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Bring a picnic and a blanket to the Parkallen Community Garden on June 15, 1 p.m.

Rink Mural Part II Workshop at 2 p.m.  in the Parkallen Community Hall

Garden Days is Canada’s largest garden party, a celebration of the vital role of gardening in our communities and lives. It begins on National Garden Day, Saturday June 15th, 2019 and continues for nine days. Promoted by the Canadian Garden Council, Garden Days encourages local gardens, garden centers, horticulture societies, garden clubs and others to create special reasons for people to visit a garden. Last year, there were hundreds of activities across the country!

This year, we’re jumping on the bandwagon! Please join us on Saturday, June 15th at 1pm to celebrate National Garden Day in the Parkallen Community Garden. Bring a picnic and blanket to enjoy the good company of neighbours, new and seasoned gardening enthusiasts alike. We invite you to enjoy a glass of lemonade and tour the community garden to learn and share in your knowledge and passion for gardens and gardening.

Tools will be available for those that want to pull a weed or water some tender shoots as our garden landscape will just be getting exciting. Pick up a garden brochure or chat with a community garden member to learn how you can be involved!

For our little people (and those like me that just love a good story), we’ll also have a big basket of garden story books available. There’s nothing like laying back on a picnic blanket in the shade with grass between your toes, while you listen to the Tale of Peter Rabbit and other literary delights.

Looking to leave a permanent fingerprint? The rink mural is being extended to the south side of the rink to become a backdrop for the garden. A workshop to create the initial drawings will be hosted in the community hall at 2pm. Come and add your art to the garden!

See you there!

— Sara Wipperman

Gardeners, there are two planting bees schedule on May Long Weekend, the traditional “get your garden in” weekend in Edmonton, when we consider “all danger of frost to have past.”

Help seed the garden
Saturday May 18, 2-4 p.m.
and/or
Sunday May 19, 2-4 p.m.

If you can’t make either date, you’re still welcome to tend and harvest the PCG throughout the 2019 garden season.

TWO GARDEN MEETINGS

Afternoon of Saturday April 27^th

Come celebrate and support our garden

Gardener Welcoming Gathering with Snacks

Time: 2-3 p.m.

at the garden south side of the rink

To welcome all those who think they may be interested in helping plant and/or maintain the garden this year and talk about our garden plans, and introduce newcomers to our garden.

Annual General  Meeting 3-4 p.m.

Time: 3-4 p.m.

at the Garden OR the location will be posted on the garden shed

Come to listen or join in on a discussion on how our garden is operated.   We will be reviewing garden roles, how we communicate, projects and programs opportunities. 

At the Community Hall 

For those of you who are not long-weekending out of town, get out there and get some seeds in the ground!

We got a lot done on Sunday. The garden is looking much cleaner. Sunflowers and potted annuals have been planted and the kid’s gardens have been kicked off by the Sprouts. There’s still plenty more planting and cleaning up to do, though, so get your gear on!

Also, I shingled our shed. Doesn’t our shed look a lot better with singles? And what could Mother want on Mother’s Day that’s better than a shingled shed??

OK, so next time we’ll choose a better day.

Anyway, we still need to paint and move it, though, so please, please, please let us know if you can help out!

We have a lot to get done, including moving, roofing, and priming the shed, altering the composters, and getting the garden itself underway, so please come and help out. The more the better!

At last! Who’s ready to get started?

Of course, some of you have already been preparing with the seedlings. And did you know there are lots of things that you can plant outdoors in Edmonton in April? Some plants germinate just fine in chilly soil and can take a light frost besides: peas, lettuce, kale, spinach, radishes, and green onions, for example. In fact, most years you can plant these things in mid-April. I have managed to get full salads out of cold frames by this time in previous years, but this year the heavier than usual snow and slow thaw have made things difficult. Warmer weather plants should not go out for a month yet, until the end of May – or better, the beginning of June.

On to business!

• The shed is awesome (thanks again, everyone!) but not particularly beautiful. Over the next few weeks, we need to paint and roof it and move it back from the curb. We will plant scarlet runner beans in front of it and turn it into a wall of green. Please let us know if you can help! I can be reached through comments or at sustainability@parkallen.ca
• We are also considering taking the composters down a slat or two to give them a less intrusive profile, and hiding those behind a wall of sunflowers. Please let us know your opinion!
• Shortly afterwards, we will be holding our first work bee to clean up and plant the first greens. Details on that to come.
• Plans for this year also include building some raised planters for better access for seniors, and filling our shed with tools to make the gardening easier. We are still working on the funding – almost there!
• The WWF-sponsored Wild Wings project will be bringing habitat to the garden to encourage beneficial insects and birds to join our little ecosystem.
• And of course, there will be plenty of gardening with like-minded people throughout the neighbourhood and beyond … and perhaps a barbecue or two!

And now, a couple of pictures for fun: on the left are some of the seedlings growing on my window shelves (artichokes, peppers, leeks, lobelia). On the right, the haul of seeds we got from Sustainable Food Edmonton. It’s going to be a good year!