A workshop for SGC members

Tuesday, June 5^th, 1:30 – 3:30

Hypertufa (pronounced hyper-toofa) was concocted to be used as a substitute for the natural volcanic rock called Tufa used for making Alpine style planting troughs. It is an artificial stone material that is made of several different aggregates and mixed with portland cement. It is much lighter than cement but can still withstand harsh weather conditions. Hypertufa containers appear to be solid rock and yet are deceptively light in weight. They can be easily and inexpensively made at home and can add a touch of elegance to any garden. Learn how to make garden art from hypertufa in Ron Knight’s workshop at Caron Garden.

During this course, taught by Ron Knight, you’ll view samples of hypertufa container shapes and finishes.  Then you’ll have fun making a hypertufa planter of your own design.  You’ll also see a demonstration on how to create hypertufa garden gnomes and giant mushrooms.  The workshop will include handout sheets, coffee or juice, and all materials except those listed below.

Location:  Caron Gardens, 4622 Beaumont Road, Garden Bay, V0N 1S1 (for a printable map and directions, go to:  www3.telus.net/rcknight )

Registration:  Sign up at any SGC meeting and hand in a cheque for $20, made out to “Sechelt Garden Club”.   (Class minimum is 8;  maximum is 18.  If more than 18 register, we will add a morning class on June 5^th, providing the minimum is met.)

Please bring:  A mould for your planter (eg. small Rubbermaid container, wood box, styrofoam cooler, solid lamp shade, etc., — no larger than 1 cubic foot); a large plastic garbage bag, rubber gloves, and rainwear if necessary.

Saturday May 12th, 2012

10:00 to 12:00 at the Seaside Centre

The Seaside Centre is located at 5790 Teredo St. in Sechelt.

Here are some of the fabulous plants that will be on sale:

• Ajuga
• Aquilegia (Columbine)
• Asters, blue, white
• Astilbe
• Bergenia
• Black Mondo Grass
• Coreopsis Moonbeam, yellow
• Coreopsis, purple
• Cranesbill Geranium
• Crocosmia, Monbretia & Lucifer
• Day Lilies, Stella D’oro, purple scented & orange
• Epimediums
• Euphorbia
• Grasses, Variegated Spiders Web
• Guaillardia (Blanket Flower)
• Gunnera manicata (giant rhubarb)
• Helebores
• Helenium Autumnal
• Herbs (singles as well as grouped in herb boxes)
• Hollyhocks
• Hostas
• Houttuynia (Chameleon Plant)
• Hydrangeas
• Irises
• Japanese Anemone
• Kniphofia
• Lady’s Mantle
• Leycesteria
• Lupins
• Mahonia
• Michaelmas Daisy
• Mint
• Perennial Snapdragons, tricolour flowers, pink, yellow, white
• Phlox
• Potentilla
• Primula
• Raspberries
• Rhododendrons
• Rhudbeckia
• Rose Campion
• Saxifrages (including London Pride)
• Scabiosa, Pin Cushion, blue
• Schytzostylis
• Sedums, many varieties
• Shasta
• Spirea
• Stachys (Lamb’s Ear)
• Sweet William
• Toad Lilies
• Tradescantia (Spiderwort)
• Willow (curly)
• Yarrow (pink)

In 3 or 4 weeks or when the weather outdoors has warmed into the 50 degree F or 10 degree C range at night, it’s time harden off or gradually acclimate your seedlings to outdoor conditions. Put them outside in a protected shady spot for half a day at first, then 2 or 3 full days, then gradually move them into full sun, starting with the mornings then all day long. Plant to transplant into the garden in late afternoon or on a hazy or cloudy day to minimize stress. Firm the soil around the plants and water well. Keep your young plants moist but not soggy. Mulch them with a good thick layer of compost, well-aged manure, Sea Soil, Salish Soil or other organic materials. This will produce the even moisture balance needed for healthy, disease-free growth and early big fruit sets and discourage weeds.

(from Bob Tuckey’s The Natural Gardener March 2012) 

Caron Gardens is a one-acre rhododendron paradise on the north shore of Hotel Lake in Pender Harbour.  During May there are over 100 different varieties in bloom as well as a multitude of companion plants.   If you are new to SGC, the attached photo will give you an idea of what to expect during our annual visit to Ron and Carla Knight’s garden. 

The schedule:

Leave Sechelt between 10:00 and 10:15 and bring your lunch (Ron and Carla will provide drinks and dessert).  Arrive at Caron Gardens by 11:00 and park on Beaumont Road.  At 11:15 Ron will give us a themed tour entitled, “How to Grow Great Rhododendrons”.  We’ll have an hour lunch break on the deck around 12:30 (in the classroom if it’s rainy).  During the lunch hour, you’ll have time to wander through the garden on your own or purchase rhododendrons (NB: SGC members have been asking for big leafed species rhodos, such as R. sinogrande, and for the fragrant Loderi King George.  Ron has both this year.)  At 1:30, Ron will do a seminar in the garden classroom, on Hydrangeas, with an emphasis on pruning.  Then we’ll wend our way home around 2:30. 

Caron Gardens is easy to find.  Turn onto Garden Bay Road from the SC Hwy and then follow this map to 4622 Beaumont Road.  There will be a yellow sign on Irvines Landing Road where you need to turn onto Beaumont Road.

There are no tomatoes in this plan. Grow them in a separate bed with plenty of space around them. Some plants can’t be crowded and few plants are more likely to disappoint when things don’t go their way than tomatoes.

