The Brooklin Town Crier 5 Brooklin's Community Newspaper Blooming in Brooklin July By Ken Brown of the Brooklin Horticultural Society There was excitement last night at 4:00 a.m. No shooting in the street; no baby arriving. It was raining! A gardener who hasn't seen rain in several weeks can get very excited at the sound of rain drops hitting the roof in the middle of the night. How often is excitement followed by the disappointment of reality? Yes, it did rain. It takes about 0.7 cm to fill my rain barrels, and this morning they were just over half full, and some parts of the garden were damp, not wet but damp. Writing this on Monday for you to read at the end of the week, I can only hope that it no longer makes sense because we have had that good long, soaking rain, but the weather folks aren't promising much. I cannot possibly water all of the containers and garden, but I do spend about two hours most days hauling water to the many containers and moving soaker hoses to the most critical parts of the garden. I do congratulate myself for finally doing the right thing last year. The vegetable garden has a drip irrigation system throughout most of it, and that has been a food saver. Three to four hours about every five days uses much less water than the same time with an overhead sprinkler, and all of the water goes directly into the soil to keep the vegetables thriving and they have been delicious. The system was quite inexpensive and amazingly easy to install. I'm going to extend it into some of the perennial beds, especially the two that double as Asparagus beds because I want to make sure that delightful spring vegetable truly thrives. Various places will sell you the pieces to make such a system, but Lee Valley has some kits that are good quality and have everything you need, greatly reducing the need for thinking. $65 and about an hour's work and suddenly you will have the greenest healthiest gardens on the street. Depending on their layout, you can also set up a drip system to take care of your hanging baskets and other containers. About the only downside of using these systems in your containers is the fertilizing. Yes, you can get injectors to put liquid fertilizer into the irrigation system, but it is neither as simple nor as cheap. The answer, of course, is to have some granular fertilizer on top of the soil so that it continues to dissolve as the water drips on to it. Despite the constant carrying of water, my containers this year have been the best I've had in a long time. Fertilizer! That's the answer. I used to add some to my watering can on a semi-regular basis until I saw a trial ground with 2000 fabulous containers and watched them being fertilized continuously. The soilless mix that we use to plant our containers has essentially no nutrient content. That's up to us. I now add fertilizer at a little more than half strength to every bit of water that I supply to my containers, flowers or vegetables. The difference is amazing, and what's more amazing is how long it took me to figure this out. Any good soluble fertilizer will do, but if you have a choice, use one with less Nitrogen, that's the first of the three numbers on the package. My fertilizer costs have gone up but nowhere near as high as my satisfaction level. Let me climb back up onto my soap box for a while. Most of the lawns that I see are already as dry and brown as they usually get in August. If we weren't trying to grow nice green grass, we could have a vigorous, healthy, green front yard filled with delicious vegetables. My vegetable garden looks far more inviting and appealing than any of those dormant brown lawns, and it is providing delicious meals. This week, we have a choice of Broccoli, Kohl Rabi, Cabbage, Sugar Snap Peas, Snow Peas, a few green Onions and a variety of lettuces among other things. The Sugar Snap Peas are doubly delightful as they are growing up a trellis fence along with a few colours of Sweet Peas that are poking out between the bright green pea foliage. Most of the Tomato cages are actually supporting some large flowering Dahlias that are now starting to produce huge blooms that make wonderful cut flowers for the house. There are a few weeds among the neat rows and patches of vegetables, but an hour in the cool of tomorrow morning will make short work of them and give me a time to enjoy the cool solitude of the early morning and get me some gentle exercise without driving to the gym. Gardening has so many physical and therapeutic benefits that I find it to be the best tonic and anti-aging solution available.