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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-10-10, Page 16Page 2-Crossroads—Oct. 10, 1984 ackyard Gardener Those houseplants that we've parked outside for the summer should be receiving a` little routine attention during the summer as they fatten up for their fall and winter sojourn back inside our homes. I have most of mine set on beds of damp peat inside free -draining wooden flats. A few are set into the soil of garden beds. When set in soil, they shouldlbe given a turn at regular intervals to prevent roots, from growing out of the drainage holes and anchoring into the soil. Houseplants vacationing for the summer outdoors in garden beds or on balconies or patios should be kept well watered, with a weak dose of water-soluble fertilizer added to the water once a week. A balanced fertilizer with trace elements such as 20-20-20 is good; or you can alternate between a high - phosphorus formula like 15- 30-15 (also with trace ele- ments) and liquid sea -weed or fish fertilizer. Quarter the label direction strength if you fertilize weekly, halve it if you fertilize every two weeks. Some bush -shaped plants like citrus and poinsettia will need frequent pinching to help them keep their neat, full figures. And keep up the bug watch. If you notice aphids going after your tender specimens, give the affectei plants a weekly squirt of Safer's Insecticidal Soap. And while you're on house- plant patrol, you might at the same time begin noting some garden plants that could easily adapt to the indoors as houseplants this fall. • • . Among the herbs, for example, you might find the small plant that could be potted and placed with your houseplants for bringing into the kitchen at summer's end. Basil and parsley are good subjects for indoor pots. Watch for the • smallest plants, though, and cut them back a little after potting. Use a purchased, sterilized soil mix rather than garden soil or you could end up with an awful mess. Many annual flowers, especially the dwarf kinds, can be grown indoors during the winter in a sunny win- dbw. Probably the easiest of all is the wax begonia, which never stops blooming. Not for nothing is it named Begonia . sem-perflorens -always blooming. Probably at this time of year if you lift one wax begonia plant you will find it can be divided into se pieces. Each can be cut back and potted individually. These have become my favorite and most successful winter blooming plants for the windowsill above our kitchen sink. The window faces south, and the plants are potted for the winter in a series of little blue and white Portuguese china pots. You ' will also find that many plants that need some shade in the outdoor garden in summer will flourish and , bloom only if they are placed in a south window for the winter. Such are wax begonia, impatiens and browallia. " Browallia and impatiens both do well in hanging baskets, as it is their nature to spread and drape them- selves over their containers. Last year saw the emergence on the market of sy Patrick Denton double impatiens from seed. These doubles and semi - doubles include both solid colors and bicolors. Unless you can find a small impatiens plant in the garden to pot, you will do better to take some cuttings for young, vigorous plants. Short impatiens cuttings root very readily in the house in water. When roots have foP'med, pot each cutting in- dividually and place each in a plastic bag or arrange a plastic tent of some kind over the pots. Gradually bring them out after a week or so of this high -humidity treatment and place them with your other houseplants to be brought in later. Keep the young plants pinched back as they begin to grow, to keep them pleas- ingly plump and bushy. Shirley Whittington. _ ItItseemedoflCe we had been parents forever This is the moment we have been waiting for. We're sitting here at the kitchen table, enjoying a late supper of good bread and smelly cheese and some acceptable wine. It's cosy as an oven mitt 'he candles on the table soften the hard edges of the usually bright kitchen. We are alone, at last. The Squire is just back from the city where he has deposited the last young Whittington. All four young- sters are now established in the outside world and our H. GO' DOS GREEN nest is empty. It is a great pleasure to go upstairs and see four neatly made beds where chaos and disorder reigned for so many years. The kids have gone. and they have their rock posters and their stereos and their Galiano bottles filed with pennies with them. Once upon a time it seemed as if we had been parents forever. Each day began with a rush for the bathroom and breakfast, and ended in a general hubbub of hair dryers and ringing tele - Back in the old hometown relatively harmless place to with whebit nosomeoneit theone of us s at this time of year,. the talk congregate. of school was always the pre- It was in the hotel that .I , the others gave him an argu- dominating topic. Which, in first made the acquaintance ment, he merely shook his a town where there was of an old Irish farmer whom head. "I put three and a half neither theatre, factory, nor I shall call Luke O'Brien. years in school," he said. any other noteworthy centre Luke was not a rich farmer "And I'd say that the last two of excitement, was only to be by any means, but at least of it never done me one mite expected. The school was the twice a week, he would of good. Just wasted my time one point in the old place knock off work at the farm, there. All any kid needs to be which was always drive his horse and buggy taught is how to read and into town and tie up long write and add. Teach him e al phones. On weekends, we ran the Mummy and Daddy taxi ser- vice, delivering and picking up young people. For a time we were parents of a rock band that was too young to drive a car. If you ever need. to know how to cram a set of drums, two speakers, an amplifier and a couple of boys into a medium sized car, call us. We know all the angles. Then the - rock band be- came old enough