Nobleton Notes
St. Alban's Church hosting Christmas crafts bazaar this Saturday
By Angie Maccarone (905) 859-5174

St. Paul's Presbyterian

Join us this evening (Wednesday) for our midweek service at 7 p.m. This 20 minute service is ideal for those in our community who are unable to make a regular Sunday morning service. Everyone is welcome!

The Youth Group will be meeting this Friday (Nov. 10) at 7:30 p.m. There is lots of planning to be done for our trip downtown to help the homeless and our trip in December to the Operation Christmas Child warehouse, so we need everyone to come out.

Celebrate with us this Sunday (Nov. 12) at 9:45 a.m. as we welcome Alan and Natalie Self to the pulpit. This exciting young couple are missionaries for Campus Crusade for Christ on the Waterloo campus.

Child care is available during the service for children up to five years of age and Sunday school for all ages follows the service at 11 a.m. The Women's Missionary

Society will be having their regular meeting this Monday (Nov. 13) at 1 p.m.

For more information about any of our events, please call the church office at (905) 859-0843.

Horticulture Submitted to Hans Nielsen

"Imagination is the highest kite that one can fly." (Lauren Bacall)

If the ground is still workable, many plantings can still be done and in fact are better done in the fall than in the spring, giving the plants a good start early in the spring.

When choosing plant material the gardener should try to avoid any invasive plants, as they will pose more problems than the pleasure they provide.

The following is a list of species imported to this country for their beautification purposes, but which have been shown to be invasive:  Norway maple - it will bombard any garden with its fruit key, resulting in an endless succession of small maple trees. Plant sugar maple, basswood or white ash instead (watch for ash bore).  European birch - invades bogs and other natural areas.

Other species to avoid are European high bush cranberry, white mulberry, horse chestnut, silver poplar, black logust, Scots pine, Siberian elm and Russian olive. Alternatives are red mulberry, white pine, honey locust, tremling aspen and trumpet creeper. For the wildlife garden use American high bush cranberry, mountain ash, pin cherry and service berry.

For the tall grass garden avoid pampas grass and reed canary grass. Alternatives are big bluestem, bottlebrush grass and switch grass. Ground cover plants to avoid are (unless they are well-contained) sweet woodruffe, crown vetch, lily of the valley, moneywort, English ivy and bugleweed. Alternatives are native creeper, bear berry and wild strawberry. There are a whole lot more invasive plants grown in Ontario, but a good reputable nursery will not be selling them and

many plants are spread by uncontrolled plant sales and over the back fence and so, the home gardener should beware.

The last meeting and flower show of the year for Nobleton and King City Horticultural Society, held recently, was a big success.

A good crowd came out to hear a good speaker and to view the flower show, the last harvest from the garden in the year 2006, the last rose of the summer and many other flowers and vegetables.

Master Gardener and owner of Kate's Garden Shop Kate Seaver gave a very informative and thorough talk and demonstration on how to make bouquets for a center piece, a mantel piece, a front hall piece, counter top piece and for a bedside table, all with about $20 worth of flowers. It was a very clever and innovative presentation, delivered with a lot of humour and expertise.

Kate's Garden Shop carries many accessories for bouquet making. The shop is located in Markham on Highway 7 across from Marville Mall.

It was a good flower show for the time of year and the exhibitors put much effort into it.

Most points in show was won by Nancy Hopkinson (Nobleton) with 35 and second place was taken by Jules Maule-Ffinch (Caledon East) with 31. Barbara Downey (Castlederg) came in third with 17. Hopkinson won

best in the decorative class with her beautiful arrangement Country Pumpkin, and best in the cultural class was won by veteran gardener and avid rose grower John Lesy (Nobleton) for his amazing last rose of the year.

The refreshment committee of Jean Keane put on a most delicious table with coffee, tea and sweets. Much socializing and friendly chats were enjoyed while viewing the flower show after the talk.

Don't forget the Annual General Meeting and awards dinner planned for Nov. 27. It is a pot-luck dinner starting at 6 p.m., so prepare your favourite dish and plan to attend. Please, also remember to report your volunteer hours.

Visit the society's Web site at www.altflora.com/nobleton and the OHA's Web site at www.gardenontario.org St. Alban's Christmas

Bazaar

St. Alban's Anglican Church will hosting a wonderful arts and crafts Christmas bazaar this Saturday (Nov. 11).

It will be held from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Nobleton Community Centre (beside the arena).

Along with lots of very unique, hand-made arts and crafts, there will be a great bake table, filled with Christmas and seasonal creations, as well as many gift and decoration ideas to launch you into the Christmas season.