“Fostering the love of Gardening and the Beautification of our City.”

April 2008

President’s Message

Let’s make this official…..spring is here finally!!! And even though the next few days are calling for near zero temperatures, plants are still peeking out from under their covers and, in my yard, a choir of birds are definitely competing for the next Bird Idol.

As I was reading this week about one of the horticultural societies in southern Ontario not being able to hold their flower shows for the last couple of years because of drought, it is timely that our speaker this month will be speaking about climate changes and how it is affecting our growing conditions. And how we must change our way of thinking and the way we’ve always done things in the past and climatize ourselves to the new way of gardening especially considering things like our water usage,growing in dry conditions and making more shade in our yards.

This should be a very interesting and informative topic for everyone of us, so please gather your friends and fellow gardeners to this important meeting on April 22.

Darlene Lecour

Next meeting
Tuesday, April 22th, 7:00 p.m.
Speakers : Bryan Herdman
Climate change and your North Bay garden

Our event schedule for 2008

April 22 - Bryan Herdman – Climate change and your North Bay garden
May 20 – Bonnie Cappadocia – Growing organic vegetables in pots
Sat. May 24 – Plant sale
Sat. June 21 - Flower and vegetable show at Northgate Shopping Centre
June 24 – Strawberry social; Jim Aldridge - Bees
Tues. July 22 – Ella’s waterfront picnic at noon
August 22-24 - OHA convention in Brampton
Sat. Sept. 6th – Painting flowers workshop with Carol Romaine Cost $25
September 23th – potluck; The art of pressed flowers – Dorothy Antram
Sat. October 4th Gathering Nature’s Bounty (edible wild walk): with Lucy Emmott - $10 includes list of plants and other info
October 28th meeting – Beautiful winter containers – Mark from Bouquet D’Amour
November 25 – Annual general meeting –Waterfront Update with Rod Johnston

Garden guide for mid April to mid May

Give the lawn a good raking to remove thatch and snow-mould once it has dried out and firmed up.
Clean up perennial beds when snow goes; removing all old stems that were left for winter interest. Shallow cultivation allows rain to penetrate soil.
Plant deciduous trees as soon as soil is thawed.
Gradually remove mulch from roses.
Generally prepare beds, turn soil, etc.
Cool weather vegetables can be planted as soon as soil is workable. Plant an extra row for the food bank!
Gladiolas may be planted in early May - then successive plantings for longer bloom period.
Sweet peas may be planted when soil is workable provided they have good drainage.
Most overcrowded perennials can be divided in early May except early bloomers. Pot up the extras for the plant sale!

Plant Sale update

Mark Saturday May 24th on your calendar for our annual huge plant sale! And while you are getting into your gardens this month, think about potting up the plants you divide as well as the strays growing in the wrong place. Potting up now means a strong healthy plant by the time of the sale. We will be needing lots of volunteers for set up Friday afternoon, as well as the day of the sale. We will let you know more at upcoming meetings! If you have any questions, please feel free to call Pat Madill at 472 9836.

Wear your Name tags
We would love to try to get out members to wear their name tags to each meeting so we can all figure out who is who. When you grab your mug for the meeting, please remember you tag too!

Living Green ideas

How to use less power and get more light
by Rupert Wiemer

Yes things are getting better as time passes.
When they first came out with energy efficient bulbs and David Suzuki was doing his ads on the TV, I was shaking my head; the light bulbs that were recommending (compact fluorescent) were so dim, I felt like I was reading by candlelight. I had to start experimenting.

The first thing I had to do was to get a brighter bulb. This 9 watt bulb was only like a 40 watt incandescent lamp. It was okay to put over my fish tank and that was about all. Then I tried to the 13 watt with a three bulb lamp; it still could not
throw the light of a regular old 60 watt bulb. What was wrong?
It was the yellow light it was producing. Next, I went to the 23 watt lamps, supposedly equivalent to a 100w bulb. These were closer. All this experimenting took about a year; the yellow glow started to go away in these newer bulbs.

At this point, I must point out that if you had a 2 bulb hanging lamp with the old 100w bulbs (200 watt total) and you replace it with a 5 bulb of the new style, you would only be using 115w of energy but you would get 2 and 1/2 times the original light. Now, the only thing was that I felt like I was using the white frosted bulbs that was too stark (I prefer the soft white bulbs).I finally found a great, just like daylight bulb (23w Eiko-sp23/41k ) at Mesco, one of our local stores on Hammond Street.
I love it especially in my workshop. It is. Now I get 8000 hours of use at 4100 Kelvin. That is bright. I am using 23 of the new style lamps at ¼ of my original energy cost. Yes they cost more but last a lot longer, and I am living a bit greener!

Seedlings Storytime
(a joint program with the North Bay Horticultural Society and North Bay Public Library)

The next children’s program starts Saturday May 24th.
If your children or grandchildren need something to fill their Saturdays,
consider signing them up for our
Seedlings Storytime program.
Here is what is planned :

Our Summer program has some huge events planned. The plants that you are growing now will be tall and strong when we start again on May 24. We’ll be at the Plant Sale that day selling a few of our plants and making a collage of images and words with the theme “What I like about Gardening?”
The next weekend on May 31, we will tour Laporte’s Nursery. We’ll be back at the library the next two weeks for a Storytime and more gardening fun, including making a scarecrow! On June 21 (the first Day of Summer), we visit the Flower Show at Northgate Square, entering drawings, veggies and plants. I encourage you to enter a picture or an arrangement of flowers or a plant or a vegetable. And for our last meeting that session, we’ll have a Garden Tea at the Library.

