Saugeen District Secondary School teacher Keith Day and his horticulture class stand with members of the Kingsway Arms at Elgin Lodge management team after the Grade 11 and 12 students had finished transforming their gardens for their upcoming Canada Day celebrations.

Hub Staff

Armed with rakes, trowels, pruners and forks, an army of horticultural warriors from Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS), ascended onto Kingsway Arms at Elgin Lodge June 8 to transform their garden beds for their upcoming Canada Day celebrations.

The Grade 11 and 12 students, led by teacher Keith Day, had partnered with the local retirement home to prepare the front flower beds for their Canada Day festivities. “We're doing all red and white plants,” said Day, adding that the same plants can be seen throughout downtown Port Elgin and Southampton.

“We have white begonias, red and white geraniums and we're going to put some white perennials in so there's still some lasting stuff at the end of the season and we're going to go nuts with mulch.” Day said that Mowbray's Canadian Tire in Port Elgin had provided the mulch. “We're also going to try and get some of these permanent shrubs looking better.”

Day said that although Elgin Lodge provided them with a budget, he and the students wanted to give back as much as possible. “The theory is that everybody in town supports us by buying plant material from us and then we try and give it back,” he said. “We want to do this as fairly and decently as we can and we'll make this look amazing.”

Kingsway Arms at Elgin Lodge Director of Marketing, Caitlin Stone said that the retirement home really enjoys their partnerships within the community. “It's really nice to partner with the school,” she said. “They're doing so much extra, it's such a great asset.”

Stone said that Elgin Lodge and the high school partner each year through an annual plant sale and when she decided to do something special for Canada’s 150th, she decided to call on them again. “I wanted to go bigger this Canada Day with it being 150. I said I would really like to turn our gardens to be red and white. It worked out really, really well,” she said.

As a gesture of thanks for all their hard work, Elgin Lodge was providing the students with lunch with hot dogs, watermelon, homemade cookies and chips on the menu.

Elgin Lodge resident June Fotherby, also a member of the Chantry Island Cham-bettes, said that she had always decorated the front of her Southampton home with red and white flowers and so was enjoying the transformation. “It's good to see the kids doing what they're doing,” she said. “They're good, active kids.”

The transformed gardens, planters and hanging baskets will now provide a vibrant display of red and white, in time for Elgin Lodge’s Canada Day family barbecue being held on June 30.

Candace Mowbray sorts out some of the plants ready for planting at the Elgin Lodge gardens.

Teacher Keith Day gives Kelsey Shular a hand with some planting.

Plants and tools, all ready for a morning of hard work at Elgin Lodge from SDSS horticulture students.

Residents from Kingsway Arms at Elgin Lodge watch the students as they transform their gardens into a vibrant display of red and white.

On the left, Isaac Wismer gives a thumbs up as he digs holes for the new plants. On the right, Colton Heipel gets to work trimming some of the shrubs in the Elgin Lodge gardens.

Leigha Roote was busy pruning June 8.

Students spent a morning June 8 working hard as they transformed the gardens of Elgin Lodge, preparing them for the retirement home’s Canada Day festivities.

The horticulture students put the finishing touches on one of the garden beds.