It was a paradise for green thumb enthusiasts in Peterborough with the annual GreenUp plant sale at the Ecology Park.
Gardeners were lined up at the front gate when the sale kicked off at noon on Sunday. GreenUp believes unlike other suppliers, their plants are hearty because they are used to local soil, pests and weather conditions.
“The plants are grown locally, most are propagated on-site or by high schools that support Green Up by growing vegetables, and herbs and wildflowers,” said Brianna Salmon, GreenUp executive director.
Many customers were looking at the whole package, garden-wise, purchasing vegetables, herbs and flowers and other plants meant to attract pollinators like bee balm.
Salmon says proceeds of the sale, and of all sales at Green Up Ecology Park throughout the year, go toward Green Up’s community-based programming.
“So we do all kinds of environmental programming here in Peterborough both at the Ecology Park and at schools and more broadly in the community,” she said.
Even with the wide variety of plants and trees on offer, Vern Bastable, manager of Ecology Park, is always looking for something new to offer the gardening public.
“I’d love to specialize in more forest plants, like the deep forest plants, but they are very hard to get, and very hard to propagate,” he said. “I’d love if we had more space to do our own planting of trees and things.”
Sunday’s sale is responsible for raising up to 25 per cent of Green Up’s fundraising for the year.