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Friday, October 12, 2018 9Brooklin Town Crier Community Calendar Sun., Oct. 21: 6:15 pm: Soul Soothing Sunday Evening A quiet service of reflection and healing at Brooklin United Church. Refreshments available at 5:45pm. Child care available. office@brooklinunited.ca Wed., Oct. 24: 7:30 pm: Brooklin Horticultural Society meeting at Brooklin United Church Guest speaker Sean James. The presentation "It Doesn't End in August: Extending Interest in the Garden": a study, month by month, from September to December and beyond • combinations, individual plants • breaking down the belief that the spring garden is the climax, and the rest of the year is the denouement Also our Pumpkins, Pies and Pictures Show. Guests are always welcome. Fri., Oct. 26: 4:00 - 5:00 pm (4th Friday of each month) Teen Leadership Council at Brooklin Library Whitby Library's Brooklin Branch seeks Teen Leadership Council members to share ideas & assist with special events and programs. Grade 9-12 students earn community service hours. Snacks provided. No registration required. For information, email teenservices@whitbylibrary.ca. French Family Storytime: Children and their caregivers can join Madame Sue for weekly French Family Storytime! A half hour of French stories and songs, with a dash of English! Drop in at Central Library's Children's Program Room Tuesdays: 7:25 pm: Brooklin Toastmasters Club Practice public speaking at Brooklin Community Centre & Library. Contact John Johnstone at jajhj@sympatico. ca or phone 905-683-4439 or Patricia Romano at promano257@outlook.com or phone 905-626-7055. 1st & 3rd Tuesdays Community Care Durham (CCD) Basic Foot Care at St. Thomas' Anglican Church. 905-668-6779 Mon.-Fri. CCD delivers hot or frozen meals. To order: Karen Andrews 905-668-6779 If you have a community not-for-profit event you would like included in the calendar, please email it to editorofBTC@gmail.com with the subject line "calendar." Priority will be given to Brooklin events. Some editing may occur. Squirrel! Blooming in Brooklin By Ken Brown On the next cool, sunny autumn day, I'll spend time imagining the colourful weeks of the early spring garden. They'll be the result of the 200 or so tulips I'll be planting. Since our first frost seems to be later each year, the middle of October has become the perfect time to plant the diverse array of spring flowering bulbs. I plant more than most people because they just happen to be one of my favourite plants and I really cherish that mass of bloom in the spring. By carefully choosing different varieties and types, it's possible to have the garden blooming from the end of March till early June. Actually, snowdrops will often appear even earlier, but the crocus and bulbous iris can show up in early April. They're followed by the earliest narcissus and then the tulips. I ensure I have plenty of each type in the garden so that the spring colour show will greet me as soon as possible and last for weeks. Best investments Most bulbs are also a great investment in your garden. Many will bloom for years and they're usually inexpensive. Yes, you can pay silly amounts for some bulbs if you want the latest varieties. But for colour, there are numerous reliable older varieties which are the best investment. I confess I've bought a few newer ones myself, but most are older types such as the Emperor series of tulips. Frustrated tulip growers often stop planting them because they just seem to feed the squirrels. Squirrels really like tulips and crocus but there are things we can do to make sure they stay in the ground and bloom next spring. When contemplating crocus, find the C. thomasinianus varieties such as roseus or ruby Giant. I don't know what's different about that species from the regular crocus but the squirrels know and stay away. Plant lots of narcissus; squirrels don't eat them. Fooling the critters Tulips are the big problem. Plant them deep, a minimum of 15 cm, since squirrels are lazy. Put a spoonful of blood meal in the hole. The scent masks the bulbs' scent and squirrels find them by scent. When you've finished planting all your bulbs, spread a generous amount of Acti-Sol on top of the soil. It's a dehy- drated, pelletized chicken manure fertilizer that we can barely smell but keeps squirrels away. My other secret (that most people ignore) is quantity. If you plant 10 tulips and the squirrel eats eight, you're annoyed. But if, you plant 100 and the squirrel eats eight, who cares? The selection, planting and squirrel- proofing are pleasant autumn chores that allow you to look at your snow- covered gardens all winter and contemplate the glorious spring show you've created.