The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society invite you to our next meeting on Wednesday, May 16, 7:00 p.m. at SIGN on North Street; we’ll be trying something new! It’s a surprise! The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society will be holding a first-time ever event, “Iron Gardeners”! What’s it all about? Let’s just say it will be fun, entertaining, educational, and something that will get us all in the mood for planting! Join us; you don’t have to be a member to attend the meetings!
Did you know that a community garden is being re-established in Yorkton? There will be an informational meeting on Thursday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Yorkton Alliance Church. Gardeners will not have to pay a fee for a garden plot. Call Warren at (306) 782-3249 for more information.
Let’s make a cup of tea and chat for a few minutes; if you are adding honey to your tea, that’s great because we want to talk about bee-friendly plants. Vesey seeds are once again teaming up with Honey Nut Cheerios and are giving away free bee-friendly flower seeds. Log on to bringbackthebees.ca to order your seeds, and to learn about the wonderful bees. The site has all kinds of great information about bees, including these: “It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.” “Bees have good colour vision. That’s why flowers are so showy. They especially like blue, purple, violet, white and yellow.” And, “The bee is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.”
Most importantly, did you know that “One in 3 bites of food we eat is made possible by bees and other pollinators, who spread the pollen that crops need to grow. That includes many of our favourite foods like apples, almonds, coffee, and of course, honey.”
Gardeners know Vesey’s as a great place to order seeds; they reside in Prince Edward Island, and have been around for 79 years. They know gardening! Vesey’s has been working on this bee project for the last three years, and guess what, in this time frame, over one billion seeds have been planted. The flower mix that Vesey’s has combined is formulated to give the bees the nutrition that they need. The bee seeds will include: Chinese Forget-Me-Not, Siberian Wallflower, Orange California Poppy, Purple Coneflower, Coreopsis, Blue Flax, Tall White Sweet Alyssum, Lavender, and other flowers that bees like.
If you want to add more to your garden than the seeds provide, you can include bee balm or monarda; the cheery rudbeckia; goldenrod; buddleia (butterfly bush); lavender; chives; sunflowers; salvia; and cosmos. We have several large clumps of oregano, and when it is in bloom, the area around it is literally buzzing! And since we know that bees like an urban environment where they can fly to many flowers in a small space, just think of the good work we’d be doing if we all planted something for the bees. They could visit your garden, then come to our garden, and continue along!
Sometimes when we hear about the plight of the bees it almost seems overwhelming, and we don’t know how to help. But truly, gardeners, if each of us makes a small effort to plant some extra flowers that will attract bees and pollinators, it will make a huge difference! So let’s pledge to do that this gardening year.
Find out what’s happening with the group and visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca
Remember, our spring plant and bulb sale happens on May 25! Have a great week!
