Jim’s Notebook October 4, 2007
Hits & Misses: Silver linings & architectural angst
Question of the Week: What is bulb dust, and how do I use it?
Science & Technology: Split personalities
Being that I’m president of the University of Alberta Alumni Association, I had the honour of being MC for several functions over the past weekend. It made for a hectic few days, but it was great to be speaking at two outstanding venues: the Winspear Centre and the Shaw Conference Centre. The acoustics were perfect, and the great staff at the alumni office had my speeches typed and ready for me—in fact, the only glitch during the entire weekend involved a wardrobe malfunction. I managed to get my suit, shirt and tie combination as close to the GQ ideal as humanly possible (as determined by my wife) but inadvertently left my only pair of black dress shoes at work, many light years away. So there I was, a half-hour before the first event was supposed to start, running in and out of stores trying to find a good pair of black dress shoes—a shopping excursion that quickly turned into a “JUST GIVE ME ANY SIZE THIRTEENS THAT YOU CAN FIND” shoe-buying debacle. Well, it took three shoe stores before I finally found a pair that could be shoe horned onto my feet—AND I still have a large open wound on my right heel that feels like it may require surgery to repair—but, damn, those shoes looked good.
Hits & Misses
Hit: Silver Linings
The pumpkins are here! That might not seem like a big deal, but I assure you it felt like one when we phoned the Medicine Hat farmer who we usually buy our pumpkins from, and he told us he’d been completely hailed out. Fortunately (for us, that is), we were able to source out pumpkins from Gouw Farms, another excellent pumpkin grower from the same region. Gouw Farms sell a huge amount of onions at fresh markets, and several years ago when I served on the Alberta Fresh Vegetable Marketing Board with Casey Gouw, I had the pleasure of touring the farm’s massive onion storage facilities. For some strange reason, it brought me to tears…I guess I’m just a sensitive guy.
The pumpkin patch is under construction this week, but some of the staff have spent a few days decorating in advance.
Miss: Architectural Angst
During one of the events at the University of Alberta’s reunion weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with Mr. Roman Fodchuk, a landscape architect who’s studied both here and in the U.S. and has designed many parks and interiorscapes right across Canada. While we were chatting, he told me an amusing story about a “miss” he had with some huge fig trees that were grown in California for one of the health science buildings at the U of A. Apparently, despite his warnings to the construction company, all of the walls and doors were finished before the gigantic fig trees arrived. A few red faces and sledge hammers later, a wall was demolished and the figs were craned into place.
Question of the Week
What is bulb dust, and how do I use it?
Bulb dust is a product that contains a fungicide and an insecticide, plus some inert material such as lime to “carry” the chemicals. These chemicals keep bulbs from rotting in the ground by protecting them from many soil-borne diseases and insects. Apply bulb dust by placing the bulbs in a bag, adding a bit of dust and giving the bag a shake to coat the bulbs evenly. This Shake’n Bake method is very fast and effective but has the potential to get a little messy, so do it outside, in the garden.
Alliums are great bulbs to plant in the fall. For best results, choose a sunny location with well-drained, sandy soil. Hardy Zones 3–10.
Science & Technology
Split Personalities
Sometimes we get some truly strange-looking plants at the greenhouse. Take the case of a garden mum of ours that looks as if one of its flowers was created by sewing two varieties together, in a Frankenstein-like manner. This bizarre flower is what’s scientifically referred to as a sectorial chimera: sectorial, meaning that only one section of the flower or plant has mutated cells that produce the genetic aberration; and chimera, meaning an ancient mythical beast that’s half lion and half goat. It’s a very impressive mutation but one that’s highly unstable. So if you find one of these bizarre beauties in your garden, enjoy it…but don’t expect to make a million dollars reproducing it.
Did You Know?
In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling. Pumpkins were also once recommended for removing freckles and curing snakebites…hmm…stick with pie making, please.
Quote
“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.”
–Chinese Proverb
