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The Gold Star Goes To...
...Sue Jones!
 
Sue was the first to respond with the correct answer to our February trivia question. The production of eggplant is highly concentrated with China producing 56% of the world's output. India is second followed by Egypt, Turkey and Indonesia according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 
 
Congratulations, Sue. You are our February Wedel's News trivia contest winner! 
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Mark Your Calendar
 
Wedel's Saturday Seminars
 
There are over 30 seminars at Wedel's during our Spring Expo on March 20 and 21. To see a complete list, click on
 www.wedels.blogspot.com.
There you will find details on door prizes, exhibitors, society and clubs and book signings! You will find details on Ladies Night Out there also!
 
Dream Home
Expo '09
 
March 11-14
 
Wednesday 5:00 - 9:00
Thursday and Friday
     Noon - 9:00
Saturday 10:00 - 7:00
At Cole Auto Mall
 
 
Wedel's
14th Annual
Spring Expo 
 
March 20, 21
Friday 9:00 - 9:00
Saturday 9:00 - 5:00 
At Wedel's Garden Center 
 
 
 Ladies Night Out
Garden Party Gala
 
March 27 
Friday 5:00 - 9:00
At Wedel's Garden Center 

Stay up to date! Visit Wedel's blog for timely and important information as well as our weekly ads. The address is:  www.wedels.blogspot.com.
New at Wedel's
 
Barker's
Bazaar
 
  
 
Pet Food, Supplies, and Fancies
Spring Special
10% off
Spring Training Leads, Needs & Treats! 
 
Book Signing at Wedel's
 
Two authors will join us at Wedel's during Spring Expo to meet all of you and sign copies of their books.  
 
Sue Amatangelo, who is an Illinois Outstanding Master Gardener Award winner will be signing Absolutely Beautiful Containers. "With a patio, porch or windowsill, gardeners can grow almost anything anywhere using containers." Stop by, say "hi" to Sue and buy a signed copy of her most informative and entertaining book.
 
 
 
The Willing Walnut is a new children's book by father-daughter team Tom and Elizabeth Heintzkill, Kalamazoo authors, about a young girl who journeys through the forest gaining a strong sensitivity to the beauty of her natural surroundings.
 
A Thought
 from the Garden
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The air is like a butterfly
With frail blue wings.
The happy earth looks at the sky
And sings.
-   Joyce Kilmer, Spring

Pretty Garden?
If you have a garden, a feeding station or bird pictures that you are proud of, send them to us. We'll share your pictures with our readers. Send pictures to:

Wedel's News

Volume 1, Number 12                       March, 2009
We Are
Truly Blessed 
by George Wedel
 
Hello and merry spring to all of our green thumb friends! It seems so long ago we were all putting our gardens to sleep for the winter. Now, to cure their cabin fever, most green-thumbers can hardly wait to dig into the new garden season. On our calendar, spring arrives on Friday, March 20 but that doesn't mean we can't get a jump on the season.

What a blessing it is that God allows us all to participate in the wonderful event of spring. For gardeners, spring spells a new beginning; the first warm breeze, new life coming to long dormant branches, a warm rain, the greening of new grass, the first blooms of spring, fragrant newly turned soil and our snowbird friends and neighbors arriving daily from the south. Within our souls there stirs a renewed urge to enjoy the great outdoors, our gardens once again and participate with God in His continuing act of creation.

As I experience these wonderful sensations, I am reminded that God always keeps His promises. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. As long as the earth remains, there will be springtime and a harvest. From God's Word in the Song of Solomon it is written, "For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have already appeared in the land; the time has arrived for pruning the vines and the voice of the turtle dove has been heard in the land." Song of Solomon 2:11&12.

I am grateful for God's promise of spring. Barren, desolate days and dormant branches soon will be behind us; green grass and the flowers and the fruits of the vine are before us. What a wonderful hope and joy we are blessed with. I hope God blesses each of you, our green thumb friends, with a great gardening season, an abundant harvest of flowers and vegetables and with many sunny, enjoyable hours in your gardens.

