A record number of green thumbs gathered this weekend to celebrate the Bonnyville Agricultural Society's 15th annual Gardener's Day.
“The Ag Society started I would say 45 years ago and this is an event that they started up from scratch. It used to be at the Agriplex and they'd have workshops and local speakers. It has expanded through the years to become a huge event,” said Audrey Michaud, event Chairman.
This year's event saw 100 gardening enthusiasts learn tips and watch demonstrations by local professionals. The 2015 Gardener's Day took place at the St. Louis Parish Centre in Bonnyville on Saturday (Apr. 11). After being split into two groups, participants took part in two different morning sessions where they learned the basics of pruning and the best tools to use from Joan Engler of The Tree Farm and how to do whimsical fairy gardening from Judy Cabay of Triple T Greenery.
Michaud explained that they are continually trying to get the younger generations into gardening and show that there are new and innovative ways of gardening.
“We're always trying to promote our farming and agriculture. It's always important for us to go back to our roots where our grandfathers and great grandfathers farmed and gardening is in conjunction with that, I think it's important that we learn that.”
In the afternoon, participants learned from Lorne Kaban of the Alberta Regional Lily Society about how to grow lilies from seed and were given a demonstration on container gardening by Kim Meinzinger of Moe's Greenhouse. Since Gardener's Day start, Michaud said they have tried to bring in more demonstrations to the event.
“When I came five years ago I came as an attendee, it was basically speakers and no demonstrations...in years passed there was some workshops that people could do but not always. It's good to have sheets and slideshows but a lot of people learn hands-on and learn by seeing, that's why we changed it up.”
One lady who has been coming to Gardener's Day for year is Engler. Despite being in the business for 30 years, Engler said she keeps coming to the event because there's always more to learn.
“I love it. I come out to it because I enjoy meeting old friends, meeting new people and sharing ideas. I learn as much from the participants as I try to share. I think trees and shrubs and living material is so important for our mental well-being, for our quality of life that the more knowledge we have the more we can invest.”
Bonnyville Agricultural Society board member Germaine Prybysh added that gardeners don't always have the opportunity to get their questions answered when purchasing plants so this event gives them that opportunity.
“I think it's a good thing because people always have questions about flowers, plants, gardens, pruning, fruit trees and brining in all these people is a good idea because you get to ask questions. Sometimes when you go to a greenhouse you want to ask questions but they're so busy they don't have time.”
“A lot of people don't know about this stuff. I have a lady ask me why I was buying seed potatoes. I told her that you plant them and she thought I was crazy. So there's a lot of misinformation out there,” said Vic Sadlowski from the Lakeland Agricultural Research Association.
Sadlowski added that he hopes the younger generations will start to get more involved with gardening.
“Hopefully grandmas and grandpas take this back to the kids. Kids have a lot of fun with this stuff, and rather than playing on (video games) all day.”
New to the event this year was the Seed Exchange. The program allowed event participants to bring in their old and unused seed packets and trade them for seeds others had brought in. Participants also got to take part in a silent auction, with the money going to support the Agricultural Society's community initiatives such as student scholarships.
While she wants to keep some surprises a secret, Michaud said they are hoping to have to some changes and big events at next year's Gardener's Day.
“I don't want to give too much away but we're planning a really big speaker, he's well known in the province. We're going to be moving to a new venue hopefully and we'll have some workshops.”
Overall, Michaud was pleased with how the 15th annual Gardener's Day went and said she hopes it will continue to grow in the community.
“It was a very successful year. It gets you in the spirit of spring, it gets you out and rid of the winter blues. We encourage the young and the old and the in-between, I just really enjoy it.”
