Tag Archives: pollinator garden

Perennial Bed Renovation Part 1

June the 13th will go down as a great day in the history of Ben Nobleman Park. About 12 volunteers plunged into the overgrown perennial bed there in an effort to transform it into a garden bed filled with life and colour and a place that will attract butterflies, bees and other beneficial pollinators. While we supplied the muscle, we had plenty of encouragement from our local community. Starbucks donated Shared Planet sustainably-sourced coffee to keep us going and Loving Hut, a terrific vegan restaurant up the the road supplied us with their delicious jumbo summer rolls and threw in some fantastic vegan carob chip cookies to go with them.

And the surprise? Well, we discovered that quackgrass, a highly invasive weed, had made it’s way well into the perennial bed. If not removed completely by the rhizomes, that stuff would have doomed our new planting – quickly spreading through the bed leaving no room for anything else. So we had to work harder and move some existing plants in order to get it all.  This Saturday we’ll be back again, finishing the cleanup and getting ready to plant the new material this week.

Alice supervises the volunteers at work

Enjoying a snack at the harvest table

Prepping for “The Big Dig”

Well, Ladies and Gentleman, the day quickly approaches. Yes, it’s almost time for “The Big Dig” in Ben Nobleman Park’s perennial bed as we work to transform it from an ordinary shrub and perennial bed into a beautiful and colourful pollinator garden that attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds with its bright blossoms. So, a couple of us have been getting our feet just a little bit wet. Susan and Lynn have spent a few hours this weekend pulling out the thistle just to see what lies underneath. And lo and behold, we found some nice acid green coloured spirea, some purple coneflowers and some Autumn Joy Sedum. Clearly, they were thankful that we helped them see the light of day. Anyways, we have lots more to do on Sunday June 13th when we have our “Big Dig” (followed by a big planting day on June 19th when we add more bright and colourful plant material) and we hope to see lots of you there – with your good boots, a hat, a water bottle, gardening gloves and lots of gumption.  We’ll see ya then.

Perennial Bed Before Weeding

Susan and Lynn after pulling out thistle

This thistle is HISTORY!

Thank you Fiskars!

It may be early May, but as far as we’re concerned, Christmas has arrived in the Ben Nobleman Community Orchard. Earlier this year we applied for a Project Orange Thumb Grant with the garden tool company Fiskars. Well, recently we discovered that we were awarded the grant and as part of it we received a generous package of all the tools we’ll need to take care of our orchard and of the park’s perennial bed that we’ll be renovating this June. This week the irrigation committee met at the orchard shed and had a blast unwrapping the tools to see what we’ve got: garden shovels and forks for deep digging and weeding, secateurs and loppers for pruning and hand tools for planting and weeding. There are hard rakes and hoes and some fantastic collapsable baskets for collecting and transporting leaf waste and weeds . We’ve also got knee pads, herb scissors and a bunch of beautiful bright orange Fiskars t-shirts. We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way we can add our own Ben Nobleman Community Orchard Logo somehow. Anyways, it was an exciting day and we can’t wait to use these tools to dig in to the perennial bed on June 13 and 19th. More about that on our events page….Oh…and check out the Fiskars Project Orange Thumb web page. Sherry’s picture was one of the ones that’s featured on the front page!

Irrigation Committee Poses with new FIskars T-Shirts