Fellow Garden Club Event

Hey folks--on Sat. Nov. 20 the Garden Club of Michiana (a fellow garden club in our district) will be participating in the Little Flower Church Craft show at 54191 North Ironwood in South Bend. Hours are not listed on the information I have, but its probably safe to assume 10 to 3 anyway. Stop by and say hello--they are a very nice group!

Hail to the dirt!

Big District Conflab

Hi everybody--Yesterday Bobbi, Mary Ann A. and I went to Middlebury to attend the Annual District Meeting of the Garden Club of Indiana. We had a terrific time--the drive was easy and even with Bobbi and I navigating we managed NOT to get lost--a miracle in its own right. Thanks to Shirley for getting us excellent directions. Rosie and Shirley--we are so very sorry you couldn't go--we are sending you happy thoughts for a quick recovery. (And to Nick too).
Since our group is slated to host one of these shindigs in 2016 I want to describe my first impressions here. As time goes on I really hope more of our group can attend--this is a very pleasant way to spend a day with a lot of great people.
The meeting was held at Middlebury Church of the Bretheren. We were greeted by a number of club members, given our name badges and directed to the church fellowship room. There was a lovely array of breakfast treats laid out and the room was busy with people getting coffee, having snacks and checking out the Ways and Means table, silent auction and raffle items, as well as the informative displays from all the committees.
There are lots of committees and things associated with this crowd--my brain kind of locks up when confronted with all this heirarchy and stuff--but as I learn what it all means things will become more understandable. What it boils down to is; there are committees for most or all of the various aspects of horticulture that might interest a garden club, and each club can involve itself or avail itself of resources depending on the interest of its membership. For example there is a Conservation Committee that sponsors projects associated with reforestation of Indiana woodlands. One of their main interests is the "Penny Pines" project, by which the interested clubs can sponsor the planting of trees in Indiana. The Scholarship committee oversees the process by which money from individual clubs goes to the state scholarship fund, and then in turn directs the selection process for candidates to receive the awards. Each Committee had a display: Birds and Butterflies, Horticulture, Conservation, Trees, Scholarship, Membership, Youth Gardening, Wildflowers, Garden Therapy, Civic Development--I hope thats all. But you get the idea. We all settled into tables that were decorated with centerpieces and gift bags--the call to order went out. After moving into the Church Sanctuary, the meeting itself began. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and the Conservation Pledge (written in a little program book for those of us who had no clue what it is). Then Stephanie Weber of the Middlebuy Garden Club welcomed us--apparently she has a peony farm that we need to go visit--and then Judy Cook from Elkhart responded sort of like--"welcome everybody"--"Hey thanks for having us". Joan Stone, the District President Welcomed everybody and introduced us to the District Officers as well as the wonderful Joyce Bulington, our state president. These meetings always have a reading committe--3 people that later on review the minutes of the meeting and approve them, and they were introduced at this time. Marlene Pratt (Middlebury) lit a candle and read a wonderful prayer as a memorial tribute to two past members who died this year. It was about end and renewal as it happens in the garden and how the meaning of that is manifested in the life of everyone.
After this touching moment, the various officers gave their reports, and all the club presidents of gave their annual reports. Then the district Chairpersons attending gave their reports, and the Scholarship chair asked me to tell the group a little bit about Ben. You can imagine how eloquent I was, not being aware ahead of time that I would be asked to do this--of course I neglected to tell everyone Ben's LAST name--thanks to some wiser person who asked me what it was--but at least I don't think Ben will have to attend the State Banquet with a bag over his head. Then Joyce addressed the group--she is such a hoot. We are very lucky to have formed our club during her tenure. She "gets" groups like ours--she is pretty much like us--irreverent and caring--and as Bobbi noted--she is the correct height to be a member of our club. Now that Bobbi knows that Mr. Bulington is not the pilot of the REAL Air Force One, she knows that Joyce is just like the rest of us.
Then we went on to Business stuff--at this point my brain froze and I couldn't absorb everything. The nuggets I came away with are as follows:
There is a committe forming to work on the 2012 State Meeting which our district will be hosting. EVERYONE is going to be needed to help out in some way. I have a form that I started to fill out, figuring the committee post would just fall to me--but it occurred to me that someone else might be willing to step in and contribute to this. Working on this project will necessitate attending meetings that will move from one location to another throughout the district to equalize the distance driving between all the members. If someone is willing to take this on--I would love it--just let me know. You can finish filling out the form and I will get it back to Joan.
Also--we figured out how to send in new member stuff. I will get on that quickly so our new members can start getting their newsletters and be counted in the district's new member head count.
And speaking of newsletters--there was a questionairre about how you want it--postage is insane so the idea is for it to be electronic only. They come as PDF's now, but they want to know if you have other preferences. I will get this out to everyone so you can answer the questions and I will just send the results on.
After all the official jazz it was time for lunch--so back to the Fellowship room we went, to visit, eat, and check out the displays some more. In a very sweet gesture, the prayer before lunch included all of us singing one verse of "America the Beautiful".
The program for the day ensued back in the Sanctuary, where Sonya Miller, owner of Country Comfort Greenhouse, told us all about the quilt gardens in Amish Country. This grass roots undertaking has grown to a total this year of 17 plantings, and has proven to be a much needed boost to Elkharts tourism industry. Sonya was a great speaker--knowledgable and spontaneous, and she had a very nice powerpoint display with photos of all the gardens in various stages of growth.
After all that--the winners of the raffles were announced, people went back to finish up purchasing things from the Ways and Means, do a little more networking, and then it was time to go home.
I am certain I have forgotten a lot of stuff--my brain just doesn't function well in stuff like this. Mary Ann and Bobbi--poke me if you remember other things that happened so I can add them to this account. The main thing we all came away with was the fact that we had a very nice time, and this organization we are a part of is full of wonderful people united by the common love of gardens and gardening. As time goes on we will find our "place" within its structure so they can benefit from us, and we in turn from them.

