The event is a fun way to recognize gardeners in Assiniboia, who work so hard to make the town beautiful. The CiB committee are accepting nominations of great gardeners from now until August 15th. The six categories are: front yard, back yard, container garden, yard makeover, vegetable garden, and flower garden.
Residents need to send one or more picture of the garden that they are nominating, along with the name and address of the gardener to: assiniboiacib@gmail.com
The CiB committee will randomly select a winner in each category, who will win a $30 coupon for Scott’s Miracle Grow soil, and fertilizer, a Best Garden selection sign for their yard, and pictures displayed on Facebook.
At this time of year, as residents look around Assiniboia, they might notice a lot of “blooming planters” on Centre Street, Dominion Road, the Asaskan Complex (Town Hall), and Highways 2 and 13.
These planters have changed. Until recently, most of the planters were wooden barrels. These looked great, but required frequent watering, and were beginning to show their age. A few years ago, the Assiniboia CiB learned that the Western Canadian company that made self-watering hanging baskets also makes beautiful, large planters. They began fund raising, with dreams of replacing all the planters on Centre Street and reached that goal last year.
Due to a few great fundraisers, and a lot of community support, the Assiniboia CiB have been able to surpass their original dream and completely replace all the old barrels, with stylish, new self-watering planters.
The new planters are very sturdy (not one dint or crack from last year’s hail storm), and they save time, money, and water. The water/fertilizer reservoir only has to be filled approximately every three weeks. This saves gas, volunteers’ time, and enables the plants to flourish by never drying out.
The CiB volunteers are now able to dedicate more time to other projects, such as Central Park, the Centennial sign garden, and the Kin Hut flowerbeds.
The committee would like to encourage everyone - business owners, and homeowners, as well - to pitch in by tidying up their own properties to get rid of weeds, trim overhanging branches, etc. This dry year seems to have encouraged weeds to flourish more than ever. Often residents forget about back alleys, but the weeds that grow in them, love to spread.
The Communities in Bloom group would like to say how much they love their little town, and enjoy “Planting Community Pride”. It’s a lot of hard work, but is so rewarding.
