Parkwood Tennis Court Border Gardens Project 2022 Update

Parkwood Tennis Court Border Gardens Project         2022 Update
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We have completed the 4th year of this 5-year project at the Parkwood Historic Site and are very proud of our results. Our combined team of OGC volunteers, Parkwood staff and volunteers and members of the Durham Master Gardeners have combined our talents and knowledge to help bring these prominent Tennis Court Border Gardens back to nearer how they would have appeared in the 1920s and 30s.

While we will never replicate what the prominent landscape designers of the day achieved through the efforts of a very significant staff of trained Parkwood gardeners and their extensive greenhouses, we feel that it has been well worth the effort to emulate their vision of showcase gardens.  We hope that Sam and Adelaide McLaughlin would be proud of our combined efforts.

This project has been blessed with a steady group of volunteers again this year and we are pleased to report that we are where we should be in our annual and 5-year plans. The last section of the gardens was prepped and cleared and has now been planted with newly purchased perennials along with some repurposed and repositioned plants. Bulb planting was delayed by a few weeks due to supply-chain issues but will build on the very extensive spring bulb display in the two gardens.

We held a successful plant sale again this year squeezed between a Parkwood Gala, Movie Shoot and a large wedding at Parkwood that bookended the sale. While this caused a bit of scrambling and experienced smaller customer attendance this year, the proceeds will again provide over $2,000 in revenues to purchase more plants and supplies to finish off and supplement the 4 sections of the gardens in 2023.

We extend a very big thank-you to our very dedicated volunteers and leadership team who contributed over 300 volunteer hours over the past year to the project. We also share a big shout out to the Parkwood staff and especially the Durham Master Gardeners for a great learning experience and collaborative community project experience. As a member of the Oshawa Garden Club, you are welcome to join us as a volunteer on the project in 2023. Most of the work is done Wednesday from 9:00 am to noon and involves weeding, planting, pruning, and trimming, and potting up plants for our fall plant sale. We are active from June through to October. There are also opportunities to take part in ad hoc learning experiences on plants, planting protocols, diseases and insects and much more by working shoulder to shoulder with Durham Master Gardeners and our own veteran gardeners.