The beautiful Heritage Orchard was officially unveiled in Rockglen as part of the Canada150 celebrations on August 13.
The event featured the official dedication of the Heritage Orchard and a Tree Canada celebration. The Heritage Orchard located across from the rink contains a vegetable garden, newly-planted fruit trees, vines of grapes and gourds growing on fences as well as several sitting areas. The Five Hills Health Region provided the land to plant the orchard.
Russell Belbeck from the Heritage Orchard Committee emceed the event and welcomed the large crowd in attendance. He recapped the history of the orchard and gardens. Janine Bouvier translated his speech and other parts of the program into French. Deputy Mayor Richard Fountain brought greetings from Rockglen Town Council. “The volunteers made this place totally amazing,” he said paying special compliments to the many volunteer workers on the project. “Thank you for making this project a success,” Fountain added.
The orchard and gardens began as a vision four years ago with two years of planning before any work commenced. Belbeck credits a sales representative for planting the seed of this idea that grew into a larger dream.
As part of the orchard, fruit trees that will grow in the southern Saskatchewan climate were planted. He noted the unique features of the orchard such as using recycled water tubs around the trees for water conservation. Watering is now done by hand by volunteers. The fruit trees in the orchard were donated by individuals or families and some were donated in memory of a relative. Donation plaques were attached to a piece of local driftwood and placed at the base of every tree.
He described the innovations and recycling initiative used in the vegetable gardens. The garden beds were dug three feet deep and laid with straw and carboard as part of a recycling program. This method is more so a test to see how it will work for future garden projects.
Last year was the first year that the students planted a garden and they made pumpkin pies and other delicious foods from their produce. This year again, Rocklen students have planted vegetables according to a theme. This year’s theme is an alphabet garden and visitors to the opening were able to spot plants from Azaleas to Zinnias.
