Saturday, April 9, 2011District Meeting Information

Hello All,

Thank you for your enthusiasm and participation in making tonight's winter sowing workshop a big success!  Look for links to the handouts our blog's sidebar menus.

Thank you to Tara Moore for sharing the information about the upcoming District Meeting this spring!  Sounds interesting!

Nova Scotia Association of Garden Clubs
District Meeting

Host: Halifax Westmoor Garden Club

Date:  April 9, 2011

Location: 
Bethany United Church Hall
2669 Joseph Howe Drive
Halifax

Times:

8:30 - 9:00am Registration
                     
9:00  Reports from the club presidents

9:30- 10:15- First presenter: Carol Matthews - Creating a Bird Habitat in Your Garden
         
10:15 - 10:45 - Coffee break
         
10:45 - 11:30 - Roslyn Duffus - Rock Gardens

11:30 - 12:00 - Jennifer Modigliani - Garden Tour of England Agenda

12:00 - 1:00 - LUNCH

1:00 - 1:45 - Wayne & Wayne - Daylilies  (also: if the daylily roots are developed enough a presentation on how to trim roots so your daylily produces more blooms, how to divide plant into fans to create more plants)

2:00  Draws for door prizes

2:15 Last chance to shop at vendors & closing                       

Entrance Fees:  Members - $8, Guests - $10

Presidents are asked to keep their presentations to less than 5 minutes.
Each club is asked to bring two door prizes for the draw.

Contact Person:  Joy McCallum, 443-8646
E-mail: joymccallum1@hotmailcom

"Lug A Mug" for coffee or tea to protect the environment

Carolyn Downie will chair the March meeting for Halifax-Westmoor Club March 15/11.  She will be asking the members to volunteer to help support hosting the District Meeting.  Most things are already in place.  A group will make sandwiches but we will need members to provide muffins, cookies or squares.  We will need volunteers for registration, kitchen help and other activities. To make this event a success, we all need to participate.  Think about how you would like to help and please be ready to volunteer at the next meeting.

Wed. Mar. 23rdCollect Perennial Orders & Bringing Birds To The Garden

Hi everyone!

Have you been out in your yards looking for signs of spring?  What did you find?  Anyone seen a robin yet?  Wendy saw a caterpillar!

If you haven't already downloaded your copy of the perennial order form, it's in the sidebar here on this page.  Feel free to share it with friends and family.  Every plant sold helps raise funds to cover our costs, so spread the word! :)  We will be collecting the order forms at this meeting on Wednesday, March 23.

Redpole by Clarity on Flickr

Our guest speaker is going to be Clarence Stevens.  He will be talking about attracting birds to your yard and some of the benefits that can have for your plants.  I can't wait to hear his tips and tricks!  Love having all of the little finches and such in the yard!

As always, we will have a box for donations to our local community food bank at St. Timothy's.

Hope to see you there!

NS Association of Garden Clubs

The Scotia Gardener 

March greetings!

A link to the Nova Scotia Association of Garden Clubs (NSAGC) has been added to the sidebar under Sites of Interest.

The NSAGC publishes The Scotia Gardener quarterly.  You may view back issues on their site under What's New or check out the current issue in our sidebar.

The NSAGC web site has a wealth of information regarding local workshops, contests, news, district events, discounts and the NSAGC Convention as well as links to local clubs and societies.

Wed. Feb. 23rdHands-On Workshop: Winter Sowing

Recycle into mini-greenhouses!

Hi everyone!

We're hoping the weather will hold out so that we can have a full house at our next meeting.  Instead of just a guest speaker, we're going to dig in some dirt for a while as Wendy and Valerie guide us through some winter sowing.

Winter sowing at work!

We will be making our own mini greenhouses planted with some seeds to set outside now.

Once Spring hits, they'll grow where they sit and then we can plant them directly into the ground without hardening them off!

Exciting results!

This approach is a nice way to fill in your gardens quickly as these plants have a great head start and grow into gorgeous clumps.

What To Bring

Please bring a few supplies for this workshop:

• One or two of the following containers to convert to mini-greenhouses:
• 2L pop bottle
• 1L plastic ice cream container with plastic lid
• 1L plastic yogurt container with plastic lid
• 2L or 4L plastic translucent milk or water container
• Strong scissors (like kitchen scissors)
• An exacto knife or carpet knife or cheap old paring knife
• A Lee Valley garden marker (if you have one)
• Seeds you wish to plant (or share)
• click here for suggestions
• Halifax Seed has seed packages year 'round

We will be providing soil and water; mother nature will be providing the weather!

