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RUTH BONNEVILLE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Kelsey Heide, a gardener with the City of Winnipeg, pulls out weeds in flower beds along with a crew of city gardeners at Vimy Ridge Park Friday May 15. The city has started prepping flower beds across the city before spring planting begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a mixture of experienced and inexperienced people. A lot of the time, we\u2019ve got some pretty serious gardeners,\u201d he said. \u201cWe get them all over the place really, but they all have one thing in common; and that\u2019s a real love of plants.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gardeners tend and beautify more than 29,000 square metres of floral arrangements \u2014 more than three CFL football fields in flowers \u2014 and maintain over 1,600 flower pots.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look for things that are unique,\u201d said Domke of the city\u2019s flower selection, which is custom ordered from greenhouses.<\/p>\n
He said the season actually begins as it ends. When the flowers are pulled for the year during the Thanksgiving weekend, gardeners start mapping out designs for the spring \u2014 with the floral plans laid out before they\u2019re set in soil.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a science to the setup, Domke said, following a \u201cthriller, chiller, spiller\u201d approach to design eye-catching gardens. The thriller is usually a tall plant that protrudes upwards from the pot. The chiller is a medium-sized plant that fills the remaining space at the soil level. The spiller are plants that overflow from the pot.<\/p>\n
Emerald ash borer warning<\/p>\n
To prevent the spread of the emerald ash borer beetle over the summer season, the Woodlot Association of Manitoba is reminding residents about the city\u2019s firewood quarantine.<\/p>\n
The association cautioned Winnipeggers that moving firewood and wood trimmings from an area where the beetle is present is a major factor in its spread.<\/p>\n
First found in Winnipeg in 2017, the beetle is a threat to all ash and elm trees and spreading the pest carries with it a stiff penalty.<\/p>\n
Under the federal Plant Protection Act, people that move firewood illegally could be fined $50,000 and face further prosecution.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n Jordan Hoff, head gardener for Winnipeg South, deadheads and checks up on the boulevard plants at Roblin and Moray last summer. <\/p>\n The city spends more than $220,000 on annuals, Domke said. While floral beds and flower pots are carefully planned today, that hasn\u2019t always been the case. About 20 years ago, it was general labourers who handled floral efforts, leaving a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n \u201cThe floral displays we had were kind of basic,\u201d said Domke. \u201cAs soon as we got this position \u2014 and it\u2019s been a lot of years since then \u2014 of the gardeners, there\u2019s just been a complete acceleration.\u201d<\/p>\n The Free Press requested to speak with one of the city\u2019s gardeners, but Domke said they would rather be deep in the soil than in the spotlight.<\/p>\n Located streetside, Domke said there are 12 to 18 instances annually where the flower pots get smashed by motorists, but said the effort is widely well respected, as vandalism is rare.<\/p>\n The work has not gone unnoticed by other Manitoba gardeners.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Boulevard plants at Roblin and Moray. The city is switching out old concrete planters for newer models, like these, that include water reservoirs at the bottom. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you stop and think about the vastness and the landscape of the city of Winnipeg and imagine it\u2019s only 40 people who are doing all of that. Wow,\u201d said Mike Mailman, owner of seed library Mailman Pharms. \u201cThey must have an impeccable plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Mailman said the relationship that forms between gardeners and the plants they care for goes right to the roots, but it\u2019s not always the green thumb behind it who gets the recognition.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t \u201cIt\u2019s a thankless job, quite frankly, for a lot of these people,\u201d he said. \u201cThey themselves don\u2019t get any of the credit for the hard work they do, and make no mistake, it is not an easy job to take care of a garden.\u201d<\/p>\n The planting is expected to begin later this month.<\/p>\n To keep the thousands of square metres of floral displays green, three 1,000-gallon tanker trucks water over the summer, Monday to Friday, and on weekends if it is especially hot.<\/p>\n
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