Cultivate McCauley

Edmonton's Gardening Community

McCauley Gardens 2018

McCauley Garden Information and Contact

McCauley gardens have their very own website cultivatemccauley.ca managed by Dustin Bajer, the chair of the gardening project team. Dustin has organized four garden crawls for everyone in the community, and these are taking place throughout the summer. Dustin can be contacted via his website.

1. OFRE Orchard

Operation Fruit Rescue Edmonton (OFRE – pronounced offer) is a non-profit society dedicated to picking unwanted fruit from homeowners properties and redistributing the excess throughout the city. Our organization has planted a small orchard at the McCauley School located along 107A Avenue, which we think and treat as our home. OFRE will sponsor free cider pressing workshops, espalier workshops and fruit canning workshops in August/September. Please visit our website at operationfruitrescue.org. We also welcome volunteers.

2. Stadium Garden

– In the fall of 2016, a local business (Affordable Storage) indicated they would like to support a community garden project on their private property located at 8616 – 106A Avenue. The garden has flourished and has available raised beds. Please contact Gisele Lacroix at glacroix57@gmail.com.

3. McCauley Garden

The community garden is located on the Edmonton Intercultural Centre site outside of the east daycare door. There are 19 raised gardens available, and in 2018 the garden is being supervised by The Mustard Seed society. Please contact [email protected] or 780-426-5600.

4. The Garden of Truth

The remediated site of the previous Husky oil gas station located on 97 street and 108A avenue is being enhanced to create a flat garden space with traditional flowers and heirloom plants. The intention of the site is to provide a few raised beds for flowers and attractive low shrubs which will be maintained by the Excel Society. If you need more information, please contact Denise Charron at [email protected]

5. The Rose Garden

This small flower garden is being maintained by Zocalo business owners Ken and Miranda who continue to support community projects with donations of rose bushes to enhance the gateway at Giovanni Caboto Park. The roses are intended to beautify the corner and keep it looking safe and clean. For more information contact [email protected]

6. Friendship Garden

This little passive treed lot is located on the NE corner of Giovanni Caboto park and sponsored by the McCauley Community League. The purpose of the garden is to provide residents with a passageway to the park and an enjoyable green space to sit and meditate. Further work will be added with benches and birdhouses. For more information contact Greg Lane at [email protected]

7. Kids Garden Park

A new area for kids to garden is popping up in McCauley. The location is on a private vacant lot, and the work has just started. Lily Mounma is taking the lead to create a safe place for all the children in McCauley to learn about planting, maintaining and harvesting a great garden. For information contact lily@viphalay.com

McCauley Is Edmonton’s Gardening Community

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A hardy magnola flowers in a McCauely backyard.

Cultivate McCauley

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISED BY BOYLE MCCAULEY NEWS AND DUSTINBAJER.COM

In the Fall of 2014, I was looking at a house just off Church Street – I decided on a whim to knock on the door of each potential neighbour and introduce myself. At one door, Naomi Pahl answered. Within minutes Naomi was giving me a tour of her yard. By the time I drove home, she had emailed me a list of fruit trees growing in her yard – in the event that I wanted to cross-reference it for cross-pollination purposes. I put an offer on the home, and I moved in at the end of October….

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Plant Your Garden Early

Plant Your Garden Early

Is May Long Weekend The Best Time To Plant A Garden in Edmonton?

Originally written for and publised by Boyle McCauley News and DustinBajer.com

When I was growing up, my parents kept a large vegetable garden in the backyard. Each spring, my Mom would bring out an ice-cream pail of seeds, a bundle of wooden stakes, a garden hoe, and a roll of twine she got from my Uncle – a nearby cattle farmer.

I watched as she paced the distance between rows – carefully placing one foot in front of the other – before pressing a stake into the ground. She repeated the ritual on the other side of the garden and pulled some twine tight between the stakes to mark the row. Tilting the hoe at an angle, she added a shallow trench along either side of the string. We were ready to plant….

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McCauley Gardener Survey

McCauley Gardener Survey, Hollyhocks

McCauley is Edmonton’s Garden Community

The Edmonton neighbourhood of McCauley has a vibrant gardening scene, numerous community gardens, and an orchard! That’s why we are creating CultivateMcCauley; an online (and offline) McCauley gardening community to share resources, ideas, plants, social events, and educational opportunities. But in order to be successful, we need to hear from other McCauley gardeners!

McCauley Gardeners! We Want to Hear From You.

If you are a McCauley resident or organization that gardens in the neighbourhood, we want …

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Naomi The Sunflower

Picture of Naomi Pahl

McCauley Gardener Naomi Pahl

What is your name and how did you get into gardening?

My name is Naomi and I have been gardening with my parents since I was a child. One of the reasons we moved into McCauley during the boom of 2007, was because this house was one of the only options(in our price range) that had a percentage of its land in the backyard, facing south. This lot, in my mind’s eye, was a potential urban homesteaders paradise.

…

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Dustin the Fruit Tree

 

Dustin Bajer planting a current in MacKinnon Ravien.

McCauley gardener Dustin Bajer holding a current at the Edmonton River Valley Food Forest.

McCauley Gardener Dustin Bajer

What is your name and how did you get into gardening?

My name is Dustin Bajer, and I got into gardening as a kid. Gardening was something I hated – something I had to do. I grew up on an acreage so weeding, tilling, planting, picking rocks – they were all chores that I had to do. I don’t think that I started gardening for fun until I left home but it’s been a passion ever since.

In 2009, I took a Master Gardening Certificate at the University of Alberta Botanic Garden and a Permaculture Design Certificate through Verge and Pacific Permaculture. Thanks, Mom and Dad for getting me started….

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