purveyors of quality succulents, fine gardenware,
succulent balsamics & olive oils, spice blends, fun classes, private pizza parties and fresh ideas Home of the Firestick Cafe |  Bountiful June lilies (with a succulent flying saucer thrown in...you know us...there's always got to be succulents thrown in haha!) | We have just passed the summer solstice and have officially moved into summer! Yay! There is so much to enjoy about all of our prairie seasons, but summers here in Saskatchewan are undeniably amazing. | This year, the summer solstice was more difficult for us here at Solar Gardens, though. The summer solstice, June 21, is also the birthday of Dex and Quin, our black labs. As many of you know, our beloved Quin passed away very unexpectedly on the Mother’s Day morning, just a few weeks shy of his (and Dexter’s) 8th birthday. We were, and are still, devastated. |  Quin & Dexter | | We think about Quin every day and miss him terribly, and we can see that it has been a huge loss for Dexter as well. We are all slowly adjusting and adapting, and we feel so blessed to have had the loving and lovable Quin with us for the years that we did. Everything Quin did (car rides, walks, “couch time”, chasing balls and/or squirrels) was done with so much enthusiasm and enjoyment that it was infectious to Dexter and to us, and we had so many laughs and smiles enjoying his excitement. Quin was truly a bundle of joy, love, curiosity and happiness wrapped up into a tight package and put on four legs! Quinney was amazing. So we would just like to begin this newsletter by thanking the many, many of you that reached out to us with acts and words of support, compassion, kindness (and even homemade butter tarts, cookies and pictures) after we lost Quin. We were so touched when some of you even brought treats for Dexter. Your warm, caring words meant a great deal to us in our time of sadness, and we truly appreciate your thoughtfulness and the time you took to express your condolences. It helped us a great deal at a very, very sad time and we thank you all. Your kindness is forever appreciated. | And now, as we move forward and into summer, we wanted to quickly let you know about a number of things that we have planned for our Pike Lake acreage and Avalon shop on Broadway. | Our greenhouses and Firestick Cafe will continue to be open on Saturdays and Sundays through the summer, but the last weekend that the greenhouses and Firestick will be open to the general public (ever!) is Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1. |  Lightweight plastic urns - they only look like heavy metal ;) | | Over the last number of years, we have shared our eventual Solar Gardens plan with you. We have always hoped that eventually our Solar Gardens at Avalon site in Saskatoon would take over the bulk of our public classes and retail needs while having our acreage focus only on succulent production, wholesale, private classes and private events. Our Avalon shop opened in September, 2018. And over this past year, we have received a great deal of very positive feedback from you, saying that you appreciate having an in-town location for our succulents, classes, balsamics, oils, sangria mixes, spice blends and other products so that you no longer need to venture out to our acreage to get them. So we are very excited to say that we feel confident that our Avalon shop can now meet the needs of our clients year-round, and that we can move ahead on our plans to shift the bulk of our succulents, products, classes and even parties to our SolarGardens@Avalon location for your convenience and ease! In turn, our acreage will now be able to focus totally on wholesale, succulent production, private classes and private events. After September 1st 2019, the Firestick Cafe and Acreage Greenhouses will therefore no longer be open to the general public. After September 1, our acreage, greenhouses and MYOPs (make-your-own-pizzas) will remain available to clients but only in conjunction with booked private events and classes. |  The 'midnight' living wall. A little different for those of us that love bright colours, this wall is planted in darker muted tones. It's for those who like things a little on the 'dark' side. | | So..heads up!...if you have ever wanted to pop by on a weekend to visit our Solar Gardens greenhouses or make a great thin-crust pizza at the Firestick Cafe without it being part of a succulent bowl class or private event, now is the summer to do it! ; ) | People have been loving our Sunday champagne brunch. You can enjoy a mimosa with a buffet of fruit cups, creme brulee French toast, Farmers' Market baked eggs, sausage, bacon and yogurt. Coffee or tea is available as well. No reservations are required for either our brunch or our Saturday Firestick Cafe. We have a number of possible seating locations and so we can usually accommodate individuals or groups promptly. (If you have a large group (7 or more), text us at 306 280 2761 beforehand so that we can try to accommodate your party in a single area.) Our acreage is not open to the general public on summer weekdays (Mondays thru Fridays) as we currently book private classes and events on those days. |  We've got some mighty big urns at the acreage! | |  Living wall just waiting to be hung on the poolside deck. | | Our Avalon shop will continue to be open year-round after the summer, although the hours may change in the fall. (Stay tuned.) Our summer hours are Sunday thru Tuesday 10 am to 5 pm and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10 am to 6 pm. And don't forget every Saturday morning we bring in our fresh baked artisan breads sharply at 10 am. |  Mixed cacti bowls | | We make sure that our outdoor Avalon courtyard is well stocked with succulent baskets and containers as well as individual succulents. Now that you have planted your vegetables and annuals, it is the perfect time to buy succulents for your yard, deck or for the lake. And we don’t need to tell you that succulents are the perfect easy-care plant for your yard. They are very forgiving should you go away for a long weekend and not be able to water them. They will look as beautiful on your return as they did when you left. |  Don't forget that we have a spacious courtyard at the acreage too! | | Your charming succulent bowl can be placed in full sun now. With the great rain we have been receiving there is no need to fertilize or water it. Allow Mother Nature to look after your pot. Rain water has all the nutrition succulents need. Allow the pot to totally dry out before thinking you have to water it again. When fertilizing use Nature's Source which can be purchased