It's happening this Saturday, March 31, gardeners! The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society is heading down the highway, looking for adventure, as we head off to Gardenscape in Saskatoon! I checked out the website and it all looks very exciting! Gardenscape is the third largest show if its kind in Canada. It's a showcase for horticulture and outdoor lifestyles, with all kinds of things for us to see: demonstrations, an art show and sale, and more than 420 booths! I'm sure it will be a great day for all the gardeners who have signed up. As you read this, I'm not sure how many seats are still available on the bus, but please call Liz at 782-2830 if you want to do a last minute check.
Get out your calendar and circle Wednesday, April 18. That's the date of the next Horticultural Society meeting, and our guest speaker will be Marie Saretsky from Flower of Dellwood Creek in Burr, Saskatchewan talking to us about "Planting, Gardening, Fertilizing, and Pruning According To Moon Phases". This is a topic that will be new to many of us, but I have heard gardeners say that without a doubt, certain times are better than others to do certain tasks in the garden. We know how the moon affects the tides; Marie will tell us how it affects our gardens! That's Wednesday, April 18, 7:00 p.m. in the Sunshine Room at SIGN on North Street.
You know that we save our old garden catalogues; many of them have such good practical information or interesting factoids about various plants or planting methods. The catalogues become almost like a mini-reference.
I was browsing through an old catalogue from McFayden Seeds. There was a little sidebar with the history of the seed company, which was established in 1910 by Harris McFayden. Working with Harris was GP Crossing, DJ Daniel, and DA Hagen. In the beginning, the seed company was based in Winnipeg and was called Harris McFayden Seed Company, and they sold farm seed. But by 1941, McFayden's was the largest mail order house for vegetable and garden seeds in Canada. In 1965, McFayden's moved to Brandon and has called that city "home" ever since. Imagine a seed company bring around for over 100 years: there must have been so many changes in gardening and gardeners over all those years.
At various times, I have heard some gardeners say that it seems the seed packages are smaller than they used to be. I am guessing that this is likely a reflection of the changing gardening scene. Most gardeners don't have one acre plots with fifty foot rows. I think that probably an average row in many gardens is about ten feet long. So I'm sure that seed companies do their research and work hard to keep up with the latest trends in gardening, working hard to give us the best service and selection they can. It must be very difficult to be planning ahead by a year or more, trying to anticipate what we enthusiastic gardeners are going to want to plant! I think they do a great job, all of them, because when the catalogues come, I want to order everything!
In another catalogue, I saw a great little article about what seeds are needed for a "beginner's garden", but you and I can make a fresh cup of tea and chat about that next time. I'll tell you about Gardenscape, too.
Have a great week, and be sure to take a tour of your garden and see what's coming up!
