On Aug. 19, the St. Albert Garden Club had its last Flower and Vegetable Show at St. Albert Place. On Oct. 16, Nolan Crouse was no longer the mayor of St. Albert. Two different events but still related. The St. Albert Garden Club was formed in 1982 by a group of dedicated members who wanted to get together and provide opportunities for others to learn more about gardening by attending meetings with featured speakers who talked about new plants, how to grow vegetables and all the other aspects of taking care of a garden. Founding members were John Beedle, Richard Plain, Ted Hole, Bill Hole and others who inspired us to learn and plant flowers and vegetables and enjoy doing it. Lois Hole, Jim Hole and Bill Hole were often speakers at our meetings and great supporters of the club by providing plants for our spring auction. In that first year the Garden Club had its first small bench show in the seniors' centre. The flower and vegetable show continued to grow in size and when St. Albert Place opened, that became the new venue for our show which continued to grow in size in that wonderful space. When the farmers' market came on the scene in front of City Hall, that increased the number of people going through the hallways, viewing the exhibits and commenting on them and sometimes saying: "I have a tomato at home that's bigger than that one!" The mayor at that time always wrote a letter for our show booklet and wished us luck in our endeavours. When Nolan Crouse became mayor, he became interested in our club and made a point of stopping in and viewing the show exhibits during the two days of exhibiting. He also became part of the awards ceremony held on the last day and was there to hand out trophies to the winners of the various categories. I was very pleased to have accepted the trophy from him and shake his hand during the many years of entering the show. This year was the 35th anniversary of the Garden Club and also our 35th and final show. The club had decided to not have any more shows because it was getting more difficult to recruit help and increase entries in the show despite all the advertising for the show. I would like to especially thank Nolan Crouse for all his help and encouragement to the Garden Club during his many years as mayor. I would also like to thank all the people who have entered the show over the past 35 years and all the people who have viewed the show and given us compliments. I would also especially like to thank the St. Albert Gazette for the many articles written over the years promoting our show and other garden club activities. Also special thanks to Susan Jones and Anna Borowiecki for writing the wonderful articles and Chris Colbourne for taking the beautiful pictures in my garden. Even though the show is no more, the St. Albert Garden Club continues to thrive. Please join us at our meetings. Lucy Krisco, vice-president, St. Albert Garden Club
