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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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And A Tip Of The Hat
Goes To...
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Linda Peterman. Linda was the first to submit the correct answer to our September trivia question: "What was the first cartoon character to be made into a parade balloon?" The correct answer is "Felix the Cat."
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Linda won a $15.00 Wedel's gift card and you could too! Just be the first to respond with the correct answer to our monthly trivia question.
Congratulations, Linda!!
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Store Hours
Monday - Saturday
9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
To Do
In October
Apply Fertilome Weed Free Zone to lawn weeds.
Feed trees, shrubs, garden plants.
Apply crabgrass preventer to control annual blue grass. Pinch back fall bloomers like mums and asters.Plant spring blooming bulbs.
Feed acid loving plants with Holly-tone.
Feed trees with Tree-tone.
Apply Scotts Winterizer toward the end of the month.
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A Thought
From the Garden
"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest
upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees
without a care,
Content to sleep,
their work well done,
Colors gleaming in the sun.
At other times, they wildly fly
Until they nearly reach the sky.
Twisting, turning through the air
Till all the trees stand
stark and bare.
Exhausted, drop to earth below
To wait, like children, for the snow."
- Elsie N. Brady, Leaves
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October
Shopping List
Spring flowering bulbs
Planting trowel
Bulb Tone
Bone Meal
Fertilome Weed Free Zone
Grass seed
Starter fertilizer
Repellex Mole Repellant
Suet
Bird seed
Gift certificate
Bird feeder
Scotts Winterizer
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| Did You Know? |  | |
1. As a general rule do not sow grass seed between Oct. 10 and Nov.15.
2. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.
3. The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.
4. You share your birthday with at least nine million other people around the world.
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Mom Tested And ApprovedHere's a recipe from one of the greatest small towns in America... Mitford.
Puny's Lemon Pie
1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese softened
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (6 oz) can frozen lemonade, thawed
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 prepared graham cracker crust
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese and condensed milk and stir until smooth. Add the lemonade and lemon juice and mix well. Spoon the lemon filling into the prepared crust and chill until set, at least 4 hours. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip the cream with the confectioners' sugar until stiff peaks form. Serve the pie with whipped cream of top.
from Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader
Enjoy!
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Just for Grins...
and  Groans
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
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Look SharpFeel Sharp
Be Sharp
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Did you know that you can have your blades sharpened at Wedels?!
Take a look at these prices!
- Pruners - $4.00
- Loppers - $4.00
- Lawn mower blades - $5.00 (sorry, no reel mowers)
- Mulching mower - $5.00
- Hedge shears - $4.00
- Larger items - $5.00
(We don't sharpen chain saw blades.)
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October Sky
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Volume 6, Number 7 October, 2013
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For Abundant Blooms in Spring ...
Feed 'em in the Fall
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Fall. The air is brisk, the leaves are creating a kaleidoscope of rich reds, browns and yellows, World Series fever is in the air, football is on the television and a turkey's in the oven. Although it's not the time you would typically be thinking of your spring garden, professional landscapers and growers suggest one final feeding of your acid-loving plants, including hollies, azaleas and rhododendron for maximum results next spring.
According to these experts, feeding your acid-loving plants in mid to late fall helps prepare them for winter by hardening off recent growth, aiding in root development and helping roots to store food for use in early spring. This will bring heartier, more abundant blooms from your acid-loving plants in spring.
Hollies, azaleas and rhododendron have special needs because they are among the many acid-loving plants which thrive in a more acidic environment. These plants are considered acid-loving because a critical nutrient, iron, is most available to them at a lower pH, when the soil is considered acidic. Without iron, these plants will turn yellow and their growth will be stunted.  Many homeowners make the mistake of thinking that all plant foods are alike, and that an all-purpose chemical plant food will offer acid-loving plants all the nutrients they need. This is not the case. Before feeding, select a plant food formulated specifically for acid-loving plants.
Experts agree that by feeding your acid-loving plants an organically balanced plant food, like Holly-tone, you can be assured that you are keeping soil at an optimum pH for plant health. Developed in partnership with the Holly Society of America, Holly-tone's proprietary formula offers just the right mix of quality organic and inorganic ingredients to provide safe, continuous feeding of acid-loving plants.
