The Brooklin Town Crier 5 Brooklin's Community Newspaper Blooming in Brooklin June By Ken Brown of the Brooklin Horticultural Society Don't plant tender annuals and vegetables too early. My usual advice is looking a little ridiculous as we experience a week or more of +30 temperatures. Surrendering to the obvious, I will get most of my Tomatoes, Peppers and Begonias planted this week before you read this. Mother Nature really likes to mess with my scheduling and my head. Should I worry about a freeze in July to balance out the heat wave in May?? My big concern now is water. No significant rain for quite some time and nothing forecast. The rain barrels are already empty. I stayed in the garden the last time it rained a few days ago, and the heat dried me off faster than the tiny bit of rain could effectively cool or dampen. The drip irrigation system in the vegetable garden has had more drip lines added to make sure that all of the plants get their share of water. I can run it for a few hours and use so much less water than any sprinkler would, and all of that water goes directly into the soil. I'm looking at expanding it into the main Perennial and Asparagus beds this year. A good soaking of the soil in those beds should make the weeds grow so much better. It might also make them easier to pull if the soil is not baked hard and dry. These systems are surprisingly inexpensive and easy to set up. I had one in its box in the garage for a couple of years, while I avoided the effort of setting it up, and was delighted at how simple it was when I finally did it last spring. It probably took me half a day to set it up for the entire vegetable garden area. Lee Valley is the place to look for such things. I'm working hard to see plants, that I formerly called weeds, as native plantings and natural vegetation. My transformation is not complete, but I do seem to be more tolerant of some of these species in the bare spaces of my gardens. To be sure, I still have several on my hate list, and I attack them with vigour because they compete too aggressively with my food production and with some of my favourite flowers. I am no longer obsessed with totally bare cultivated soil between the Iris and Daylilies. The trick is to attack the weeds very early when a light hoeing will deal with most of them. Time always seems to be the problem. That early light hoeing needs to be done when we are at the busiest time planting and setting up the gardens. By the time the planting is almost finished, those tiny weeds require extensive digging to eradicate, and does it really matter that there are a few examples of native species growing in my gravel paths? The early vegetables are now producing a feast. As the Asparagus season winds down, we are now enjoying a buffet of Pak Choi, Kohl Rabi, Spinach, lettuce and Radishes, and the developing heads of Broccoli and Cabbage are promising great things for the next few weeks. It's always exciting to walk around the garden and see that the Potatoes are emerging from the soil and hinting at their bounty later in the summer. Mother Nature is doing some strange things in the garden this year. The Tree Peony is usually in bloom well ahead of the herbaceous Peonies, but several of the latter types have been blooming for a while and the Tree Peony finally revealed its beauty yesterday. The Siberian Iris fill in the gaps after my favourite tall bearded types, but a couple of Siberian clumps are already in full bloom, while in other spots in the garden, they are nowhere near blooming. My natural cycles are confused and finding entries for flower shows becomes more of a challenge. I'm just learning to enjoy what's showing up in the garden and giving up any attempt to understand it. This little heat wave is not always good. My magnificent Tulip display in the front yard has been somewhat truncated. They like a nice cool spring, and this intense heat has made them open quickly, but it has also made them fade and finish just as quickly. Now starts the easy but necessary task of deadheading all of those Tulips. We want all the energy the plants create, to be used to regenerate the bulbs for next year, not being wasted trying to develop seeds. As we wander around admiring the garden in the evening, we just snap the tops off and drop them on the soil where they will quickly decompose and add to the soil's organic matter. Two benefits from one simple task. If you are a garden voyeur and don't mind a trip into the big city, then you might want to check out the Toronto Botanical Garden's "Through the Garden Gate" tour on the weekend of June 11 and 12. It wanders through 18 gardens in the Kingsway area of the city. I was on the media tour last week, and it is a delightful collection of some very impressive homes and gardens. Check out the TBG's website for details. photo credit: gardening-enjoyed.com 2016 Schedule Home Games 2016 (8:05 pm at Iroquois Park) Wednesday, June 1 vs Brampton Excelsiors Wednesday, June 8 vs Cobourg Kodiaks Wednesday, June 15 vs Six Nations Chiefs Wednesday, June 22 vs Oakville Rock Wednesday, June 25 vs Peterborough Lakers Wednesday, July 6 vs Cobourg Kodiaks (Scott McMichael Night) Wednesday, July 13 vs Six Nations Chiefs Wednesday, July 20 vs Peterborough Lakers Wednesday, July 27 vs Oakville Rock Tickets $10 Adults • $8 Seniors & Students • $5 Kids (6-12) • FREE Under 5 Away Games Thursday, June 2 • 8:00 pm vs Peterborough Lakers Saturday, June 4 • 7:00 pm vs Cobourg Kodiaks Monday, June 13 • 8:00 pm vs Oakville Rock Tuesday, June 21 • 8:00 pm vs Six Nations Cheifs Thursday, June 30 • 8:00 pm vs Brampton Excelsiors Tuesday, July 5 • 8:00 pm vs Six Nations Cheifs Thursday, July 14 • 8:00 pm vs Peterborough Lakers Sunday, July 17 • 6:00 pm vs Cobourg Kodiaks Monday, July 25 • 8:00 pm vs Oakville Rock www.brooklinredmen.ca