If you have any questions, you can always reach me (Janet Vos) via email at
stellasnowflakeATsympatico.ca or by telephone at (705) 752-1826.

Recycling opportunity – Help the students at Phelps School

Do you have some used garden tools, gloves, seeds just cluttering up your gardening space? Well, the time has come to clear them out for a good cause.
Phelps Community School needs supplies to start up a gardening program with the students of their school.
If you have any items, please bring them to the April meeting. We will collect all the items and deliver them to the school!
Thanks.

Callander Blooms

Join the Callander Horticultural Society at Callander Blooms on Friday, April 18th from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm and on Saturday, April 19th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. There will be a Tea Garden and admission is $6.00 for the weekend.Master Gardeners will be present to answer your gardening questions as usual.

Also on Thursday evening, June 12th they will host "An Evening with Ed Lawrence" at the Callander Community Centre. Tickets are $10.00 and there will be refreshments available.
Contact Colleen Haddow at 472-8016 or at [email protected].
A FEW TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE!!

Publishing our Green Thumb newsletter costs the Society about $1000 per year!
Please consider requesting the email version to help us reduce our costs!
Contact Geri at gabarryAThotmail.com to get on the email list!

Thanks!
Your Executive.

PLEASE, PLEASE REMEMBER TO LUG YOUR MUG!!
To all our meetings
Help us protect the environment!!

Need to contact us with comments, questions or suggestions?
North Bay Horticultural Society
P.O. Box 1482, North Bay, ON P1B 8K6
Website : Go to www.gardenontario.org and follow the links!
Email : [email protected]

Treasurer’s report to Feb. 29/08

Investment savings $3630.78
Bank statement as of Jan. 31/08 $1779.84
Last month’s outstanding cheques - $ 67.89
Deposit + $ 219.00
Expenditures - $ 528.06
This month’s outstanding cheques + $ 180.98
Total current account $1583.87

Expenditures
Horticultural meetings $
Green Thumb $ 104.32
Bank charges $ 5.32
OHA & products $ 114.00
General office $ 19.60
T-shirts $ 284.76
Total expenditures $ 528.06

Receipts
Membership $ 90.00
Youth program 97.00
Social 32.00

Total receipts $

General Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Held at Christ Church, 890 Vimy St.

Vice President Louise Cicci called the meeting to order at 7:15. 37 members were in attendance.
Business – Minutes of the February general meeting, as printed in the Green Thumb, were moved to be adopted by Helen Bannerman and SECONDED by Marianne Gomm. CARRIED. No errors or omissions.
Treasurer’s Report – A motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s Report as presented in the Green Thumb by June Charette and SECONDED by Janet Vos. CARRIED
North Bay Blooms – Chris Mayne approached Judi Brewer to see if the NBHS members would be judges.
Gardening donations for Phelps School will be picked up from the foyer and delivered the Phelps School.
“Living Green” Article - two volunteers are required for the April Green Thumb’s new “Living Green” article - “One Thing You’ve Changed to Live Green”. Rupert Wiemer volunteered to be one.
Committee Reports –
Social – Judy Watling - Christine Piche and Carol Coleman volunteered to bring the goodies for the next meeting. Thank you ladies.
Youth – Janet Vos mentioned that the kids have been busy planting seeds, using no damp; planting cuttings, and making a worm farm in shoe box containers. Worms were purchased from Big Ed’s in Callander. Next, Janet is planning to make plant markers and have Diane Legault come from Sudbury to show the kids how to make gnome homes.
Green Thumb – If you would like to receive your Green Thumb Newsletter via e-mail instead of a paper copy in the mail, in order to keep the monthly cost down, please give your name to Geri Openshaw (476-1894) or Maureen Ranger (472-6086). Also, if you have any ideas that you would like to submit in the Green Thumb, please either call Geri at home or e-mail her at gopenshawATontera.net with your entry.
Membership – we now have 93 members.
Plant Sale – Pat Madill is looking for volunteers for digging and potting up. Sign up sheet is at the back. Or you can call her at 472-9836.
Program Line Up – Geri Openshaw
April 22 – Brian Herdman – Climate Change and Your North Bay Garden
April 24 – Garden Therapy - East Home in Powassan
April 24 – Master Gardeners meet in Bracebridge, guest speaker Frank Kershaw
June 12 – Ed Lawrence - Callander Community Centre, 7:00-9:00. Tickets $10.00 in advance through Lorne Cutts (497-8863) or Ted Reed (752-2565)
Door Prizes – were won by Deborah Emmerson, Helen Bannerman, Carolyn Carr, Audrey Morton, Leoni Paquette and June Charette. Congratulations.
Geri Openshaw’s homemade cookies were won by Judi Brewer.
Master Gardener’s Questions/Answers –
- To get rid of little black fruit flies in your house and to prevent them from hatching, sprinkle the top of plant soil with cayenne pepper and do not water plants from the top.
- Fill a glass container with sweet water and cover tightly with cellophane. Cut slit in the top – to attract black flies. They go in and can’t get out.
- Perennial Sweet Peas – the poorer the soil, the better.
Adjournment -
The meeting broke for coffee at 7:30, followed by our guest speakers, Judy and Jim Merrick speaking on Hostas and the Hosta Virus. The Hosta is the #1 selling plant in North America. See HostaLibrary.com for more info.
The next general meeting will be on Tuesday, April 22, 2008.