Where to begin? With so many early spring garden and landscape project possibilities we should sort out the immediate from those that can wait. The first item on my to-do list this spring will be the necessity to finish any dormant pruning of trees and shrubs. Prune out all cracked branches on shade and ornamental trees. Where branches have been torn off the main stem, smooth the wound with a sharp knife then apply Tanglefoot pruning wound paint. Delay pruning any wind burned evergreen foliage, both needled and broadleaf, until May. Examine deciduous flowering shrubs closely for winter dieback. Prune back all damaged branches to green, live wood.

Folks with backyard fruit trees will want to begin their dormant spray program soon. Fruit tree insects and disease will become active soon and will continue to be whenever temperatures are above forty degrees.

Most lawns would benefit from a light raking now to fluff up the matted grass. Raking now will also help dry out turf and stop further snow mold damage. Bare or thin turf areas should be seeded after raking. Grass seed sown soon will get off to a better start than seed planted in warmer weather. Any lawns that were not fertilized last November should be fertilized at half rate with Scotts Lawn Pro Lawn Food as soon as possible to encourage early spring green up. A reminder; wait to apply lawn crabgrass controls until late April.Crabgrass seeds won't germinate until early May. The combination of early crabgrass control application and a rainy spring will shorten the control period.

Green thumbers will want to mark their calendars for Friday, March 20 and Saturday, March 21 for Wedel's annual Spring Garden and Landscape Expo. All gardeners and plant enthusiasts will be treated to the wonderful sights and fragrances of spring while strolling through our greenhouse gardens. A multitude of free seminars and door prizes along with the opportunity to chat with our product vendors and staff will ensure that there will certainly be something for everyone of every age.
Ask Roger:
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 Q. I'm not seeing as many house sparrows as I once did. Are my eyes deceiving me?
 
A. No need for an eye exam, house sparrows are fewer and further between. Recent bird counts show them at a fifty year low. You can almost hear the sigh of relief from the Bluebirds. The same species is in a significant decline in their native England home. The reason for the decline on both sides of the Atlantic is not known.
 
Q. I read an article in a wedding magazine about releasing butterflies at weddings. I'm getting married this spring and think this would be neat. What do you think?
 
A. I don't think it is an idea whose time has come. Releasing of commercially produced butterflies has several potential problems; it may spread disease or parasites for which native butterflies have no resistance, it encourages butterfly poaching and it may result in the introduction of non-native species. As birders we are well acquainted with the problems the introduction of house sparrows and starlings has caused. Let's not head down that same road with butterflies, they already have enough problems.
 
Q. I'm seeing lots of gulls in the Kalamazoo area, more than I remember seeing years ago. Is there a big new lake I'm not aware of in the area?

A. First the gulls you are seeing are Ring-billed Gulls and secondly you are correct, we've got a bunch of them nowadays. There has been a dramatic change in gull behavior over the last twenty or so years. This change was so significant ornithologists had no real explanation for the how and why of this change. If the species was controlled only by instinctive behavior it should have taken far longer than 20 years for the birds to make a behavioral change of this magnitude. Secondly, bird experts had no explanation for what the cause of the change could be either. Two recent studies point to a possible explanation.

It was always assumed that stocking the Great Lakes with trout and salmon would be good for gulls. The birds mainly eat from the lakes, so it would seem logical that more fish would be better for birds. Sadly, a new study in the April journal of Ecology, says that the addition of non native species like salmon and trout have had an unexpected and negative outcome. This may be the "why" of our burgeoning gull population.

The National Wildlife Research Center in Ottawa, Canada analyzed 25 years of data on the gulls and found that throughout the Great Lakes region the birds were in poor health. Tests of their fatty acids showed an increase in exactly the type of transfat that comes from human manufactured food. "It seems that the birds are being forced to make a dietary shift from fish to terrestrial food, including garbage," said Craig Hebert the study's author.
 
Although no one is certain why the birds are eating more garbage, the evidence is now pointing to the stocking of the Great Lakes with non native species. It may very well be that when these new predators were added they knocked the gulls out of their place in the food chain.
  
The next assumption by humans was that the "lower species" operated without self awareness and were held captive by their hormones. As a result they were incapable of individual thought. Well, another recent Canadian study of Ring-billed Gulls may point to the "how" of our parking lot gulls by correcting that preception.
 
