Beaver Valley Probus Club

Things to do in your garden in October.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

November Garden Tips:

• While we have had some rain in October, I would suggest a little last-minute deep watering of trees and shrubs before the frost.
• Look for discounted bulbs on sale. Buy them and get them in the ground now. Your extra efforts will bloom in the spring.
• Remove annual plants from the garden and from pots or other containers. Dump plants and soil onto your compost pile. Clean pots thoroughly and store them.
• There is an annual argument among gardeners as to whether you should cut back all your perennials, grasses etc., in the fall, or leave them long for “winter interest”. Up here, most perennials are covered by 2+ feet of snow, so you can’t see them anyway. With no fall clean-up, spring clean-up can be daunting. It can be delayed by wet weather, a late spring or there can be instant summer. That’s why I am opting for a BIG FALL CLEAN-UP this year to get a jump on spring 2025. I’ll leave a few tall perennials with seeds for the birds, but suit yourself.
• Dig up and bring in dahlia tubers, tuberous begonias and gladiola corms when the leaves turn yellow. Remove the soil and wash the tubers. Remove little cormlets from glad corms for more plants next year. Cure the tubers and corms for 2-3 weeks in a warm dry place. Place in trays and cover with dry compost, peat moss, sand or perlite. Store at about 5 C in a cold cellar, or a slightly heated garage.
• Try potting up some spring bulbs like amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus and force them into bloom for Christmas and/or for late winter indoor colour. Different bulbs will require various lengths of cold storage in your refrigerator or cold cellar to flower, so read the product packaging carefully.
• Complete winterization procedures for plants and containers; drain hoses and clean all other garden equipment. To be a perfect gardener, sharpen your tools and put linseed oil on wood handles. Paint the handles of small hand tools RED, so you won’t lose them in the garden next spring.
• Protect young trees and shrubs from rodents by using wire collars or plastic protectors.
• Hill up your Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses with 10+ inches of compost covering the stems, or use a metal or plastic “Rose Collar” and fill it with compost before the ground freezes.
• Create one or more Winter/Christmas urns using a variety of evergreen branches. Find branches with branches with colorful berries and add red dogwood stems and dried hydrangea blossoms.
• Check mulch levels in gardens. Pull mulch back 3” to 6” from around shrub and tree trunks to discourage rodents. Add more compost or leaves to beds if you have them. It provides winter homes for pollinators and other insects.
• Order seed catalogues for next spring.
• I usually recommend that you stock up on Triple-19 fertilizer now, so it is ready to put on your flower beds in March, right after the snow has melted. In early March, call the Markdale Co-Op at 1-519-986-2031 to make sure they have it in stock, or buy some now to be sure you’ll have it in March.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

 

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in October.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

October Garden Tips:

• After a warm, no, it was a HOT summer, plus some lovely summer days in September, FALL is definitely here with a possible risk of FROST.
• There is much talk in the fall about “Putting Your Garden to Bed”, I think they mean preparing your garden for the winter. There is an annual argument among gardeners as to whether you should cut back your perennials, ornamental grasses, etc., in the fall, or leave them tall for “winter interest”, and to feed the birds. However, up here, most perennials are covered by 2+ feet of snow, so you can’t see them anyway and there are no seedheads for the birds. Spring Clean-Up can be daunting. There may be wet weather, or a late spring. For these reasons, I am opting for a BIG FALL CLEAN-UP again this year to get a jump on next spring.
• It’s time to trim back perennials and divide them as needed if your garden is crowded, or to give to your neighbours, or to pot them up now and put them back in the ground for the St. George’s plant sale, planned for Saturday May 31st 2025. Plant donors get an Income Tax Receipt for the value their plants sell for, if you donate 15 or more perennials. When digging and potting up, always make sure it is a cool, cloudy day and add bone meal fertilizer to the pots, or to your new plantings.
• Remember, October is a great time to plant shrubs and perennials. They get a big jump on plants you might plant next spring.
• Buy and plant spring flowering bulbs NOW. Add a little bulb fertilizer, like bone meal, to the bottom of the hole and add water to the hole to get the bulb’s roots started. Your efforts NOW will bring big dividends in April and May 2025.
• For a longer bulb bloom season, plant a variety of bulbs, each with a different bloom date, like winter aconite, snow drops and crocus to start the season. You can also plant early, middle and late blooming tulips and daffs for a much longer bloom season.
• Place chicken wire just under the surface of the soil over any tulip bulbs you plant. The squirrels will hate you. Daffs should not need this protection.
• If there is an early frost warning this fall, cover tender annuals overnight with an old bed sheet. They should make it through the night and keep on blooming.
• Bring in house plants when the evenings start to cool down, or if you get a frost warning. First, give them a thorough spray with insecticidal soap, so that there are no unwanted hitchhikers coming into your home.
• Fertilize lawns with a “high” first number, no “second” number and lower “third” number, or advertised as a “Fall Formula” fertilizer. Don’t use that fertilizer you have left over from the spring.
• Start cutting your grass much lower than in summer to avoid winter-matted long grass next spring that you will have to rake out.
• Water shrubs, evergreens and trees weekly and deeply at least until frost.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in September.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

