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June 2015

Happy Summer! It’s finally here. The annuals are planted and now we wait for all the perennials to do their thing. I have peonies blooming, and numerous irises are already finished. It’s always exciting to see what the garden will do each year…perennial gardens never do the same thing twice.

Planting day on May 23rd was a success again this year. Thank you to Konkle’s Greenhouses for donating the annuals and to all of the hardworking people who volunteered their time to help with the planting. It was a beautiful day and the gardens are now set for another stunning season.

Jack Kent was our guest speaker again in May. He talked to our members about what’s new for our gardens for this year. He is always an engaging speaker and we love hearing from him. I visited his garden centre, The Potting Shed, recently and enjoyed walking around the grounds. There’s an enormous koi pond and goats and beautiful gardens full of huge hostas and daylilies and many plants for sale. If you haven’t had a chance to visit there I strongly recommend that you do so. You won’t be disappointed.

Our speaker for the upcoming general meeting will be Jeff Bokma from Vermeer’s Garden Centre and he’ll be talking about succulents. In this day of water wise gardening his lecture couldn’t be timelier.

Don’t forget to bring your designs for our light up display for Wingfield Park. The winning entry will be announced at the September general meeting and it will be constructed in time for this year’s Christmas display along the river. Entries in this contest will be accepted up until July 31st. Make sure it contains our letters (DHS) and that it has no sharp angles because rope lighting is used and it doesn’t bend well. Two colours are ideal, but three colours can be used too.

The Mudcat Festival will soon be upon us. This year it runs from June 11-14th. On Saturday June 13th we will be participating in “Community Lane” where we will have a table set up in order to inform people what we are all about and hopefully entice some new people to join. Our membership drive at the Lions’ Home & Garden Show was hugely successful. We signed up 57 people which brought our membership total to 200. What a tremendous achievement!

Speaking of “Mudcat”, the Dunnville Horticultural Society has teamed up with the Rotary Club to help them with landscaping underneath Muddy the Mudcat. We are helping with design and plant choices. So far the project is looking great. Rock and soil have been put into place and it makes such a difference. Soon it will be filled with plants and make a grand entrance for our town. Congratulations to all who have taken on this project. Muddy deserves it.

Your executive is excited to announce our upcoming bus trip to Niagara Botanical Gardens on September 12th! The day-long adventure begins with a tour of the breathtaking gardens by the Falls then we will visit 3 of Niagara’s premiere wineries to tantalize your taste buds. Tickets are $50 per person and will be available at the upcoming general meeting. If you don’t get them then, you can pick tickets up from Maura Cooper at the Chamber of Commerce, or call Deb Zynomirski at 416-566-9337. First come, first served…tickets will not be reserved.

We’ll be taking a break from our usual garden tour this year and there will be no general meeting in either July or August. During this time, however, your executive will be very busy with judging the nominated properties for the Trillium awards. We usually receive between 40-50 nominations and each house or business has to be judged by 3 individuals who then tally up and average their scores. We need volunteers for judging….if you’ve never done it before we will have a session to teach you what to do. There are strict criteria for the properties to meet in order to win. All you need is a score sheet, some garden sense, and a good eye.

At the September general meeting we will be giving out the Trillium Awards to this year’s recipients and we’ll also be holding our 2nd annual Flower & Veggie show. It’s fun and informal and has classes for everyone:

Flowers-annuals, perennials and roses

Vegetables- largest tomato, smallest carrot and most unusual

Pretty Things in small Packages- miniatures

Now How’s That- vegetable centerpiece

A Tisket A Tasket – arrangement in a basket

A Quick Snack- edible bouquet of fruit and vegetables

Thyme in a Bottle – a bottle garden

The classes are open to all of our members and if last year was any indication there’ll be lots of entries showing the creativity and imagination of our members. Our new junior gardeners will be having a show if their own, too. I’ll have more information for you in the near future.

Our guest speaker for the September meeting will be Sandi Marr. Her topic will be “bringing fall beauty to our homes, inside and out”.

Don’t forget the Blooms and Bubbly Garden tour on June 27th hosted by Senior Support Services. The cost is $12 per person and this entitles you to tour 4 beautiful gardens in town and for an additional fee there will be a BBQ, penny sale and wine tasting afterwards. For more information call 905-774-3005 or email
nmans@seniorsupport.ca or lveldman@seniorsupport.ca

Garden Tip of the Month: Remember to stop and smell the roses (or lavender, or peonies, or lilies). We all work hard to make our gardens look good and it can sometimes be time consuming. Just remember to relax occasionally and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

See you at the meeting!

Sue Mazi, DHS Secretary.

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