Thank you to everyone who supported the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society plant sale last week, I hope you found some treasures! I know there were lots of interesting choices to add to our gardens! Thank you also to our members who contributed plants and worked at the sale — great work, as always!
A few more housekeeping items: the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be holding their annual potluck supper and wind-up on Wednesday, June 21. This gathering is for members only (and significant other). Members, for full details please call Liz at (306) 782-2830.
If you would like to combine “vacation” with “education”, this little trip might be for you! The SHA (Saskatchewan Horticultural Association) is holding their 11th Annual Bus Tour July 18-20. This trip is open to all interested gardeners; Liz can give you details of that as well.
Don’t forget, The Yorkton In Bloom competition is coming up! You might want to enter your yard in one of the various categories including best front yard, best back yard, best commercial, best seniors’ complex and more! I know my gardening friends at the seniors’ complexes do an amazing job of planting up their areas, just beautiful, so I hope they enter! The deadline to enter is July 7, and judging will take place July 10-12. This year is a bit different: there won’t be a bus tour, but folks can take a winning entries self-guided tour on July 22. Call 9306) 786-1776 to register or find out more!
Remember, too, that the Yorkton Gardeners’ Market will begin on Saturday, July 22 at the Prairie harvest Christian Life Centre (corner of Melrose and Simpson Street).
My latest reading takes me into the pages of a great book called “1519 All-Natural All-Amazing Gardening Secrets” from the Reader’s Digest. I found this fascinating tome at the library, and when it’s due, you may want to borrow it, too! It is a big book jam-packed with advice and ideas, but I wanted to share some information about peppers with you.
The garden isn’t complete without peppers, is it? They do well in containers, too. They like full sun, well-drained soil. The big book tells us that we shouldn`t plant peppers where we grew tomatoes, eggplant or potatoes before, because since these plants are all members of the nightshade family, they could become victims of the same diseases that might be hiding in our soil. The book also suggests mulching with black plastic around the plants; we can use black garbage bags for this, and not only does it heat up the soil, but it protects the plants from soil-borne diseases that could splash up on the leaves. Interesting!
And one more interesting tip: when our peppers bloom, we should put several drops of honey on the plants: this will attract the bees that will pollinate the plants and give us more peppers! Imagine that!
I remember one year, Sweet Pea planted several cayenne pepper plants. Conditions must have been just right, or those pepper plants could feel the love that Mom had for all her plants, because they produced an amazing crop of bright red, long slender cayennes. They were clustered like bunches of red crayons on each plant, and we were thrilled to dry them and use them in the kitchen!
Good luck with your gardens and containers: isn`t this a wonderful time of year? Every day has a garden miracle just waiting for us! Visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca, and have a good week!
