The weeks leading up to sa国际传媒 Day have felt like a waiting game for gardeners. Waiting for temperatures to hasten productivity in heat loving flowers and vegetables. Waiting for more than the odd few days of full sun to infuse plants and produce with sturdy strength and full flavour.
The month of June, sometimes known also as 鈥淛unuary,鈥� has a record of being cool and damp. Not all bad. These are great conditions for continued seeding and transplanting. And as gardeners have been hovering over the tomatoes and peppers in anticipation of accelerated progress, the plants have been busy. They鈥檝e been playing the rooting game. That extended time devoted mainly to root development should translate later into strong and productive plants.
The sweet potato planting is a target for my earthy version of 鈥渉elicopter鈥� parenting. The plants are healthy, though still small. I imagine them burrowing industriously underground, setting themselves up securely as they wait for hot sunshine to send them surging upward on their wire fence support.
In late summer, given a decent season of hot, sunny weather, the vines will move into tuber formation. Though the autumn鈥檚 harvest is not always huge, I persist. Home grown sweet potatoes, cured and stored for a while, deliver a flavour that I鈥檝e yet to find in any purchased tubers.
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Renovating the past. In an ideal world of my imagining, a nation鈥檚 150th anniversary presents a natural opportunity to appraise the past, propose plans for cleaning up messes made there, and look toward a cleaner, brighter future.
This is not a significant anniversary year of my garden, yet something has been impelling me to notice a number of 鈥渕esses鈥� that call out for attention. In fact, I鈥檝e become a gardener possessed.
Armed with secateurs, a little hand saw and a ladder, I鈥檝e been laying siege to selected areas, removing old plants beyond redemption, re-shaping others grown monstrously beyond bounds in the wet weather since October. Off come entire awkwardly placed and broad-spreading rhododendron trunks. Disreputable plots are emptied and readied for replanting.
The weather has been perfect for such projects, and it seems a timely season for cleaning up at least part of the past and re-shaping the future.
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In with the new. Food gardeners are familiar with powdery mildew appearing on the foliage of zucchini plants in August. Various treatments work to a point, but the plants usually decline from then on. There is an easy way to have vigorous young plants producing zucchinis well into autumn. Make an indoor seeding in early July and transplant when the seedlings have formed a robust cluster of leaves.
This second sowing and transplanting, a followup to the usual spring planting, will yield the first small zucchinis in early September, on young, perky plants that will continue producing until the weather turns cold.
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GARDEN EVENTS
View Royal meeting. The View Royal Garden Club will meet at 7:30 this evening, in Esquimalt United Church, 500听Admirals Rd. Internationally qualified rose judge Barb Munton will provide an overview of her collection of roses 鈥� minis, shrubs, Hybrid Teas, Flribundas, Grandifloras, David Austin roses and others. As well, a judged mini-show will feature exhibits from members鈥� gardens. A sales table will have plants and garden items. Visitors and new members are welcome. Drop-in fee $5.
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Government House plant sales. On听Tuesdays and Thursdays this summer听to Aug. 31, the Government House Plant Nursery (next to the Tea Room) will be open for plant sales from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Proceeds go into the听maintenance and enhancement of听the gardens at Government House, 1401 Rockland Ave.
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Water garden tour. For the Love of Africa Society presents its 11th听Annual Water Garden Tour of 10 Greater Victoria water gardens on听Saturday, July听8, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Designers will be present to answer questions, along with musicians and artists at some of the gardens. Proceeds go to projects in Tanzania. Tickets are $25. Visit watergardentour.ca for a list of vendors or for online sales, or call 250-891-0762.