at our Avalon shop or acreage. Nature's Source is the new fertilizer for succulents that we prefer and recommend be added to city water (or non-rain water) each time you water during the summer. To see if the soil is completely dried out, check the soil through the hole at the bottom of the pot for dryness. Once totally dry, let it sit for a full week before watering. The roots really need to dry out between waterings. This will stress the plant out and promote colour. Remember to stop fertilizing at the end of August even if you continue to water. In our next newsletter we'll talk a bit about fall succulent care. You might consider taking our "Putting It to Bed" class in September and October. | The words “Cute” and “Cactus” may not seem to readily go together, but we think that these cactus pots are pretty darned adorable. Like our succulent classes, our cactus pot classes are fun, educational and hands-on. You will be able to create your own pot with a variety of small cacti, perfect for indoors or outdoors. We have now listed our Cactus Pot Class dates on both our AvalonAtSolarGardens.ca website and our acreage SolarGardens.ca website. The classes will be offered at our Avalon shop, and you can sign up for the public classes online. You can email us at solargardenclasses@gmail.com if you want to arrange a private group (minimum 5 pots made) with some of your friends or family. | A. We have beautiful and unique Pop-Up Cards for all types of occasions, including Canada Day. | B. Our Firestick Sangria Mix is now available at Avalon and at our acreage. Keep some mix on hand so that you can just add wine + ice + fruit to it when you want a delicious Sangria at home or at the lake. The next time you're invited out for dinner take a bottle and mix up a pitcher. You'll be the hit of the party. We have 3 sangria flavours - Solar Signature, Tango Mango and Elderflower Red. | And when you visit our acreage this summer, be sure to enjoy a sangria or other cocktail on the poolside deck or on our new lanai. Both areas are incredibly relaxing for a happy hour cocktail and are truly memorable summer experiences. | C. We continue to add new spices to our Avalon Spicery line. We now have Truffle Salt made with black Italian truffles. It goes great with our truffle olive oil or with our butter olive oil on popcorn, and we also enjoyed it recently on a seafood pasta dish. We feel confident we will find all types of tasty recipes for it. D. We continue to carry our full line of Balsamic Vinegars and Extra Virgin Olive Oils at Avalon, and we continue to “bundle” the oils and vinegars if you buy more bottles at one time. Our Balsamic/Oil BUNDLING is as follows: BUY 1 BOTTLE $15, 2 BOTTLES $14 EACH AND 3 BOTTLES $13 EACH E. And now due to popular request, we are BUNDLING our Spices, too! Buy any 4 spices or spice blends at one time and pick out a fifth one for free. Now that's what we call BUNDLING.** | F. We always try to have our frozen pizza shells available at Avalon. You can buy a box of 10 pizza shells for the amazing price of $15. An instruction sheet on how to cook the pizzas at home in your oven comes with the box and instructions can also be accessed online on our Avalon website. Just click here! These pizza shells make for a fun, easy and personalized meal or snack at home or at the lake. This summer, we think every home should have a box of Firestick pizza shells in the freezer along with bottles of Firestick Sangria mix in the fridge just in case friends or family drop by! (We haven't tried it ourselves but we've heard that grilling the pizza shell works very well.) | G. While you are at Avalon, be sure to check out our Vegipods. |  Vegipod filled with 4 varieties tomatoes, 4 types peppers, globe and purple basil, | As you can see, Vegipods are gardening containers that you can put anywhere in your yard. We have several Vegipods at our acreage and one at Avalon. The ones we have on display have plants already growing in them, so you can see how easy, ergonomic and user-friendly they are for decks, balconies or anywhere in your yard. The Vegipod was invented in Australia. It would be perfect for a herb garden, for apartment or condo dwellers, for seniors or others who have reduced mobility but still want to garden, and for anyone who wants just a little more garden space for vegetables or flowers. And we think they are great under a grow light to maintain or start plants indoors throughout the year. Our Vegipods are sturdy and easy to assemble. They can be used year after year and are very reasonably priced. Oh, almost forgot - they've been tested to minus 40. We need that! |  July is Cactus Month at Solar Gardens. We've got big & small! | | No problem. We can now bring the class to your venue because we now offer mobile classes, aka “Succulents On The Go”. This spring, we have had a lot of fun offering mobile succulent classes to a couple of conference groups in their hotel spaces. The schedule was too tight for them to come to us for their bowl class, so we went to them! Succulents On The Go! The organizers looked at their schedule and told us when they wanted us to offer the class and which room would be used. We brought all the necessary succulents and pots to their conference site at the designated time. The attendees were able to create beautiful personal pots during our class, and then they were able to continue on with the rest of their conference and meetings. It was a fun and refreshing break for them and a great time for us, too! And if participants in the class are likely to be travelling or flying home after your gathering, we can make sure that we choose a pot size and project that will be easy for them to transport home safely. | To arrange a Succulents On The Go mobile class, just email us at solargardenclasses@gmail.com and we can talk with you about your event and needs. There may be a limit on minimum and maximum group size, but we would be happy to talk about options with you. |  Pair of living walls on the Firestick cafe east wall | | | If you have a business and would like to talk with us about wholesale orders, email us and we can arrange a time for you to meet with Roger. We ask that all wholesale orders be done via appointment to make sure that Roger is available to you when you arrive. | We hope you all have a great summer and that you'll be able to visit the acreage and Firestick Cafe at least one more time before we close the farm to the general public. There's a lot to see (and eat) here so we hope you can come and enjoy it all sometime during our last 10 weekends. If not, you can easily pop over to Avalon anytime - 7 days a week. | |