to drive, and our anxieties for the sound of the car pulling into - the driveway, or for the tele- phone call from the local police — whichever came first. Now, alone at last, we luxuriate in the sudden peace and quiet and contem- plate the hairy and merry times. The Squire recalls with a rush of emotion the times he found his imported Swedish wood chisels out in Elie rain, under the willow tree. I found myself remem- bering the nights when my best cookware was employed in the manufacture of peanut brittle or candles or dye for batik work. Now the kids are gone, and a chapter of our life is finished. It is very hard to remember what happened in the beginning chapters of our life together when we didn't ' have any children. The years in between have been filled with birthday parties and sleepovers and girl friends thoroughly alive. And I'll admit that we high enough to shoot a game 'or . that and if he's„ got any and boy friends and music school boys were the noisiest two of pool. And it was one gumption in him he'll learn ' festivals and report cards of all. The terms .peculiar to September afternoon while whatever else he needs by and surprises good and bad. the study of algebra and trig- he was chalking himself a himself." We consider ourselves extra- onometry . gave a fuzz- cue and listening meanwhile The remark was shrugged ordinarily lucky — not to bearded ; youngster a new to all the lofty prattle of the away with a laugh of course, have survived those years — language with which to, im- high school boys about x and perahps we didn't really but to have had them at all. press the quiet populace, and squared and y squared know whether Luke was Now there are no more wet armed with this mysterious equalling something or other serious or not. I never towels on the bathroom floor and high-sounding new that he made the pronounce- thought much more about it I ' .and there is always shampoo weapon, we did our best to ment which I have always , suppose until one day many in the house when I need it. A show the taxpayers what remembered years later and with several roast of beef lasts "for three mighty culture their eat or wear or do," each kid is saying separately. ""I'm alone at last!" There are several soli- tudes operating here but when we meet and merge and hug each other, watch for the skies to light up. money "Nawthing from nawthing long miles of x squared and y days and there is always *as obtaining for us. There equals nawthing," he said, squareds behind me, I heard ginger ale and diet Coke in was a hotel in town which got taking.a disdainful spit at the a very learned professor say the fridge. Nobody cuts nearest receptable. "What something which was re- things out of the paper before more than its share of our in tellectual pretensions, for it this country needs is more markably similar. • was an interesting place with kids doing a half a day's "The best University," he race horses in the stable, la- work and less of them cram- said, "is the one with the crosse sticks back of the ming up the schools: What's most books in its library. counter and an old pool x squared plus y squared got Give a man enough to read, table. Axid since there was no to do with filling a man's and if the spark is -within beer in those days, it was a belly anyhow?" him, he needs no teacher.Which is a bit deflating perhaps to those of us who have spent a good fraction of our lives in the expensive and tedious quest for knowl- edge, and yet if you go down the list of the men who lead our world today, there seems to be no certain proof that education in itself — educa- tion of the formal kind, that is — is any prerequisite for success. I think it was Henry Ford, one of the most conspicuous examples • of a man who escaped the struggles of Schooling in his struggle for success, who made one of the wittiest comtnents on the matter. "Am I in favor of college men?" he asked. "Certainly. Where else would a man like me go to hire my help?" Putterifl Pete By FRVE WMQNIN6: YOu MAY GET AN.ALI.ERGIC 17.6ACT t ON1 GROM WOOD DUST 1AMl LE SAWING OR SANDING , EVEhi TNo'lGIA You I1.11.E WEAR 146 A RtGUI.ARpus"' MASK. MANY COQ AO1t WOODS PRONGS 'TOM DUSTS AND REQUIRE A MASK ESP ECIALO pssiGNED CORI14EM. S4MP'togs AWE =Ass, BYt Att.MegTS, AND REAM- ING PRO envy , DANGait INS TO cbaDsR•C SUFFER S' ... . 111 ,,• Cooley Nem. Service crossroads Published every Wednesday by Wenger Bros. Limited as the lifestyle and entertainment section in The ListowelBanner, The Wingham Advance - Times, The Mount Forest Confederate and The Milverton Sun. Members of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community Newspaper Association, and the Ontario Press Council. Controlled distri- bution in Ariss, Arthur, Drayton, Harriston, Moorefield, Palmerston, Bloom- ingdale, Breslau, Conestogo, Elmira, Heidelberg, Linwood; Maryhill, 'St. Clements, St. Jacobs, Wallenstein, Wellesley and West Montrose, • Display and Classified advertising deadline — 5:00 p.m. Thursday week prior to publication date. Accounting and Billing The Wingham Advance -Times Josephine St., P.O. Box 390, Wingham, Ont. NOG 2W0 Advertising and Production The Listowel Banner M 188 Wallace Ave. N., P.O. -Box 97, Listowel, Ont. N4W 3H2 The Listowel Banner 291-1660. The Wingham Advance -Times 357-2320. The Mount Forest Confederate 323-1550. The Milverton Sun 595-8921 I get around to reading it. My car keys, library books, sew - ,scissors and Scotch tape are always exactly where I left them. We can stay out as late as we please without worrying that someone might be lock- ed out Or hungry or needing the car. We eat our meals whenever and wherever we please — on the front porch, before the fire or nestled in armchairs with good books. We can make the windows rattle with our own kind of music and we can do silly things without criticism., Last Sunday morning,.for in- stance, we had breakfast in bed and watched an Alec Guiness movie on television. Now a new lifestyle beckons and new realiza- tions occur. 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