August's Weed and Wine

Marie in vintage Highlands Garden Club gear.

After some hard work in the community garden, we retired into the community hall for some much hard-earned wine and gardening talk. 

Dandelions as big as carrots!

 

 

 

Margaret demonstrated good technique for "slug scooping" and gave us each our own super doper slug scooper spoon (patent pending).  Perfect for all the slugs we've been seeing with our raining weather. 


Unfortunately, another pest has been attacking our gardens: the scarlet lily beetle.  Lori is following up with the Lily society for more information and help. Stay tuned!

For All to Enjoy

“I do not understand how anyone can live without some small place of enchantment to turn to.”

— Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Did you know the Highlands Garden Club maintains a native plant garden?  The small plot is located on the southern end of Highlands Park.  Members have been slowly adding to the collection, with a Joe Pye Weed plant being one of the most recent. Come visit and you may even find some native bees in action! 

The Community Garden in front of the Community Hall is also home to many interesting flowers and insects.  Come by at different times of day and marvel at the differences!   

Club Members weed and maintain this garden and other plots throughout spring, summer, and autumn.  If you see us out there please say hi - we'll gladly talk to you about plants!

Note: These spaces are meant for the enjoyment of all - please do not pick the flowers, take the plants, or leave any litter.  With these in mind, we'll have a little place of enchantment to share. 

Neighbourhood Walkabout - June's Meeting

It was a lovely night for a walk so Erica and I took the Garden Club meeting outdoors into the neighbourhood for a walkabout.

Immediately, we could see the Club's hard work paid off: the community garden looked great! Purple irises, pink and white daisies, blue perennial cornflowers, along with the last of the yellow Icelandic poppies made a colouful display.

Happy bees circled the blooms and had the two of us snapping away.

Janis Irwin, NDP Candidate for Edmonton Griesbach, found us thus, and joined us to admire the garden.  She was impressed and thought it was great for the Club to maintain this for the community.  

Erica and I went next to Highlands Park to check on the planters.  They were showing good general growth (pink columbine, yellow day lilies, and lilies in bud), but also bald spots that could use some care.  

We continued our walk into the neighbourhood and was admiring the diverse gardens so close by.  One house in particular was luscious in the shade. As we leaned closer to look in, one of the owners hard at work noticed us and offered a tour!  

The other owner and their two dogs soon joined us and we chatted about plants, gardening, and urban bee keeping until the mosquitoes drove us away.

The neighbourhood tour certainly had us inspired.  So, whose garden is next?  

Weeds and Wine - May's Meeting

"Patches is going to think she's gone to heaven!"

Club members set to work on the community garden at this month's meeting and produced garbage bags full of dandelions: Patches (Marie's bunny rabbit), enjoy!  There are more where those came from!  

It was a mild night, perfect for spending outside.

We delighted in the ladybugs.  We weeded and discussed the potentials for making dandelion wine and urban honey mead...  

After a little over an hour, the garden was looking much improved and we went into the community centre to have our meeting.

One small point of scare: What of the wine?! 

No problem: There was no formal supply run, but members had individually brought snacks.  We had a feast of cheese, crackers, and three bottles of Shiraz!

One hour wasn't enough to consider all club business, what club members have been up to, and to talk gardening... so we stayed for another half.

We have some exciting things coming down the line and information to share.  Stay tuned! 

Weeding and Wine - July's Meeting

Lori, Janice, Audrey, Debbie, Erica, Lana, Laurel, Gisele, and Johanne weeded away in the community hall garden yesterday, as the sky threatened rain.  

  

Our massive clean out of bags and buckets of weeds filled Debbie's truck!

The bees seemed indifferent to all our hardwork.  But we basked in after-weeding glow, knowing our  garden had a bit more order and some room to breathe. 

The meeting continued at the gazebo with treats and wine.  We shared some gardening tips and continued to plan for our late summer event.  Stay tuned!