Dear Helen: When is it safe to move tomato and pepper transplants into the open garden?
M.P.
Look for overnight temperatures routinely remaining above 10 C and weather that has settled into a pattern of daytime warmth. These conditions usually present themselves around mid-May or shortly after.
Acclimatize the transplants gradually by placing them outdoors in light shade for increasing lengths of time during the day. Leave them outdoors in a sheltered place for two or three nights before transplanting.
Dear Helen: What is the best time for pruning grape vines? Can I do it now?
L.C.
Like kiwi vines, grapes bleed badly when cut once the sap begins to rise in the plants in late winter. That is why a dry, above-freezing period in January is the preferred time for pruning.
Grape vines can be pruned again in early summer, once the fruit clusters have formed, to open windows of sunlight and enhance air circulation around the developing grapes.
If a January pruning has been missed, it鈥檚 best to wait until the vines have leafed out and the flow of sap through the plant will have slowed. Cut back the main arms of the vine to fit its support, and shorten shoots growing off the arms. These are the fruiting shoots. Cut them back to two or three leaves (or buds when pruning in January).
Dear Helen: After dinner at a neighbour鈥檚 house recently, I was surprised to see the hostess refrigerating leftover salad. I did not think salad greens, once they were tossed with a dressing, could be kept over, though the idea of reducing food waste is appealing. I know from your columns that you grow lettuces and enjoy salads. Have you ever saved leftovers?
S.N.
I routinely package leftover, dressed salad to eat the next day. The salad remains in good condition as long as the dressing is a light vinaigrette, without heavy ingredients such as mayonnaise. The sturdier greens, like romaine lettuce, keep over in the best state for eating the next day.
I first observed salad saving during one of my overseas jobs, cooking for a family in Beaulieu-sur-mer, a small seaside town between Nice and Monaco.
Whenever salad was on the menu, I was instructed to save any not eaten, for M. Jacob-Balestra to eat the next day. He savoured the leftover dish and called it 鈥渟alade cuite鈥� 鈥� cooked salad.
Garden Events
Nanaimo meeting. The Nanaimo Horticultural Society will meet tonight at 7 in Unitarian Fellowship Hall, 595 Townsite Rd. A panel will answer gardening questions and there will be a parlour show. Information at 250-758-6783.
Floral art. The Mid Island Floral Art Club will meet on Thursday at 2 p.m. in St. Stephen's Church Hall, 150 Village Way in Qualicum Beach. The theme is Mother鈥檚 Day All Wrapped Up. Information at 250-752-1858.
Plant sales on Saturday:
鈥� Compost Education Centre, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 1216 North Park St. Organically grown vegetable, herb and medicinal transplants, perennial edibles. Heirloom tomatoes. Snacks and music.
鈥� Gordon Head Garden Club, 9 a.m. to 12聽p.m., Gordon Head United Church, 4201聽Tyndall Ave.
鈥� Garden Babies for Birthright, 8 a.m. to 1聽p.m., St. Elizabeth Church, 10030 3rd Ave. in Sidney. Cool shade flowers, flowering shrubs, perennials, herbs, vegetables, ground covers. Large tomato transplants.
鈥� Ladysmith Saltair Garden Club, 9 a.m. until sold out, Aggie Hall at Symonds and 1st Ave. in Ladysmith. Annuals, perennials, shrubs, vegetables, floral baskets, house plants raised by members.
鈥� Morrell Nature Sanctuary, 8:30 a.m. to 1聽p.m., 787 Nanaimo Lakes Rd. in Nanaimo. Native plants. Master gardeners to answer questions.
鈥� Nanoose Garden Club, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Nanoose Library Centre on Northwest Bay Rd. Vegetables, heritage tomatoes, perennials. Master gardeners. Book sale, bake sale.
鈥� Qualicum Beach Garden Club, 8 a.m. to 1聽p.m., 234 Crescent Rd. East in Qualicum Beach. Locally raised plants, including vegetables, and garden-related items.
Show and sale. The Nanaimo Rhododendron Society will host a flower show and plant sale on Saturday, from 10聽a.m. to 2 p.m. in Beban Park Centennial Building. View a great variety of blooms and foliage. Visit vendors from all over Vancouver Island who will have alpine and woodland plants, bulbs, seeds and perennials as well as rhododendrons. Admission is free. Details at nanaimorhodos.ca.
