​Ripley Horticultural Society learns about sustainable living

The first meeting of the fall season for the Ripley and District Horticultural Society was held at the Ripley-Huron Community Centre, Wednesday.

The group welcomed Amanda Saxton and Kim Armitage of the Kincardine Environmental Action Network (KEAN), a group dedicated to promoting sustainable living practices and finding solutions that benefit both their community and the environment through collaboration with diverse partners.

This small group of environmental advocates has already had a sizable impact through its collection of tetrapak containers and the Terracycle program which combined so far in 2025, have diverted several thousand pounds of hard-to-recycle packaging from the landfill. Bins are located at the Kincardine Library and the Davidson Centre in Kincardine. A detailed list of the many eligible products can be found at: sites.google.com/view/kincardinekean/home?authuser=0 under Waste Diversion Opportunities.

There was some lively discussion around the issue of changes to the Blue Box recycling program and what that will mean for home and business owners.

Another topic near-and-dear to KEAN, is achieving Blue Community status for Kincardine, meaning the municipal government would adopt a water commons framework that treats water as a common good that everyone shares. KEAN is encouraging more public refill stations and a ban on the sale of plastic water bottles in municipal buildings and at public events.

The next major venture is the launch of a repair café. In partnership with the Kincardine branch of the Bruce County Public Library and funded by a grant from Community Foundation Grey Bruce, the recurring event invites citizens to bring broken household items, clothing, electronics, and other small goods, to be repaired for free by volunteer “fixers.” The many benefits of the project include promoting a culture of repair, reducing waste, and providing the opportunity to learn repair skills and foster social connection.

Saxton and Armitage spoke with passion and energy and had a very appreciative audience that asked many good questions. Follow KEAN on Facebook: @kincardine.environmental.action.network to stay up to date with the work of this group. 

Of course, horticulture can be an inherently sustainable practice. Gardeners, in general, and horticultural society members, in particular, are a thrifty bunch who regenerate plants by saving seeds and sharing cuttings and bulbs, improve soil health by returning nutrients through composting, conserve water with rain barrels, recycle soil from large planters and promote bio-diversity by planting native species. The society’s gardeners also foster social connection through the sharing of knowledge, successes, disappointments and excess produce, at society meetings.

This meeting had a dual focus: sustainability and floral exhibition. Prior to the featured presentation, flower show co-chairpersons Gail Lotton and Cathy Lobraico reviewed the judging criteria for the three classes of exhibits: an arrangement of plant material in shades of green; cut flowers arranged in a small jam jar; and an assortment of homegrown fruit and/or vegetables.

Following the KEAN presentation, and during the refreshment break, members evaluated the exhibits and voted for their favourites. Linda Jaynes placed first in the two floral classes and Elaine Shantz took top honours for the fruit and vegetables.

The business portion of the meeting involved the usual reports, as well as discussion of a potential donation of trees to be planted in the village, future fund-raising ideas and meeting details, and preparations for the Ripley-Huron Fall Fair.

Bonnie Ernest reported on the “For Our Youth” Club activities in August and September. The young horticulturalists enjoyed a harvest meeting at the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens in August where they learned about seed-saving and collected vegetables and flowers from their club garden plot.
In September, they learned about micro-plastics from Meredith Watson of the Lake Huron Coastal Centre, and made salsa. At the final meeting in October, they will learn to prepare their garden for winter.

The October meeting of the Ripley Horticultural Society will be held Wednesday, Oct. 18, at 1:30 p.m., at the Ripley-Huron Community Centre. Guest speaker Susan Miszturak will talk about “Life in a Vineyard.” This is also the annual Bake, Bulbs, Preserves and Produce sale, with donations from the membership. Guests and visitors are always welcome.