13 minute read
Blue Grass Nursery
The McEwen brothers earned their green thumbs as kids in Winnipeg. Their grandfather started a sod business in the 1950s, and Bruce and Bill McEwen’s father and uncle expanded into landscape construction as well. The two boys contributed to the growth of the family business with shovels, digging up sod on the weekends and holidays and it was there that they learned the value of hard work, doing your best and standing by it, and building something from the ground up.
“Our parents taught us to work hard. If we wanted something, we had to work for it. It was a good life lesson,” says Bill McEwen Jr., co-owner of Blue Grass Nursery, Sod & Garden Centre.
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They learned the business early and watched it grow from the headquarters around the McEwen kitchen table. The founders were always looking for opportunities, and the growth of Calgary brought with it the need for sod for new developments. In 1971, the McEwens decided to expand the business into Alberta. Bill McEwen Sr. and his wife Gail purchased 155 acres of pastureland in Red Deer, established Blue Grass Sod Farms, and set out to perfect their own brand of nursery-grown turf. Within a few years the company was producing premium Blue Grass sod, which continues to be the gold standard for turf today.
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
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Blue Grass Sod Farms continued to grow, and in 2000 the McEwens expanded with the first retail location. They started Blue Grass Nursery, Sod & Garden Centre in Balzac in a 40 x 60-foot building and added onto it year after year. Today, it spans 17,000 square feet (with another 10,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse space coming this fall) and the business includes a newly expanded location in Red Deer with acres of caliper trees, perennials and annuals, turf and cereal crops and a location in Edmonton dedicated to bulk products, trees and sod. They plan to recreate the Balzac location in Edmonton in the coming years.
The third-generation operation is much more than a purveyor of quality garden accessories, plants, trees, soils and mulch. Blue Grass also does large landscaping and design projects at commercial buildings, city parks and properties, provincial spaces, and golf courses.
The clientele enjoys the benefits of decades of service, experience and knowledge about all
#200 – 1311 9 Avenue S.W., Calgary, T3C 0H9 • (403) 228-5888 www.wmbeck.com
CONGRATULATIONS TO BLUE GRASS NURSERY ON YOUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY!
• Greenhouse Structures Covering, Controls, Heating & Ventilation, Lights • Watering, Environmental Monitors • Greenhouse Containers, Decorative Pots • Growing Media • Greenhouse Fertilizers • Greenhouse Chemicals & Equipment • Nursery Containers, Pruning, Tree Baskets, Landscape Tools • Turf Fertilizers, Spray Equipment • Seed & Reclamation • Golf Course Supplies
Congratulations Blue Grass on 50 years!
things garden-related. The around 300 peaktime staff across the province are eager to help customers find the best products for their project, whether customers are planting their first vegetable garden, trying to choose the right trees from a selection of thousands, purchasing potted plants, or growing microgreens or herbs to create their own windowsill garden. And with 50 years of operations in Alberta, Blue Grass professionals have determined through many trials the types of trees that will grow in the province’s harsh climate and which won’t.
While Blue Grass started only as a sod farm, year over year they have expanded their operations. Blue Grass is proud to put Alberta first when it comes to the products they carry. Many of the trees customers find in the lot are grown locally at Blue Grass’ tree nursery. The vast selection of perennials, annuals, and now even tropical plants are also being grown locally by Blue Grass’ dedicated team of horticulturalists. Providing landscaping supplies to southern and central Alberta, along with snow removal, commercial landscaping, and landscaping maintenance are some of the new areas the company has grown into in recent years.
“Bulk products have become a huge part of our day-to-day — gravel, sand, mulches and decorative rocks. We also do a lot of custom-mix soil so you have a nice soil for your garden or pots,” says Bruce McEwen, co-owner of Blue Grass.
Customers love the convenience of delivery, whether that is a truck full of soil for a large job or Handy Cubes for smaller ones. These one-cubic-yard bags can be filled with gravel, soil or mulch and delivered mess-free to a customer’s driveway. There is no risk of the product washing away if it rains and if they don’t use it all, customers just close the bag and store it for use next year. Blue Grass has evolved with the times — especially these crazy times — to give customers what they want.
