Welcome

If you love gardening - or want to learn more about Canada's top hobby - join us at the Nobleton & King City Horticultural Society.

Monthly meetings are held on the fourth Monday of the month at 8 pm. at the Nobleton Community Hall (9 Old King Road, just opposite the Feed Store). They feature informative speakers, beautiful flower shows and plenty of friendly conversation. Guests are always welcome

Annual membership, which includes meetings and a show book, is $15.00 for individuals or $20.00 for two members in the same family. There is a $3.00 fee for non-members at the monthly meetings.

For information contact Anita Pulla or DeborahSocol

In The News

For another take on the effect of micorclimates in the GTA see the article in the Toronto Star.

"I don't have a song to to sing
But some facts I hope you"ll find interesting I bring"

As I walked with my little Boston terrier,Victory, from the Tecumseth Pines parking out over the bottom of the green beside our tennis court on my way into the neighbouring conservation bush this past Saturday there was a definite icy bite to the light wind but I became less aware of this as we entered the conservation area and walked along the open trail beside the marsh which divides the bottom quarter of the bush from the remainder. Once we'd turned into the main bush area I soon realized there was no wind and it seemed warmer. When we, over an hour later, came back out on to top end of the green the wind was again noticeable and we were almost immediately aware of the drop in temperature. Now I happened to have been doing a bit of reading about microclimates and here was a good example of that very thing!

Climatic zones can cover tens of thousands of square miles/ kilometres but within these huge stretches of territory can be local atmospheric areas where the climate is significantly different from that of the larger surrounding region. The atmospheric conditions in these smaller differing areas are called micro [from the Greek for tiny] climates.

The term microclimate may refer to an area as small as a few square feet such as a garden bed or an area as large or larger than King Township.

Microclimates can be found in regions close to bodies of water causing temperatures to be cooler in summer than in outlying regions and where the presence of the water moderates the colder seasons preventing early fall frosts and late spring ones. Southern Georgian Bay is a perfect example of this and here I could easily winter buddleia [butterfly bush] on our cottage property whereas it was very difficult to winter this same flowering shrub in our former Nobleton area garden. Our two rhododendrons and three azaleas grew and bloomed happily in that cottage garden for years and we could always count on the forsythia to bloom every spring even though it was considerably north of its recommended hardiness zone.

A good example of a microclimate is a paved driveway--my asphalt drive faces north but even on a fairly cold day when it hasn't been cleared, once the sun gets to it, any snow cover begins to melt but the snow on my nearby front lawn remains unchanged. Of course the reason for this is that rays from the sun are absorbed by the black asphalt warming it and creating a microclimate that facilitates the melting process.

Gardeners, horticulturalists and landscapers mimic nature, sometimes intentionally but now and again accidentally, by making their own microclimates.

One of the tiniest microclimates is created indoors when a tropical houseplant such as an orchid needs humidity so you fill a dish with stones/pebbles pour water into it so the top half of the stones remain dry and then set the plant in its pot on the rocks. Sunlight direct or in this case indrect, air and water combine and voila you have a microclimate!

A water feature added to the garden such as a pool, small pond or even a miniature waterfall can provide an adjoining area with a more humid atmosphere where plants that like this kind of environment will perform better than in a drier spot in the same garden.

Gardening expert, Melanie Mathieson, writes in the Rainy River Record that by amending the soil in one garden bed you can create a microclimate that will allow plants that need that soil type whether it be acid, alkaline or neutral to make themselves at home. Mathieson also writes that if there's a low spot in the garden that retains water it might provide the ideal microclimate for a successful bog garden but on the other hand if there's a very dry spot in the garden this could be the place with a microclimate suited to drought resistant plants .As well she says that if you have a garage or shed that gives afternoon shade to part of the vegetable garden as this is the place to grow lettuce and cucumbers.

Gardens enclosed by evergreen hedges such as cedar can be up to ten degrees cooler in midsummer and ten degrees warmer in midwinter. A friend of mine has such a hedged garden in the Alliston area and has been able to sucessfully winter heavily mulched subtropical agapanthus [blue Nile lilies] and the lavender she grows with equal success is shrub like.

A garden next to a house can be warmer as the house will give off heat collected from the sun or from the internal heating system. Another good friend in the Pottageville area has gladioli and nasturtium plants over winter near the back wall of the house where the property is sheltered by many large [evergreen] hemlocks. At her home on Hwy 27 just south of the King Rd. Irene Sheardown, charter member of the Nobleton-King City Horticultural Society for years had a small garden right next to the south facing wall of her house filled with small spring bulbs--grape hyacinths, crocuses, chionodoxa and scilla where the sun warmed wall combining with the internal house heat and that from the bordering paved drive all contributed to create a microclimate that brought these bulbs in to flower long before similar spring bulbs were in bloom in other Nobleton gardens.

"This time there was no song to sing
But I do hope the read 'bout micro climates,
You found interesting""

(Apologies to poets past and present.)

Originally published in the King Weekly on February 22, 2012 by John Arnott

See the Potpourri page for an article by John about Amaryllis