North Shore gardens make the grade

Annual contest honor
residents, businesses

Geoff
Tobiasson

OVER THE GARDEN GA

THE NIP in the air tells me
that this portion of the year
we affectionately call the
growing season is almost
over.

This by no means signifies the
end of our gardening chores, nor
even the enjoyment we can expect
from them.

It also happens to be the best
time to begin taking stock of our
successes and failures and to use
this information to begin planning
for next year.

Even the novice gardener quick-—

ly learns to meet the requirements
of each of the distinct species of
plant in the garden.

As soon as one is ignored in
favor of another, the neglected
will either run rampant, putting
the entire garden at risk, or quick-
ly fade into oblivion.

We should elect more gardeners
(on second thought, we may have
tried that one already).

Anywho, you should consider
spending some of these fine fall
days cleaning up the landscape
and getting it ready for winter

and, while you’re at it, take a few
notes.

Put a litle notebook in your
vest pocket and jot a few things
down as you are reminded of
them in the course of your work.

What did well? What did not?
What might work better in a dif-
ferent location or planted at a dif-
ferent time?

What varieties of bedding plants
looked good in combination with
each other? What problems did
you run into that you could have
solved had you been a little better
Prepared?

lt might be something as simple
as [sting the names of the
tomatoes which produced the
highest, best tasting vield.

Or it could be as complex as the
exact formula for planting them,
e.g., ‘‘Early Girl, May I, south
side of shed, 2 tsp. bonemeal and
1 scoop seaweed compost each,
landscape fabric around roots,
Reemay crop cover tents through
May, sulphur dust early June,
etc.”’

The more prepared you are for
the next year’s successes, the more
success you will have next year.

This may sound simple, but an-
swer me this: when was the last
time you put the information you
gathered from the previous year to
pork for you, and how effective-
y?

We recently had the opportunity
to reward a select few who ob-
viously knew how to make the
most their experiences at the fifth
annual awards night for the North
Shore Gardens Contest.

Founding committee members
Dirk Oostindi, manager of Parks
Operations for the District of
North Vancouver, chaired the
event, and Alex Downie, hor-
ticulturist. at VanDusen Garden,
gave a timely talk on ‘‘Planning
the Dry Summer Garden.’’

Rudi Pinkowski, committee
member and owner of one of the
great gardens on the North Shore

NEWS photo Paul McGrath

SECOND PLACE large residential lot winners Riley and Shirley O'Connor (centre) display their North
Shore Gardens contest plaque with News operations manager Chris Johnson (left) and WV coun-

cillor Diane Hutchinson.

Garden Tour, narrated an ex-
cellent slide show featuring the
award-winning gardens. This was
followed by an equally splendid
video.

After awards ceremonies, the
audience had the opportunity to
discuss a wide range of gardening
topics with the guest speaker and
other horticulturists while enjoy-
ing tea and refreshments served by
the Delbrook Garden Club.

The plaques and scrolls given to
the winners were sponsored by the
North Shore News, North Shore
Credit Union, North Vancouver
Kiwanis and the Ambleside Inn.

The award winners were:

Large Commercial Garden:

Ist Best - Capilano Suspension
Bridge

2ad Best - Park Royal Hotel

3rd Best - B.C. Rail headquarters,
Esplanade

Honorable Mention: Earl's Tin

Palace

Small Commercial Garden:

ist Best - Three Way Chevron
Gas Station

2nd Best - Pay and Save Gas Sta-
tion

3rd Best - Lonsdale Chevron Gas
Station

Large Residential Lot:

Award of Excellence - Elisabeth
Carey

Ist Best -
2nd Best -
O'Connor
3rd Best - Deanna Vesio
Honorable Mention:
Yamamoto

Small Residential Lot:

ist Best - Ross and Hillary Simp-
son

2nd Best -
Jackson

3rd Best - Merv and Lynn Lake
Honorable Mention: Louise and
Denis Casaubon

Gould

Riley and Shirley

Ella

Edewin and Anne

Honorable Mention: Antony and
Eva Fabris
Honorable Mention:
Howard Mann
Vegetable Garden:

Ist Best - Sid Jobling
2nd Best - Remo Gambioli
3rd Best - Christine Ficcelli
Patio Garden:

Ist Best - Mary
Mann

2nd Best -
Casaubon
3rd Best - Hanna Pankow
Honorable Mention: Janice Locke

Mary and

and Howard

Louise and Denis

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