As always, we will have a box for donations to our local community food bank at St. Timothy's.

Reminder:
The Meeting Schedule Page contains meeting dates and time details. There is a permanent link to the Meeting Schedule Page in the right-hand menu under Club Pages.

Worms or Manure Anyone?

Photo by clocker

The Club is organizing orders of both indoor compost worms (European Nightcrawlers) and decomposed manure.

If you are a club member and are interested in ordering with us, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting with your full name.

We should have your contact information on file so we can contact you with more details.

Wed. Jan. 26thLasagna Gardening and Worm Composting

Photo by leedav

This week, our garden club members, John and Freeman, are going to share their experiences with lasagna gardening.  This simple method of creating new garden beds will have you creating new green spaces in a flash without digging or tilling!  Just plunk down a new garden bed anywhere in your yard!  We know that there are other members who have created lasagna gardens and we would encourage them to share their results with the group.  Feel free to bring pictures too if you have them!

Photo by rosepetal236

And of course no bed is complete without some great rich soil so Valerie is going to talk about her experiences with indoor worm composting and how to have these amazing creatures creating enriched garden soil for you all year long!

We hope you'll join us for an evening of sharing and demonstrations!




As always, we will have a box for donations to our local community food bank at St. Timothy's.



Reminder: 
The Meeting Schedule Page contains meeting dates and time details.  There is a permanent link to the Meeting Schedule Page in the right-hand menu under Club Pages.

Wed. Dec. 15th Holiday Social at the Rec. Ctr.

The date for our Holiday Social has been changed to Wednesday, December 15th at the PRCC.
If you would like to help set up, just arrive a bit early between 7pm-7:30pm.

Click here for ideas from Teleflora

Nicole has asked Lynn Yeadon to show us how to create center pieces.

Lynne asks each of the members to bring a few things:

• a pair of pruners
• a container to hold our arrangement
• items to make our creations with such as holly branches, evergreen branches
• items to decorate the arrangement from around the house or garden

Gisele Dupuis will be coordinating the goodies. Nicole will be sending an e-mail out to the members which will include her phone # and her e-mail for her to organize.

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Wed. Nov. 24th Features Trees & Shrubs

Photo by ahp_ibanez

Dave Veinot will be joining us as the guest speaker at our next meeting on Wednesday, November 24th. Dave specializes in ornamental trees and shrubs - Japanese Maples, Magnolias, Dogwoods. etc. For those of us needing 'bones' in the gardens or a woody plant in a particular place this would be a great evening.

Dan also worked with Captain Steele, a reknown Rhododendron and Azalea hybridizer who once said, "You could turn the province over a fifty year period into a magnificent thing." when talking about gardening.

Our local food bank is in need of a whole variety of supplies. Some of the things that are most needed are canned stews, noodles & sauce dinners, macaroni/spaghetti, cereals, peanut butter, tuna, canned meat, canned fruit and vegetables, packaged potatoes, tetrapak milk, and items for children's school lunches such as canned fruit, puddings, cracker & cheese packages, etc.

It's easy to forget the food bank donation as you're rushing out the door to your favourite meeting, but every can and package helps someone.

Wed. Oct. 27 Features Dahlias

Photo by Sel

At our next meeting on Wednesday, October 27, we will be featuring Bill Mercier from Shad Bay. He will be speaking about Dahlias and actually bringing tubers to show us how to divide them and store them for winter as well as speak about growing them when the snow stops to fly. Bill has been growing Dahlias for some time and obviously knows Dahlias quite well. I know this since he identified all the Dahlias I brought in a vase at the last meeting and even taught me a couple of things about their 'form'. :O) 

Photo by Eric

For those who have Dahlias, Bill advises that now would be a good time to get ready to take the tubers out of the ground. In a phone conversation this morning, he advised to simply cut them back to a foot from the ground, leave them for a week, then dig them up. I will be doing as such starting this weekend. After digging, clean them off with a hard hose spray, let them dry a bit, and if you wish to divide them after Bill's presentation, simply keep them in a dry cool place. 

Photo by Nicole Dearman

Dahlias are great in the gardens, especially as 'fillers' and for late season blooms which we all yearn for! 

