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Last Month's Newsletter
Visit Us At Our Website
Great information and our weekly ads are there!
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Renee Kirkendall. Renee was the first to submit the correct answer to our July trivia question: "What is the name of the evergreen shrub from which we get capers?" The correct answer is "caper bush."
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Renee won a $15.00 Wedel's gift certificate and you could too! Just be the first to respond with the correct answer to our monthly trivia question.
Congratulations, Renee!!
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Country Fair Days
Are Upon Us
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It's August and that means Wedel's Country Fair Days are here...well, almost. Mark your calendar, put a note on the refrigerator and a string around your finger. Friday and Saturday, August 26 and 27 are the big days.
This year we are combining Country Fair Days and Sidewalk Sale Days so there will be even more to do; something for everyone. If you're not familiar with Wedel's Country Fair Days click here. There will be great Wedel gift certificate prizes and be sure to check out the "Best-of-Show Grand Prize!"
Load up the car with family and friends and come to Wedel's Garden Center for Wedel's Country Fair Days and Sidewalk Sale!
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A Thought
from the Garden
"The brilliant poppy
flaunts her headAmidst the ripening grain, And adds her voice to sell the song That August's here again." - Helen Winslow |
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Mark Your Calendar!
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Friday and Saturday
August 26, 27 Country Fair Days Sidewalk Sale Friday and Saturday September 30, October 1 Wedel's Petting Zoo
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Just for Grins... 
"That's funny. I don't remember being absent - minded."
- Harv Plophgille
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| Did You Know? |  | |
1. 3 inches of rain collected from a 400 sq. ft. garage roof will fill more than 11, 60 gallon rain barrels - enough to fill 20 bath tubs.
2. The daisy got its name because the yellow center resembled the sun. It was commonly known as the "day's eye" and over time, was eventually called daisy.
3. Only female mosquitoes bite and drink blood. Male mosquitoes do not bite; they are vegetarians, and feed on the nectar of flowers.
4. The average American eats 13 pounds of tomatoes a year (plus 20 pounds a year in the form of ketchup, salsa, soup, and BBQ sauce). |
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| Volume 4, Number 5 August, 2011 |
It's Time To Enjoy
The Fruits Of Our Labor by George Wedel
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 | | George Wedel |
As our landscapes and gardens are at their peak of the summer bloom, green thumbers need to take a step back and smell the roses. It's easy to become so absorbed in planting and tending your garden, lawn and landscape that we fail to take time to drink in all the beauty of your own outdoor living area. My formula is to go all out in the cool morning, and then have lunch in the shade of our Scarlet Maple and enjoy the multitude of flowers, foliage colors and textures from our deck. This is also a great time of year to visit other gardens, both public and private. Public gardens of interest within a four to six hour drive include Michigan State University's Beal Garden, Lewis Botanical Center and the MSU Trial Garden in East Lansing. You'd also enjoy Fernwood Garden in Niles; Kingwood Center Gardens in Mansfield, Ohio; Chicago Botanical Gardens; Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati and Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. Nothing can beat a "busman's holiday" to recharge our gardening batteries. To encourage repeat blooms, be sure to cut off or dead head spent blossoms stalks on both annual and perennial flowers as soon as the petals fall. Remove yellow or brown foliage on perennials that are going dormant, this would include; old fashioned bleeding hearts, daffodils and oriental poppies. To fill in bare areas, consider planting gallardias, marigolds, salvia or impatiens for blooms that will last until frost. Wedel's has gallon size flowering annual plants especially grown for summer planting. It's been many years since I've seen vegetable gardens produce so much so early. Green beans by the bushel, thirty inch potato plants with delicious new potatoes, squash plants that are truly huge with large fruits forming earlier than normal. Our row of everbearing red raspberry plants have never produced so early and, looking at the large number of flower buds and blooms on each new stalk we will be enjoying fresh berries for breakfast until November. WOW! It sure is an exciting 2011 gardening season!
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Garden Natives
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Chicago Lustre Viburnum
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This month's featured "Garden Native" is the Chicago Lustre Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum 'Synnesvedt').
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Chicago Lustre Berries
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Creamy white flowers in June that mature into deep porcelain blue to bluish-purple/royal blue fruit along with forest green foliage add color and interest to your landscaping throughout the season. This plant makes an excellent hedge, border, naturalizing or specimen shrub. Click here for more details.
