Holiday Decorations - Mill Street Florist

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1 Manotick Horticultural Society - November Newsletter Meeting: Monday November 12, 7:30 p.m., RCMP Club House, Long Island Locks Detour: Part of River Road is closed which may alter how you get to the meeting. If you are heading North on River Road towards Nicholl's Island Road, you can drive through the 'closed road' sign and turn left at the Long Island Locks sign onto Nicholl's Island Road. If you are driving South on River Road, it is closed at Earl Armstrong Road, and there is a detour. You would turn left on Earl Armstrong, turn right on Spratt Road, right on Rideau Road, and right onto River Road, going through the 'closed road' sign and turn left at the Long Island Locks sign onto Nicholl's Island Road. Holiday Decorations - Mill Street Florist Always an enjoyable evening with Mill Street Florist! Their floral designers will demonstrate how to make beautiful seasonal floral creations, which will be given away to some lucky participants! And don't forget to 'lug your mug' for tea after the presentation! Sunday November 25: Wreath Making Workshop 2:00 p.m. St. James Anglican Church, 1138 Bridge Street, Manotick (lower level) You will be provided with everything you need to make a beautiful fresh wreath. Please bring a pair of hand secateurs and garden gloves.and any other embellishments you would like to add. Cost: $25.00 per member (2018 membership) and $35.00 for non-members. We need a minimum of 15 people to hold the workshop, so please contact Anne Harbord (formerly Clark-Stewart) at or leisurelodge316@gmail.com to reserve a spot. Please sign up and pay by cheque by the November meeting. If you have a friend who would like to attend, please let them know as well and bring their cheque to the meeting.

2 Heritage Pioneer Herb Garden - Behind Dickinson House Group photo R to L: Wendy Finnie, Heather Brophy, Gina Lecheminant, Mary Vallieres, Anne Mervyn, and Petie Newton. Missing members of the team: Len Schmidt, Christine Ljungkull, Lianne Pepper A team of dedicated volunteers of the Manotick Horticultural Society maintain this heritage Pioneer Herb Garden. The garden was the inspiration of members Cecelia Powell in collaboration with Winifred Darragh and Lloyd Lyall. It was established in the Summer of 1979 and enlarged and fenced in A replacement fence has been in- stalled in The sun dial in the centre was donated by Winifred and Ken Darragh and installed by Ed Anderson on a concrete base above a well no longer in use. The garden contains a small sample of herbs that the early settlers would have brought with them and grown for their needs. They used them in their cooking, as medicine for both humans and animals and for many household purposes. In the expanding towns and villages of Upper Canada in the 1850 s, when Dickinson House was constructed, most households would have had a kitchen garden with fresh pot herbs for cooking, salad herbs for eating fresh, aromatic plants for sachets, potpour- ri and other household uses, and medicinal herbs for home remedies to complement commercially available preparations. In most gardens the herbs were grown amongst the vegetables and in flower borders. Herbs were preserved in various ways. Drying was the most common method, but they would also have been preserved in brandy, vinegar, syrup and candy according to the properties of the herb and for what it was to be used. The pioneer would have had to know a good deal about herbal medicine, since doctors were few and far between. Some of the medicinal herbs have fallen into disrepute, considered ineffective or found to contain toxic compounds. While many of the traditional uses have been replaced by modern drugs many are still listed in the official pharmacopeia. Of course herbs are still used in cooking and help to keep you healthy! Gardeners use them in the vegetable plot to attract pollinators and deter insect pests.