September Garden Tips:

• Trim back perennials like Daylilies and Iris. My mother always cut the iris fans up one side and down the other into a perfect V. But she was a picky gardener. Divide them as needed. Make sure it’s a cool, cloudy day to divide and replant, or to pot up plants for your neighbours, or for fall plant sales or exchanges.
• Fall is the ideal time to divide and plant Iris, Daylilies, Peonies and many other perennials. Share extra plants with neighbours. See my YouTube video on dividing and potting up plants but don’t laugh at the old man grunting and groaning as he divides up his perennials!
• Buy and plant spring-flowering bulbs. Your efforts will be handsomely rewarded next spring. Check out the website www.bulbsrus.com for good deals. Dig the hole a little deeper than the specified depth & add some water to the bottom of the hole, then some soil, then a little bonemeal fertilizer or special bulb food. Water well after planting to start root growth
• Take a critical look at your garden. Then fill in any gaps that may have developed with new perennials, shrubs and/or evergreens. They will get a huge head start over plants planted next spring.
• Bring in house plants when the evenings start to cool down. First, give them a thorough spray with insecticidal soap so that no unwanted hitchhikers come into your home.
• With cool nights and hoped-for fall rains, it’s the ideal time for lawn repair. Dig out weeds, add clean, weed-free topsoil and re-seed. Keep the planted area moist.
• Fertilize lawns with root-building “Fall Fertilizer” with a low first number (Nitrogen) and high second and third numbers (Phosphorus & Potash).
• Don’t use the lawn fertilizer you have left over from the spring, probably with a high first number (Nitrogen). Save it for early next spring.
• Even with the rain we have had this summer, deep down it is probably still dry. Dig a little test hole, say 14”-16” deep. Check the moisture levels at that depth. If the bottom of the hole is dry, water your gardens weekly and deeply until frost. Buy a soaker end and put it on the end of your hose. Then put it in the middle of your relatively flat garden beds and let the water seep slowly in.
• Look for the annual Grey County Master Gardener’s fall plant sale, for a wide variety of top-flight perennials, Saturday September 14 from 9 am until noon. Again this year, it’s in Meaford, at the Rotary Pavilion by the Harbor. Choose from unique perennials and lots of native and pollinator plants at reasonable prices.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in July.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

July Garden Tips:

• Watch for the Japanese beetle on your Asiatic Lilies, Roses, Rose of Sharon, Dahlias, Hollyhocks, and numerous other plants. Handpicking and squeezing, combined with a beetle trap, are the most efficient ways to limit these ravaging critters. Luckily, the little red devils don’t eat Day Lilies (Hemerocallis)
• Watch for earwigs and Gypsy moth caterpillars. Spray plants with a 40:1 mixture of water and dish soap.
• Ants can also be a problem. The ant powder does not seem to work for me. Maybe the ants didn’t read the instructions to take it back to their nest.
• Trim evergreens, cedar hedges, etc., NOW as needed, not later in the summer.
• Stake straggly annuals and perennials, or pinch them back to promote new growth and make them bushy.
• Raise lawn mower blades for summer mowing. Grass should be at least 5 - 7.5 cm (2 to 3 inches) high to stay healthy and weed-free.
• Prune spring flowering shrubs like Forsythia and Spirea after blooming. If you really want to be picky, remove individual spent lilac blooms.
• Water flower beds deeply and try a second round of weeding. Add mulch again to keep the weeds at bay.
• Mulch your tomato plants. When a ripe tomato drops, it won’t split or get muddy. Mulch holds moisture too!
• Thin, hoe, weed and water vegetables as required. (This is why I stick to flowers)
• Water lawns and beds as deeply as you can.
• Tackle weeds now before they go to seed. Save yourself from weeding their offspring next year.
• Stake tall perennials that may be weakened by too rapid growth.
• Turn compost regularly and check the moisture level - not too wet, not too dry, just right, like Goldilocks.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in June.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

