A very unusual summer so far. Climate change is certainly giving us food for thought. It will take billions of trees to help stop climate change, but every single one counts. Plan to plant! Enjoy your gardens.
Celebrate BC Day on Aug. 5.
We Dig – Do It Now Tips
• Keep deadheading
• Keep baskets and planters well fed, watered and deadheaded
• Fertilize broccoli and cucumbers
• Keep water from shrub leaves while hot sun is out
• Divide iris
• Prune climbing roses and fertilize with fish fertilizer spray
• Trim evergreen hedges, including laurel
• Trim conifers to maintain shape
• To toughen trees, shrubs and perennials for winter, STOP fertilizing!
• Remove finished annuals, such as nemesia and schizanthus
• When cane plants such as raspberries are finished, cut the old canes to the ground
• Plant winter kale and Brussels sprouts
• Brush the soil away from the tops of onions to assist in maturity
• Cut back stems of pumpkins and trailing winter squash. Make the cut just above the leaf growing beyond the last formed fruit
Did you know…
…the flower of the month is the gladiola, meaning ‘give me a break’?
…planting basil with tomatoes helps repel flies and mosquitoes?
…one thousand jasmine flowers and a dozen roses go into a single bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume?
…putting a piece of banana in a shot glass, covering it very tightly with a wrap and poking a few holes with a toothpick can be a highly effective way to trap fruit flies?
…the juice from bluebell flowers was used historically to make glue? It was used to bind books as it not only glued the pages, its poisonous sap protected the books from paper-eating insects!
Pick of the Month – Corn flower, aka batchelor button (centaurea cyanus)
Bright blue small daisy like pom-pom flowers on 2’-3’ stems, with silvery green foliage. An old fashioned flower that thrives on sunshine and poor soil. The blooms are in clusters of up to five flowers along the plant’s stem and each flower blooms for only a day. Attractive to bees and butterflies. Commonly used in boutonnieres and herbal teas!
Sow seeds in the fall before frost to ensure early spring blooms. Long lasting and dries well.
AND… the seven stages of an Avocado are: not ripe, not ripe, not ripe, not ripe, not ripe, not ripe, BAD!
Chemainus Communities in Bloom meets next on Tuesday, August 20, at 7 p.m. in the Steeples activity room. Newcomers always welcome!
Visit our blog www.wedigchemainus.ca.