The holiday weekend in May is closely associated with gardening and the South Lanark Community Garden wants to let the community know that there will be plenty of vegetable seedlings, annual flowers and perennial flowers available and its first annual plant sale. The Lanark Highlands Youth Centre will be joining the volunteers from the garden to offer a fundraising BBQ in support of the centre’s diverse youth programming.
The event on Saturday May 21st runs from 9am to 1pm at the site of the garden 2208 Highway 511 north of Balderson. The sale will provide a great opportunity for people to visit the garden and learn about how this newly incorporated non-profit organization is growing tens of thousands of pounds of food for the community. Food grown in the garden is available to the volunteers and donated to local organizations like Lanark Highlands Plan B and The Table Community Food Centre in Perth.
Volunteers from the garden have been busy starting and nurturing hundreds of seedlings to be ready for the sale. One of the highlights of the sale are the heirloom Abe Lincoln tomato seedlings. Introduced in the 1920s it produces very flavourful and abundant fruit. Other veggies include kale, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli. Flowers available include hollyhocks, gaillardia, lupins, calendula, marigolds and orange butterfly milkweed.
There will be more than plants for sale. Sourdough starter, baked goods, kombucha “mothers”, and vermicomposting worms will also be available. The gardeners will also have a silent auction with locally made products and services for people to bid on.
Funds raised will be used to cover the expenses of running the garden such including purchasing hand tools, seeds, green manure inputs, beekeeping equipment, and teaching aides
If you work up an appetite shopping, the Lanark Highlands Youth Centre will be there to help, serving up hotdogs and burgers. . The LHYC will also be selling PRIDE bracelets just in time for June as well as youth-made art pieces. Funds raised will support their many programs that provide social, sports, creative and educational opportunities to area youth
For more about the South Lanark Community Garden and Youth Centre, visit their websites or Facebook pages: https://www.southlanarkcommunitygarden.org
https://www.facebook.com/TheSouthLanarkCommunityGarden
https://www.lhyci.ca
https://www.facebook.com/LanarkYouthCentre
