1 minute read
Looking Good
Denise Einarson Co-Chairperson of the Beautification Committee
Pilot Butte Beautification Committee, winner of the Saskatchewan Communities in Bloom Community Beautification Award by SPRA!
Community appearance is one of Communities in Bloom’s six key criteria areas. The general appearance of a community is vital in attracting and retaining business, residents and tourists! Quite honestly a community that looks successful, will be successful!
Over the past two years, our group has worked hard to rejuvenate the grounds and flowerbeds that are located outside of the Pilot Butte Recreation Centre.
In 2019, we did a basic clean up of the area including weeding, trimming the maple tree and planting flowers - either in the ground level beds or various pots. We discussed and planned what we would do in the spring of 2020 if we could source some funding. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to secure funding, so we scaled back our “wish list” and got to work.
We started with work on the ground level planters and beds by removing the landscape fabric - which was actually making our weed problem worse - picking the remaining weeds, adding topsoil, with the help of Pilot Butte’s maintenance department, and then removing, replacing and staining the landscape ties around the edges of the beds and planters. To finish everything off, we added a thick layer of mulch, trimmed the trees again, and then worked with all of our volunteers to plant the flowers. We had one individual that took on the responsibility of designing our flower display and it looks terrific!
All of our work in 2020 was accomplished in just a few weekends and ended with a final planting day. We explained what needed to be done and everyone on the committee rolled up their sleeves and set to work.
It was great to be together - yet physically distant - with likeminded individuals, to beautify these spaces. The grounds of the Pilot Butte Recreation Centre are one of the most well travelled areas in our community and we’ve had lots of wonderful comments on how well the flowers looked - and that makes us proud to do our part. It’s pretty cool when a
young person zooms by on their bike or skateboard and
yells out how much they like the flowers! ■
