SmartinNewsLetter

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pring News Letter

Colors of Nature By Susan Martin

When it comes to garden breadth, be careful what you wish for.After years of pining for garden that would allow me an opportunity

To really, well, garden, I got exactly that.After a very wet spring and an even hotter start to the summer,

My garden is now well under way. This year I’m not going to worryAbout creating a perfect

garden—I’m just content to learn about its foibles

and its beauty……

By mid-summer we all should be on our way to a blooming garden. As of Aug. 15 2012, all entries must be submitted.Each contestant must submit their own digital image with themselvesin the photo. Please save image as a jpeg no larger than 2 mb All contestants will be able to see the winning photo in the staff

cafeteria. Any small portable garden are welcome in the office for all to see what a great job you have done. Beginners to masters. Employees of this firm are only eligible.Now let’s all have fun and happy gardening Everyone. Prizes to be disclosed a later date.

Special thanks to all of the staff for a great job in getting this springs new letter up and run-ning. • Amber Cross• Alice Moaned• David Cooper• Kathy Douglas• Cameron McDonald• Christina Foresight• Pollyanna Black• Jackie Moore

Special Thank To all of the great photos that were received for consideration for this springs new letter. With you our Spring New Letter would not have made it so great.

Four page news letter.indd 1 11-11-10 6:10 PM

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Five ways to preserve your herbs in five min-utes. Don’t let all that flavour wither on the vine! Try these simple recipes to season a vari-ety of meals.Got a bounty of fresh herbs you want to use all winter but little time to preserve them?These five ideas are as versatile as they are quick. With fresh, clean herbs at hand, eachMethod takes no more than five minutes active time.Okay, maybe six.1. Hang them out to dryWhile you can easily dry herbs with a dehydra-tor or right in the oven, hang drying is a even quicker fix.Five-minute fix: When you pick your herbs, leave a generous stem. Lightly rinse theLeaves to remove the dirt and then gently pat the herbs dry. Tie a bunch together by the stems with a piece of string, then hang the bouquet upside down in a well-ventilated area and walk away. Dry-

ing time varies with the herb and humidity, but within a couple of weeks the herbs should be fully dried. The herbs are ready to go into glass jars with a tight fitting lid or an airtight plas-

tic bag when the leaves crumble when rubbed.Best choices: Rosemary, lavender, mint, oregano, marjoram, thyme and sage.Keeps for:Up to a year if properly sealed.2. Freeze them in iceFrozen herbs add punch to soups, stews and sauces. You don’t even have to defrost them.Just drop them in, watch them melt and taste the difference. Five-minute fix:After washing the herbs, place the leaves in a blender and puree with just enough water to form for a liquid. Pour the pureed herbs into an ice cube tray and freeze.Once frozen, pop the herb cubes from the tray and store in a resalable plastic bag to protectthe flavour.Best choices: Chives, Thyme, Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Sage or a mixture of your favorite herbs.Keeps for: Up to six months in the freezer.

Those darn rose thorns:

Sometimes gloves don’t do the trick when try-ing to prevent being poked by rose thorns. Try using a spring-action clothespin to hold the rose stem. Simply grasp the rose stem with the clothespin and make the cut at the desired length

Bananas in the Garden?Yes! Banana peels around roses add potas-sium to the soil, and

roses love potassium! Place a few peels just under the soil around your roses; they will eventually break-down.When should my bulbs be planted?As a general rule, spring flowering bulbs


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tic bag when the leaves crumble when rubbed.Best choices: Rosemary, lavender, mint, oregano, marjoram, thyme and sage.Keeps for:Up to a year if properly sealed.2. Freeze them in iceFrozen herbs add punch to soups, stews and sauces. You don’t even have to defrost them.Just drop them in, watch them melt and taste the difference. Five-minute fix:After washing the herbs, place the leaves in a blender and puree with just enough water to form for a liquid. Pour the pureed herbs into an ice cube tray and freeze.Once frozen, pop the herb cubes from the tray and store in a resalable plastic bag to protectthe flavour.Best choices: Chives, Thyme, Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Sage or a mixture of your favorite herbs.Keeps for: Up to six months in the freezer.

Those darn rose thorns:

Sometimes gloves don’t do the trick when try-ing to prevent being poked by rose thorns. Try using a spring-action clothespin to hold the rose stem. Simply grasp the rose stem with the clothespin and make the cut at the desired length

Bananas in the Garden?Yes! Banana peels around roses add potas-sium to the soil, and

roses love potassium! Place a few peels just under the soil around your roses; they will eventually break-down.When should my bulbs be planted?As a general rule, spring flowering bulbs

(daffodils and tulips) should be planted in fall and late Summer / Fallflowering bulbs (Liatris) should be planted in the Spring. Planting times will vary, depending on your climate zone, but remember that the earlier bulbsare planted in their required time frame, the better off they will be.Does a bigger bulb mean a better flower?While a bigger bulb will most likely produce a bigger flower, it does not necessarily mean a better flower. The bulb of a smaller species will produce a smaller plant, but the quality may be equal, if not better than a bulb of a larger species.Should I pant tulips in sun or shade?Tulips will do well ineither sun or shade.What does deadheading mean?Deadheading is the act of removing spent and

fading flowers.Removing the spent

flower encourages new

flower buds and prevents the plant from spend-ing energy on developing seeds.What is the best time of day to cut flowers? For indoor arrangementsflowers should be cut during the morning or evening.

The heat of the midday may prove to be exhausting for the flowers and they will fade sooner.

Flower Tips


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Just have a look at what I thought was a great space filler in my owngarden. Boy if I had known what I do now I would never have brought this “WEED” into my garden. It started out as a beautiful plant. After one season I noticed that it did make it though our zone 3 climate over the winter. To my surprise I started seeing more and more of the same plant popping up all within a three-meter area.

Once again I thought oh great this will cut down on the plants I will have to buy.Boy was I shocked by the following season when I saw that this once lovely plant had started taking over my

yard. It now is even grow-ing in the grass.I can pull this plant out very time I see

one, but yes back they

come. I have end up spending more on a broad leafkiller for the lawn and digging out the rest with a shovel. Now if you had a large area that you want to cover with wild flow-ers then this would look great.I have learned thata great deal with thinking I could have saved a dime or two.Live and learn through my not so bright idea.

Victoria’s Flower Dictionary in “The Language of Flowers” NovelFlower & Plant Informa-tion and Photos Meanings of FlowersVanessa Diffenbaugh’s novel “The Language of Flowers” tells thestory of Victoria, a young woman from the foster-care systemwho uses the Victorian language of flowers to communicate withothers and make sense of her troubled past.Diffenbaugh created Vic-toria’s Flower Diction-ary by reviewing several dictionaries - “TheFlower Vase” by Miss S. C. Edgarton, “Language of Flowers” by Kate Greenaway, “TheLanguage and Sentiment of Flowers” by James D. McCabe, and “Flora’s Lexicon” byCatharine H. Waterman - and scanning the mean-ings, selecting the defini-tion that occurredmost often or she liked the best.


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