June Garden Tips—It's Summer!

There’s lots to do in your garden In May, now that Spring is finally here!

• Summer is really here! Lots of sun and much needed rain. Get your annuals & veggies planted now. Add a little general-purpose fertilizer and water in well.
• Fertilize perennials, roses, shrubs and vegetables using a balanced fertilizer —not the one for your lawn, it has too much nitrogen. Pull back the mulch (that should already be there) from the perennials. Dig the fertilizer in lightly around each plant (or, if you have it, well-rotted manure) and replace the mulch.
• Start cutting your lawn higher/longer and leave cuttings on the lawn as fertilizer.
• Prune spring blooming shrubs and trees (forsythia, lilac) after they have flowered.
• Prune evergreens and hedges now, not later in the summer.
• Finish removing all daffodil and tulip flower stems. Leave the leaves to mature and feed the bulb for next year’s bloom. Only remove them when brown. Add a little bone meal around bulb clumps to promote bulb growth for next year.
• Stake or cage tomato plants, dahlias, gladiolas, peonies & delphinium plants.
• Thin vegetable seedlings and plant successive crops. (Plant a second crop as the first is maturing e.g., lettuce, spinach, radishes.)
• Seed flowering cabbage/kale into garden rows for later transplanting.
• Plant seeds of fast-growing flowers such as cosmos, marigold, calendula, etc.
• If desired, move houseplants outside to a protected area.
• Deadhead (cut off) faded blooms on plants such as petunia, rose, verbena, etc. This will promote continuous blooms & bushy plants for later in the summer/fall.
• Weed and water garden beds as needed.
• Add mulch to suppress weed growth and hold in moisture. At least 2”.
• Cut back by a third, late bloomers such as mums and asters. This will make the plants bushier and give them a mounded shape and more blooms in the fall.
• Turn compost regularly and check moisture level, not too wet, not too dry, just right, like Goldilocks.
• Take cuttings of perennials, shrubs, roses, etc. for rooting, for next year.
• Watch for local plant sales like the Giant Plant Sale at St. George’s Anglican Church in Clarksburg, Saturday June 1 2023. It starts at 8 am. Choose from over 1,500 choice perennials, a wide variety for sun or shade, Daylilies, ornamental grasses, unique Hostas and some shrubs at really reasonable prices. 599 Garden Club experts will provide advice. Meet your resident Master Gardener Emeritus at the sale to answer your horticultural questions.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in May.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

May Garden Tips:

There’s lots to do in your garden In May, now that Spring is finally here!

