The Westville and Area Gardening Club unveiled a special sculpture featuring a slab of rock from the old country Saturday at Acadia Park.
Forming part of the local Canada 150 celebrations, the sculpture boasts the figure of a gardener kneeling over a plant upon the rock, likely from Scotland. Surrounding it is a new butterfly garden, whose plants will help the insects thrive.
“It was part of our plan to have something that did not have a gender, did not have a nationality, did not have any race, religion, colour, that this was to be a gardener and I think we’re more than pleased,” said club president Margie Beck.
Indeed, the sculpture’s unveiling was just part of the Nova Scotia Association of Garden Clubs’ Fall Rally for its Eastern Region.
The day’s events included workshops on increasing plant materials, use of gadgets, maintaining gardening tools and revamping plant material.
All told, seven gardening clubs from Pictou County, Antigonish and Guysborough Counties, according to Clarrie MacKinnon, Pictou East’s former NDP MLA turned gardening aficionado.
“We also had representation from the provincial body and it has representation from 57 clubs in Nova Scotia, so it’s a very unique and interesting and cohesive group for sure. The camaraderie we had was just outstanding today,” said MacKinnon.
As for the rock upon which the gardener figurine rests, it has finally found a home after crossing the Atlantic Ocean between Nova Scotia and Britain during the earliest days of Pictou County.
The rock was moved into place with help from the Town of Westville, which offered extensive help to the club in planning its new garden and centerpiece.
“This rock is a piece of ballast that was used to balance the boats when they came empty to Pictou County to perhaps take coal and wood back to the old country,” said Beck. “It definitely came across the ocean.”
She said that planning work on the club’s Canada 150 event began in January and they decided to combine the sculpture unveiling with the Fall Rally.
The club also reached out to Creative Metals in designing the gardener figurine.
“A lot of ideas came together and a design was developed,” said Beck in her opening speech. “The result was a gardener and a plant.”
She further described the project as “near and dear to our hearts.”