Bed One: Radish, Carrot, Leeks, Broccoli or Cauliflower, Lettuce

Sow radishes and carrots in early spring alternating seeds about an inch apart in rows about six inches apart, about half the normal row spacing. Plant leeks in the spaces between the rows to repel carrot rust fly. The radishes will mature and be gone within five weeks, about the time that slower-growing carrots begin to bulk up. Radishes take little in the way of nutrients from the soil and the carrots will really benefit from the extra space.

When you harvest the baby carrots around the end of June/early July alternate three- to four-week-old broccoli or cauliflower and romaine lettuce seedlings 12 inches apart. Broccoli and cauliflower have deep roots that don’t compete with shallow roots of the lettuce and the shade from the large fast-growing broccoli leaves keeps the soil cool and moist, which lettuces love.

Bed Two: Peas, Spinach, Zucchini, Arugula

Alternate peas and spinach seeds about two inches apart. The peas will grow faster and provide shade, which spinach likes. Peas also collect nitrogen from the atmosphere and store it in the soil, which spinach also likes.

When the peas form pods start your zucchini seeds indoors. Around the end of June harvest the last of the spinach and cut the pea vines off at the soil, leaving the roots in place. Plant the zucchini seedlings on hills about three feet apart and sprinkle arugula seeds in the low areas between the hills, covering them lightly. The shade from the zucchini leaves will help the cool-weather arugula thrive and the nitrogen from the decomposing pea roots will satisfy arugula’s nitrogen hunger. You can plant more arugula or spinach when the zucchini vines come out in September and have leafy greens through to December.

Bed Three: Mescluns, Chard, Napa cabbage, Collards

Sow mesclun greens such as mizuna, corn salad and radicchio in early spring. You can just sprinkle the seeds around the bed.

As you harvest greens in May, plant chard seeds directly into the spaces you create. By June the greens will have run their course and you can plant napa cabbage into the remaining spaces. The chard will mature in mid-July, allowing you to plant collard greens as each space comes free until about mid-August. The napa cabbage will mature around the end of September, leaving space for the expanding wingspan of the collards. Harvest collard leaves from the bottom of the plant throughout the winter.

Note:  You can substitute green beans for the broccoli in bed one or the napa cabbage in bed three. Cut the bean vines off at the ground to leave the roots in place.

( adapted from Randy Shore: The Green Man Blog Vancouver Sun, March 11, 2012 )

                                       (thanks to Bob Tuckey from The Natural Gardener) 

(thanks to Bob Tuckey from The Natural Gardener) 

Wily, invasive and very tough to kill, Ranunculus repens is a perennial. It will outlive you unless you kill it. There are plenty of other weeds common in the vegetable gardens of southwestern BC, but you have a unique opportunity now to get the jump on this one.

Creeping buttercup can pop up wherever land is cleared and it particularly enjoys soils that stay wet most of the year. In dry conditions, it will set seed from bright yellow flowers. If the earth is waterlogged it sends out above ground runners like a strawberry. When the soil is warm and loose, it spreads along the surface with startling speed, especially after the soil is worked up. With long fibrous roots, creeping buttercup can also survive being chopped up. If you cut it in half, you’ll only have twice as many in a few weeks.

If you are lucky enough to have sandy soil you can get the jump on this pernicious monster now. A few hours of sunshine will warm and loosen the soil enough to remove the entire plant. Use a spade or trowel to loosen the soil about a foot deep around the plant with about eight inches of clearance. Gently shake the plant to get all the roots.

Use the same method to remove chickweed, another ground creeping denizen of disturbed soil, which your garden is. Taking chickweed out now will save you a lot of trouble later in the season. Each plant can set 15,000 seeds, according to the provincial government’s pest management website. Seeds in the soil can survive for 60 years.

If you have morning glory anywhere in your yard, I feel your pain. If it is mixed with sod, you have a big problem. If it’s in your garden, just as bad. Morning glory has roots that can run for 20 feet or more and even half an inch of root left in the soil will produce a new plant within weeks. I have covered morning glory with black plastic for two years without completely eradicating it. But all the sod died and that helped in my mission. Dig widely around the plant and follow every root as far as you can. They are long, slender and white. If you have a sieve, sift the soil as you go. Bag up the vines and roots and send them away with the trash. Do not risk your compost by adding morning glory.

There dozens of other common weeds that find their way into the garden and quite a few of them will set seed in March and April, so remove them now if you can. A few days without rain and a few hours of sunshine is all you need to get started. If you have clay soil it might take longer before your soil softens, or it may never soften without help. You can use an old trick.

Cultivate your garden soil as soon as it is warm and dry enough, especially if the weather is expected to be warm for the week to come. Use a tiller or a hoe, whatever your preference. Some people never till and that’s their right.

Unless I have a heavy cover crop I tend to stick with the hoe. If you have an aversion to tilling, you’ll need to dig down more than four inches to remove perennial roots.

Head out a week after you cultivate — preferably on a warm, dry day — and dig out everything that is sprouting from the loosened soil.

I have a rolling plastic barrel composter that gets very hot inside that I use to destroy weeds before adding them to my compost. I have also been known to spread them on black plastic in the sun for a few weeks, until they are completely brown. Just make sure they are dead.

Summer weeding is a whole different ball game. More on that later.

from Randy Shore, the Green Man

Note: Seeds from west coast growers are grown specifically for our climate and growing conditions.