Celebrate with Unity Gardens

Hey folks--I received an invitation from Sara Stewart at Unity Gardens--On Sat. Oct 30 Unity Gardens will have its Harvest Celebration. This is a Potluck meal that will take place from 11 am to 2 pm at the Potowatomi Greenhouse at 2105 Mishawaka Ave. in South Bend. They will be recognizing their contributors and members at this event as well as sharing a meal. The invitation is open to anyone who wants to participate. Rob and I are going to try to go, and if Ben is available he plans to go too. This winter I hope to get Sara to come and tell us all about Unity Gardens, and hopefully our groups can work together in the future to everyones benefit. So if you have some free time on that day, whip up a batch of something and head on over there to meet the folks!
Fearless

Don't forget to water!

Hi everybody--Just a quick reminder--as Debbie said in the Garden program at the library--we are in the midst of a drought right now. How our plants (especially our woody plants and conifers) go through the next several weeks as they enter winter growth patterns is going to have a big impact on how they survive the winter. Plants are stressed right now for lack of moisture, and we don't want them going into dormancy in this stressed out state. Keep watering your gardens--an inch a week if we don't get rain. Pay special attention to recently transplanted plants, woody trees and shrubs and especially your conifers. Keep this up until the ground begins to freeze. If you have a valuable tree, you can take one of the little overhead spray sprinklers and turn it on very low and just leave it on for an hour or so to soak the ground. If you pay for your water, watering cans and buckets would probably be a more intelligent way to go about it. Don't forget your gray water can be used for this. Pull your washing machine drain hose up and run the final rinse water into buckets. If you have dehumidifiers use the water they collect to water the garden with. Mulching deeply after a thorough soaking will help conserve soil moisture. Its a pain to have to keep watering this late in the year--usually by now the fall rains have stepped in to give us a break, but it's not to be right now.
HTTD! Fearless

Fall-ing in love again

Hi all--We had a great time last night, attending the presentation on Fall Color at the North Liberty Library branch. Many thanks to their wonderful speaker, Debbie, for all the great information she passed along. Its clear to see that the library has chosen well in hiring her as their gardener; her love for plants was very evident. She started off with a number of suggestions--the most important of which was basically contrary to our plant crazy instincts--don't rush out and buy. Instead she recommended carefully studying our sites so we choose plants wisely, and photographing our gardens to help us decide (and then remember) where to put new plants for the best effect. She also suggested studying area gardens and noticing what looks beautiful in them that could be added to our own spaces. Add to that a little careful investigation into the habits and requirements of the plants we are considering, and hopefully you end up with easy maintenence gardens that pack a lot of visual wallop in the space they occupy.

