SACANDAGA GARDEN
CLUB - by Barbara Henry
Courtesy of the Edinburg
Newsletter
Mary Hogan led our meeting in December
when we made wreaths for public buildings in Northville and the
surrounding
towns. Mary
is an expert quilter and with needle and thread she has created
some amazing works of art. We were so lucky to have her expertise
showing us how to create the wreaths from bare wire and a bunch
of greens and decorate them with items we all brought to share.
We also created some festive baskets for those who aren’t
able to get out and enjoy the Holidays as much as they would like.
This is one of our members’ favorite activities and the baskets
were beautiful.
We also had our Christmas party in
the meeting room of the Northville Public Library. It is a lovely
room and
our thanks to Michael Burnett
for letting this happen. It happened to be his birthday so we were
happy to serenade him with a chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ and
have a cake in his honor. Our very special thanks go to Carol Reutzel,
Janice Taylor, Mary Katz and Fran Varcoe who were our hostesses.
They created beautiful decorations for the room and centerpieces
for the tables. It was a memorable way to finish out 2009.
Our Club does not meet during January
and February, however, this does not mean that we do not have
gardening interests
in mind.
Our houseplants need to be watched during the winter months. Lower
light levels and the lower humidity in our homes mean that we can
get infestations on plants that need to be cleaned up. Perhaps
you’ve seen clouds of little black flies around your plants?
Probably fungus gnats. It’s the larvae of these gnats that
cause the problem because they feed on the roots and that weakens
the plant. They metamorphasize into those pesky fruit fly like
gnats but they only live around 10 days as an adult and apart from
being a nuisance don’t damage the plant during that time.
Mealy bugs are white, cottony blobs you will see on the stems
of your plants. They suck the sap right out of the stems. Clean
them off and pay attention to the underside of the leaves
Scale is another common houseplant
pest. Usually oval in shape these are fairly hard shell pests
and they also
live to suck the
plant juices. If you don’t take action when you first see
them, they will soon cover your plant and spread to all your other
plants too. Scrape them off, sometimes a little pressure is needed
with scale, again check the underside of the leaves.
Spider mites are working on my miniature rose right now and I
need to get them cleaned up before they spread. You can see the
threads they create to move from area to area.
There are organic and synthetic soil drenches and sprays that
will take care of these problems quite easily but an easy deterrent
is a good rinse with a hand held shower attachment. You can cover
the soil with plastic to avoid spillage as you turn the plant upside
down to get at the underneath. Group plants together, they will
like the shared humidity. You can also put a shallow tray of water
near your plants to give off that extra little humidity. Spraying
plants with water is usually a waste of your time, the plants are
dry before you walk away.
A happier issue that we have to deal
with at this time of year is ordering seeds. I don’t know about you but I have already
received several seed catalogs. Do work with a plan before you
order; my eyes are always bigger than my garden and I have to be
ruthless to cull my order before I send it in. Consider what you
eat as a family before ordering say, eggplant that no one will
eat even though it is beautiful plant. For your flowers, consider
form, color and texture in your garden. Too many different types
of flowers will make your garden look haphazard whereas repeating
combinations of flowers in two or three places will give a more
unified look and give the eye a chance to rest before moving on.
Where you have bare spots from bulbs or maybe bleeding hearts that
die back early, you can fill in with splashes of annuals. A basic
design principle is to plant in odd numbers. If you have a large
garden then think in terms of seven to nine plants in a group for
a bold statement. This is particularly true if you are – and
I know you are – going to plant to attract the beneficial
insects which are the pollinators of our gardens. Butterflies and
humming birds will ‘see’ a large group of red bee balm
or zinnia but may pass by if there are only one or two. They prefer
to snack, going from one flower to another in a group. Don’t
forget also to plant some of the host plants; dill and parsley
are favorites of the swallowtail butterflies; violets are the host
plants for many of the fritillaries and clovers attract the eastern
blue, sulphurs and skippers not to mention all the bees.
And one last reminder; when you’ve
finished with your Christmas tree indoors, cut off the branches
and lay
them over your perennials
outside to give them a little extra winter protection. Or move
the entire tree outside and decorate with suet treats and popcorn
for the birds to enjoy.
