Wflf!B'~FIiEJB P SWEDN~3ffiJêW~ MYt4~989;~PA~5<~ The twenty-fourth of May The Queen's Birthday If we don't get a holiday We'l al run away. Strange refrain that, which despite its anti-royalist mood, has long been a tradition on Victoria Day. Strange: this year, I have not heard it once. But enough of royalty. What we really want to talk about today -- this being the REAL twenty-fourth of May -- is gardening. The Victoria Day weekend traditionally is the time to complete your garden. The danger of frost is over, plants thrive on pools of delicious sunshine pouring into the back yard. It's too late for this year, but the following are sorne hints which might aid you next time around: If you have children, start not to collect empty jars with metal lids, the better to punch holes in. The holes you need for air circulation, and the air circulation you need to let critters breath. The jars, of course, you need to house the critters your three-year-old brings home as a pet. (Critter number one: two empty, half eggs of a robin. For this one you need no air circulation.) Having made the mad run to the gardening centre, and having won first-fights over the choice of products, you are now ready to start planting. Dig holes in the flower beds where you want stuff to go. Drop in some fertilizer. Throw in some water. Throw in a plant. Continue. Referring to #1 (that is, you have children) you wili have planted no more than two such items before receiving offers to help. "Can I help, please, huh, please, can I?" (For future reference, the answer might be "NO!") Suppose you say "Yes." Happy scene. Little children planting summer's blooms in May sunshine, WITHi OU R FEET UP by Bill Swan Critters 1through.8 developing happy memories amid smells of the turned sod, filling hands and clothes in precious water-soaked peat moss. Isn't it wonderful? (Critter number two: a long thin beetle with spots on the wings and strange little bulbs on the end of the antennae. Did you know beetles give each other the high five with those antennae?) We don't want to ruin youthful enthusiasm, but it is pertinent to point out to the tykes that the root system is important and must be planted with the rest of the plant. Let's leave the embedding of box plants for a moment (we'll come back to it) and talk about lawns. Lawns are wonderful things, a great place for grass to grow on. Grass has to be coaxed to grow on it, however. What doesn't have to be coaxed: dandelions, which grow anywhere. Anyone with a good dandelion wine recipe should call it into The Free Press. Say Bill needs this information, fast. Dandelions do look nice and yellow, but so do the looks of the neighbors on either side. Why is it the people who grow dandelions as a hobby always live next door to people wJho inventory the blades of grass? (Critter number three: a dandelion pod gone to puff, now stored in a jar after the little parachutes have been huffed over the back yard fence. Might as well make the neighbors work for that immaculate look.) Those of you who have urged little fingers to get involved in planting may have noticed by now a phenomenon I call suburban blight: all the kids on the street have noticed the fun your little one is having and they descend in a throng. In no time, the driveway is covered with tricycles. "Can we help, huh, can we, huh, please mister?" The correct answer is, "NO." Experience by experts has determined that other people's children are a mistake, since they don't seem to appreciate that those plants already in the ground are not fair fodder for those new muddy holes. The second question of the invaders: "Can we have a cookie, please?" (Critter number afour: the five-year-old from five houses down, across the street, who is hosing down the other kids. Would I like to put him in a glass jar!) So it's over for another year. You relax in the space of time between barbecued burgers and the fireworks to come. In comes the three-year-old. "What have you there?" "My plants. You want to see them?" 'Your plants?" "The plants I planted in the garden today. I want to keep them as pets." She hoids up two glass jars. Contents: Critters number four through eight: three impatiens, one dusty miller and a $3.95 geranium. It's called pride of ownership. Ontario budget yet another tax grab: Richardson Last Thursday's provincial budget is just another in a series of tax increases for the public, according to Whitby Chamber of Commerce president Bob Richardson. . "Tax grabs are tax grabs and you can't go on taxing people forever,"said Richardson. He estimated that every work- ing individual pays 55 cents on the dollar in taxes to the various levels of government. "You are now working to July 17 without wages. When is there going to be a halt on tax in- creases?" The Ontario government's budget raises income tax one per cent in January 1, 1990, and includes the usual increase in beer and gas prices,· 30 cents more for 24 beer and one cent a litre immediately and another one cent January 1, 1989. The budget also makes it more expensive to drive with licence fees to increase to $90 from $54, a $5 tax on new tires and a graduated tax on cars getting less than 30 km. per litre of gas. Richardson also criticized the government's plans to abolish OHIP payments, which will be replaced by a payroll tax to be paid by employers. The tax will be 1.95 per cent for large com- panies and 0.98 per cent for srnall companies. Richardson says the tax will ,ive the Province more revenue and will allow a surtax to be charged next year. Durham Centre MPP Allan Furlong defends the abolition of OHIP, saying it will save the average family $714 a year. He also says the $2-billion expected to be raised with the new driving taxes will help alle- viate problems in Whitby, parti- cularly with the extension of the GO train to Oshawa, which Fur- long says will relieve the parking problems now occurring at the Whitby station. He is uncertain when the extension is to begin but he is hopeful it will be completed by 1991. According to Furlong, revenue from the new tire tax will be used to study the problem tires now pose for the environment. "You can burn them or bury them. The best thing they can be used for now is on the side of a boat or yacht," said Furlong. Furlong also praised his government for reducing the deficit to $577-million from $1.5- billion last year. Wayne Jeffrey, president of of the Ontario Homebuilders' Asso- ciation for Oshawa/Durham, is not at all impressed with lot levies for educational funding, part of the budget. "We don't have all the details yet (on the provincial budget). It added a lot of hidden tax to the price of new homes, 30 or more per cent of the total value of a ouse," Jeffrey said. Tax levies for school boards will be "something they can't count on, as it fluctuates with the market." Jeffrey said this levy will be challenged in the courts, because many believe it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (as it is a tax on new home- owners only). "I'd like to mention that not all people who purchase new homes have kids going to school, and the government believes this is happening. People who don't have kids won't like this." Jeffrey noted that the market has sloWed down, and will pro- bably slow down even more. "The horses are already out of the barn," he said. Despite his criticism of this levy, Jeffrey asserted that he felt it was necessary for all people, SEE PAGE 9 16- M- - mmmmmamp .A