YORKTON - The recent blizzard certainly set back the melting that was nicely occurring in our gardens. A dear friend told us earlier how she had tulips coming up against her house’s foundation, I wonder what became of the poor things now? Well, spring will return to our yards. Hopefully all is well with our plants under their blanket of white.
Are you looking for a garden plot for this growing season? The Community Peace Garden has one plot available. If you are interested in this space, please call Warren at 782-3249.
One other announcement: the Yorkton Gardener’s Market will be starting up beginning on July 16. If you plant a large garden and think you might want to be a seller at this market, call Glen at (306)783-7040 for information.
I was looking over some notes from a presentation given to the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society a few years ago by an excellent and very knowledgeable gardener who was talking to us about trees and shrubs. I’d like to share some of those points with you, because as spring yard work approaches, some gardeners might be looking to add to their garden landscape. What trees or shrubs would be good choices?
First order of business is to do some homework and then talk to the experts at the local nursery. Be sure you know the dimensions of your yard. This is very important because many trees, no matter how lovely, are simply too large to plant in a city lot. Thankfully, though, there are many beautiful specimens that grow to reasonable dimensions. Ask the experts for advice.
At the time of that great presentation, many gardeners were looking for trees with nicely colored fall foliage. People once looked to blooming trees, but that beauty is very short-lived, perhaps just a couple weeks; so now the trend seems to be great fall foliage colour. As you can probably guess, red is the colour of choice, and this autumnal beauty can be attained with trees such as the Amur Maple, the Sienna Glen Maple, Northern Pin Oak, or European Mountain Ash. Looking for yellow? Look to the Paper Birch, Fall Gold Ash, or Trembling Aspen. Another excellent point to consider is that because so much of our year is winter, it is a good idea to look for trees with nice bark, something like the paper birch, silver maple, or dogwood, which we can enjoy visually in the winter months.
Trees with great color in summer include the Thunderchild flowering crab, the Schubert Chokecherry, or Diablo Ninebark.
If we’re talking shrubs, you’ll find lovely fall colour with the Dwarf Winged Burning Bush; Fireball Burning Bush; cranberries, or chokecherry. Great summer colour is yours with Diablo Ninebark, Coppertina, or Barberry. There is also stunning colour in the Golden Elder, which needs full sun to achieve its bright yellow colour; Gold Flame spirea; and Siberian Pearl dogwood. And if you want something flowering, why not try the Annabel or Endless Summer hydrangea, or the “Incrediball” hydrangea. Spirea and potentilla were always good choices.
As you can see, we covered a lot of ground today, pardon the pun! One thing that is constant is the gardener’s interest and enthusiasm in the spring!
Thank you to our friends at YTW for all their great work. Visit the Hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca and see what’s new and what’s coming up. Have a great week!
