Other effective ground covers

were two sedums (which also —

thrive where it is hot and dry). One
of them has bright yellow=flowers
held about eight inches above the

leaf clusters; and the other sported -

pale pink blossoms. Both of these
seem very attractive to honey-
bees, those little dears that have
been so scarce this season.

This brings me to a further
report of a serious scarcity of fruit
on tomato plants, although “him-
self” took a phone call from a
woman in Deep Cove who has an
abundance of tomatoes on her
plants. This may be because there
are a number of bee-keepers in
that area or maybe she resorted to
Ann Raymond’s trick.

‘For instance,
under apples,
there must be

three of fhe same
variety, and each
of fhem MUST have
a stem aitached’

Those of you who know Ann
will appreciate her delightful
sense of the ridiculous. She called
to say that her patio tomatoes had
lots of fruit, as she had used “one
of Fred’s feathers to tickle the
blossoms.” Fred, it tums out, is
her 25-year-old female parrot,
who, since a recent move into a
condominium has taken to dropp-
ing her feathers!

J haven’t seen Ann for an age, so
we had a fine gabby session. She
misses the lovely garden she and
her husband devoted themselves to
nurturing. Ah me!

She has spots on the leaves of a
pear tree (we have some too) and
both of us should get out the
sprayer and give our trees a shot of
Benomyl, which is probably the
safest, most effective fungicide
available to home gardeners.

Mrs. Fallot also has an infesta-
tion of horse-tail in her garden. I
would imagine that if it were cut
off at the base, and either black
plastic or landscape cloth

Diet sianey
Cader Sas

9843 2nd St.
The wweigts lors pro,+ ionals®

stretched over the soil, then the
whole area covered with bark-
mulch, that the horsetail would
eventually die from Jack of light
and water.

Another interesting call con-
cerned tiny worms right inside
each garden pea, although there
were no visible entry holes in any
pods to show how the parent
arrived on the scene.

If I were an entomologist -per-
haps I would know for sure how
this happened, but an entomolog-
ist I am not, so my theory is that
some fly (whose offspring start
their life cycle as worms) laid its
eggs on pea blossoms, which later
hatched in the infant peas.

I have just confirmed this with
“Peter’’ who works at Applied
Bionomics, right here in North
Saanich.

Another simply lovely plant that
I saw growing in both moss bas-
kets, and in several flower beds, is
sweet old-fashioned viscaria. Evi-
dently is will self-seed, which
makes it even more valuable. It
really is a pretty thing, although
the flowers are not terribly long
lasting.

Spotted something unusual in
several large pots at the end of a
driveway. I stopped to talk to their
owner who said they were called
“Angel Trumpets” which is an apt
description of Datura. They look
very tropical, and until now I had
hever seem them grown outdoors.
Their owner says these handsome
plants are widely used as decora-
tion in the medians of highways in
Germany.

She also said that the flowers
must be bagged before seed pods
burst, or the following spring you
will find you have planted Datura
everywhere!

Tractor-loader

A contract for a heavy duty
tractor-loader-backhoe was
awarded by North Saanich council
to the low bidder Rollins Machin-
ery Ltd.

Money for the $52,000 unit was
included in the 1991 budget,
municipal engineer Jack Parry

reported.
* kX

Heather Sinnot called to ask
why leaf-tips on her Kaffir Lily
were turning brown. It took me a
while to wake up and realize that
Kaffir Lily is another name for
Clivia, and these I have had rea-
sonable success growing. They
need their roots crowded into a pot
that seems ridiculously small to
support such a mass of long,
strap-like leaves.

In Heather’s case she needs to
re-pot into a smaller container so
that there won't be a lot of empty
(perhaps wet) soil around her
plant’s roots.

Clivia also love lots of light, and
a summer outside in “dappled”
(love that word) shade, does won-
ders when it comes to producing
flowers. I have one clivia that, this
year, has produced several large
seeds. They aren’t ripe yet, but it
would be fun to plant them and
find they are viable (hate that
word, but it does serve a purpose I

_ suppose).

_ Lucy Fallot called to ask several
questions, and ended up offering
several worthwhile answers. She,
like all of us who grow plum trees
(or apples) have all these volunteer
baby trees sprouting around the
base of the parent._

They are growing from roots 2

close to the soil surface, and I
usually just cut them off as close
to their origin as possible (and, a
few weeks later cut them off
again...and again in another few
weeks...[ had heard that if you
TEAR them out, they won’t grow
back, but those things are tough,
and far too often I have strained
and struggled, trying to pull one
out, and suddenly gone over back-
wards, as, abruptly, it came away.
Not exactly dignified, somehow,
and I always hope the neighbors
weren't watching!)

Mrs. Fallot suggested that these
unwanted shoots might be cut off
short and then bumed out. sounds
a wee bit drastic, but probably
most effective.

Those of you thinking of enter-
ing the Sidney and North Saanich
garden show August 24th and 25th
should pick up a show catalogue to
confirm the standards used for
judging...these being the same all
over the world.

For instance, under apples, there
must be three of the same variety,
and each of them MUST have a
stem attached.

I do hope a lot of you are going
to show at least a few of your

contract given

North Saanich will receive $750
in capital funding and $2,640 in
maintenance funding for McTavish
Road under the provincial govern-
ment’s secondary highways assis-
tance program.

Council was advised of the
grants by a letter received at the
July 22 council meeting.

FATHOM’S LOUNGE

is pleased to announce
This week's winner in our weekly
BUSINESS CARD DRAW!

the waterfront

iotel

2537 Beacon Avenue
Sidney, B.C.

656-1131

2's
iciney.
WHARF DINING RO0V_a==aaeae

flowers, fruit and/or vegetables.
One interesting fact is that you
don’t need to be a member of the
Garden Club, nor do you need to
live in this area, to enter the show.
I’ve just been going over part of
the catalogue and find that fruits
and vegs will be judged by the
“B.C. Department of Agriculture’s
Circulars 77-22 and 50C Exhibi-

~ tion Standard of Perfection.”

To find out just exactly what that
means you perhaps should attend
the next Garden club meeting to be
held Monday August 19th at 7:30
in Sanscha Hall in Sidney.

Whoopie-ding! Our editor has
just promised to print a story about
these standards in The Review the
week the Saanich Fall Fair is being
featured. Now you have no excuse
for not entering the show!

DEBORAH GRAY

CONDO RESALES
TOWNHOUSES
NEW PROJECTS
Be one step ahead and get
on my list for up to date
info on these rare proper-
ties.
Call DEBORAH GRAY
NRS PENINSULA PROP.

652-5171

2496 Beacon Ave.
655-7171

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