I’ve never seen a title on this subject written like this before. I think I made it up. Nice.
Spring has sprung, slowly, but sprung just the same. The geese have been hanging around since sometime in March, but they aren’t much for gardening anyhow. They didn’t seem that happy with life when they arrived, seeing as the only open water was down by the sewage treatment plant.
I woke Saturday morning April 23 to great big huge snowflakes mixed with ice pellets hitting the window. When I thought about it, the third weekend in April was usually rodeo weekend in the Battlefords and that was usually good for that last dump of snow for the past winter or the first one for the next winter. Hopefully, now that the rodeo is the last weekend in April, the final snow does not follow the cowboys here that late in the spring. All the prairie crocuses are closed up tight and I got the wood stove going one more time.
I used to work for the government so … I’m here to help. The following is just some quick advice and information that you may not have known, forgot about, wondered about or possibly don’t even care about.
Christmas lights and extension cords. When I worked for the government, I would do home visits to homeowners who had tree problems. Every year I would get calls from people who had spruce trees that had branch tips mysteriously dying. Nine times out of 10, the culprit causing the death was either Christmas lights left in the trees from season to season or extension cords hung in trees to get them over the sidewalks so people could plug in vehicles in the winter. Everybody knows trees put on growth in annual rings. Eventually a tree will try to include anything that is wrapped or hanging on its branches due to the annual growth rings. Three things happen. First the sap to the branch tip is slowed and secondly stopped and then it dies. Where the wire is engulfed by the wood, a weak spot develops due to the turned in bark caused by the wire. This is called included bark. There is weak wood when there is included bark and the limb could break at that point during a storm or high winds. You don’t want to be the cause of the liability. Remove anything and everything that is wrapped around any trunk or branch every year before the new season growth starts.
Cities and towns need to pay particular attention to this and remove lights from their park trees and street trees as well. These are liability hazards in the making. They do not need to give anyone any other reasons to sue them especially for a falling branch in the head caused by Christmas light wire.
The Christmas bling is nice but it must be removed each year.
I always had a hard time convincing staff to do this because they didn’t want to take things down, only to put them up again. Not only was I from the government, I was a manager and what did I know anyhow. They never would believe that I once had a real job. Shoot, I was working a real job when I found that one.
Dutch elm disease. When is the no prune period for elm trees? It is illegal in Saskatchewan and many other provinces to prune elm trees during the growing season. In Saskatchewan that is between April 1 and Aug. 31 each year. The reason for the no prune period is because the beetle that picks up the disease from diseased trees and carries the disease to healthy trees is attracted to the smell of dead and dying elms or, in other words, pruning cuts.
Dutch elm disease affects elm trees only (American elm and Siberian elm mostly). It is called Dutch elm disease because it was originally discovered by a plant pathologist who happened to be wearing wooden shoes and lived in Holland.
Dutch elm disease has been in the province since the early 1980s and has decimated natural elm populations in the Carrot River area and Estevan areas. The closest infection to the Battlefords so far was in Saskatoon in 2015. We could be next. I hope not. The loss of elm trees from prairie towns and cities will change the character of all these communities. Here’s a picture done by my old friend Julian Sadlowski for a book I wrote called Ewald the Elm Tree. Colouring was done by daughter Kellyn, who was eight at the time.
I just did a presentation for the Saskatchewan Parks and Recreation Association annual spring symposium on hardy trees and shrubs for Saskatchewan, proper planting, young tree pruning. It was an all-day course. My throat was so sore from all that talking I had to do but wasn’t used to doing. After all, I’ve been married for 32 years. I found out a long time ago, you could learn much more from listening than you could from talking. Isn’t that right, dear?
Badda bing, badda bang, badda boom. So what about the growing zone thing?
Okay, so this is just a heads up. We are all sick of looking at the dusty, brown and grey dead scape of winter and are in a hurry to see something blooming, green and growing. With only nine months of winter and three months of tough sledding each year, it’s time to get busy in the garden. This bit of advice will save you money when shopping for landscape plants to get your green going again.
Back in the 1960s, Ag Canada mapped the whole country into growing zones or plant hardiness zones. Certain plants can tolerate low temperatures only to a certain point before they are winter killed.
In the early 2000s, the map was revised to reflect some changes in climate and they also tried to include rainfall and geographical considerations that could affect plant growth. You can find the map at www.planthardiness.gc.ca/. The growing zones go from the coldest or zero in the arctic to the warmest, nine, on Vancouver Island (roughly). The Battlefords area is in Zone 2b/3a. Generally speaking that means that we can grow plants successfully if they are rated from Zones 0 to 3a. The trouble you can get into is by buying a plant that is not suited to this growing zone.
Many of the big retailers in the Battlefords have buyers that do not live on the prairies but live in the “Big Smoke” – Toronto. Toronto is in growing zone 5b and most of the 5b Toronto trees and shrubs just don’t grow here. Retailers do customers and themselves a big disservice by selling them shrubs and trees that haven’t a hope of surviving the winter here in the Battlefords.
You have to check the label in the plant pot. It’s supposed to have the growing zone marked on it. If a plant is marked hardy to Zone 3, it generally means that it will survive in Zone 3 and thrive in a slightly warmer zone. If it’s hardy to Zone 3, it has a great chance of surviving here. If it’s hardy to Zone 4, it’s risky and the plant will likely die. If it’s hardy to Zone 5 it will not make it through its first prairie winter. So be sure you are buying for the growing zone we live in. Read the tag. The growing zone is usually on the tag.
Enjoy the growing season.
Parting advice.
Water your trees. Last year was so incredibly dry, there is not much moisture available for trees. There hasn’t been anything to speak of, so far, this spring. Give them all a good slow soaking. The trees and shrubs give your yard the character. The flowers provide the bling. If you blow it on the flowers, there is always next year. If you blow it on the tree care, and you have to remove a tree killed by not watering during a drought, it could be years before you get the character back.
When should I plant the vegetable garden? You pretty much can’t go wrong with Grandma’s advice. You plant the garden when the farm lilacs begin to bloom.
