President’s Report | Cowichan Valley Garden Club

President’s Report, February 2025

The next Cowichan Valley Garden Club Meeting will be held Wednesday, February 12th, 2025, at Duncan United Church (246 Ingram Street). Meeting starts at 7:00pm. Doors will open at 6:30 pm.

I am enjoying watching the snow melt away, even if it is too slow for my liking! The snowdrops, winter aconite and even a few daffodils are being uncovered again and spring is just around the corner!

Our speaker for February 12, 2025 is Kailli Pigott. Her topic is Kailli’s Journey from Flower Farmer to Urban Gardener. Kailli will share her journey from flower farmer to her present day life as an up and coming
urban gardener. Her talk will focus mainly on cut flowers and how to plan a cut flower garden in a small space. She’ll share her favourite cutting varieties, including dried cut flowers for winter-long beauty in the home.
She’ll also dive into new plants she wants to try growing this year along with books she’s reading for inspiration and her favourite seed companies.
Kailli has always had a passion for the beauty in nature. When she was first introduced to the world of botany during university, it was like stepping into a whole new world for her. This led Kailli into a career path as a
vegetation ecologist working in consulting. While Kailli was quite fond of that line of work, she often found herself craving more of a hands-on experience. She spent many late nights in her rented basement suite
reading about herbal medicines, sustainable agriculture, organic growing and just about anything she could get her hands on. She had a new goal of owning her own farm.
For the past eight years, Kailli and her husband, Zach, owned and operated Dancing Dandelion Farms located on nearly 5 acres in Duncan, BC. Over those years, they grew and sold an abundance of flowers and vegetables.
Kailli has now moved onto a new chapter. The farm was sold in December 2024 and she now resides in the seaside community of Chemainus on a small 0.18 acre lot where she is planning out her urban garden dreams.
This month’s parlor show, decorative categories include:

“Mellow Yellow” a vertical design
“Love Potion” your interpretation that can include accessories
Other categories include Erica or calluna, galanthus, helleborus, any spring flower, a forced bulb, potted succulent or cactus, tree nuts or leeks as well as our usual Surprise Us and Don’t Judge Me categories if you have anything delightful we just have to see. Please refer to the website for more information

We ask that Parlor Show Entries be placed on the table by 6:45 PM. This will give time for judging before the meeting begins. Thanks in advance for your assistance with this.

This month we shall definitely take a few minutes to start the discussion regarding the club’s involvement in the Cowichan Exhibition, so please bring your opinions and ideas. I apologize for having to delay this from last month.

I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.
Marlene Karmann

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Our mailing address is:
*PO Box 917, Duncan, BC, Canada, V9L 3Y2*