Well yesterday we had a beautiful day for gardening and a beautiful group of volunteers who came out to join us! There was lots to do as well; since it rained last week and this week was our first time to spend our funding money from the TD Friends of the Environment funding we had tons of things to go in the ground.
When I arrived at the garden to prepare for the workbee I found some healthy looking seedlings left by the composter as well as a bag of dog poop left on top of the bins. Our lovely and talented volunteer Phyllis took responsibility for the seedlings donating parsley, broccoli, lettuce and basil, but the accompanying bag of dog poop made me feel like I was getting mixed messages from the community!
In addition to Phyllis’ seedlings we planted 3 beds of lettuce mixes, 3 more varieties of peas, new carrots, beets and radishes and a sunflower mix to surround the benches and add some cheer. Also, a black raspberry plant and a tayberry (which is a mix of raspberry and blackberry – yum!) were added to our raspberry patch, and I couldn’t resist buying a healthy looking fig tree, which we’ve nestled in a pot amid the native plants bed. A row of green, yellow, and purple bush beans finished off our new plantings and we surrounded them with summer savory seeds to deter bean beetles.
We all took a break for a short discussion of plant and weed identification techniques, and examined a few of the most prominent weeds in the garden, their identifying characteristics, and some of their medicinal or culinary uses. A subsequent post will discuss this in more detail, but I was thrilled to find out the depth of knowledge about natural plants and their uses among the garden volunteers – it led to the idea that we should try to develop a field guide of plants found in the Eglinton Park garden and compile all the information we know about them. Another topic of discussion was how to spend our TD money, and I’ve already received some fantastic suggestions: a bike rack, a cigarette butt stop container, a more extensive butterfly garden, a dedicated area for culinary herbs and spices, and lots of support for the idea of having bees in the garden. If anyone has experience with bees or advice of how to get the community/community centre onside for this idea, your input is very welcome! And please send along any other suggestions for the garden, I’d love to hear them all!
down the garden path 