Tuesday, October 18, 2016

November Meeting


For our November meeting — Thursday, Nov 10th — our speaker will be Brent Burtenshaw, speaking about "Watering Systems for the Home Gardener", certainly a topic of interest to many of us.

Brent is the Service / Operational manager at Harris Irrigation.

He has been in the Irrigation Industry for 30 years, and his entire career has been with Harris Irrigation. He is familiar with all aspects of residential and commercial irrigation with a specialty in troubleshooting.

He will give us a basic run-down on landscape irrigation, along with answering any questions we may have that pertains to irrigation installation, maintenance, and specialized applications.

Materials used in his demonstration are being supplied by Vancouver Irrigation and Lighting Supply located at 1440 Venables.


Please do join us. We'll have door prizes and tea and goodies, and we always have a few master gardeners on hand to answer any miscellaneous gardening questions you might have.

Bone meal?

Q. Should I use bone meal when I am planting new purchases? ( Bulbs included)
A. No.
Bone meal is primarily made up of calcium and phosphorus, and quantities of both minerals are usually adequate in non-agricultural urban soils.
While both minerals are needed for plant growth, excessive amounts of these nutrients, particularly phosphorus, can interfere with plant growth.
Low levels of phosphorus in the soil stimulate plant root tips to secrete organic acids, which then attract mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi penetrate the roots and help the plant take up water and nutrients. Mycorrhizal fungi also help the plant to take up phosphorus from the soil.
Excess phosphorus inhibits the growth of these fungi. This, in turn, forces the plant to create an extensive root system to extract the nutrients and water it would have otherwise received via its association with mycorrhizal fungi.
While a more extensive root system sounds like a good thing, the plant is directing energy into roots that it could be directing toward other sorts of growth and production.