Aside from gardening, art, and community building, our Acadia Community Garden considers education a key aspect of our organization. We have several like-minded community garden neighbours who agree with that view.
Janet Melrose (Calgary’s Cottage Gardener – calgaryscottagegardener@shaw.ca) is a former member of the Horticulture Society’s Community Garden Program. She’s an author, freelancer in education, designer, and a horticultural therapist. Janet has been an instrumental friend, advisor, supporter, and cheerleader to both our Garden and many other community gardens. She’s also the one that encouraged us to work together with other community gardens in our area which led us to form the South-Central Garden Coalition. Currently, Cedarbrae, CKE, Common Ground, Haysboro, Southwood, and Acadia are involved. We are looking forward to other local community gardens joining us.
Our coalition decided it would be great to pool our resources and offer some educational sessions. We called the series ‘Garden On!’. Janet will be our teacher and facilitator. Previous year’s programs were very popular. Attendees spoke about how much they enjoyed the sessions and were excited to experiment with what they learned.
This year, due to Covid, we will be offering our sessions online or outside. If you would like to join us for some fun, mark your calendars with the following dates:
- Feb 20 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 1
- Reflections/lessons from 2020; planning the garden before you sow-what to plant, where and how much; growing requirements for various crops; how to create a planting scheme that works for all that you want to grow; growing seedlings indoors; where to get seeds and seedlings in 2021 .
- – Online – $15
- Mar 20 – ‘Let’s Get Gardening’ Part 2
- Environmental/climate issues as they affect our gardens; how your soil affects when you can get sowing/planting; sowing/planting by soil temperature; succession planting; watering techniques; early protection from the weather and insects; potting on, hardening off and transplanting seedlings;
- – Online – $15
- April 13 – ‘Re-Wilding the Urban Garden’
- What is re-wilding?-principles and objectives; designing your garden to be wild; plant species, combinations and schemes; cultural techniques- soil improvement, mulching, overseeding lawns; providing various types of habitats-shelter, food, water, breeding
- – Southwood Community Garden – $20
- May 11 – Growing Great Garden Soil
- What is soil?; physical, chemical, biological properties; soil food web- what it is and the critters that we need; our native soil; what annual vegetable gardens need for soil; what perennial gardens require in their soil; soil amendments and fertilizers; growing medium for containers; cultural methods to improve soil- no till, mulching, weeding, cover cropping, composting; when to do what to your soil.
- – Acadia Community Garden – $25
- July 20 – Garden Q & A
- – Online – $15
Everyone is welcome – For more details and to register for a class either search for Garden On! at Eventbrite or use the following link:
Laurie Vanderwal
Vice President
Acadia Community Garden & Art Society is committed to providing an environment free of discrimination and harassment, where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, can contribute fully and have equal opportunities. If you experience any discrimination or harassment, please contact us on our phone or media sites.