President's Message 2024

By Jill Thomson

This past year has been a productive and enjoyable one for our society. I think we have adjusted well to the post-covid state. We held in-person meetings at a new location (meeting room at Cliff Wright library, Lakewood Civic Centre), and also are proposing zoom meetings for winter evenings, Our membership was 196 members by the end of 2024 -a healthy sign that our club continues to provide information for Saskatchewan gardeners and is also able to create opportunities for members to meet with fellow gardeners.

We started the year with a very informative talk by Renny Grilz on Natural Spaces, and also enjoyed presentations by Bernadette Vangool, at the AGM and in October 2024.

The Board of directors held 6 meetings in 2024; two outdoors in the gardens of Pat Wilson and Kathleen Jaspar, and the remainder were by Zoom. We all enjoy meeting in members' gardens but it is very convenient to have the option to Zoom when the weather is not cooperative. The AGM, on February 28, 2024 was held in the Civic Centre, and was followed by a presentation by Bernadette Vangool about plants that would be on sale at the Plant Exchange and Sale in May.

We had ten board members until the fall and we functioned very well as a team. Bev McLeod resigned in September. We would like to thank her for the work that she and Nancy Senior carried out to close the SPS library, and to ensure that the books all found useful homes. We would also like to thank her for her insightful comments concerning the running of the Society. The positions held by current board members are: Sue Barrett - Secretary, Drop Box organiser and Garden tour organiser; Kathleen Jaspar - Facebook manager, Vice President; Lorna Davies - Plant Sale Selection Committee; Deb Huculiak - Treasurer, Plant Sale Selection Committee; Bev McLeod - Librarian; Jill Thomson - President: Janelle Unrau - computing advisor/assistant: Bernadette Vangool - website manager, Labour and Learn co-ordinator, Saskatchewan Horticultural Association representative; Criss Wiercinski - Plant Exchange organiser, head of Plant Sale Selection Committee; Pat Wilson - Plant Selection Committee, Garden Tour organiser, Labour and Learn assistant. Board members with one more term to serve are Sue, Deb, Jill, Janelle and Criss. Members who are willing to stand for another two-year term are Kathleen, Lorna, Bernadette and Pat. Denise Partington has agreed to stand for nomination to the board and we hope that she will be elected at the AGM as we look forward to working with her on the board.

We held a Plant Sale and Exchange in the spring, and a Plant Exchange in the fall, at our usual venue. These were popular events , with about 85 members attending in the spring and 52 in the fall. The events were very well organized by Criss Weircinski and her team of helpers. Everyone seemed to enjoy the event, and pitched in to help with set-up, movement of furniture, and clean up at the end. Refreshments were provided, a welcome return to the pre-Covid situation.

We held one garden tour on July 14. Six gardens were visited, which was enjoyable for both hosts and the 120 tourers that participated. The event was well organized by Sue and Pat and the signs made by Pat helped us locate the gardens, despite the city roadworks that added a challenge to finding them. Next year we may return to two tours in different months, as several gardeners have beautiful diaplays of spring flowers they wish to share.

The Society had a booth at Gardenscape in March, and I would like to thank the volunteers who ran the booth, enabling us to sell memberships to both existing and new members. This is always a popular venue for talking with old friends and meeting with the public. We also were represented at Seedy Saturday on March 9th, another popular event for both new and experienced gardeners.

Bernadette Vangool, Pat Wilson and helpers continued to maintain the Meditation and Rose Gardens at the Forestry Farm. This year a meeting with City representatives in the spring opened the communication lines that ensured smoother coordination in the maintenance of the gardens. It is hoped that this meeting will occur again in 2025, to ensure continued cooperation in maintaining these gardens. Thank you to the volunteer gardeners and the supevisors for continuing to make thses gardens an attractive area for the public to visit, and a learning experience for new gardeners.

The weekly gardening articles that were provided to the Bridges newspaper were no longer required by the paper in 2024. However, we continued to write the articles which are now sent to a number of publications in the province, some of which print hard copies, but the majority of which circulate electronically. I would like to thank Michelle Petrisor who did an excellent job as the Garden Coiumn coordinator. Bernadette Vangool has taken over as coordinator and does a great job of ensuring and article is sent out each week. She also ensures that SPS members have access to the articles, through links to articles on Facebook and by emailing copies to members.

Our membership cards have a list of stores that offer discounts to members. I wish to thank the participating stores very much. Please support these local stores if possible and note that some offers may be for purchase of perennial only. The participants are: Early's, Floral Acres, Mother Earth, Wilson's, Dutch Growers and Saskatoon Landscape and Garden Centre.

The Garden Patch, which has provided fruit and vegetables for the Food Bank for a number of years, had to be closed down in the fall. It will be restarted at a new location but not in time to transfer the perennial plants. Pat wilson, who is a volunteer at the Garden Patch, arranged that a group of SPS members could dig up plants that could be replanted in the Forestry Farm Gardens, and could be made avaailable at our Plant Exhange. We dug up rhubarb, asparagus and several other plants. Donations for these plants were made at the plant Exchange. $222 was collected. This money was given to the Food Bank and the SPS also made a donation of $500.00 for the plants we put in the Forestry Farm Garden.

The SPS gave a donation to support the nomination of Dr. Bob Bors to the Saskatchewan Horticultural Hall of Fame. Dr. Bors will be inducted in April 2025.

Our society is flourishing due to the extremely cooperative efforts of the board and the support of the local gardening community. It has been a pleasure and and hounour to be your president for the past 6 years, but this will by my last report as it is time for a new president. I hope to remain an active member of the society and look forward to continuing to meet up with you all at our garden events in 2025.