LAGC Meeting Notes, May 24, 2022

 On a lovely Tuesday evening, Colleen welcomed garden club members, and guests: Nancy, Jenny and Stephanie, all coming to us from the plant sale.  Cindy Stewart is the newest member of our club.  Blooming in member gardens:  Irises, poppies, corydalis, amsonia, alliums, columbine

A member is needed to step up and assume responsibility for programming.  You can partner up with one or more members to make it a little easier. Please contact Colleen to get more information if you are interested. Holding office or chairing a committee is a great way to get involved.  In the interim, let Colleen know if you know of any presenters or potential tours for future meetings.

 

Officers have served 4 terms, so new officers need to be selected in June, for the next 2-year term, 2023-2024.  Denny has indicated he would be Treasurer, but President, Vice President and Recording Secretary are needed.  If interested, please let Colleen know.  If you have any questions of the duties for these positions, please reach out to the current holder of the position.

 

Passavant sign-up sheet to weed/deadhead the white garden in front of the chapel is at the sign-in table.  If you did not attend the meeting, please contact Evan Fingal to sign up for a week.

 

If you are having problems opening up the attachment for the Quality Gardens discount from the e-mail sent by Colleen, please reach out to her.

 

Our meeting next month will be our annual picnic at the Madeoys.  In addition to touring their garden, members will also be given a tour of Peggy, Helen & Terry’s gardens.  Reminder to bring a dish to share and a chair. Marlow had asked that if parking on the road to please park on the left side of the street, and also, please car pool if possible.  An e-mail will be sent out to remind members of the picnic, and to also ask for an RSVP, so they can get an accurate headcount.  

 

Overview of plant sale was presented by Mary Anne.  We had great weather, it was a beautiful day and everything was done by 11:15.  A huge thank you to Mary Anne for coordinating everything, and a thanks to all members who participated by either bringing plants, aided in pricing, spoke with customers, were stagers or cashiers.  Only 8 plants were left at the end for donation.  We started with 637 plants, and 500+ were sold in the first hour.  If you have any ideas for improvement, please reach out to Mary Anne.  One suggestion is that the address be put on the reminders, also “cash only”.

 

Dianne provided a treasurer’s report.  We started out with $4,100.97.  Membership Dues + Plant Sale Gross Profit deposits of $2,205 brought the checking balance to $6,305.87.  After plant sale sign fees of $180, our ending checking balance is $6,125.87.  Adding petty cash of $63.066, our total cash available to the club is $6.188.93.  Please bring ideas with you to the picnic on ways that the monies could be used to benefit the club.

 

Thank you to Rosemary for the beautiful arrangement and to Martin for the delicious cookies that he baked.

A very informative presentation on "What’s Wrong With My Plants” was given to us by Siloo Kapadia.  Siloo has been a master gardener since 2012 and is also a member of the Herb Society

 

The main causes of plant problems are living (insects, diseases, weeds, invasives and wildlife) and non-living (weather, soils, chemicals, mechanical injuries, cultural practices and, in some cases, a genetic predisposition within the plant itself)

 

There are 4 main things which make a garden successful: Temperature (hardiness zone), Light, Water and Soil.  The adage of “right plant for the right place” is very true.  Before you buy plants, you should first assess the location for temperature, light, water and soil to make sure you are planting the correct plant in the correct location.  What tends to happen is people buy the plant and then try to figure out where they are going to put it.

 

Integrated Pest Management is the prevention, monitoring, and using cultural techniques to control pests and diseases.  Chemicals are to be used only as a last resort.

 

Healthy plants resist pests and diseases.  Monitoring of plants to detect early problems makes it easier to control or reduce the damage.   Using cultural tactics to make the plant unfavorable helps to control the pests and diseases.  Some examples are manual destruction of pests, traps, handpicking, screens, fences, watering from the bottom, having the proper soil pH for what you are growing,  using beneficial insects, and natural spores such as Bt.

 

Each plant has its own set of pests and diseases.  Siloo had many examples of specific plants with a specific insect pest or disease.  The other important thing to know is the life cycle of the pests to be able to effectively deal with them.  For example, the bag worm: chemicals only work on them in the beginning stages of their life.  Afterwards, they are completely ineffective and would be a waste of money.  The best thing to do would be to cut them off and discard them when they are more fully developed.

LAGC 2022 Plant Sale

Thank you to Mary Ann who once again led the Plant Sale to a successful conclusion. She may not have managed the weather, but it was perfect without our usual set up in the rain and wind. Thank you all who brought plants, helped set up, priced, staged, cashiered, cleaned up, etc. This was truly a club project with all members helping. In the past our club has voted to donate to other non-profits and this will most likely be true for 2022. Bill took plant sale pictures which showed members having fun while at the sale and they have been added to the blog.

Below: RoseMary took a few pictures.

Bill with camera is finally in a picture.

Andrea took this picture.

Tents are down, vehicles are nearly packed, and all soon
headed away from another successful plant sale. (Ron K left, Evan F right)

April 26, 2022 Meeting notes

On a lovely Tuesday evening, where we finally felt like spring might be here, Colleen welcomed garden club members. Blooming in member gardens:  Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, Hellebores, Grape Hyacinths, Trilliums, Fruit trees are in bud and as are Red Buds. 

