What an incredible month this has been for gardeners! The heat wave we have enjoyed while our soil is still moist from April rains has created optimum growing medium for our vegetables and flowering plants.
Richmond Garden Club is well recognized in the community so it is never surprising to receive a phone call asking us to help out in a garden project.
Our ongoing work as stewards of the beautiful perennial gardens in Paulik Park and the abundance of new vegetables and flowers planted by us in the rooftop garden at Richmond Cultural Centre, all showcase expertise and pride of our members.
Recently we were asked by Steveston Harbour Authority (SHA) if we would be interested in a restoration project on the Steveston boardwalk just off Bayview Street. Just at the end of the boardwalk by Pajo’s Restaurant, sat a dozen very sad large concrete planters filled with weeds, cigarette butts and garbage.
This area is populated by many out-of-town visitors and locals, coming to enjoy the view of the fishing boats and all the activities in the area.
Trying not to look too eager, we accepted the project. With a small budget from SHA, we purchased new potting soil, hardy perennials that enjoy full sun and wind and some annuals to add a punch of colour. It took us four hours to remove the old garden type soil and replace with proper potting soil and then designing and planting. When planting up container gardens, always remember to choose potting soil or your plants will struggle.
The planters contain seasonal annual flowers which will be changed out in the fall with bright colours that should last into the winter.
For those folks wanting to pot up their own plants, remember the recipe to create beautiful masterpiece containers. Thriller, spiller and filler. It is as simple as that. Your thriller is the centrepiece of your arrangement. You then want to choose trailing plants for your spillers and then finally adding in plants around the main plant that will fill in the pot. You can put lots of plants in to make your container garden lush. Always think about the location of your container gardens - full sun versus shade. Choose plants for those locations. Read your labels.
We are so pleased with the outcome of the dozen containers on the boardwalk and encourage you to head down to Steveston to see them. Our crew visits the boardwalk every Monday to water the containers so they are now lush and full of beautiful colour.
We are happy report that there has only been a couple of cigarette butts thrown into the containers. We are bit sad though because there has been some theft of a couple of the plants.
So get out into the sunshine, head down to the Steveston harbour and take a seat amongst our 12 mini gardens on the boardwalk! Enjoy!
Lynda Pasacreta is the current president of the Richmond Garden Club. For more information visit richmondgardenclub.ca.