Fall is a great time both for planting as well as buying--she reminded us to watch for good prices on clearance plants at season's end. Sometimes this takes some legwork as inventories are at low ebb, but great bargains can be found--and who says hunting for plants to buy is a hardship anyway??

Then we got into her show and tell, and what a beautiful array of examples she had to show us. From trees, including Oaks, Maples, Sweetgum, Tulip poplar, Dogwood, Serviceberry, Baldcypress and Dawn Redwood, through shrubs like Miss Kim Lilac, Aronia, Hydrangea, Fothergilla, Clethra and Witch Hazel, she showed us an array of colors that would beautify any garden. For smaller areas, Debbie introduced us to asters, sedums, echinacea that had been deadheaded for a repeat flowering, grasses and numerous seedheads that are attractive and structural accents to the colorful leaves. She also showed us a most unusual "Wahoo" Euonymus, which is boring most of the time, but ends the season with an amazing show of pink bracts and fruit.

To make the whole experience even better, she generously passed some plants along to lucky winners, with Maggie winning a beautiful magnolia, Cindy going home with a Serviceberry, which will be perfect in her yard, and several other lucky partcipants received a wonderful living gift from this terrific gardener. She also passed out divisions of an Oncidium orchid, and Patrick and Rosie both will have a new project to interest them as they begin the adventure that is orchids.

After the program we hiked across the parking lot where Gerry Brown greeted us at the door of Bluebird House. Coffee and cookies had been laid out by Gerry and Debbie's daughter, Kirstin, since Debbie had been sidelined by the flu. We were so pleased to have two guests attend--Mary Ann's neighbor, Eva came with her, and I kidnapped my friend Lorraine and she was nice enough to come over as well. We are so very happy they joined us and hope to add them to our membership. Everybody toured Bluebird House and enjoyed visiting with Gerry as he explained the history of how the house was saved from destruction and renovated to the charming state it is in now. Bluebird House can be rented as a Guest House if you have family coming in for a visit or reunion, or friends coming for a football weekend. Just call the Browns at 656-8093 and they will be glad to accomodate you.

Then it was on to the meeting. We had no minutes--Marianne was at work. Shirley gave us the treasurers report which consisted of the balance as of the most recent bank statement. I had a copy of the July District meeting minutes for anyone interested in reading them, and we discussed the Oct. 20 meeting in Middlebury. 4 of us are going and Shirley is going to drive. Of course we are all so organized we couldn't figure a timetable out for this, but we will get it done and communicate the information to those who are attending.

I also wrote up a short blurb about our clubs activities for the year to submit at the meeting, and there was a copy of that for anyone to look at too.

As to our upcoming meeting, we had to bump the date back by a week--we are now going to Lurie on the 13 of November. I have communicated this to Ben and it should work out fine. Keep an eye on the blog in case there are any changes. I will have Bobbie send out alerts and put Busia on the phone if there is any last minute news to report.

As for the blog--new pics are up. Thanks to Shirley for sending me a set of pics--I have to figure out how to strip them out of the Kodak gallery, but I will get Rob on the case and it will be resolved soon.

Then it was on to new stuff. The Indiana Gardens issue was emailed to everyone--a couple people thought it was spam and threw it out. Rosie didn't get one because once again my brain had a synaptic failure and I never reported her as a new member to anybody. Sorry about that, Rosie--I will get a copy of the current one to you and take action to add you as a member.

There also was a very important entry in the newsletter about a project being taken on by the Deleware Garden club. This task of planning and installing a garden at Dover Air Force Base to help and protect families who go there to claim the remains of their loved ones killed in military service is something we should all support, either with a donation or our prayers--better yet both. Look for the blog post titled "Something very important" for a link to take you to a page where you can find out how to donate.

Another upcoming topic of interest is the newly formed Michiana Horticultural Alliance. This umbrella group which seeks to provide a common ground for all aspects of Horticulture, from everyday gardeners to industry professionals has just begun its journey, and everyone is invited to join and go along for the ride. Membership is and always will be free--so sign up today! Website is http://www.michianahort.org/.

