It’s
Showtime for Edgemont’s ELM Program Flowers!
Our
flowers are making their appearance for another year full of colour and
vibrancy, all thanks to our ELM Program.
Was
that a crazy spring? Caught in the middle of the fight between winter and summer?
Actually… for Calgary, that was pretty normal! And for Edgemont, our elevation
plays a fairly significant role. While Calgary weather forecasts typically do
not include the snow level, or the elevation above which snow accumulation is
expected, this phenomenon does play a role in Edgemont as it does in our backyard
mountains to the west. Our elevation results in cooler evenings, higher snow
accumulation, and longer frost seasons.
We
certainly got our money’s worth from our winter displays; they remained frozen
into the pots well into May. Another telltale sign of our microclimate here
happens when the annual Lilac Festival is celebrated often before we see any of
our lilacs even leaf out!
We
need to be careful when we plant our delicate flowers too to ensure no more
killing frosts will occur, even if that means delaying our flowers well into
June. The ability to replant flowers to the numbers that Edgemont enjoys is not
really possible, but our ELM program is in good hands with Foothills
Landscaping ready to take care of everything.
Flower
selection is a lot more than colour and texture choices. Through experience,
selections are made based on our dry air, high altitude, cool nights, hot days,
aphids, and the ability to bounce back from our inevitable hail and wind. No summer
season has ever been the same, so we look forward to this summer’s journey.
I
have received some very good feedback about small, localized improvements and
will be addressing those in a timely manner. Thank you for submitting them! If
you see anything that needs attention, please send me a note to [email protected].
A wonderful element of the ELM Program is the ability to address issues
rapidly.
Another
hot topic this time of year is our dandelions. They will occur and they are no
longer considered a noxious or restricted weed under the Alberta Weed Control
Act. As such, chemical control of them is not an option. The ELM Program
addresses these with weekly mowing and a fresh application of grass fertilizer
to give turf a healthy advantage over dandelions, but please understand that
this will not prevent them.
Enjoy
Edgemont’s outdoors with the floral scents of flowering trees, morning dew, and
budding spruce trees, and the return of the soothing sounds of our trembling
aspens and delightful robins singing at dawn and dusk!
ELM
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