Nobleton Notes
Get your tickets for the St. Mary UCW raffle

By Angie Maccarone (905) 859-5174

St. Mary Catholic Church and St. Patrick Catholic Church

The Catholic parishes of St. Patrick in Schomberg and St. Mary in Nobleton will be honoring our Lady with the third annual Marian Procession.

In Schomberg, it will be this Saturday (Aug. 11) at 7 p.m. starting at St. Patrick School, followed by the Holy Mass in the Church. The Nobleton procession will be Sunday, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the library in Nobleton.

St. Mary CWL raffle tickets

If you haven't received your raffle tickets to sell for the St. Mary Catholic Women's League upcoming fall bazaar/tea, which is happening Sept. 23, please call Angie at (905) 859- 5174 and she will deliver you some booklets to sell prior to the upcoming tea date.

Horticulture

"All day I face the barren waste without the taste of water, cool clear water--".

Farms, fields, woods, gardens and lawns in our region certainly can identify with this refrain. Plants, from trees to moss, are really stressed by the continuing heat and drought. People are saying only the weeds are green. Well in my area, even they are wilting. What is needed is two or three days of steady rain to relieve this situation.

Keeping gardens here in Tecumseth Pines alive is definitely a challenge under such conditions, as not only do we have a watering ban, but the homes were built on the site of a former sand pit. Low growing annuals that are coping well in my Saharan garden are gazanias, members of the large daisy (asteraceae/compositae) family. These natives of South Africa, where they are perennials, have large vivid orange or yellow, mahogany, white or mauve-pink daisy flowers atop six-inch stems that grow from a whirl of silvery gray or green basal fern-like foliage. Some blooms are have bi-coloured striping. These drought tolerant plants, whose flowers close in the evening and on cloudy days, were named for Theodore of Gaza (that unhappy Middle Eastern centre), a 15th century Greek scholar who came across their existence while translating ancient Greek manuscripts into Latin and introduced them to Mediterranean gardeners.

Another South African daisy doing well for me, in spite of the weather, is the gerbera (Transvaal or veldt daisy), which is not often thought of as a garden flower. I have a patch of about 10 at the side of the house, which gets sun until about 2 p.m. in sandy soil, which they like, enriched with composted cattle manure. I water them in the evenings three times a week. Gerberas grow much the same as gazanias, but have thicker stems and wider, heavier flower heads. Both can bush out about one foot. Gerberas come in a variety of reds as well as yellow, pastels and white. If there a ' downside to growing either one, it is that both must be dead-headed to keep them blooming. Like gazanias, gerberas are perennials in warmer climates, but only annuals here Both can be brought in before fall frosts and wintered indoors.

By the by, getting water on leaves or blooms while the sun is shining on the plants is harmful as it causes burning. Water evenings, early mornings, in shade or on cloudy days.