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A Success Story: Update
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2010
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There was an article called "Swimming In Vegetables" in the July 2010 issue of Wedel's News which was prompted by e-mail sent to us by Sue Collison. Sue described a new use for an area that once held an above ground swimming pool and that new use is an English vegetable garden, in the round. Sue said, "After 1400 bricks, 20 yards of soil and much hard work, we have our 'English vegetable garden!"
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2011
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A year passed and Sue sent this update to us last month. "Last year I sent you a picture that you featured in your newsletter of our garden that we put in where our above ground swimming pool was at. Thought you might enjoy an updated photo...the fountain we purchased at Wedel's is almost hidden by the lavender...we may have to raise it up on bricks!  | |
2011
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Look what you can do in a small area! The diameter is 28' and so far this year I've harvested sugar snap peas, spinach, garlic & tomatoes. The beans are in blossom, strawberries are spreading, raspberries are soon going to be a delicious backdrop, with beets, zucchini, rhubarb & an herb garden as well! When we got back from a week of vacation I was able to weed the entire garden in just a few hours! Just thought your readers would enjoy seeing an update." We all enjoy success stories and this is certainly one! This is a perfect example of what some hard work and a little patience can achieve. Very inspiring! |
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Store Hours
Monday - Saturday
9:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
To Do In August
Apply lawn disease control.
Apply Weed Free Zone for lawn weed control.
Feed roses, fertilize flower beds.
Apply light summer feeding to your lawn.
Install edging around landscaping.
Install rope lights to top of edging.
Apply fungus control to vegetables, lawns, etc.
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August Shopping List
Fertilome Weed Free Zone Weed Out with Q crabgrass killer Daconil fungicide Scotts Lawn Fungus Control Repellex Mole Repellant Suet Bird seed Dipel Milorganite Green Magic Lawn Fertilizer Espoma Organic Lawn Fertilizer |
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Saturday Mornings
Birdwatch 8:07 a.m.
with host Roger Taylor answering all of your birding questions
Call in at 382-4280 or 877-382-4280.
Over the Garden Fence 9:07 a.m. with host Andy Wedel answering all of your landscape and gardening questions
Call in at 382-4280 or 877-382-4280.
Visit our web site at www.wedels.com for archives of previous Birdwatch and
Over the Garden Fence programs!
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Note from the Editor
It is August; it is Fair time. Wedel's Country Fair Days are swiftly approaching. Be sure to set aside time on August 26 and 27 and plan to come by the garden center for the festivities! There is a link above in the "Country Fair Days Are Upon Us" article that will take you to a page of information about the activities and about all of the contest prizes available. Click here for that same info.
This year we are combining Sidewalk Sale Days with our Country Fair so, besides prizes and fun activities there will be loads of items with very special prices! If you've attended either event before you know how much fun they are; now combine the 2 into 1. There will be something for everyone in the family.
Speaking of fairs, my wife, Sue, and I will make our annual trek to Coldwater next week to visit the Branch County 4-H Fair! Next week is one of the biggest weeks of the year for many Branch County kids, 4-Hers who have worked so hard for ribbons and awards and non-4Hers who are there for the games and rides. The week isn't just for kids though. It's a chance for adults to see all sorts of new products and equipment much of which is used in the farming business. There will be old equipment also. The huge, noisy steam engines always draw a crowd.
Fair week is a time for old friends to see each other, have a bite for lunch or supper and chat about...anything like this year's crops, politics, sports, the 4-H competition and which food stand has the best food. We've enjoyed having supper with Sue's sister and brother-in-law a number of times, my cousins, friends whom we often see only once a year, at the Fair. We always eat supper at a church sponsored food stand where everything is good but the pot roast dinner or scalloped potatoes and ham dinner can't be beat. And the desserts!! It's all homemade!
The Fair is a microcosm of everything that's good in life; family, friends, church, good food and good times together.
Ready for another trivia question? Here we go: What plant produces the smallest seed? The first reader to respond with the correct answer will win a $15.00 Wedel's gift certificate. The gift certificate must be picked up here at the garden center and remember, you are eligible to win once every 90 days. Good luck and have fun!
jimdavenport@wedels.comRest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. ~John Lubbock
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