Do up those supper dishes early tonight, Wednesday, September 15, and join the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society for our first regular meeting at 7 p.m. at Yorkdale Student Centre. Our special guest will be Frank Woloschuk, and he'll be talking about "Getting the garden ready for winter: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask!" Frank will tell us everything we need to know; preparing the fall garden takes as much work as the spring garden. That's 7 p.m. tonight, Wednesday, September 15, at the Yorkdale Student Centre.
And don't forget, the Fall Plant and Bulb sale is on Friday, September 17 from 9:30 a.m. till 5 p.m. at the Parkland Mall. My experience has been that gardeners are often waiting for the sale to begin, so if you can, come early for best selection! I was looking around our garden the other day, and there are definitely some spots that would benefit by a nice new perennial. So check out your yard and then come to the sale! The summer was a topsy-turvy one this year, wasn't it, and we still didn't get a Karl Forster established in our yard. We did get several new hostas, and we will be creating a new perennial bed, but that's a project for next spring. This fall and winter is for planning!
I think Nature has so many things to teach us, but we don't always understand the messages. In recent weeks, I've noticed on several occasions that there are large groups of sparrows, sitting and eating. They are chomping down as if winter is coming tomorrow! It's nothing that unusual, but these are large groups of birds, perhaps thirty or forty or more at a time, all clustered together and pecking at the ground. Have you noticed that? I wonder if that is sign of an early winter, or just a sign of chubby sparrows with big appetites!
Here's another phenomena that's a Nature mystery! My sweet hubby found an interesting article that talked about "mast years" with oak trees. Mast years are years when the oak tree produces five to ten more acorns than normal. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to when this happens: it may happen again next year, or it may not happen again for ten years. It also can happen over very wide geographical areas, with different climate patterns in each one, so it's not as though there is a climate link. One question I had, which the article didn't answer, is if there was a common bond in what followed the mast year. For example, if oak trees on the prairies had a mast year, was the winter a particularly difficult one? And if in that same year the oak trees in British Columbia had a mast year, was the winter especially rainy and cold? I'd like to do more research about it and find out more. I'd also like to find out why our spruce trees have so many cones in certain years; there's probably a reason!
The weather has definitely turned, now, hasn't it. It's time for us to follow Frank's advice about getting the garden ready for winter, bundle up in our fleeces and head outside on the first warmer, dry day! Have a good week!
