Did you find some exciting new plants at the plant sale? Thank you to everyone who supported the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society Annual Fall Plant and Bulb sale last week, and special thanks to members of the Society who donated plants, helped set up, or worked at the sale. Your help is very much appreciated 鈥� thank you!
This Saturday is the final Saturday for the Yorkton Gardeners鈥� Market, beginning at 8 a.m. till noon at Melrose and Simpson streets in Yorkton (north parking lot of the Prairie Harvest Christian Life Centre).聽聽 Congratulations, gardeners, on a successful year and for sharing the bounty of your garden! 聽
I鈥檇 like to tell you about a wonderful new project that the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society is involved with, in partnership with the Yorkton Public Library.聽 Beginning this year, there will be a Seed Library at the Yorkton Public Library.
This is a free program to encourage gardening and local food production. The library would offer seeds and education through this gardening program.聽 By saving seeds, we are helping to preserve heirloom varieties and protect biodiversity in our food crops. Borrowing seeds from the seed library will also allow interested gardeners to experiment by growing new varieties of plants.
Here鈥檚 how it works:聽 in October or November, the Seed Library will begin their seed collection. Then in February, the Seed Library will open for borrowing, operating on the honor system. We鈥檒l be like kids in a candy store with all those delightful news seeds to try! While it is horticultural society members who will begin contributing the seeds to help get this project going, please be aware that the project is open to everyone to obtain new seeds next February.
I鈥檒l tell you more about it as time goes on, but it鈥檚 something new and exciting to look forward to in our gardening year!
Our group really appreciates this chance to partner with the Yorkton Public Library.聽 As always, I encourage you to visit the library and check out their great selection of gardening, plant, and landscaping books. Winter is the time to read, learn and be inspired for next spring!
None of us can ever say that we know everything we need to know; there is always something new and wonderful to learn! Sometimes all it takes is one beautiful garden photo in a book to inspire you and set your creative gardening ideas bubbling!
And if you are sitting in front of your computer one wintry evening, you can learn about the amazing plant projects at the University of Saskatchewan by logging on to www.fruit.usask.ca.
Click on 鈥渁rticles鈥� and read about research on topics such as ancestry of apple selections at the U of S; domestic fruit development program; grape breeding for the prairies; dwarf sour cherries for the prairies; and many informative articles about haskap.聽 Or click on 鈥渙ur crops鈥� and read about prairie-friendly varieties of cherries, apples, grapes, and other crops all developed at the University of Saskatchewan!
If you are an interested gardener, you are invited and welcome to join the Yorkton and District Horticultural Society. Everyone is there because they share an interest and love of gardening. New members are always welcome. Everyone is there because we share a common interest in gardening, and we鈥檙e all there to learn and have fun. So join us!
Visit us at www.yorktonhort.ca to see what鈥檚 coming up, and have a great week!
