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Friday, December 14, 2018 9 Brooklin Town Crier Blooming in Brooklin By Ken Brown Preparing for the winter Is there anything left to do in the garden as winter closes in? Well, there certainly is in my garden, but it's unlikely to actually happen. Somehow season-ending chores get regularly postponed until a nicer day, which never seems to come. The rain barrels have been emptied, the containers stored or drained and tipped over. The ponds have had their foliage removed and bubblers installed. Iris foliage has been cut back to reduce the opportunity for borer eggs to over winter. I have a brown bag filled with that foliage, however the last bag pickup has passed. I'll either have to take it to the dump myself or disguise it as a Christmas tree and put it at the curb in January. Minimal cleanup Garden cleanup vegetation goes into compost bins though there are some things I prefer leave the property. The perennial beds have had little or no cleanup. I can happily point to the latest research and gardening trends that indicate that minimal cleanup is the way to go. Many perennials will compost in place over the winter. The dead and decaying leaves and stems make ideal winter homes for pollinators I'm trying to attract and feed. We all know about the Monarch butterfly migrations, but they're an anomaly. Most beneficial insects we want in our gardens overwinter here in some form or another. So, keeping my perennial gardens untidy all winter is no longer a sign of my laziness but rather one of my dedication to proper horticulture. Picking sprouts There are two tall stalks still standing in the vegetable garden. Brussels sprouts actually improve in flavour when they've been frosted a few times and this fall they've certainly been frosted. Most have been harvested and we've had them grace our dinner plates. They were delicious. The two remaining stalks still look surprisingly good despite the deep freeze. Good thing, too, because we've developed a custom of heading to the garden on Christmas Day to pick some for Christmas dinner. I know that seem a bit weird, yet most years it works. Indoors, I have six large pots of cymbidium orchids. They spent the summer outside getting lots of sunshine, water and fertilizer and now half of them have significant bloom spikes that should be open before Christmas. They typically keep their blooms for about three months which brighten the kitchen for most of the winter. I hope the others are the late blooming variety and will join their friends in adding more colour to our long winter. Geranium cuttings taken in late September were well rooted in the propagation bed and are happily growing and starting to bloom under the basement lights. Seed catalogues should start to appear in the mailbox just after the holidays and I can start to read and dream about the great successes next year. Meanwhile, the skis have been tuned up. Alzheimer Society: Become A #MemoryManiac The Alzheimer Society of Durham Region (ASDR) and Elevated Communications announce the launch of the new social media challenge, #memorymaniac. Leading into December's Bringing Memories to Light initiative, the ASDR's #memorymaniac campaign is a fun social media challenge aimed at raising awareness and much-needed funds for essential services and support for people living with dementia and their care partners in Durham Region. Every four seconds, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. There are approximately 10,000 people living in Durham Region with dementia, which is expected to double by 2020. Grab a phone or video camera, wear something blue and do your best impression of the Flashdance film's "Maniac" dance, all in support of the ASDR. Post your recording to social media using the tags #memorymaniac and #alzdurham and challenge your friends and family. Anyone tagged can donate directly to the ASDR and skip the video challenge or combine a generous donation with a fun video clip of their best #memorymaniac dance. So, find some leg warmers, grab your boombox and be a #memorymaniac for the ASDR. Are you up for the challenge? To donate to the #memorymaniac challenge, visit: http://alzheimer. ca/en/durham