Brandonites celebrate their green thumbs

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This article was published 20/06/2022 (1349 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s collective green thumb was on full display Saturday for the first of what organizers are saying will likely become an annual tradition.

Stanley Park played host to a giant garden party as part of Canada-wide celebrations for National Garden Day. The day, which was designated by Communities in Bloom and the federal government, was a time to enjoy cultivated and natural outdoor green spaces in and around the city, as well as to reflect on what gardening means to people.

Groups and businesses, including The Green Spot, Brandon Garden Club and Bee City Brandon, all had booths offering information, as well as raffles and giveaways of live plants, seeds and garden-themed swag.

A flatbed truck loaded down with 1,000 plants grown in the city’s greenhouse was parked on the grounds, offering indoor plants, flowering annuals, tomatoes and peppers for people to take home and add to their own gardens.

Live music, free food and children’s activities rounded out the celebrations.

This was a culmination of Garden Days, a week of activities and special events put on by private businesses, social groups and city programs to get people interested in all things green, growing and blooming.

Having a day set aside to focus on gardens was a perfect fit for Brandon, said Brady Dane, recreation co-ordinator for the city’s parks and recreation department.

Brandon is home to many parks and open spaces, as well as edible gardens in planter boxes from which the public can pick fresh produce, for free. Even with a rich horticultural history, Dane said the city never had a designated day to celebrate gardens.

“We are planning on making this an annual thing,” he said. “The big kickoff was Year of the Garden 2022. It declared National Garden Day to be June 18, but it will actually be the Friday before Father’s Day from now on.”

Working as the city’s horticulturalist and managing a greenhouse is a dream job for Tracy Timmer, who was getting a workout helping people select plants from the back of the flatbed. Each person could get one plant, she said, but interest was strong, and the plants were going fast.

“I’m very lucky to have this job and very thankful to the city for it,” she said. “[The city has] had that greenhouse for more than 100 years, so it’s always been a big part of Brandon and Brandon has always been a big horticultural city.”

As a horticulturalist, her advice to all gardeners was simple: get gardening. For the city’s environment, she suggested sunflowers for their brightness. In general, she recommended flowering annuals for colourful blooms all throughout the growing season and perennials to have a permanent fill-in for different areas of the yard.

In Brandon, there has been a resurgence in wild foraging and traditional Indigenous agricultural practices.

To honour that, Eugene Ross, of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, was happy to share his people’s history.

“I’m here showing how our people traded with the Hudson’s Bay Company, and how the company introduced those into their company,” he said. “I’m showing what they used back then to survive. Winters were harsh and couldn’t adapt to the coldness, so they came to our people for help and we showed them.”

Sioux traded between the company and other nations with seeds, natural teas, tools made from bones and antlers to dig holes and trenches to plant. Corn, pumpkins and beans were among the most well-known, but there is a wide variety of wild roots, onions, potatoes and medicinal plants that grow in the region and were highly prized by both Indigenous and Western traders.

Everything had to be sun-dried, he said, as it was the only method of preservation at the time.

He’s been practising these traditional methods most of his life. He was showing off how he used stones to crush seeds, as well as making pemmican, a high-protein food made with dried meat, fat and berries.

He said he loves sharing knowledge with people and the people he speaks with are fascinated by the wide variety of food that existed long before colonialism. It’s knowledge that needs to be passed on, he said, so that others will know what came before and they will understand more about the history and culture of his people.

» kmckinley@brandonsun.com

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