Reflections from the DEMONSTRATION GARDEN

The Demonstration Garden has been put to bed for the year … but … let’s cheer to Winter! Why? Well, we could switch to indoor growing if we want and enjoy greenery and colour right in our own living spaces.

Although too late to bring your succulents in for the Winter, some planning and exploration in sprouting seeds in various mediums could take you somewhere similar to what my Grandpa called his “oxygen tent”. It was a mystical place somewhere in the house, between the coal furnace in the basement and the top-floor bathroom, the one with the white bathtub on those four giant feet. I recall searching around and thinking maybe that tent might be even higher than the bathroom, in a little pinnacle in the attic with a small north window looking out to his garden.

A house full of plants on all the window sills, perhaps a room with some grown bulbs, is going to be bright, moist, full of scents and even flavours. Caring for plants will teach us much and reward us with beautiful indoor displays and, eventually, seedlings ready for transplanting. The lessons learned with seedlings and cuttings can help us when we move back to the outdoors.

Follow-ups for the Demonstration Garden are ongoing, with log entries to tabulate at year-end. Our sign area at the front needs upkeep. We could make our raised beds one board higher using plates and screws as described in our COG (OSO) video by Growing Up Organic.

The Experimental Farm has given us permission to run an afternoon celebration next year in mid-August, so we will prepare outreach activities for the community.

There is a need for job descriptions, strategic planning and commitment in the Demonstration Garden project, plus, as a member of the COG (OSO) Steering Committee, I am looking at the larger Organic issues. Denise and I will welcome any thoughts you might have as we move to the “New Normal” whatever that might be (and what you think it should be)!

To the new and old volunteers who came out this year and got rid of so many weeds and greeted and met with so many people with so many questions… Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Merci, Merci, Merci.

Everyone, all the best to you in 2023, be safe and well.

Jim Davidson,

Co-Coordinator, COG OSO Demonstration Garden,

dr241@ncf.ca