Furry friends and green thumbs: Heat not stopping fun in the sun

The heat isn’t stopping Regina citizens and their furry friends from having fun this summer.

The only ones braving the heat to care for their plot at the Grow Regina Community Garden on Tuesday were the father-and-son duo of Mark and Ryker Bzdel.

Their family inherited the garden from their grandparents.

The pair are new to the gardening game, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from their full plot and watering system.

“It’s been an interesting science experiment and we’ve enjoyed it a whole lot so far,” said Mark.

They found a way to work smarter, not harder.

“We decided to plant a garden this year, and in the process we found it very time-consuming to use a hose. So what we did instead was build an aquaduct system. So now we can fill the whole garden with a foot of water and then we can play with the kids, or pick peas or do other things and visit,” said Mark.

According to Ryker, since they set up the watering system, tending the garden is a breeze.

“The only hard part was basically setting it up,” said Ryker.

He admits he didn’t help set it up, but he watched his dad do it and said it looked difficult.

They said that hard work was worth it.

“We put in a little bit of work at the start and now we get to enjoy the summer. Instead of just watering our garden all the time, we can fill it up,” Mark said to his son with a smile.

Ryker said overall the weather has been pretty good to their garden, but he’s not the biggest fan of the extreme heat.

“Well, I do have a complaint on the heat. The heat is harsh,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s why there’s nobody out here. It’s so hot,” Mark added.

Mark said the best thing about the garden is the community. He grew up in a small town and compared the gardening community to that.

“The people we share the garden with, we just met, but they seem to have a network with the other people around. It’s this family sort of visiting thing that has been happening,” he said.

Those connections have been built over many years from a family member who used to manage that plot.

“My wife’s grandpa — who this garden plot we’ve taken over for — has these decade-long connections to people around here and they keep coming back to say hi and ask, ‘How is grandpa doing?’ So it’s a really neat full circle sort of thing,” said Mark.

Furry friends are still enjoying some fun in the sun too.

Kasey Skitch and her dog Huntress were the only ones braving the heat at the Cathy Lauritsen Memorial Off-Leash Dog Park.

Huntress enjoying air conditioning after a short trip to the Cathy Lauritsen Memorial Off-Leash Dog Park. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Skitch said they don’t stay at the park too long.

“Air conditioning is on in the car. I always try to keep her in the shade, and a lot of the time she stays in the house,” said Skitch.

She also keeps a spray bottle on her to cool down Huntress.

“Always have water with you, clean water, because you don’t want her drinking the water around here (in the park). It’s just really gross,” she said.

Huntress doesn’t mind the heat too much; she enjoys being sprayed down to keep cool. At the end of their visit, she didn’t want to go back into the vehicle.

Skitch said she went to that dog park to utilize the water to cool Huntress down, but it wasn’t safely accessible due to clay.

“It looks like mud, but it’s like quicksand. So as soon as (Huntress) jumped into where there was a little bit of water and mud, she just started sinking. She couldn’t get out. I had to pull her out,” she said.

This was a challenge for Skitch as she’s quite petite.

“She weighs more than me, and I fell and got stuck too. I had to pull her out with all my might and then we kind of rolled together and I was like, ‘Oh my god, it’s like clay.’ It’s not dirt, it’s clay,” she said.

Skitch’s feet and Huntress’ paws were covered in the clay.

“It’s really dangerous. I couldn’t even imagine someone that wasn’t watching their dog and they went in that water. She was sinking so fast.” Skitch said.

She came out to the park for Huntress to socialize with other dogs.

“I need her to socialize with a lot of dogs. She’s a better dog when she socializes with people or pets. She’s just happier when she socializes,” she said.

But most dog owners kept their furry friends home.

“I thought there’d be tons of dogs here, but no, there’s no one really here,” said Skitch, who noted she’ll try a different dog park next time.