Cultivating a new crop of garden lovers

Transcona

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/02/2024 (934 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Transcona Garden Club is sowing the seeds for the next generation of green thumbs.

The club, which meets throughout the year at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at 328 Whittier Ave., is re-launching its Little Green Thumbs program for young would-be gardeners.

“I absolutely watching a seed become a plant,” said club vice-president Michelle Maruk. “I love growing flowers. I love the colour combinations you can get. I find it peaceful, a nice activity to recharge the batteries.”

The club, which was originally founded in 1930 as the Transcona Horticultural Society, has approximately 40 members today, with an annual membership fee of $15.

“We’re not an overly large club, but we’re planning some interesting activities for 2024, including the relaunch of our Little Green Thumbs Garden Club,” Maruk said. “Over the years, club has done a lot of community events and activities, and one was the junior club, though it had gone into hiatus. But we’re bringing it back. Our hope is to share some knowledge and love of gardening that many of our members feel to the younger generation.”

The Little Green Thumbs group will meet for 11 sessions on select Saturdays, starting on Feb. 24, from 9:3o to 11:30 a.m., each featuring a different gardening related topic.

“We’ll talk about where food comes from, show them seeds, and get them to start planting potato plants, to get those to grow,” Maruk said. “They’ll watch those as the weeks progress through the sessions and send the kids home with some of the harvest. We’ll also talk about the ability to plant in containers in small spaces. You don’t have to have a large garden. You can do it at home on the balcony. We’ll also talk about bugs. Are they superheroes or villains? We’ll talk about weather.”

Little Green Thumb members will also be encouraged to enter their plants in the Transcona Garden Club’s spring and summer horticultural shows, which will take place June 22 and Aug. 9 and 10. Both those shows will be open to members and the general public.

“We’d like to let the young participants know that food… can come from the grocery store, but you can also grow it at home,” Maruk said. “We’ll also talk about options to grow food from food scraps to reduce food waste. You can garden pretty much anywhere, with recycled pots and containers. You can be creative and have some fun with this.”

The Transcona Garden Club also facilitates a series of flower arrangements twice a year, once in the spring, from April to June, and once again in the fall, from September to December.

For more information, find the Transcona Garden Club and the Transcona Little Green Thumbs on Facebook.