Blue Grass was a favourite destination last year when COVID-19 forced people to stay home. The staff noticed a surge in people, especially first-time gardeners, wanting to plant vegetable gardens, refresh their yards, and add beauty to quarantine with annuals and perennials. The company’s growing facility in Red Deer was filled to capacity with product last year. The product made its way to all the Blue Grass locations and throughout all of Alberta to ensure the company could meet customer’s needs.
COVID-19 changed how the company does business, and they developed Blue Grass’ online ordering system to accommodate that. It started 2020 with 17 products available online and now there are 500 products and growing. Bill and Bruce McEwen are making it as easy as possible for people to shop so Albertans can discover their green thumbs.
After 50 years, the brothers are still growing the business while helping their customers grow their businesses and gardens.
260130B Writing Creek Crescent Rocky View County (Balzac), AB T4A 0M9 Toll Free: 1-877-826-0468 • Phone: 403-226-0468 bluegrassnursery.com
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McKenzie Meadows Golf Tip:
The Perfect Swing is Less than Perfect
BY SCOTT ORBAN, PGA EXECUTIVE PROFESSIONAL, MCKENZIE MEADOWS GOLF CLUB
As we prepare for our next golf shot, we examine our distance by using GPS or pacing off from distance markers. We then calculate which club will do the job before we turn our focus internally where we calculate the precise swing and gauge our velocity with a few practice swings. Wow, I’m tired just writing all of this. However, we have all seen this act before on the golf course contributing to slow play. I also think this is contributing to poor ball striking and scores.
We have tons of information and tools at our disposal to help us be more precise in our game today. GPS measures the correct distance of our next shot. We have 14 precisiontuned golf clubs in our bag (if we are following the rules, more if we are not). We have access to great instruction to help us make a more repeatable swing. You would think this would improve our game and speed things up. However, with all this available to us, the average golfer’s score for 18 holes continues to be 90 to 100 (depending on the source) and the average handicap of more avid golfers is not declining. Slow play also continues to be the number one complaint in golf.
All this information may be taking the feel and instinct out of your game. I grew up playing with a half set of seven clubs: a 3, 5, 7 and 9 iron, two woods and a putter. There weren’t any yardage markers when I started. I had to rely on my eyes. I challenge you to play a couple rounds with a half set of clubs and no GPS or pacing out distances.
Fewer clubs in your bag would take the indecision out of your game. You would not be wondering if it was a five iron or a seven iron, because the gap between these clubs is just too big. You would decide and commit to it. Your feel would be better because you would not be counting on yourself to be a machine with a perfect repeating swing, to a precisely calculated distance. You would need to hit the ball with varied swing speeds, making contact and thus developing great feel.
Many of us have heard this before; “If I could just shut off my brain, I would play better golf.” Less information and fewer clubs in your bag may force you to be less than perfect, think less and rely on instinct. Try it and be surprised at how you score in these practice rounds. When you return to your full set of clubs, you will do so with a newfound confidence and feel. And if it does not work, at least you have me as a scapegoat.
Inglewood
Golf and curling club (1980)
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!
Fore Calgary golfers and tournament organizers, there is so much that makes Inglewood Golf Club special. Not only is Inglewood one of the finest semi-private 18hole championship courses in western Canada but when it comes to important aspects of the game, the iconic Calgary golf course is an enjoyable par-71 walkable parkland layout. It features many large old trees that make accuracy a premium, some of the best putting surfaces in the city, a variety of practice facilities including a 31-stall driving range, two putting greens and a short-game area complete with a practice bunker.