Take photos of your Dahlias and lets do a Dahlia tuber Swap in the spring!!! 

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Nice To See Everyone Again

Mullein

Hi everyone...

It was great to see you all again last night!  Welcome to all of the new members who joined us for another great year of sharing plant knowledge!

If you missed the registration, no problem!   Just join us next time!

The schedule page has been updated to reflect the addition of a social time at the beginning of our meetings, so we'll be starting the social at 7pm and starting meeting business at 7:30pm at each meeting this year.

Comfrey

Nicole reminded us that we will be supporting the Food Bank again this year.  There will be a drop-off container for your donation at each meeting.

Thank you to everyone who brought books, plants, magazines and seeds last night - we appreciate your generosity!  Wendy brought comfrey and mullein to share last night... these links provide more information about these plants.  Feel free to visit Hobbies In Harmony for related information and a link to email me with any questions.

Happy gardens!
Val :)

2010 - 2011 Schedule Posted

Hi everyone...

Although we had a lot of rain during the garden tours, many people braved the weather to visit the plants!

The schedule for the coming year has been added to the side menu of this web page.  All meetings are going to be held at the new Prospect Recreation Community Centre this year.  This page will be updated with topics and guest speakers as those details are organized.

We look forward to an exciting new year in our new space... hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Val :)

Come Tour Our Gardens!

PROSPECT AREA GARDEN CLUB

GARDEN TOUR 2010

JULY 11th (Sunday)  11:00 am - 5:00 pm

( Admissions are FREE, but we do accept donations to the food bank on site. )

Wendy MacDonald

30 Cathy Road, Brookside (take Brookside, left onto Mitchell, right onto Cathy) 852-4506

Visit a yard full of gardens in every stage of development from new to mature.  This yard includes huge and baby perennials, growing veggies,  and robust herb gardens. Wendy also has a recently started Native American Medicine Wheel garden!  Come see this busy space!

Valerie Wilson

226 Irisweg Drive, Brookside (take Brookside, left onto Mitchell, right onto Cathy and left onto Irisweg) 852-3973

This property is lovingly referred to as a wild-scape in progress. Bucking the traditional gardener's decorum, Valerie leans more toward letting mother nature do her thing and then making use of it! Join Valerie for a cup of herbal sun tea and wander through fields of horsetail, drifts of red clover and sweet clover, waving daisies, clumps of oregano, a row of pin cherry trees and perennials tucked in here there and everywhere. If you look closely, you'll also find a short rustic path leading to the edge of McGrath Lake. (Please park on the street)

Margaret and Alan Sagar

1877 Lower Prospect Road, Terence Bay. 852-4628

(Past Star of the Sea Church and cemetery, first right at bottom of the little hill where the inlet comes to the road. We are on Back Bay.)

I didn't want our new house which replaced our cottage to be plopped in the middle of suburban lawn. So come and see how our still young garden wraps round our house in the midst of the wild. Slate patio and path, large deck, rock garden, flowers and veggies struggling to survive in a very windy spot, fighting the horsetail grass, and coltsfoot!! (Garden is more work than lawn!)

Freeman Dryden & John Speagle

12 Hunters Hill, Terence Bay

(Prospect Rd. to Terence Bay Rd. to Sandy Cove Rd. about 2 blocks in on the right side)

Beginners' Garden - come and see what you can do in 1 year; from blackberry & rugosa bushes, rocks, & weedy grass to flower beds and a pond? Veggies too!!

Nicole Dearman

224 Brennan’s Road (Prospect Rd.  on to Prospect Bay Rd., right on Brennan’s Rd.) 850-2062

No greenhouse or lights in the basement? No problem!! See a garden grown mostly from seeds sown in winter outside , including Hostas, Astilbes, Blue Poppies, and oddities. This property had no gardens and no shrubs in 2001 but now increasingly caters to butterflies every year. I have been raising Monarchs for 4 years. :O)

Marg & Joe Power

580 Prospect Bay Road

Gardens by the Bay” – This is a working garden on a two-acre property bordering Prospect Bay. There are a variety of garden areas surrounding the house and bordering the water that contain perennials and various flowering shrubs. Annuals, such as impatiens and petunias are used to add colour throughout the garden season.   “Gardening hurts nice … housework just plain hurts.” Come for a stroll in our gardens and along the water’s edge. We welcome you.