Research from the University of Montreal shows that Ring-billed gulls not only watch their neighbors, they mimic them as well. Contrary to previous beliefs this study suggests that they cue on reactions from other members of their species. "This is the first study to report how gulls copy the vigilance and awareness of other gulls during rest periods," said Guy Beauchamp, who authored the study. "When their immediate neighbors were alert, the gulls we observed were more aware and rested less. In contrast, when the neighbors were relaxed, so were the subjects."
 
Dr. Beauchamp spent the last two summers tracking and studying gull behavior. He compared the activity of gulls that were sleeping relative to the alertness of their neighbors. "Gulls sleep with one eye open [unihemispheric sleeping is common in all birds] and constantly scan the group. Based on my observations, we know now that they are judging the level of vigilance of their peers to mimic it. This adds a new complexity to understanding animal behavior." Gulls it seems learn from watching each other.

Ok, so by now you're asking, "Roger where are you going with this?" These two studies suggest that humans started planting non native species of fish in the Great Lakes which pushed the gulls out of their natural position in the food chain. The gulls as a species were forced to find a new way to make a living and by watching and learning from each other they figured out that they needed to relocate and how to put food on the table in that new location. So now instead of being a species of big bodies of water they are a bird of big parking lots. Sadly, since they now eat human manufactured food they all need to be on Zocor but that's a whole different topic.
Just for Grins... 
 
Have you heard of the garlic diet?
You don't lose much weight, but from a distance your friends think you look thinner.
Did You Know?
1. Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and can save 20-50 percent in energy used for heating.
 
2. Butterflies typically lay their eggs in late spring and hatch 3-6 days after they are laid. It takes 3-4 weeks for a caterpillar to pupate and 9-14 days to emerge as an adult.
 
3. One edible gourd contains 130% of your daily Vitamin C along with calcium and iron.
 
4. There are more than 42.6 million households in the U.S. that list flower gardening as a primary leisure activity.
wkzo
Saturday Mornings
 
Birdwatch
8:00
with host Roger Taylor answering all of your birding questions
Call in at 382-4280 or 800-742-6590.
 
(Mark your calendars! Over the Garden Fence returns March 21, 2009) 
Over the Garden Fence
9:07
with host Andy Wedel answering all of your landscape and gardening questions
Call in at 382-4280 or 800-742-6590.
 

  Note from the Editor

Shakespeare must have been a gardener. When surveying the devastation wrought by Henry VIII he used an autumnal metaphor saying, "That time of year thou mayst in me behold /When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang /Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.It is March. The yellow leaves, or none, or few are very soon to be replaced by greens of all hues and countless choirs are about to reassemble to sing in a new spring and new life in our gardens and landscapes. A wonderful time of year; a busy time of year here at the garden center.
 
We are always a season or two ahead of the calendar at Wedel's. We attend trade shows in the fall, finding the tried-and-true and everything new. New merchandise delivery begins just before the end of the year and accelerates early in January. Shortly after New Year's Day we receive our first delivery of seeds and, shortly after that, the seed displays are set up. What a sight! From that time on deliveries arrive nearly every day and the warehouse fills to the ceiling. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything unloaded, unboxed and on the shelves, ready for our green thumber friends. 
 
Another reason this is always a busy time of year is we are preparing for our 14th annual Spring Garden and Landscape Expo. All of you who have attended in years past know that, no matter the weather, spring has arrived at Wedel's on Expo weekend. If you haven't experienced Expo, I hope you plan to this year. Spend an hour, spend an afternoon, spend both days with us and take advantage of all of the opportunities to learn something new at the seminars and take a look at what's new for 2009. If you enjoy gardening, landscaping, ponds, anything outdoors around your home, I can promise you'll find Expo invaluable!
 
Ready for this month's trivia question? We are nearing weed season so I thought a weed question might be appropriate. What is the common name of the weed with these characteristics:  it is a stem climbing parasite, its leaves are reduced to small scales or are absent, most commonly it is orange in color and it has no roots in the soil? The person to respond first with the correct answer will win a $15.00 Wedel's gift certificate which must be picked up at Wedel's. Remember, you are eligible to win once every 90 days. Good luck and have fun!
 

'Til next time,
 
Jim
 
 
"March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes
and a laugh in her voice."
-  Hal Borland