The Airdrie Horticultural Society’s Community Gardens are in full bloom for summer, with fresh vegetables already beginning to ripen for harvest.
The Community Gardens were established in Airdrie 20 years ago, and, according to the local horticultural society’s president Rosa West, the public amenities provide a wonderful opportunity for its users to de-stress, grow some fresh food, and just get outside in the sunshine to enjoy nature.
“They just want to work in their gardens happily,” she said. “It’s not restricted to horticultural members. It’s open to all of Airdrie. We have 122 plots there, and we always have a wait list.”
Those who rent plots at the Community Gardens generally are just looking for some extra space to grow some vegetables, explained West, which can be tough in a growing city like Airdrie with increasingly dense subdivisions with smaller yards, or for those living in apartments and condos.
“They might want to supplement their income or their food supply,” she said. “Some just want to be able to grow vegetables and want their kids to know where their food comes from. There are many reasons people want to garden, and it’s hard to nail it down to just one thing.”
With Airdrie’s population having increased dramatically in the past 20 years, West said there is more demand for gardening spaces these days than ever before.
“We went through quite a peak during COVID,” she said. “More people picked up gardening, and we have again lost many of them in the last year. A lot of people interested during COVID didn’t carry on.”
West said a lot of novice gardeners have a romantic notion of gardening when they first come into it, and don’t always realize the extent of the work involved or the commitment required to make sure a garden flourishes.
“You can’t go camping every weekend and expect the garden to look after itself,” she said. “There is always a lot of weeding. Weeds seem to grow better than everything else. And you have to water. You also have to maintain your pathways.”
West said while all levels of gardeners are welcome at the Community Gardens, it is important to remember because it is a communal setting that guidelines of weeding and maintenance are necessarily more strict. It is part of the role of the Airdrie Horticultural Society to help enforce these standards among Community Gardens members if necessary, but West said most who have plots in the gardens need no such oversight.
Outside of managing the Community Gardens, the Airdrie Horticultural Society holds monthly meetings to reach out to the gardeners in town and share tips and knowledge. The society also hosts various events throughout the year, such as a seed exchange early in the year, and plant swaps twice a year in June and September. These plant swaps allow local gardeners to come together and share their gardening successes with each other, and then take home samples of other gardeners’ work to transplant in their own gardens to improve variety.
The Airdrie Horticultural Society also hosts a popular Garden Tour event every August so local green thumbs can show off the beauty of their yearly labours to the public.
West said it is all part of the Airdrie Horticultural Society’s mission to share its love of gardening and horticulture with all Airdrie residents.
“We are always looking for new members,” confirmed West.
For more information on the Airdrie Horticultural Society membership and its Community Gardens, visit the society’s website, or follow its efforts on social media.