 A tour is being planned for August’s meeting.  September and October meetings still need to be planned out. Mary Anne had suggested a tour of the Botanical Gardens, on a Saturday morning instead of Tuesday evening, because it would be getting dark earlier, or there are is the Ken Yost garden in Wilkinsburg. Lynn Betts had suggested a tour to the Kridler Garden nursery in Ohio, exactly 1 hour and 26 minutes from the church.  It’s best to go in the spring/early summer for the best selection of plants.  They have some more unusual varieties than what you see in the big box stores/our nurseries in this area.

 

Victoria had suggested a craft meeting for October, where we would make a door decoration with dried stuff from our gardens.

 

A member is needed to step up and assume responsibility for programming.  You can partner up with one or more members to make it a little easier. Please contact Colleen to get more information if you are interested. Holding office or chairing a committee is a great way to get involved.  In the interim, let Colleen know if you know of any presenters or potential tours for future meetings.

 

Officers have served 4 years, so new officers need to be selected in June, for the next 2-year term, 2023-2024.  Denny has indicated he would be Treasurer, but President, Vice President and Recording Secretary are needed.  If interested, please let Colleen know.  If you have any questions of the duties for these positions, please reach out to the current holder of the position.

 

Solomon’s Seal and White Iris divisions from the chapel garden are available in the back.  Claudia also brought in decorations, Lynn had an extra green t-shirt and  pots were available if needed for the plant sale.

 

Passavant sign-up sheet to weed/deadhead the white garden in front of the chapel is at the sign in table.  If you did not attend the meeting, please contact Evan Fingal to signup for a week.

 

Overview of plant sale was presented by Mary Anne.

It will be held rain or shine of Saturday May 14.  Pray for rain the prior day, and sun for the day of.

 

Thanks to Claudia who has already taken care of the publicity for the plant sale.  She was instrumental in getting an article of our club/plant sale in the 4/14 issue of the Tribune.  She will also bring tables and tent covers on the day of the sale.

 

Linda will bring name tags, Denny will act as cashier for the entirety of the sale, and Dianne will provide the seed money.

 

Mary Anne will take care of placing the signs.

 

Your plants should be potted by now, so they will look nice and healthy on the day of the plant sale.  Use 4 – 6” pots, and the value of the plant must be at least $2.  Even if you cannot come to the actual plant sale, please pot up some plants and arrange for them to be dropped off with a fellow member.  This is our only fundraiser of the year.

 

Plants should be dropped off in the church parking lot by 7:30 on the day of the plant sale.  For those working, or available to assist our customers with plant selection, “apple green” t-shirts are our uniform.  

 

Sign up sheet is at the sign in table.  If you were unable to attend the meeting, contact Mary Anne to sign up as a pricer, stager or cashier, for either the first or 2^nd half of the morning.

 

Dianne provided a treasurer’s report.  We started out with $4,394.75.  After speaker fees, and directory fees totaling $293.88, our ending balance in the checking account is $4,100.87.  Adding petty cash and membership dues of $70.06, our total cash available to the club is $4,170.93.

 

Debra from “Plant Traps” provided her “elevator speech” on her product.  You can find Plant Traps on Facebook, Instagram or simply google the term and you’ll learn all about the cool product she invented to extend your planters beyond your deck or porch railings.  She is also scheduled to appear on Pittsburgh Today Live on May 6.

Floating Garden Shelf on RoseMary's breezeway, planted pot to follow.

Thank you to Nancy for the beautiful arrangement and to Mary Anne for the delicious dessert.

Nancy's Phalaenopsis orchid.

A very informative presentation on “Backyard Composting” was given to us by John Powell.

 

He started with a quote from the Bible – “All go unto one place, all are from dust and all will be dust again.”

 

John considers himself to be a passive composter.  He puts everything into the bin until fall, when he sifts it, puts it in another pile to finish composting for use in the spring.

 

Ingredients for a good compost pile:

 

Green stuff, Brown Stuff, Air, Nutrients, Water and Critters who do the composting (like worms).

 

4’ x 4’ is the optimum size for a compost pile.

 

If you compost at home, you know what’s in your compost, it’s free, environmentally friendly and keeps the ingredients used to compost out of the landfill.

 

If you put large brown sticks at the bottom of your pile, it allows for better air circulation.

 

Jane assists by adding the compost layers.

Cage type for compost pile. 

Bone meal may be added to heat up the pile.

Tumbler compost model on left, stationary unit on right.
Typical "greens" food waste in front.

Chopping up your ingredients, whether it be kitchen waste, leaves, grass or twigs/branches other brown matter, will cause your stuff to compost quicker.

 

The 3 main methods of composting he covered are the composter (looks like R2D2), a rotating composter and cage method.  He prefers the cage method.

 

The greens in the compost = nitrogen, and the browns = carbon.  Basically, you want 1 part green to 30 parts brown.

 

Your compost pile should be turned regularly to speed up the decomposition process.

 

You should monitor for moisture.  Rotten odor = too much water, ammonia odor = too much nitrogen.

 

Sifting your compost results in a nicer product, and what doesn’t sift can be returned to the pile to decompose further.

 

Things you should NOT put in your compost: Kittly litter, Kitty poop, Plants that were sprayed with a pesticide, plants infected with a soil borne fungus or powdery mildew, weed seeds, meat and any cooked food.

 

John ended his presentation with a quote: “Old gardeners never die, they just very slowly turn into magnificent compost”

 

Debra had left a plant trap with Andrea to be given away.  Rosemary was the lucky winner.