Hi folks,
Greetings, gardeners!
Our June GGC meeting is Tuesday, June 11th at 7:00 p.m. in the 55+ room at Britannia Centre. (To get there from the Drive, go west through the Napier Square Greenway at Napier St., cross the lane, and the 55+ room is on your left across from the Britannia Info Centre.)
Here’s Tiia's bio:
Tiia Haapalainen began her career in biology working in the Elle lab at Simon Fraser University where she spent three years studying pollination ecology. Since 2015, she has been curating the natural history teaching collection and providing technical support in the teaching laboratories in the Department of Biological Sciences at SFU. Tiia also served as the assistant curator for the Spencer Entomological Collection at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia from 2019 to 2021. She has won multiple awards for her contributions to teaching and outreach at SFU. Tiia cares deeply about teaching others about insects and the importance of their conservation.
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My first recollection of gardening is at the age of 4, by my mother’s side helping to plant pea seeds in the spring and later to pick the yummy pea pods. At a young age I learned the importance of gardening and began to understand that being a gardener is more than a hobby it is a way of life. My family encouraged my thirst for gardening by building me my first greenhouse when I was still in early grade school.
In the mid-1980s my mother and I joined the Langley Garden Club. It was great to find a place where people could share their love and passion for gardening. When it came time for university my passion for plants pushed me into a major in microbiology with a minor in botany.
Then, when it was time to join the working world, it was my greatest luck to be able to join the team at Van Noort Bulb Company. Now it has been over 26 years at Van Noort Bulb and I have worked all the way up from pasting boxes to Marketing and Packaging Manager. I am truly blessed to be able to work in an environment where my gardening passion is encouraged and allowed to grow.
Van Noort Bulb Company is a wholesale supplier of spring flowering bulbs, summer flowering bulbs, perennials, small fruit trees, and roses to garden centres, growers, and landscapers across Canada. Van Noort Bulb Company is Canadian owned and operated by the fourth generation of Van Noorts. This year we are celebrating 95 years of “Growing Success”. We have a warehouse in St. Catharines Ontario, farms in Noordwykerhout, Holland, and in Abbotsford, with the head office in Langley, B.C. The “Florissa” logo on our retail packaging has become well known and trusted for high quality and product integrity in garden centres across Canada.
Web sites:
Dianne will bring some packaged bulbs and plants to sell at wholesale prices. Please bring cash or cheques just in case you wish to purchase anything from her.
There will be more info, but our next meeting will be 7:00, May 14th (second Tuesday of the month), in the community room at Templeton Pool.
Also, the GGC plant sale is Sunday May 5th on Rose St. 10-2.
We're changing both our meeting day and our venue and we just want to make sure you save the date. March 12th.
Our new meeting place is the community room at Templeton Pool. It’s a nice big room and perfect for us. It was available on Tuesdays. Now we’ll be meeting on the second TUESDAY of each month (except for April, which is Templeton's pool-maintenance closure). We’re not sure where we’ll meet for April — it might be an outing or it might be Zoom — but we’ll let you know.
So our first meeting at Templeton will be on Tuesday, March 12th.
Topic: Lawn Alternatives: Enhancing the Ecological Value of Your Garden by Replacing Your Lawn with Low Groundcovers
Speaker: Jane Sherrott.
Jane is a hobby gardener who lives on the North Shore. She has been a knowledgeable and valued member of the Vancouver Master Gardeners Association since 1998. Like many of us, she is trying to learn more about developing ecologically-vibrant habitat in her garden and her presentation will share how she has seen life return to the previously grassed areas at her home and cabin on the Sunshine Coast after she replaced the lawns with easy-care, low plants that require minimal care or watering once established.
Manicured grass lawns attract chemicals, mowers and blowers. Jane will discuss planting tough, easy-care groundcovers that support butterflies, bees and birds across all four seasons while also serving as a usable lawn.
Any questions? Send an email to grandviewgardenclub@gmail.com
