At this time in a normal year, I would have been asking you to join the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society at our Annual Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Show! While it has been cancelled for August 2020, we’re going to have a virtual flower show online!
Yes, it’s different! Yes, it’s new (for all of us!). But this is one way that hort members can still present our best of the season to you. As much fun as it was to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee and dainties and talk gardening with our guests, it’s impossible this year. But hopefully next year we’ll be sharing a face-to-face visit at the show again! Check our website, www.yorktonhort.ca for details about the virtual show.
The Society has always been about promoting horticulture and gardening, and we always want to learn something new! Do you have an unusual plant? Take a photo and submit it to our website for our new feature “Mystery Plants”. Include the name of the plant, if known, and tell us a little about it. Or, if you have a plant and don’t know what it is, maybe someone can identify it. We’ll all learn together! Please send in photos to yorktonhort@yahoo.com
I’ll just tell you an interesting little factoid. I was going through some old newspaper clippings for the Hort society, which have been kept faithfully and so well-organized by our group historian Margaret MacDonald. Thank you, Margaret, continue the great work! There was one clipping, dated September 18, 1976, which showed a beautiful shot of the show, resplendent with cut flowers, fruits, and vegetables of all kinds. This clipping is special, not only because of how it captured a moment in time for our society, but because it had this caption: “This full-color news photograph, the first in Yorkton, is presented on the first anniversary of Yorkton This Week, which began publication Sept. 10 last year. The photo represents the combined effort of photographer Grant Black, Avalon Studios, and Yorkton This Week.” It made me realize yet again how wonderfully the paper has always supported us, so to our friends at Yorkton This Week, a huge bouquet of thanks for your amazing work! It is so appreciated!
After you and I finish our cups of tea, I’ll be heading out to water our containers. Don’t they dry out quickly! We’ve had some hot days, and will likely have more before the summer is over, so I wanted to do some homework and find out the best way to water our plants.
It seems that morning or evening is the best time to water. Not because it is cooler for us gardeners, but because the water is more readily absorbed into the soil, and not as prone to partially evaporating as it would be in the heat of the day. It is good to water from the bottom, not spraying or sprinkling from overhead. Why? The water is directed to where we actually want it to go, and again, it will be soaking into the soil, not lingering and evaporating off the leaves. Remember how we always thought that wetting the leaves on very hot days will scorch or burn them? It seems that this is not correct; but the problem is evaporation. But note that overhead watering can sometimes contribute to leaf fungus on some plants, so, another good reason to water at ground level.
Proper watering is so important, because the water helps plants carry nutrients up from the soil and replaces the water lost while the plant is in the process of breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing our oxygen. Plants are amazing and wondrous little machines of nature, and we help them out by supplying them with enough water at the right time.
Be sure to get outside and enjoy the beauty of summer! These days are gifts to treasure!
Let’s pray for health for all. Have a great week and be sure to wear a hat!
