September 2014
Parkallen News In this issue… • Garden Update • Hall Happenings • Classified
Congratulations to Cal Roy-Brenneis’ winning Bee Hotel Design Challenge team. The Hotel is about 20 inches (50cm) tall and each tube could accommodate a solitary, non-swarming, non-stinging, wild pollinator during nesting season.
In the Garden by Marlene Wurfel Birds & Bees Fall visitors to the Parkallen Community Garden (PCG) might notice the nesting boxes for wild pollinators and native bird species. They’ve been hung in anticipation of next year’s nesting season. An interpretive sign on our garden shed, featuring artwork by some of Parkallen’s junior gardeners, Gabi MacDonald and Hazel Flesher, lists the various types of boxes. This spring, a “Bee Hotel Design Challenge” was also issued at Parkallen School. Students learned about the various types of bees local to the area and what they needed to thrive in our garden. Sketches and prototypes for a nesting box for solitary bees were produced and one design was picked for construction. The winning team, captained
by Cal Roy-Brenneis, built a prototype shaped like a flower from cardboard and plastic tubes. The petals symbolize each of the team members and the whole represents friendship and teamwork. The design was executed by adult gardeners and will be hung on the south side of Parkallen Hall above our rainwater catchment system. The many bamboo tubes and drilled holes in the Bee Hotel will provide homes for the wild bees looking for a sheltered spot to nurture their babies next spring. The Hotel attracts solitary, non-stinging or swarming bee species, and will not be attractive to the swarming types of bees that live in colonies or hives. If you’d like to learn more about this project and about wild bees, attend a talk by me on Sunday,
Sept 28th (6:30 p.m.) at Parkallen Hall hosted by the Southwest Vegetarian Garden & Potluck Club of Edmonton.
Courting the Squash The big, yellow orb you can see from the road as you drive by the PCG is MaxIIne, our second “grow” at a giant pumpkin (Big Max variety). The seed was nurtured by Zev in his Parkallen home before being transplanted into the healthy garden soil that never sees chemical fertilizers. We’re hoping MaxIIne outweighs last year’s 137-pound (62kg) beauty. To help him grow big, we’ve been eating any smaller pumpkins growing on the same plant. Gardener Kevin Gue recommends cubing and frying any sort of baby squash with hot peppers—such as the fire variety type in the PCG. We’ve been eating