We briefly touched on the idea to have our Dec. meeting at Thyme of Grace Restaurant. I am going there next Friday and will talk to them to see what we can figure out. This will most likely be a lunch meeting.

Then we began looking to the future and discussing plans for next year. After a lot of helpful discussion, Rosie suggested that everyone come armed with ideas for topics and presentations when we meet in December. In light of the fact that our club doesn't have a Vice President, whom Rosie pointed out was responsible for compling a program book in most clubs, Cindy suggested an alternative method used by a garden club her sister belongs too. In this club people draw out of a hat and each person is responsible for the meeting that they "draw". In Cindy's version, the person draws a month and then is in charge of coming up with a program, a meeting site, the whole works. This will all go into the "idea stew" that is our club, and in December we will thrash the whole concept about and come up with the method that suits us the best. Thanks to everyone for their input into this issue. I would really like for us to develop a way of handling this that is uniquely our own. Then everyone's personality will shine through in its own way.

Also--I would like to have someone volunteer to just compile a listing of area bustours that might be of interest to the club. We are too small and its awfully complicated to charter a bus and do all that crazy stuff. Much easier to find trips we want to take and then just glom on to someone else's hard work instead. Again--we will take this up in December and get the job delegated.

We closed the meeting with a reminder about the recent Pet Food Recall on Blue Buffalo dog food. Thanks to Nick for filling us in with the details of how to check the internet for information.
With that, Patrick (in his new Pucci shirt) was nice enough to adjourn us--and we all drifted away into the night.

HTTD!

IMPORTANT Change of plans for Lurie Gardens trip

Hi all-- Rosie just sent me a copy of a schedule statement that says the South Shore line will be closed between East Chicago and South Bend on the 6th of Nov. when we were planning to take our trip. Ben suggested we nudge the date back to the 13th, which is the following Saturday. I will bring this up at the meeting and we can decide then what we want to do.
HTTD

INFO FOR THE LURIE TRIP

Hi folks--Ben just posted a map for where we will meet on the Michiana Horticultural Alliance page--if you don't know what the MHA is--you should go there and check it out anyway--and JOIN. Its free and hopefully will lead to great things.
Here is a link:
www.michianahort.org

Check it out.
Fearless

Something very important

Hi everyone--in case you haven't seen this is your GCI newsletter, I am reproducing it here. If you agree that this cause is worthy, please support it by sending them a contribution or spreading the word by whatever way seems appropriate to you.
First off--here is a link if you want to send a contribution. My check will go out tomorrow.
http://www.ngccar.org/delawarememorialgardenproject.html

This is what this is about--I am quoting from the newsletter:
"The Delaware Federation of Garden Clubs has embarked on a project of constructing a Memorial Garden at the Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware. The Dover Air Force Base has the distinctive, heartbreaking task of receiving home the bodies of service personnel killed in the line of duty. Since lifting the ban on photographs of the flag-covered caskets, nearly 2000 relatives have come to Dover for the body transfers. In January, the base opened a much needed facility called the 'Center for the Families of the Fallen'. This building is used by the families when they arrive at the base from all over the nation to receive their loved ones. Although the inside of the building is well furnished, the outside desperately needs an enclosed garden area, screened from the road, to afford the family's privacy and peace. When this garden club saw the site, they knew it was a project they wanted to embrace. Because of the special requirements posed by the base, the DFCG decided to engage a prominent therapeutic Landscape Architect, Rodney Robinson, to design and develop a plan for construction of this garden. The garden clubs of Delaware and its members now need to raise the necessary 125,000 to cover the cost of this project. It is a daunting task and they are a small state with an organization that has never taken on a project of this magnitude. DFGC is trying to reach out to everyone to help meet their commitment of providing a Memorial Garden at the Dover Air Force Base for the 'Families of the Fallen'.

Once again--the link to contribute:
http://www.ngccar.org/delawarememorialgardenproject.html

HTTD.

Newsletter

Hi folks--You should have all gotten your Fall issue of "Indiana Gardens" which is the publication of the Garden Club of Indiana. It comes as a PDF file, and you just click on the file or highlight it and click "open file" to see it. Its best to print it out, since it shows up sideways, having been formatted to print on your printer. If you want a hard copy and can't figure out how to print it, let me know and I will make one for you.
HTTD! Fearless