3 People are becoming interested once more in herbs since they are now discovering that the old wives tales were often based on solid fact. Our ancestors knew a thing or two that can still benefit us nowadays! A chart of the herb garden is included at the end of the newsletter. A list of herbs planted in the garden, with a brief note on their traditional uses, is provided for information (see reference list). This is not a recommendation for their use, nor validation of the claims for various remedies. Consultation with a physician or qualified practitioner is advised before using any herbal remedy: Book Review by Josephine Norton: The Seed Garden: The art and practice of seed saving Lee Buttala & Shanyn Siegel [Ed] Seed Savers Exchange Although American in origin this must be the definitive work on saving seeds of vegetables. It s hefty and you ll need a robust carrier to get it home. The book provides a complete education in the age old practice of seed saving, how to plan a seed garden, isolate seed crops to prevent hybridization, and harvesting. It has species profiles of over 74 vegetables including heirloom tomatoes, peppers and century-old varieties of beans and grains. It will be of value to the novice and expert alike. Request on line at biblioottawalibrary.ca or be calling your local library. Also a personal tip for members who save seeds for next season....save all those little packets of silica that are often included in packaging, to keep the contents dry. When you ve collected your seeds put one into the envelope and it will help keep the seeds dry until you need them. JN Christmas Awards Dinner Our annual Christmas Awards Dinner is on Monday December 10th. We hope you have this on your calendar! If you haven't attended before it's a great evening with delicious food (our members are not only great gardeners, they are also fabulous cooks!), well deserved awards from the Flower Shows during the year, and lots of camaraderie. MHS provides the main course, and members bring appetizers, salads, sides (potatoes, vegetables) or dessert. Members can bring one guest. We are excited to have choir members from St. James Anglican church 'carol' during the cocktail hour! Wine will be available for $2 a glass. There will be a sign up sheet at the November meeting in the lobby area. Please indicate if you are attending, and what you'd like to bring. WIN A $50 LEE VALLEY GIFT CERTIFICATE! Have you enjoyed your membership this year? We hope you'll be back again in 2019 for more interesting speakers, workshops, field trips, discounts at our sponsoring nurseries and of course great fellowship! We will be taking membership renewals for the 2019 calendar year at the November meeting. No need to fill out a form, we'll just confirm that your contact information is current. Cost will remain the same - $20 for a single membership or $30 for a family membership. Please come prepared with either cash or a cheque postdated for Jan. 1st, Bring your friends, new members are also eligible to enter this draw. If you're not able to get out to a meeting, just

4 download the membership form available on our website and mail it to the address indicated on it. THOSE WHO RENEW BEFORE JAN. 1ST WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO WIN A $50 LEE VALLEY GIFT CERTIFICATE. Winner will be drawn at our January meeting. Hope to see you again in 2019! 2019 Speaker Program Anne Clark-Stewart will be co-ordinating the speaker program for If you know of any excellent speakers in the area, please let Anne know. Her phone number is and her address is: leisurelodge316@gmail.com. Can you help out? We are looking for members for our 2019 Board of Directors, as well as people who would like to help behind the scenes with the newsletter and other items. Also we would like to find someone with financial/accounting skills to work with Peter. Please or call Maxine maxinew@sympatico.ca if you are interested. It's not a huge commitment, and we actually have fun! October Flower Show and Harvest Festival Results: The October 1 Flower Show was a 'People's Choice'. The winners were: 1st place Maxine Whelan (Thanksgiving Centrepiece with the orange candles and table setting ); 2nd place Wilma Gerroir (Freestyle arrangement on the rock with the amaranth and grasses); and 3rd place Helen Crozier (Large door swag with the white lights). On October 6th we held a Harvest Festival Flower and Vegetable Show at Watson's Mill. We had lots of visitors come by to see the show and to enter the raffle for a lovely flower arrangement made by Linda Gilmer. We had lots of great entries in the Specimen Classes, the Design Classes, and two entries in the Youth Classes. Helen Crozier was the winner for the Design Classes, and Wilma Gerroir in the Specimen Classes. We had two youth winners. Thank you to everyone that took part.and a special thanks to Wilma Gerroir for all of her hard work setting up! Photography Submissions: Please send all of your photography entries digitally to Wilma Gerroir at rwgerroir@rogers.com now. News and Upcoming Events: Tuesday October 30: The Canadensis Botanical Garden Society (CBGS) is holding a symposium in cooperation with the NCC. Admission is free. 8:30 AM welcome address from guests followed by presentations from 9:30 and ending by 4:00 PM, including a luncheon break. NCC Urbanism Lab, 2nd Floor, 40 Elgin St., Ottawa 5 conferences during the day, followed by a Forum event, Goal: to better inform the public on the benefits of a botanical garden and major gardens in a community.

5 Participants are requested to confirm their participation at or at before October 28, as spaces are limited. Further information can be found at A separate Forum will follow in the evening from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, with 3 speakers and a moderator, the NCC being responsible for the Forum, the theme of which is "Gardens and Healthy Cities". Sat. November 17: First annual Poppy Tea at the Manotick Legion. Price $15 per person. This is a fundraiser to raise funds for the maintenance of the Manotick Remembrance Park. Door prizes and silent auction. Layout of Dickinson House Pioneer Herb Garden: