YORKTON - The Yorkton and District Horticultural Society would like to thank everyone who visited our annual fruit, flower and vegetable show. It was great to see our gardening friends again, thank you for stopping by! Thank you also to the Parkland Mall for their help, and a bouquet of thanks to the supportive members of the hort society who took part and/or worked at the show. Well done, group!
I’d like to share three quotes about courage. “Courage isn’t having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have strength.” (Napoleon Bonaparte). “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” (Brene Brown). “If you’re brave enough to start, you’re strong enough to finish.” (Gary Ryan Blair).
Right now, you are probably asking what this has to do with gardeners, generally, and our hort show, specifically. I’ll tell you. As all of us gardeners know, this has been a very tough year. Lots of rain, two hailstorms, lots of wind, lots of heat. It was not what any of us would call “ideal gardening weather”. Yet our group felt it was important to try and do our best with what we had from our 2022 gardens, and to share that with our gardening friends. It took courage for the wonderful members who participated to say yes, let’s go ahead and just do the best we can.
So, to the great members who did take part, even though every leaf of every entry may not have been absolutely perfect, I congratulate you; you’re gardening heroes! By sharing what we had in our gardens, we imparted not only our interest and our knowledge and the beauty of those determined plants, but also shared the experience that not every year will be perfect; not every garden will be perfect. But that is life, and we make the best of it, right? Right!
If you haven’t started a garden notebook yet, this is the year to do so! With the extremes that our plants have had to endure, it is the perfect time to take note of what plants survived and thrived!
We have a few listings already: We have beautiful marigolds that were severely ‘saladized’
(a word that came to mind when we looked at our once-beautiful hosta patch: it looked like coleslaw after Hail #2!). But they came back and are covered with blooms, each one perfect and long lasting. I think they are called “Vanilla Cream”, but I will have to check on that name. They are true winners!
Another plant that is lush and lovely is our purple fountain grass. As yet we have no seed heads, but the leaves are thick and full, with purple-burgundy ribs that look stunning, even if there is nothing more.
And our tomatoes, a patch consisting of several varieties, are doing very well, considering that most of them were reduced to a sad stem and one or two nodding, broken leaves. They continue to surprise and amaze us!
So jot down these observations, because by next year it’s easy to forget! Be sure to visit the hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca You’ll see what plans are coming up for the group, as we as beautiful garden photos and articles.
Remember, too, that the Yorkton Gardener’s Market is happening every Saturday from 9AM till noon at the corner of Melrose Avenue and Simpson Street. For more information on buying or selling at the market, call Glen at (306)783-7040.
Thank you to our friends at YTW for their great work. Have a good week!
