September is a perfect time for planting and transplanting in your garden. Although a rainy day, the Stittsville Goulbourn Horticultural Society’s (SGHS) first annual fall plant sale provided a great opportunity to get some new additions that will appear in your garden next year! In addition to donated perennials and houseplants from Society members, they also had an area and table featuring the native plants that are planted in the Lee Boltwood Park. Along with selling the plants, Society members were on hand to provide gardening advice such as the best spot to place the plants in your garden and how to care for them.
With plants priced from $2.00 to $10.00, you could load up your trunk with locally grown cool season annuals, perennials, and beautiful plants you won’t find at your local garden centre. The benefit of purchasing your plants at the SGHS Spring and Fall plant sales, is the fact that they are grown right here in Stittsville and immediate area so you know they will survive our climate and garden conditions.
Judith Cox, President of SGHS wrote in the current SGHS newsletter, “we had our first annual Fall Plant Sale. And it rained. It rained a lot! But undaunted our merry band of volunteers organized the plant donations, chatted to visitors and sold enough to make this a worthwhile event! Lets hope for better weather next year.”
Early fall through most of November is one of the best times of year to plant spring-blooming bulbs, cool-season annuals and vegetables, as well as transplanting many various plants. Large trees and shrubs survive well when planted in the fall as they bulk up their existing root systems over winter that allows them to drink more water the next season.
Although it was a wet day, a good number of the plants being sold have now found new gardens, backyards or special spots to beautify much to everyone’s enjoyment.
If you want to discover more or become involved with your local horticultural society, attend a monthly meeting where a guest speaker covers topics of interest, visit the SGHS website or follow the group on Facebook. Their next meeting is September 17 at 7:30pm at the Johnny Leroux Community Centre.