• If not done already, clean up winter debris in the garden as soon as the soil is dry enough to work. Cut off dead plant stocks. Dig in manure or compost around perennials and shrubs and weed well. An extra hour weeding now, will save 3 days later in the summer!!
• Use a line to cut sharp straight edges for your beds. For curved edges, run hot water through a hose to soften it up and lay out a smooth curve. Watch you don’t chop the hose!
• Take coloured pictures of your spring bulbs in each of your gardens so you will know where there are any gaps and where the bulbs are when you order and plant more bulbs in the fall. Save the pictures in a safe place.
• Plan now to plant early blooming bulbs like snowdrops and crocus in the fall at places close to where you come in and out of the house. It’s nice to be greeted by early signs of spring.
• Add 3” to 4’” of mulch to flowerbeds and shrubs to conserve moisture and discourage weeds. Shredded cedar bark is best, but expensive. Try 13/Forty Landscape Supply who have 3 types of mulch: Cedar, Pine, Black and Utility, the cheaper kind that I use.
• Don’t walk on or roll lawns that are still wet and full of water. If you can see your footprint, stay OFF the lawn. You will compact the soil.
• If your lawn is already compacted, rent an aerator which will dig out small plugs. Let the plugs dry and rake them back into the lawn as a top dressing. Add grass seed to bare patches.
• When dry, rake lawns vigorously to remove dead grass and thatch.
• Spread weed-free topsoil on thin patches in your lawn. Apply grass seed, roll and water with a mist setting. Keep seeded areas moist, but don’t flood.
• If you find moss in your lawn, the soil is too acidic. Apply dolomite lime before a rain. You may need a second application.
• If you have pots or planters that are very big or deep, put some empty plastic water bottles with lids in the bottom of the pot to take up the space the roots will never get to. It makes the planter or pot lighter and easier to move.
• Prepare containers and pots for planting. Fill with a mixture of compost and potting soil. Add peat moss, or better still, coconut coir to retain moisture.
• Place pots with culinary herbs close to the kitchen door for easy access.
• Harden-off seedlings for at least a week before planting outside. Google the last frost date for your area (June 1 in the Blue Mountains) and allow at least 1 week more before planting tender transplants such as annuals and tomatoes.
• Walk around your garden and look for perennials that should be divided, are in the wrong place, or you don’t like any more. Pot them up for spring plant sales at least 3 weeks before the sale. Add compost, not garden soil to the pots. To be really fancy, add a little bone meal to the pot before you put in the plant. Add plant labels with the name (Botanical and/or common), colour, sun exposure, height, bloom time, etc. Water well and keep in the shade.
• Dig, pot up and donate 15 or more perennials to the St. George’s annual Plant Sale and get an Income Tax Receipt for the retail value your plants sell for. Bring them to the church Wed May 31 9am to 3pm. It’s a win-win for everyone.
• The giant annual St. George’s Plant Sale is Saturday, June 1 this year on the church grounds in Clarksburg. It starts at 8 am.
• Plant beans now directly into the garden as they germinate quickly and will grow as long as the soil is warm. Maybe mid-May this year.
• Install peony rings before the plants start to grow.
• Monitor for the presence of slugs, cutworms, earwigs and tent caterpillars. Pick them off.
• Control weeds in the lawn by hand pulling. Use nematodes to control grubs, which eat the grass roots, leading to brown patches in the lawn in summer.
• Prune roses according to type.
• Deadhead (cut the blooms off) tulips, daffodils and other spring bulbs but do not cut or pull out the leaves until they are brown and decayed. They are needed to nourish the bulbs for next year’s bloom.
• If you have any fritillaria or Asian lilies, now is the time to watch for the red lily beetle (adult, larva and eggs). It seems that removal by hand is the best and only way to reduce this problem. Day lilies are beetle free.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in April.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

April Garden Tips:

