The Sechelt Garden Club (SGC) has undertaken a project to beautify areas around Sechelt, starting with the rock wall outside the public pool.
Director of community development for the SGC, Penny Lyle, was out on Oct. 29 with about 15 volunteers to pull the weeds out of the rock wall and replace them with nice rockery plants and flowers.
Lyle said that she and her husband John “would sit in the hot tub after [aquafit] class and discuss the weeds on the wall. Some of the more avid gardeners thought maybe we should try to break in there and weed it.”
It turned out they didn’t need to break into anywhere to weed the wall. Christi Blackman, co-chair of the SGC, was all for the idea when they brought it to her, as was the District of Sechelt when Lyle brought her idea to the public works, parks and environment committee.
“It’s a fabulous job and she put it all together, she made it happen,” Blackman said. “It was really Penny who’s done it all. So here we are planting. We’re hoping that it will green up nicely and it will be something really beautiful for everyone to see.”
More than 700 plants in total were donated to the project. Most came from local nurseries on the Coast while others came from SCG members. The SCG also put up notices in the pool bathrooms and got community members using the pool to donate plants as well as volunteer to help plant them.
The SCG has plans to take on other areas in Sechelt that need beautification, but they haven’t decided on their next specific area just yet.
“One of our mandates for the Sechelt Garden Club is to educate the community, and also to have some community development happening,” Blackman said. “This is just one, but there are other examples in the community where we could branch out, partner with more people and do more to beautify our community.”
