Garden club goes techy

At our General Meeting last Monday, over 40 members of the Cramahe Horticultural Society had their first look at the Cramahe Ecology Garden site in Rotary Centennial Park, Colborne. Members were able to tour the site location via photos taken that morning and stored on a memory stick owned by the Society and shown from a laptop computer via a projector owned by the Society.

Since the meeting a laptop owned by the Society has since been acquired. These new purchases were the first of the items included in our request for funding from the federal government’s New Horizons for Seniors program.

The need and the potential of technology in our Society were proven the very first day. Our scheduled speaker phoned us the morning of our meeting to request such a projector for their presentation. It worked out very well. We used their laptop and they used our projector.

Our speakers were Elaina Asselin and Gregory Hill, owners of Wicklow Way, purveyors of heirloom tomatoes and other organic vegetables. They could have kept members attention all night sharing their knowledge of the operations and requirements for organic farmers. Several members were keen to participate in their tomato festival in August.

Members were shown a work plan for the Cramahe Ecology Garden. Our next budgeted project is the development of a website. We believe that the Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA), will host our site and this is good news as it will save our Society some money. We hope that Cramahe Township will include information about our Society on their website and note a link to our website once we are up and running.

Also, a meeting with Dan O’Brien, Director of Community Services, has been scheduled after Easter, to specifically define our Cramahe Ecology Garden space and to begin a clean up of winter damage and all the downed trees along the Colborne Creek in Rotary Centennial Park. Much of the planting will likely be done later in May but more detailed information will be available to members at our April General Meeting, April 27.

Using our new equipment we also toured members around Trent University, the site of the Ontario Horticultural Association 2009 Convention in July. Cramahe Horticultural Society had budgeted for member assistance at this convention as it is our District 4 who are hosting members from all over the Province.

Of course, lots of other fun things happened at our meeting but our new tools created a lot of excitement for members old and new.

April 27 - come to see master gardener Sally Ayotte create a lovely spring planter for auction to members

May 9 - plant sale, 10am, Old St Andrews

May 25 - Ecology Garden Dedication and meeting at Rotary Centennial Park

May 30/31 - the CHS Get Acquainted Draw and the Garden Shed Marketplace at Apple Blossom Tyme