Dayton "Dirt" - September 6, 2013

The “big” fall sale for the Garden Club members seemed to be success judging by the amount of empty space that is visible where once there were plants. There are still some “good” buys to be found as the 50% off sale will continue on some items through October although as time goes on, more and more of the choice stock will be depleted especially since the sale is now open to non-Garden Club members also. The garden mums are showing good color now except for the later blooming varieties which seem to be somewhat of a “season extender” to quote a phrase used by the former Yoder Brothers (now Aris) of Barberton as it pertains to the later blooming Chrysanthemums. Saturday, September 14th is the day for our annual fall festival. This event with the train ride, petting zoo, bouncy house and happy music makes for a family atmosphere for parents and children and for grandparents and grandchildren. The food choices will be supplemented with fresh produce in the Owl Barn along with plenty of sale items in the nursery department. The festivities start at 10 a.m. and go on all day until 5 p.m. Check out the web site section for the festival for more details. The Barberton Mum Fest then will be Saturday, September 28th and Sunday 29th. This year there were some trials as to growing the mums in the display beds as the heavy rains and especially of July 10th that did noticeable damage to some of the planting. Bill Aulenbach of the Aris company is responsible for the design, selection of varieties and supervision of the growing of chrysanthemum display in the Lake Anna planting. Aris is the horticultural company based in Barberton whose beneficence makes the festival possible with its donation of the thousands of young plants installed in June. Soon the fall color of the trees will be upon us but I do hope the Seiberling sweet corn and other produce from the farm that supplies the Owl Barn remains available for awhile longer especially since it’s a long wait until the next July! I almost forgot that we now have at least 100 parking spaces available so that parking should not be as much of a problem as it was last year during the festival. Hope to see you at the festival! Tom