Canyon Lake gardening Facebook group takes off

BY Kelly Lopez

With spring in full bloom and summer hot on its heels, Canyon Lake gardeners are beginning to enjoy the first fruits of their labor.

Canyon Lake’s hot summers and mild winters make it a prime locale for growing vegetables and both annual and perennial flowers. For most of this year, of course, the COVID-19 quarantine has left everyone mostly housebound. Gardening is one of the many new hobbies those sequestered have discovered.

Although the official Canyon Lake Garden Club cannot meet during the pandemic and does not plan to host any outings until September, local gardeners are still busy tending to their plants.

There are those new to gardening. Others have been gardening locally for years.

Yaya Myers is not new to gardening. She has been a very proficient succulent gardener, but this year decided to expand her knowledge of how to garden beyond succulents. Yaya said she wanted to learn how to grow herbs and vegetables. She said she was not very successful at first growing anything other than succulents. She decided she wanted to learn from others around her what to do to become a successful and well-rounded gardener.

Last year, at the beginning of March, she decided to create a Canyon Lake gardening Facebook group to learn more from her fellow neighbors about gardening. The group is called Canyon Lake Blooming Gardeners.

Yaya explained that she would have joined the Canyon Lake Garden Club, but did not have the time to go on outings or to meetings. She was looking for a group where she could gain knowledge about gardening and impart her love and knowledge of succulents to others…all while doing it on her time schedule and from where it was convenient.

“I started the group because I was interested in sharing tips and ideas about gardening specific to our area, since we have a peculiar microclimate,” Yaya said. “I figured that there would be more people like me, just getting started in the gardening hobby, who could use a space where they could get tips from more experienced gardeners.”

The Canyon Lake Blooming Gardeners group has grown in popularity since COVID-19 restrictions were implemented. Membership in the group has almost doubled over the past month, Yaya said. Group members share photos of what they are growing, mention what they are looking for, share problems they are encountering and even do some unofficial ‘plant swaps.’

Heather Carroll is a new member of the Facebook gardening group, but is not new to gardening. She has been active in the group’s site since she joined, as well as in her garden. She has posted photos of her impressive home garden, and has made some lucrative plant swaps. She already made a trade for a pomegranate tree and is looking forward to trading  some succulent cuttings, she said.

Heather Fleming is also new to the group. She started her first vegetable garden soon after the COVID-19 quarantine. She did not expect it to take off, she said, since she was new to gardening and had never considered herself to have a green thumb. But, to her surprise, the garden started sprouting. She said the garden did so well, she decided to add more vegetables and is now growing almost a dozen fruits and vegetables.

Heather has already started to harvest some vegetables and is supplementing meals with them. She said she is really enjoying the Canyon Lake Blooming Gardeners group.

Yaya has high hopes for where the group could be headed after the quarantine is lifted. She said several members have shown an interest in having plant trades or setting up workshops.

She is also thinking about planning educational trips to gardens at UC Riverside or Cal Poly Pomona. She is even considering collaborating with larger groups in the Inland Empire to organize plant trades.

One of her biggest hopes, she said, is to start a community garden in Canyon Lake, “where we can have children in our community participate and learn about gardening.”

There are many gardeners, new and old, working Canyon Lake’s rocky earth hoping to get some rewards for their labor. Canyon Lake Blooming Gardeners Facebook group brings local gardeners together even when they cannot meet face to face.

Heather Carroll is an avid gardener, boasting over 30 fruit trees and bushes at her Canyon Lake home. Her side yard is pictured and has lush plants on both sides of the staircase that leads down to her fruit trees and vegetable garden. Photo by Heather Carroll.

Beds of Yaya Myers’ succulents adorn her Canyon Lake yard. She started the Canyon Lake Blooming Gardeners Facebook group over a year ago, but since the recent quarantine, her group’s membership has doubled. Yaya is an avid collector and gardener of succulents. Photo by Yaya Myers.

Gardens and gardeners alike await with anticipation as they see their buds turn into flowers and their flowers turn into mouth-watering fruit or vegetables. The newly-formed Canyon Lake Blooming Gardeners Facebook group has found gardening can be challenging, but also tremendously rewarding and even therapeutic. Photo by Kelly Lopez