Iris Garden Club of Wakulla County, Inc.
October 2007 Newsletter

We had a great turnout for our October native plant meeting.  Bill Petty and other members identified and told us about many of our common native plants.  Audience participation was wonderful and I feel that we all learned something.

New Members and Yearbook Change

Two new gardeners joined our group in October.  Wanda Mahaffey is a neighbor of Genie Lauer in Panacea and Tamara Byrnes recently moved to my neighborhood from Valdez, Alaska.  Welcome to Iris Garden Club of Wakulla County, Wanda and Tamara.  Everyone remember to pick up their information labels at our meeting next week.  Just peel a label off and place it in your yearbook to keep your membership list up to date. 

Library Work Day

{sidebar id=1}We started getting the library grounds ready for the new plants at our November workday on the 3rd of this month.  Nona and Lee trimmed branches to open up the trees and let more sun in.  We dug up several nandinas and put them into pots to be planted elsewhere or sold at a plant sale and trimmed the lantanas near the main entrance.  Thank you, Suzann and Genie for helping with these chores.  The following week, Annette and I loaded the “trimmings” into her truck and took them to Lynn’s brush pile.  We didn’t want to take branches to the landfill or burn them.  Brush piles let the organic matter return to the soil and in the meantime they provide a place for wildlife.

Youth Gardening

Our 10 youth garden clubs at COAST Charter School have been busy.  The 5th through 7th grade clubs weeded the raised garden area, mixed in mushroom compost and finished mulching the area around the raised gardens.  The 3rd and 4th grade groups planted collards, kale, cabbage, mustard greens, lettuce, broccoli and brussels sprouts.  To decorate the area the PreK through 2nd grade clubs planted nasturtium seeds and planted pansies, petunias and snapdragons in the holes of the concrete blocks that edge the gardens.  Now we will begin work on the native plant garden by the entrance to the new classroom building.

Julian and Joyce Lewis

I had a neat experience at the COAST Fall Festival earlier this month.  The mother of two little girls who attend the school told me that she was Julian and Joyce Lewis’ granddaughter.  I loved learning that the great grandchildren of two of our charter members are in our youth gardening program.  The lady’s sister-in-law, Betsy Smith will be our speaker in January.  Her presentation will be about landscaping a Wakulla County yard.

Plant Sale

We held a last minute plant “sale” during our library workday.  The library was holding one of their bimonthly book give-aways so we had a nice crowd of customers.  Ruby and Suzann took care of everything while we worked on the library grounds.  We made $65.00 which was pretty good since there were no expenses and the plants were what I could fit in my car.  Most of them were left from last spring’s extravaganza, donated by June Ann or dug up from my yard.  Plus, the library will give us matching funds for what we earned.

November Meeting

Our meeting this month is just two days before Thanksgiving so we will be helping each other make floral centerpieces.  Start looking around your yard or the local stores for plants for your Thanksgiving arrangement.  You can use fresh or silk flowers or a mixture of both.  Bring a bowl, clippers, greenery, florist foam or needlepoint, and something colorful to create your masterpiece.  Knowledgeable helpers will be there to assist with the arrangements.  I plan on putting some of my beautiful dogwood leaves and berries in mine.

December 8th Potting Party at Just Fruits

Our Arbor Day bare root trees will be picked up from the tree nursery soon.  We will meet at Just Fruits Nursery on US 98 in Medart to put them into pots of soil.  Brandy and Ted will care for them until we pick them up for Arbor Day.  Let me know if you can bring a folding table to use as a potting bench.  I’ll supply small shovels, tubs, a wheelbarrow and a pitchfork.  Send me a note if you can think of anything else we will need.  Brandy has asked that we use the big drive gate along US98 to get to the work area.  That will leave room for customers to park in their regular parking lot.  We will begin work at 9:00 AM and work until all the little trees are potted.  Feel free to bring friends and neighbors to help with this project.

I’ll see you on November 20,2007 at 1:00 for our fun filled general meeting. 

Submitted by Jeannie Brodhead, President
Iris Garden Club of Wakulla County, Inc.

This newsletter originally published on November 19, 2007.

Written by :

mkwestmark

 

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