• Make sure you have done everything you were supposed to do on the March MG List, or ask for a new copy. See email above. Spring had already arrived on many days in March, but then the late snow and cold. Spring cane in like a lamb and out like a lion.
• Do stretch and bend exercises every time before you start in the garden. I find skiing muscles have nothing to do with gardening muscles. Take it easy. There are a lot of gardening days before the next ski season.
• A NEW PROGRAM FOR SPREADING TRIPPLE-19 FERTILIZER. I have learned from the Guelph educated Agronomist at the Huron Co-Op in Markdale that you should NOT spread 19-19-19 general purpose fertilizer over the snow on all your flower beds and shrub boarders. You will lose the Nitrogen. So, after the snow has gone, you should spread it on the damp ground in your flower beds, but before plant leaves appear, so they will not be burned. Triple-19 fertilizer is available now at the Mid-West Co-Op just south of Markdale on HWY 10.
• Organize your compost pile for the new season. Start a new one with the top foot of compost material from last year’s pile as a base.
• As the weather warms and the ground dries, prune back perennials and ornamental grasses to 1” to 2” from the ground. Collect the dead material and put it on your new compost pile. Shred it, if you can.
• Push any plants that the frost has heaved, back into place.
• Prepare garden beds for planting. Dig in compost, and/or manure, and/or other organic material around each plant. Remove any weeds that have come through from last fall. When you have cleaned up the beds, ADD 3” TO 4” OF MULCH to control weeds this summer.
• Here is an opportunity. Look over your garden to determine what plants are in the wrong place or should be divided. Dig, pot up and donate any extra perennials you have to the St. George’s Anglican church annual plant sale, Saturday June 1st 2024. When you donate 15 or more perennials, you will receive an Income Tax donation receipt for the value your plants sell for. Plant intake day is, Wednesday May 29, 9 am till 3 pm at the church, 177 Russell St. Clarksburg. Call 519-599-5846 and ask for the new FREE Plant Donor Kit, with plant labels, Donor labels, a waterproof Sharpie Pen and complete digging, potting and labeling instructions as a reminder.
• Remove rose protection. For Hybrid Teas, prune back to 6” or 8”and apply dormant oil spray before the buds break.
• Apply dormant oil spray to shrubs like euonymus that may have suffered from scale last year. Do it before the buds break.
• Prepare your vegetable garden with a good digging. Add compost and manure, if you have it. Mid-month, plant the seeds of cool-weather vegetables like peas, spinach, lettuce, onions, beets. Plant seeds of frost resistant annuals like larkspur, sweet peas and calendulas.
• When you can’t see your foot prints in the lawn, it is dry enough to rake it vigorously to remove any thatch. Then repair damage with weed-free topsoil. Add grass seed to bare spots. Keep moist.
• Fertilize your lawn with slow-release high nitrogen fertilizer (the first of the 3 numbers on the bag). Slow-release urea costs more, but it’s worth it, as it should last until the fall.
• Apply crabgrass pre-emergence herbicide to your lawn, if required.
• When spring finally comes, plant trees, shrubs, perennials and biennials in your garden. No need to wait until May 24th for perennials, that’s for annuals. Up here, June 1st is a better date to start planting frost-tender annuals safely. If there is a late frost forecast, cover annuals with a bed sheet.
• Re-fill your pots and planters with compost. But first, put empty plastic bottles with tops on at the bottom of large pots. You will need less soil and they will be lighter and easier to move. Add slow-release plant food to the top 4 inches.
• You can plant frost-resistant pansies NOW for a little early spring colour.
• Start mowing your lawn only as needed. Keep it long to crowd out any weeds.
• Save Saturday June 1st for the St. George’s, Anglican Parish of the Blue Mountains, giant annual Plant Sale on the church grounds at 166 Russell St. Clarksburg with hopefully over 1,200 perennials and shrubs to choose from, plus free gardening advice from 599 Garden Club experts.

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in March.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

March Garden Tips:

• Start tuberous begonia and caladium corms in pots or In a tray of peat moss and keep moist, but not soggy.
• Plant brassicas (cabbage family) seeds and hardy annuals for very late May planting outdoors.
• Start tomatoes, lettuce and other fast growers from seed in late March to early April.
• Make a list of spring chores in the order they should be done, if you haven’t already done so.
• Order summer flowering bulbs. Try www.botanus.com Order/buy seeds for summer planting NOW!
• Check, repair and sharpen your gardening tools on a snowy day.
• Apply combination dormant oil spray to fruit trees & pest-prone shrubs when above-freezing weather permits.
• Bring Spring indoors. Start forcing branches of spring-flowering shrubs like Forsythia.
• If you can find them, buy Narcissus bulbs and grow them in gravel with water for spring flowers indoors.
• Prune summer-flowering shrubs and vines.
• When the snow is gone from your garden beds and they are still damp, but before new plant leaves emerge, buy and apply triple-19 agricultural fertilizer liberally only to your garden beds. It’s available at the Midwest Co-Op in Markdale.
• Plan to plant a few bird-attracting, native berry plants and shrubs, plus pollinator perennials for bees and butterflies.
• When the snow goes, loosen up and dig in any packed down winter mulch and press perennials that have heaved, back into place
• Think about your garden and make a list of the perennials you could dig and donate to the St. George’s Annual Plant Sale in Clarksburg June 1 2024. Donate 15 or more plants and get a tax receipt for the value your plants sell for. I have 353 on my list!
• If there are any students out there interested in garden work after school this spring and all summer too, please get in touch now. There are lots of jobs available—please contact John Hethrington

