sept 22/17.pdf 6 Friday, September 22, 2017 brooklintowncrier.com Summerly for Gardening Blooming in Brooklin By Ken Brown We all knew it would happen: summer has arrived. We're past the middle of September and the temperature has consistently been in the 20s with the weatherman saying this is going to continue. Mother Nature really does like to mess with our heads - and gardening habits. The standard rule was to sow grass seed early in September so it could more easily germinate in cooler, moister days. It would have germinated fine in our August. But now we'd have to turn on the sprinkler every day to get the needed moisture. Let's not worry about the grass and just enjoy this glorious weather. Peony puzzler I have a large peony to move and this is the time of year to do it. They have magnificent roots and I'll be attacking it with a shovel, not a trowel. It will probably take a metre wide hole to get most of the root out of the ground. Then the decision: Do I replant it elsewhere, as is, or do I divide it into a few smaller pieces? It's an expensive itoh, or intersectional, peony so getting homes for the extra pieces would not be difficult. It's never performed well in its current location and the garden renovation and downsizing, this year's project, provides the impetus to move it. It will find a new home in the front beds where I've been digging out a few perennials that are just too invasive and require me to remove sections of them every year. That kind of repetitive gardening is not part of my lower maintenance plan. I'll miss the tall pink blooms of the Japanese anemone but they're just too aggressive. The peony can have some of their space while a large flowering perennial hibiscus will provide the autumn colour. The frothy pink filipendula has also departed for the compost heap for the same reason, its mid-summer bloom replaced by something less aggressive. Bacon? In the vegetable garden, the bacon made a late appearance this year. Well, it doesn't actually appear in the garden but the only time I buy it is to make a bacon and tomato sandwich and those tomatoes were in no hurry to turn red this summer. I do have a wealth of them now and the weather is ripening them faster than we can fry the bacon. The "Assistant" gardener did ask about the number of pepper plants this spring. She may have had a point as we now have a plentiful supply. My famous Pillar of Peppers (details on gardening-enjoyed. com) has been successful and peppers now seem to show up at every meal. They're a great addition to a breakfast omelette. Veggies thriving The fall planting of cool weather vegetables seems to be thriving and we're already enjoying some early pak choi. They're growing in my sub-irrigation containers and they love the constant supply of water and nutrients. Saving the best for last, now's the time to choose a supply of spring flowering bulbs. You want to be ready to plant them in a couple of weeks when the first frost has knocked down the annual flowers. I've shown great restraint and only ordered a few hundred this year. I think a couple of hundred Crocus are destined to be planted in the new backyard grass. Our Councillor's Report by Rhonda Mulcahy North Ward Councillor, Town of Whitby • mulcahyr@whitby.ca Please Slow Down Traffic safety remains the number one concern at the door. It garners the most calls and causes the most stress among residents. Social media posts re- flect the rage, yet the community is at a loss as to how to deal with it. Here's the sad irony. Nearly 100% of speeding tickets issued by police on residential streets go to folks living in the area. I once had that three year old who took great pleasure in bolting towards the road. For a parent, it's terrifying and it still terrifies me as a driver. I avoid school bell times everywhere in Brooklin when I'm driving. There is, however, one way to address the issue. Signs You may have noticed bright yellow signs popping up in the neighbourhood imploring drivers, "PLEASE SLOW DOWN." These are not a Town of Whitby initiative. It is something that the four ward councillors (Steve Yamada, Chris Leahy, Michael Emm and I) have done on our own. It's an idea stolen from areas of Toronto and Ottawa where it seems to bear results. The reason it isn't a Town initiative is because it may only provide temporary results. As drivers get used to the signs, they stop noticing them. Change habits However, my theory is that if we are dealing with local drivers, we're actually trying to change their driving habits. Research tell us it takes roughly 28 days to change a habit and twice that to make it stick. I'm going to suggest neighbourhoods work together to strategize. Perhaps as an example, we could take down the signs for a week or two between Thanksgiving and Halloween so that when they go back up before Halloween, they have maximum impact. In installing these signs my crew has been careful to install them only on private property and not to impede traffic sight lines. I ask to do the same. Other traffic tools While a great initiative, it has also enabled me to talk again about the tools we have at our disposal. The Pace Car program is another proactive approach where you register as a Pace Car and literally set the pace as you drive the speed limit through town. Road Watch and the DRPS are reactive tools. Both can result in dealing with drivers who speed. The signs, though, are an additional proactive approach that will discourage speeding in the first place. I should add I've had a few police officers request them for their lawns, so I sense they also support this initiative. More on the way My first sign order was 150 signs. After a couple of social media posts, they were gone within five hours. I have since ordered another 150 and have started working my way through the waiting list. I should have this complete by the the time you read this with very few, if any, left over. As I install them on streets, I'm constantly approached for more. It's become a rather large but entirely positive task as we work together for solutions. I'm uncertain as to when the next order will be, but you can yourself to the waiting list at slowdownbrooklin@gmail. com. Macedonian Village An aside to my friends in Macedonian Village, but still traffic related. Through our staff, we have asked Durham Region for a temporary traffic light at Coronation Road and Taunton Road while Country Lane remains closed for 18 weeks for servicing. I understand your dilemma and encourage you to find a safe route around. In the meantime, the contact at the Region to voice your concerns is, ----------------. Al- ternately you can always send this through your Regional representatives on council. Emails are always last name, first initial @whitby.ca as mine shows above.