A festival of flowers in the community garden | The Homepage

Looking through the ageratum flowers to harvest what was ready. Ageratum is an annual that grows up to three feet tall, reseeds readily and attracts all kinds of pollinators. Pro tip: By cutting the flowers before they go to seed, you can encourage the plant to put out new growth.

By Valerie Testa

We had a wonderful Flower Fest in the Hazelwood Community Garden on July 13. We discussed bouquet-making basics and made our own bouquets.

Jasmine Pope, who works with the Phipps Homegrown program, talked about calendula flowers and how easy it is to make different salves from flowers and herbs from the garden.

We also sipped on soda water that was sweetened with homemade simple syrup with lavender and rosemary.

To pick a bouquet for yourself and enjoy the garden, stop by any Thursday between 4:30 and 6:00 pm.

The flowers we cut to make bouquets. Photo by Jasmine Pope

Valerie Testa lives in Hazelwood and is the community gardens manager at Hazelwood Initiative. Email questions to gardens@hazelwoodinitiative.org.