Many of you wanted to know when my plant sale is going to be. This Sat. the 18 after 10 am. My address is always at the bottom of this newsletter and you may have wondered why. Having the physical address of your business on your newsletter is one of the things that spam filters look for. No address then I might get blocked. Spam is a modern nuisance both to receive and to those of us sending legitimate email. Another reason why I would never sell, share, trade or otherwise allow my newsletter address list to go anywhere.


We got rain yesterday!!!! Less than 1/4" but rain nonetheless. A bit of a quiet time at the moment. The sale plants are all dug and the pictures of them printed so that you can actually see what they look like. I’ve posted a couple of them here to tease you. Should be planting some new Iris but don’t seem to have managed to order any but there are still a few days left before the cutoff date. Despite all of my digging I don’t seem to have many empty spaces. I created lots of new space this spring but then filled it with annuals or vegetables and It’s difficult to rip out a large beautiful Nasturtium to make room for a new Iris. Life is full of choices.


Bacon is not on any healthy diet list but each year at this time I consume a couple of pounds of it. A Bacon and Tomato sandwich made with ½" slices of ripe tomatoes is one of life’s little treats. I have so many veggies ripening in the garden just now that I feel guilty if I even contemplate not cooking dinner. We average at least six different vegetables on the dinner plate most nights and they all have such a divine taste that the meat or fish portion almost seems redundant.


I do have to keep a wary eye out for the occasional weeds and insects, because it’s easy to get lulled into a midsummer torpor when all the good things are growing well and forget that those few weeds that you are missing, are going to seed and setting up a larger weeding program next year. Weeds are so generous. If I give one good home they reward me by giving my gardens a few hundred seeds in return. How sweet of them.


Questions
My newsletter subscribers get to ask me questions. Just ‘reply’ to the email newsletter. It is always interesting to read the questions; mostly to see if I actually can answer them or if I have to wade into the textbooks to research the answers. If that happens then we all learn something.

Lisa asks?My Iris are all infested with Iris Borer and I had to throw them all out. What can I do?

Ken Answers!The Iris Borer is an ugly beast. Even the adult moth is not particularly attractive. Go to Iris Borer at my website, www.gardening-enjoyed.com to see a more complete description and my control methods. I will be updating that page in the next few days as I have discovered some interesting information on the use of parasitic nematodes that seem to be working extremely well for killing off the Iris Borer. I need to check it out a bit further and then update my page.

111 Trent St. W.
Whitby ON
L1N1L9