 Professionals also suggest using a plant food which offers more than the standard nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium ingredients (N-P-K) found in most plant foods. There are 12 additional vital trace elements and micronutrients, such as iron, calcium and magnesium, which are essential to plant health. A shortage of only one of these nutrients can prevent or reduce growth to disappointing levels. When you use Holly-tone, you can be assured that you are providing all 15 essential nutrients.
 It is also important to select a plant food which derives these nutrients from a complex blend of quality natural organic and inorganic ingredients, and not just from one or two simple chemical ingredients. Look for a plant food, like Holly-tone, which derives it nutrients from a wide variety of ingredients including dehydrated manure, animal tankage, crab meal, cocoa meal, cottonseed meal, dried blood, sunflower meal, kelp, greensand, rock phosphate and sulfate of potash. This ensures that you are making nutrients available through a safe, natural process which actually enriches the soil to create a long-lasting reservoir of nutrients.
Here's how to fertilize this fall: Sprinkle a light feeding of Holly-tone around the base of the plant, directly on to the soil. It is not necessary to work the plant food into the soil. Although not required, experts do recommend a thorough watering after applying. This will make sure the plant food is in contact with the soil and will provide the moisture necessary for activating the decomposition process.
Representatives from the Espoma Company, manufacturers of premium organically balanced plant foods including Holly-tone, say that mid to late fall is one of the best times to apply
a light feeding of a fertilizer for acid-loving plants. So, make this the fall you prepare your acid- loving plants for great spring blooms.
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Since we are talking about feeding, remember to feed your trees too. Trees are often overlooked at feeding time but they are valuable plants too and regular feeding ensures they do their best, survive their longest and are better able to fend off disease and stress due to sometimes less than ideal weather conditions.
Oh! Speaking of abundant blooms in the spring, there is still plenty of time and a great selection of spring blooming bulbs at Wedel's! Our gardening season isn't over yet. Stop by Wedel's soon!
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Mark Your Calendar
Call Wedel's at 345-1195 and ask for a cashier to sign you up
and reserve your space!
Now!
Spring Flowering Bulbs Are Here
Stop by now for best selection.
How to Put Your Roses to Bed
for Winter 
Saturday October 5, 10:00PowerPoint, Q&A and demonstration by Kalamazoo Rose Society featuring various winterization techniques.How to Control Annoying Pests
 Saturday October 12, 10:00 Here's how to enjoy your bulbs, lawn and landscape more than the moles, deer, rabbits and other critters do! Presented by James Dalton, Repellex rep.
New Spring Flowering Bulb Color
Combination for 2014
 Saturday October 12, 11:15
Niels Mulder, bulb expert from the Netherlands,
will be at Wedel's! Niels and his father run their bulb and perennial business in the Netherlands. Come hear his talk and visit with him. Be careful! His passion for gardening might rub off on you!
The Great Create Thursday October 24, 10:00 - 11:15 (or so)
Ladies, make a tin can lantern,
carve a pumpkin and make 3, ribbon flowers.
Do all 3 projects to take home & enjoy!
Wild Bird Event
Friday November 8, 10:00 - 12:00
and Saturday November 9, 12:00 - 2:00
Meet and greet birds of prey from
Lake Milton Raptor Society.
Free birding seminars and more fun to be announced!
Ladies Night 2013
Thursday November 14, 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.35 New Vendors - Restaurants with free food samples -
New Christmas Decor - Entertainment Including the Best Johnny Cash Impersonator Around - Watch & Vote the "Vase-Off Challenge" - and So Much More!
Your $6 entrance fee will be benefiting our local military families and Kalamazoo Gospel Mission.
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Teaching Kids
About Rose Hips
By Charlie Nardozzi
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Rose Hips
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Rose hips are high in vitamin C and were used by Native Americans and early settlers to make nutritious tea, jam, and jelly.
One of the benefits of teaching kids to grow their own produce is it opens their palates and minds to new foods. Kids who have never eaten fresh asparagus or edamame before are often amazed at how good these vegetables taste. Once their minds are open, you can also introduce some wild edibles that will really startle them. Simple landscape plants may have tasty fruits that kids and adults never thought of eating before. One of the best wild foods for fall are rose hips.
