Wind Plays Havoc on Tender Young Plants

What a lot of windy weather we have been having and the impact on plants can be disastrous. Newly planted seedlings can easily be damaged or snapped right off even in a stiff breeze. When plants are hardened off they are mainly acclimating to sun and a little breeze, when the wind starts to rise we bring the tender seedlings inside to protect them. Whenever a plant is transplanted to the garden they should always be staked. You don’t need to use big bamboo stakes even something as thin as a skewer, $1 for a pack of 100 at the dollar store or 36 really thick skewers. Even short plants need a little support while starting out and these are the ones usually overlooked. I always utilize a fan while growing seedlings to help strengthen the stem and get them used to light winds but I do stake all plants until they are established or if they need long term support the small stake is exchanged for a full bamboo stake that will last until harvest.

Protecting tender plants early will help to ensure a healthy plant and a productive harvest.

Garden Festival

They say a festival is only as good as the people organizing it. Well the Garden Festival organized by the Sudbury Horticultural Society led by Wayne and Linda Hugli to celebrate the society’s 100th anniversary was fantastic.

If you did not make it out to the Farmers Market last week-end you truly missed a great opportunity to see some wonderful gardening exhibits and outstanding speakers. Everything was garden based, no hot tubs or furniture or hair care products just great gardening items, art, magazines, tools, plants, produce, information and so much more. I was very excited to be asked to talk on organics and sustainable gardening and the interest from the audience was outstanding. Speakers on gardening with arthritis, how to garden without pesticides, perennial gardens, and so many more captivated the audience. The variety and knowledge of the speakers was so interesting the seating area filled quickly. I thank the society for the opportunity to spread my own organic sustainable message. With this great turn out I sold nearly all of my heirloom vegetable plants, now I will start to plant the rest into my own gardens.

I had a great two days and thoroughly enjoyed talking to all those who came to buy plants or just gather information. There are so many interesting gardeners in our community, some have greenhouses, some garden plots and others getting creative with container gardening. It was lovely to meet so many growers.

It was wonderful to see many people who follow my tips and gardening dilemmas on Facebook, Dave, John, Pirjo… I now have a face for many of the people on the other side of my computer.

Kudos to all those dedicated people who volunteered a lot of time and talent to present our community with such an outstanding event. Happy 100th Anniversary to the Sudbury Horticultural Society.