To borrow the familiar real estate catch-phrase, “locationlocation-location” is a key aspect that also makes Inglewood Golf Course special and popular with Calgary golfers and tournaments. “It’s a superb and Calgary-unique location,” says the personable Jason Stanier, Inglewood’s general manager and executive professional. “Since we’re on the banks of the Bow River, adjacent to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, it’s not only terrifically scenic golf but there are stunning views of the Calgary skyline. And our picturesque log clubhouse is open year-round with an enjoyable outdoor patio overlooking the 18th green.”
He explains that, now more than ever, particularly for working people, time and distance are important factors to be considered about playing golf. “We’re just five minutes from downtown Calgary and that’s an important plus for convenient tee-off and play times. It makes Inglewood an excellent, time-efficient and extremely convenient venue for member and public play as well as corporate and charity golf tournaments.” Maybe it’s the notoriously long Calgary winters or the surging popularity of golf but, Stanier points out that Calgary golfers are very active. Recent stats show that there are a higher percentage of Calgary golfers compared to other cities of similar size. Currently there are about 500 Certificate and Associate members golfing at Inglewood.
Jason Stanier smiles, pointing out that Inglewood is a scenic, enjoyable and demanding tree lined course, forcing the golfer to keep the ball in the fairway. “Ball placement is also important when approaching the greens because, with sloped greens, the golfer doesn’t want to short side themselves.”
Enthusiasm and pride in the entire Inglewood facility prevents him from having favourites but, under good-natured duress he admits that “hole #7 is a renovated par-3, with a beautiful water feature in the front of the green, forcing most golfers to carry the water and #9 is right along the bow river, with spectacular beautiful views. But I can’t deny it,” Stanier says. “It is challenging.”
Jason Stanier
Parker’s Pen
BY DAVID PARKER
The April edition of Canadian Geographic not only contains a photo of a fashionable couple wearing masks to ward off the Spanish flu and an interesting article on the iconic schooner Bluenose, but also names our national bird.
Couldn’t help but notice that on the map, the range of the Canada Jay takes an upward swing from the southern areas of Manitoba and Saskatchewan to omit all of Southern Alberta. Our national bird doesn’t visit Calgary.
Wise men from the east strike again.
In another sleight to our provincial architecture professionals in ignoring their experience and creativity, Olds College has chosen a Toronto-based firm to provide it with a master plan for the institution’s future growth.
I’m not one for too many rules but isn’t it time that any project financed with government money be favoured towards local firms, especially in these tough times. There are certainly many across this province who are very capable.
And Olds College has certainly benefited from corporate Calgary. A full fleet of John Deere equipment is being used as part of a five-year agreement by Cervus Equipment to collaborate in the operation of the college’s Smart Farm.
Sticking with agriculture, despite exciting headlines all about technology being the new Alberta Advantage, oil and gas and agriculture are still VIPs in our economy.
Reading a very informative and rather exciting book called The Food Explorer, the adventures of David Fairchild, a globe-trotting botanist who transformed what America eats, I was struck by a quote from an 1887 copy of The Progressive Farmer. ‘There is a screw loose. The railroads have never been so prosperous, and yet agriculture languishes. Banks have never done better, yet agriculture languishes. Manufacturing enterprises never made more money, yet agriculture languishes. Salaries and fees were never so temptingly high and desirable, yet agriculture languishes’.
Our land is a wonderful resource that perhaps should draw more attention.
Interesting to note that a UK company has located its Canadian office and plant in Calgary to take advantage of our excellent transportation infrastructure and proximity to its raw product – yellow peas.
Like many others I’ve taking the opportunity to take a few drives to get out of the house and was very pleasantly surprised heading west out of town, to see the construction progress at the new Farmers’ Market in Greenwich Village.
You really have to concentrate to wind your way through the massive Stoney Trail lane changes past half completed bridges to join up somewhere – we trust – but you can’t miss the 50,000-square-foot indoor market. We all look forward to the northside Farmers’ Market that will be home to 70 local family businesses, creating some 200 jobs.
Conjures up memories of those colourful markets in Barcelona, Lisbon and Florence where freshness gives off a wonderful aroma.
Final Words
With a good friend, no road seems too long.
