Happy Garden Day! Mayor Bob Maloney and City Council have proclaimed Wednesday, Aug. 8 as “Garden Day” in Yorkton! Today is the day to enjoy your outdoor space, however large or small: have a cup of coffee on your back step or balcony or deck; take a walk through your garden and really appreciate what you see there; or walk through your neighborhood and enjoy the garden views, and ``stop and smell the roses``! We thank Mayor Bob and City Council for their support!
Today is show day! If you are reading this early in the day, we’d love for you to join us at the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society’s Annual Fruit, Flower and Vegetable Show on Wednesday, Aug. 8, from 1:00 till 5:00 PM at St. Gerard’s Parish Complex. You`ll see the best of the gardening year! Admission is $3 and that includes tea or coffee and dainties. It’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon, so bring a friend and join us!
And if you want to go shopping for some locally-grown produce, remember that the Yorkton Gardeners’ Market happens every Saturday from 9 a.m. till noon at Melrose and Simpson streets in Yorkton (north parking lot of the Prairie Harvest Christian Life Centre). It’s a great place to buy or sell local fresh produce! To register as a seller, email ethelda61@hotmail.com or tymiak.g@sasktel.net or call Glen at (306) 783-7040.
Did you plant any of Buzz’s flowers this year? In the spring, Cheerios teamed up with Vesey’s Seeds to send out free packages of “bee-friendly” flower seeds to anyone who requested them. We planted ours and we are delighted at the assortment of flowers that are now blooming, among them the dainty little forget-me-not.
When I saw this plant peeking out in the row of blooms, I was immediately back in Mom’s beautiful garden. When I was a little sprout of a gardener, Mom and Dad always let me pick out what seeds I wanted to plant in my patch. One year one of my choices was forget-me-nots. They grew so well, and I was so excited! Even then, I would go out and tour the garden every day, and the first day I saw them blooming I remember running back to the house calling “Come and see! Come and see!” That feeling came back all over again when I saw them in our garden!
Forget-me-nots (myosotis) are found all over the world. My homework tells me that they like a moist place to grow, but ours are planted in an area of partial shade and seem to be doing just fine. While they can come in pink or white, ours are a stunning pencil-crayon Mediterranean blue. The blooms are small and flat with five round petals and a yellow centre.
Though they are called biennials, I also read that they self-seed very easily, so I am hoping that will happen in our garden! This next bit of information surprised me when I read it: the plant will die after it finishes blooming, but we should leave the plant in its spot until fall and let the seeds fall where they may, and chances are good that we will have the little blue beauties there again next year. Or, if we want to plant forget-me-nots for next year, we should plant them in August.
If you want that “meadow” look of flowers growing in joyful abandon, plant a row of California poppies and forget-me-nots. They look so carefree and unstructured, the colors complement each other, and I can tell you the bees love them! Our garden is just humming! Buzz and his friends will thank you! Visit the horticultural group at www.yorktonhort.ca, and have a great week! Be sure to wear a hat.
