Members of the Sundre Garden Club are in support of the Sundre Community Garden, which is planned for construction this year.
“I think it gives lots of people a lot of pleasure who might not be able to have their own garden due to circumstances like not enough space or they live in a condominium or something,” said Terry Nelson, secretary for the club.
She said there are many benefits from gardening and from being a part of the garden club.
The club is active nearly all year-round and meets monthly to share gardening tips and participate in workshops or learn from guest speakers.
“Our aims are to meet fellow gardeners, learn from each other, make new friends, expand our knowledge and areas of interest, beautify our property and that of the town and to be aware of our environment and to have fun and learn hands on,” she said.
Members of the club will be going on a bus tour to Calgary to visit the Silver Springs Community Garden this summer.
In May they exchanged plants with each other and had a public plant sale. They also tour greenhouses throughout the summer and have travelled as far as Saskatoon and St. Albert to do so.
“Some place where we might be able to see some different kind of plants than they offer locally,” she said.
They enjoy creating a float in the Sundre parade every year in June and participating in the annual school and adult fair in September.
In November each year they host a Christmas workshop where they make festive decorations.
She said the gardening season varies in Sundre.
“If you're going to grow from your own seeds, you have to start pretty early,” she said.
“In Sundre we wouldn't put anything out unless it was protected before the first of June. But if you're planting a vegetable garden there's a lot of your garden you can plant in mid-May.”
Pansies are planted right after Easter, begonias are planted in March and geraniums are planted in February.
“You can garden all year long.”
There are currently about 35 members of the club and she encourages people to join and learn more about how to garden in Sundre.
“It's not an easy place to garden. It's very close to the mountains so our weather is not very predictable. And we get late frost and early frost in the fall. So it's a little trickier here than say if you were in Calgary,” she said.
“You have to sort of arrange your garden to cope with that wind.”
There are also issues with wildlife in Sundre, but there's not a lot that can be done about it, she said.
“I have a glassed-in patio and the deer came into it and ate everything inside it,” she said. “I got up in the morning and everything was chewed off right to the top of the pot. It's depressing to have to fight with the deer.”
She enjoys planting flowers and her favourite thing to plant is begonias and lupins.
“I like to see what that tiny seed can bring to you. I think it's just marvellous to see how a plant goes from seemingly nothing to such a huge display.”
