For Carolyn Beckwith, there's no place like being out in the garden.
“It's a passion,” the president of the Innisfail and District Garden Club said. “I just love getting out in the spring, growing my own vegetables and having my own flowers grow.”
The Innisfail and District Garden Club has over 40 members. Many of them find gardening therapeutic and relaxing. Others enjoy it as an activity to share with their family and friends. Others just like to grow their own produce, Beckwith said.
“Growing your own food locally is a big movement right now. Growing food close to home is more nutritious and less costly.”
Now that spring has sprung, the local garden club has come to life, holding a number of activities that keep members active and managing Innisfail's community garden.
In April, members travelled by bus to the Calgary Horticultural Society Garden Show in Spruce Meadows. On May 11, the garden club held its annual plant sale at the Co-op Mall where it raised about $600. The annual plant sale takes place every Mother's Day weekend and serves as the club's main fundraiser. This spring, the garden club will oversee a group of schoolchildren from John Wilson Elementary School as they plant a small vegetable garden at the Innisfail Historical Village. The children will return in the fall for the harvest.
“Every other year, we hire the community bus and have, which is very popular, a ‘greenhouse crawl' where we try to find local greenhouses and have a day where we all go and buy some plants,” Beckwith added.
Last week, members were out marking plots at the Dodd's Lake Community Garden, located in groomed park space behind Dodd's Lake Manor. The Innisfail and District Garden Club manages the Dodd's Lake Community Garden that was established on space provided by the town. It is typically open May through Thanksgiving.
The community garden has 28 plots that the garden club rents out to the public. A large plot (20 feet by 10 feet) costs $40 per season, including a $25 deposit that is returned if cleaned at the end of the season. A small plot (10 feet by10 feet) costs $25 per season, including a $15 deposit.
The community garden has been in operation for just a few years. Beckwith said people sometimes think that the community garden is for garden club members only, but stressed that plots are available to the general public.
“We don't have very many garden club members that rent the plots,” she said.
The plots are ideal for seniors, for people who live in apartments or condos or for parents who want to garden with their children, she said. Beckwith believes that gardening also provides health benefits.
“I read in an article the other day that people who garden have lower blood pressure,” she said.
The Innisfail and District Garden Club meets the fourth Monday of each month at St. Mark's Anglican Church. New members are welcome to drop in. People interested in renting plots at the community garden can call Wayne at 403-227-5709 or Carolyn at 403-227-4818.
