A mid season get together and barbeque was held Sunday at the home of Joe and Devonna Nagy south of the Chestermere High School for the Community Garden members, friends and family. This informal event was an opportunity for all members to share their experiences, acknowledge the Nagy’s, learn a little more from each other and just enjoy the warm day out in the peace of the country.
Wade and Candace Lester from Garden Scents, supporters of the garden joined in the afternoon event while Wade offered gardening tips. The Lesters who now hail from Chestermere came on board in the spring to offer free seeds, vegetable transplants and some potatoes to get the gardeners off to their growing start.
Devonna Nagy and her husband Joe, now retired had a dream of bringing like minded people together at their farm to join in a cooperative gardening venture. She needed help in getting the ball rolling so Angela Nolan of community services came on board to organize and promote the idea. Last year land was cleaned and rot tilled for 12 garden plots on the Nagy’s back 40. A modest fee was charged and interested green thumbs picked out their plots. The huge success of the first year encouraged the allocation of 12 more plots. Presently 21 out of 24 plots are in cultivation with 3 of those plots allocated for Food Bank stores.
The now retired Nagy’s moved out to their farm combining their auto body business from Inglewood with their new home. This now mature forest looks nowhere near the original plot of grassland it was when they first moved in. Devonna said, “We didn’t realize we bought gold,” referring to the fact they had bought land with access to the irrigation canal. It is because of this that today the gardens flourish with her doing the early morning and evening watering. It’s starting to become too hard for her and she hopes that next year the gardening team will be able to coordinate watering amongst themselves.
Dale and Paul Jansen, local residents who regularly volunteer with the town are dedicated supporters of the garden often helping the Nagy’s with the continual maintenance that the older property demands. It’s a pleasurable exchange between the two. Vegetarian Cathy Burness is the keener of the group. Burness who now lives in a townhouse puts in a lot of hours with 2 plots and weeding some of the food bank garden. She will often bring her 2 sons out as well to help out and share in the experience. Another community gardener who recently made a move here from Vancouver said she joined to meet new people and learn about prairie gardening.
The group came together at the garden plots to gain some advice from Lester. As the members were gathered amongst the flowering purple potato flowers and the abundant yellow headed dill he commended the success of these green thumbs. His tips for success were , “Initially keep it simple, plant proven crops, think ahead in regards to staking and caging supports, help and learn from each other and remember that it’s about the experience not so much the individual efforts.” Nagy added, “It’s therapy for all of us.” Lester agreed about the relaxation and stress relief it provides, jokingly adding “except for the hawk,” which had an affinity for dive bombing the group at unexpected moments.
Overall this project continues to evolve with lessons learned from each year’s experience. It is the hope of Community Services who will continue to coordinate and facilitate the garden venture for the Community Garden members to take on more leadership roles within the project. The goal of this venture is to network, socialize and learn from each other.
When I left Joe was clearing sticks for mowing and I mentioned that there is always something to do, he replied, “yes there is” and the hard working Devonna echoed, “And that’s good.”
The Community Services group Anna Bata, Danielle Fermin, and Patti Brown would like to thank Garden Scents and the Nagys for their support, Earl Reimer for rototilling and all the gardeners and Starbucks for making this day the success it was. Plots will be available again next year with last year’s members having first dibs on a plot. If you are interested in a plot for next year contact Cathy Burness at c.burness@crpcn.ca. Information can also be found on the town’s website at www.chestermere.ca/communityservices through following the links under Community Services.