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in February.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

February Garden Tips:

• The warm pre-Christmas weeks into the first 2 weeks of January were over with a ten below bang. The snow was really here. There was lots of snow cover too. But, before we get a February thaw and refreeze, mound up all the available snow and any new snow that falls, around tender plants like roses.
• If you have a few boughs left over from your Christmas tree, put them over tender plants to catch the snow. It is the freeze/thaw cycle that kills plants, not just the cold.
• Start planning your garden projects for 2024. Make a list for the Spring, then you will know what you didn’t get done when you check it in June. I have mine done and I am tired already. Luckily, a garden is never finished!
• Go online and order up Spring Catalogues. I just got mine from Botanus in British Columbia, packed with spring and summer plants like dozens of colourful Dahlias, beautiful Begonias, lovely lilies and Achilleas. Check them out at www.botanus.com
• Start propagating stem cuttings of geraniums, fuchsias, etc. by the end of the month.
• Plant slow germinating seeds for the spring inside now, like impatiens, peppers, eggplants, etc.
• Don’t over-water house plants. Wait till the soil in the pot is dry down at least an inch before adding more water. Then water well and wait until it’s dry again.
• As the weather warms, you can start pruning shade trees, fruit trees and shrubs, if you can get to them through the snow. Leave trees that “bleed” like maples and birch until after the sap runs and the leaves appear in the spring.
• You can forget about the big garden shows again this year. Canada Blooms and the Peterborough Garden Show are on hiatus, still recovering from the effects of COVID, etc.
• But, to get a WHIFF OF SPRING, plan to take in the Barrie Spring Garden and Home Show, March 9 -10 2024, 10 AM to 4 PM at Bradford Greenhouses Garden Gallery in Springwater, on Hwy 90, just west of Barrie. Hear special guest presenter, Frankie Flowers at 1pm on Saturday and Sunday. It’s worth the drive to Springwater.
• It may be early, but if there are any students out there interested in garden work after school this spring and all summer too, please get in touch now. There are lots of jobs available—please contact John Hethrington

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc

Things to do in your garden in January.

Taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar
by John Hethrington, Master Gardener Emeritus
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

Please contact John for more information!

January Garden Tips:

• Inspect house plants for white flies, spider mites and aphids.
• Apply insecticidal soap and spray with water.
• Inspect spring bulbs you may have stored or forgotten about. Discard soft or mouldy ones.
• Plant left over, not-yet-planted spring bulbs like daffs, tulips etc. in pots with good potting soil and a little bone meal. Water. Put the pots in an unheated garage or garden shed for 6 weeks. Take them inside in February or early March. You should get spring blooms in less than a month.
• There has certainly been lots of snow! If the traditional January thaw comes and the snow melts away, mound any remaining snow over roses and tender perennials.
• Cut the branches off your Christmas tree and place them over tender plants to catch the snow. It’s the freeze/thaw cycle that kills the plants.
• Expand your personal knowledge through on-line courses, plus start looking online for seed and plant catalogues.
• Start planning your garden for next spring. I’m already making lists of plants to divide.
• Make detailed lists; BIG projects, regular maintenance, new plants to buy and plants to divide and donate to the St. George’s Plant Sale, in June. Call 519-599-5846 for more info, or if you need a digging crew to help you post up plants.
• Google “Seed Catalogue Websites” and see hundreds of seed sources.
• Order flower and vegetable seeds. Decide which seeds should be started inside.
• If you can find them, try forcing amaryllis and paperwhite narcissus now for indoor winter bloom that will cheer you up.
• At the end of the month, start the slowest germinating seeds like begonias and geranium, also seeds for early spring bloom e.g., pansy, verbena, alyssum and dianthus.
• The Markdale CO-OP, now Midwest Co-Op 1-519-986-2031, should have a good supply of Triple-19 fertilizer by the end of February. This is the strong agricultural fertilizer to put on top of the snow, only on your flower beds in March before the snow melts away. It will fertilize your gardens all summer long. It’s worth the drive to Markdale!

John Hethrington,
Master Gardener Emeritus,
Past President, Master Gardeners of Ontario

• More information about Master Gardeners of Ontario Inc