8 Friday, August 3, 2018 brooklintowncrier.com On Oct 22nd Elect Chris Leahy Regional Councillor As the former chair of the Durham Catholic School Board & current West Ward Councillor, I want to use my leadership experience to be an effective voice for you at Durham Regional Council Dedicated Proven Leadership chrisleahy.ca e-mail chris@chrisleahy.ca 289-638-6874 I fully support school zone photo radar! By now, the perennial garden should be filled with daylily blooms. They're there but are unimpressive. The few weeks of intense heat produced a lower bud count and the flowers are smaller. A lovely deep red one is doing well on the north side of the house where it has more moist soil and less glaring heat from the sun, which proves my theory about the poor performance of the others. Wonderful things are happening in the vegetable garden. Last week, with the soil finally getting softer from the rain, I pulled weeds and discovered the first ripe tomatoes. That part of the garden gets irrigation from the drip lines which has been sufficient to keep the vegetables thriving. Those in sub-irrigation planters have all the water they want and have used the sun to create a jungle. Squash growing I planted in the middle of the garden a few seeds from a squash I'd purchased last winter. Surprisingly, they all germinated and are taking over the garden. They've crawled over everything and are running along the top of the rabbit fence, setting a number of fruit. While weeding, I even cut out some of that growth to allow nearby vegetables to get some space and sun. However, I also discovered soft spots at the base of each squash vine only to discover holes in the stem where the nasty squash vine borer had entered. These things will eat their way up the inside of the stems until they completely hollow them out and kill them. So I threaded a thin piece of copper wire into the holes, hoping to catch and destroy the creatures. I know I got at least one of them; it was on the end of the wire when I withdrew it. I can only hope I killed the others and that there's enough of the vine still functional. In theory, I should have wrapped the stems with aluminum foil when they were younger to prevent the invasion in the first place. Gardening without pesticides is the only way to grow our food, but it can have us doing some strange things to battle the bugs. Dahlias for the kitchen The dahlias, which share the drip irrigation line with the potatoes, are blooming. A lovely small flowered, red one is producing enough bloom to keep the kitchen vase filled. Cut flowers for the house are the main reason I grow dahlias. They're big and colourful and last for a week or more. I was able to weed and clean out a large perennial bed in the front yard recently. I'd ripped out all the Japanese anemones last fall, or at least I thought I did. Rather, I just propagated them. I ripped them out again and hopefully have eliminated them. They're lovely in the fall but become invasive. That's left me with a large blank space and I'm resisting the urge to go plant shopping. Some dahlias might get that spot next spring so passers-by can appreciate them as well. Of course a hundred or so tulip bulbs will also appear there in the fall. Sun to rain to growth Blooming in Brooklin By Ken Brown The Regional Municipality of Durham, Works Department would like to advise residents of lane restrictions on Thickson Road (Regional Road 26), around the Winchester Road (Regional Road 3) intersection, in Brooklin. When: Crews will begin work this week and continue until weather permits. Following a winter shut down, work on Winchester Road will take place in 2019. Where: Thickson Road, from Highway 407 to north of Winchester Road, in Brooklin, within the Town of Whitby. Why: Full road reconstruction includes new asphalt, curb and gutter, traffic signals, storm sewer work and street lighting. Note: Drivers are asked to exercise caution for the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and workers. For more information about Regional construction, design and environmental assessment projects, visit durham.ca/WorksProjects. Lane restrictions on Thickson Road Join the conversation at www.steveyamada.ca 289.987.8383 Steve Yamada REGIONAL COUNCILLOR I want to see School Zone Photo Radar and Safer Streets. Do You? Elect On October 22nd