 Rose hips are the seedpods of species roses such as Rosa rugosa. In fall they turn a bright orange or red color, depending on the species, and are edible. Rose hips are high in vitamin C and were used by Native Americans and early settlers to make nutritious tea, jam, and jelly. They offer a great opportunity to teach your kids about wild foods and how to prepare them. Just follow these steps:
Have kids research wild foods and how they were used by Native Americans and early settlers. Some interesting foods to note include rose hips, elderberries, and staghorn sumac.
Locate some cultivated or wild rose hips in your area. They may even be on your school grounds. (Make sure the bushes have not been sprayed with any pesticides.)
With the kids, harvest the rose hips. It's okay if some are shriveled.
Bring them home or to the classroom and have kids remove the stems and seeds, saving the fleshly pulp.
Now it's tasting time. Have kids nibble on bits of raw rose hips and describe the flavor.
 For a more flavorful way to eat rose hips, make rose hip tea. Boil four to six cleaned rose hips in 2 cups of water for 2 minutes, and then let them steep for up to 30 minutes for a strong flavor. Strain and serve the tea with honey as a sweeter.
If you have many rose hips, consider making jam or jelly, too!For interesting facts and information about rose hips, see WebMD here.
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Cinnamon Fern
Osmunda cinnamomea
 Cinnamon fern is an upright, vase-shaped fern with showy, spore-bearing, fertile fronds that appear in early spring and turn quickly to a bright cinnamon-brown. Ferns provide seasonal cover and hiding places for ground frequenting birds such as waterthrushes, wood thrushes, Kentucky and hooded warblers, robins and Carolina wrens etc as well as for the American toad, earthworm and other of nature's creatures.
 Cinnamon ferns thrive in moist soil and in full sun to part shade. They naturalize slowly and can be used as companion plants with other garden natives. Their fronds are beautiful in fresh flower arrangements. Hummingbirds use the fine, hairy fibers from these stems to make a soft and silky lining for their nests.
Osmunda, from the Saxon god Osmunder the Waterman, who hid his family from danger in a clump of these ferns and cinnamonea is Latin for "cinnamon."
For more information on this unique garden native click here.
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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
Ok, who took September and where did you put it? Can you believe September 2013 has come and gone already? It seems it was only days ago that I was looking forward to the 4-H Fair and that fair was in early August. Before you know it, we'll be talking about spring! Well, maybe not, but if this year is any indication spring will be here sooner than we think. So...let's talk about spring. It isn't too early considering now is the time to plant your spring flowering bulbs and boy, do we have bulbs! Many people have gotten their supply already but there is still a great selection for you to choose from. As I've mentioned before, a little work on a bulb planting project now will yield great rewards in a few short months.
And bulbs aren't the only things to be planting now. This is the perfect time of year to add to or create new landscape beds in your yards. Get new trees, shrubs, perennials etc. in their new homes now so they can begin to get accustomed to their new surroundings and take off like crazy in the spring. Besides, cool fall days offer wonderful weather for any outdoor activities. Speaking of a great selection, we're still getting new specimens in our nursery! Take a walk through the annuals and perennials greenhouse too. Mums, pansies and more are just waiting to add some beautiful fall color to your landscape, containers and window boxes.
If you haven't yet, take a look at the "Mark Your Calendar" section above. You'll see we have a number of informative and, most importantly, fun events coming up at the garden center. There's nothing wrong with informative but when something can be that and fun TOO...there's good reason to take advantage of the opportunity. There are lots to see and do coming up.
Have you seen our newly redesigned website yet? It has a cleaner look and is more easily navigated. We are working to add items to those available for purchase online and among those already there are our spring blooming bulbs. If you aren't able to come by the garden center because of either time or distance you can still get the best bulbs from the Netherlands. They are in stock here at Wedel's and we'll get them delivered right to your door step. Of course, we'd love to see you so, if you can, come by. Otherwise, enjoy shopping online from the comfort of your home.
We are beginning the time of year when there is a holiday every month. We hope you enjoy every one of them with family and friends and we hope that includes us too. Stop by if for no other reason than to say, "hi."
Ready for another trivia question? Here we go! Laws forbidding the sale of sodas on Sunday prompted William Garwood to invent what in Evanston, IL, in 1875? 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!
'Til next time,
Jim
jimdavenport@wedels.com
"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on,
and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
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