Holiday Lunch November 20, 2021

Our Holiday Lunch was very pleasant and we enjoyed being together. A big thank you to Denny Brown who arranged the particulars after finding a room at Bravo.  See picture below for his and Linda's color coding the place-cards which made for smooth servings.

We didn't have a meeting as such, but Colleen wished everyone Happy Holidays and repeated that our club needs one or more persons to step up for finding programs. The person(s) can pick a month and work that one program or do more. Our next meeting is in January and Dianne Machesney is preparing our program titled "Weeds." (Dianne always gives a well-prepared talk with pictures and I'm sure this will also be a good one. rmh)

Pictures by Dianne Machesney and RoseMary Highman.

L to R: Dianne, Colleen, and Evan deciphering the codes. 

Denny Brown explains his & Linda's color coding of appetizers, entrees, and desserts.

Clockwise: Dorothy Maruscak, Helen Dean, Marlow Madeoy, Nancy Madeoy, Victoria Zieger, Terry Server, Linda & Denny Brown.

L to R: RoseMary Highman, Martin Karl, Bill Goff, Dianne Machesney, and Colleen Fingal.

Lynn Betts and Jane MacCredie

L to R: Nancy Madeoy, Victoria Zieger, and Terry Sarver

Halen Dean and Marlow Madeoy

Dorothy Maruscak

Linda Brown 

Martin Karl and Bill Goff

Denny Brown

Evan Fingal

Colleen Fingal

RoseMary Highman

Martin Karl, Bill Goff, Dianne, and Colleen

Nancy, Victoria, Terry, Linda, and Denny

Denny presents Colleen with a thank you basket for her excellent multi-tasking during her presidency. 

LAGC Meeting – October 26, 2021

On a lovely October evening, club members met at the church and were treated to a very informative presentation on garden soil.

 

Blooming in member gardens currently is Monkshood, Tall Ageratum, Montauk Daisy, Everblooming White Iris and Mums.

 

A program coordinator is still needed for next year.  PLEASE consider taking on this important role for our club.  Master Gardeners are available again for presentations, and scheduling is being coordinated by 1 person, which we will need to do, even if our own master gardeners will be giving the presentation.

Our annual picnic will be held on the 4^th Tuesday in June, with Nancy and Marlow Madeoy as our hosts.  We will also be touring neighbor gardens of club members Peggy, Helen and Terry, so will be getting lots of inspiration for our own gardens.

 

$15 member dues were collected at the meeting.  If you did not make the meeting, and wish to be a member next year, please get your dues to Linda Brown.

 

Our Holiday luncheon will be at Bravo’s this year, on November 20, from 12:30 – 3:30.  If you weren’t at the meeting to sign up, and plan on attending, please email Denny Brown (dbblsb@gmail.com) by November 15 at the latest, since he needs to provide Bravo’s with the final headcount /menu selections by then.  Also, please send a check for $22 (made out to the LAGC) to Denny Brown (413 Hunter Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15237) to prepay for the luncheon, as 1 check will be issued from the club account.

 

Mary Anne reminded everyone to take note of perennials that need dividing while you are doing your fall cleanup.  You can either try potting them up now and overwintering them, dividing and replanting now for potting up in the spring, or simply dividing and potting up in the spring.  As the plant sale is our only fundraiser, it is very important that we have healthy plants for the sale, and we want to make it as easy on ourselves as possible.

 

Treasurer’s report

Beginning checking balance $5,470.05

Less 1,200 for contributions to the Sewickley Garden Club re: Wilpen Tour ($100), Shaler Garden Club re: Reilly Garden Tour ($100) and NHCO Bioshelter fund ($1,000)

Ending checking Balance $4,270.05

Petty cash $44.61

Total Cash $4,314.66

 

Winner of the arrangement was Dianne Machesney and of the garden cart, our presenter John’s wife.

 

“Good Soil, Good Garden” by John Powell, a master gardener.

 

When you have good soil, the capacity of the soil to function as an on-going vital ecosystem, allows production from year to year of great plants, without the addition of chemicals.

 

Plant and animal detritus at various stages of decomposition is great for soil, remember, at one point, it was alive.

 

Organic material brings structure to soil particles and returns nutrients to soil.  It allows water infiltration, especially on slopes and provides food to soil critters.

 

John stressed the importance of getting a soil test done, approximately once every three years. 

The 2 most important things coming out of a soil test are the CEC – which tells you how effective the soil is in holding nutrients and the % of organic material in your soil - optimal amount is 7%.

 

A soil probe is great to use to gather samples for your soil test.  You should take about 12 samples from the area you are testing and mix them together.

Penn State AASC allows you to print a form, bag your soil for the test and send it in, all for $9.

 

Now is the time to be spreading organic material in our gardens, to give it time to decompose over the winter months.  Also recommended is to leave your fall cleanup until spring, when there should be very little to cleanup as everything will have broken down and decomposed, which is great for soil as well as insects.

 

There are 5 components to soil – minerals, water, air, living organisms and organic material.

 

Water in clay is unavailable to plants and animals, which is why you need other things in our soil like sand, silt and organic material 

 

Soil problems are low organic matter, compaction, poor water retention, low fertility and poor or no plant growth.

 

John top dresses his garden beds every year with a mix of 3 yards leaf compost + 1 yard compost, no more than 2” deep.

 

If making your own compost, the best is an equal mix of brown and green material.

 

You should never work wet soil, don’t overfertilize and allow your perennials to decompose in place.

September 28, 2021 Tour of North Park Trial Gardens

 On a lovely September evening, club members were treated to a tour of the trial gardens at North Park, with our very own Dianne Machesney as the tour guide.

Dianne explaining the trial gardens.

 

This year, there were 15 new master gardeners.  They were divided into groups of 3, and their project was to create container gardens that encompassed the 5 senses.  These containers were situated behind the cannon wall.

Touch – fuzzy leaved and succulent plants of the can

Taste – herbs and tomato plants

Eyesight – colorful plants

Hearing – wind chimes & ornamental grasses in the wind

Smell – plants that smell good, like mint, lavender and roses.

 

Evan with a sensory container garden.

Another small container garden but Do Not Eat as edible plants are sprayed with deer repellant.

A pollinator garden was put in several years ago, and consists of several pollinator gardens.  One contains all natives.  Another is where the number and types of pollinators are counted and tracked.  This a project of the Penn State Extension Intern.

    

 

The meadow garden that was put in behind the trial / pollinator gardens was put in without consulting the Master Gardeners.  A Western meadow mix was used, and this year, very few plants from the mix survived.  The Master Gardeners will be taking over the meadow, and are currently starting with a small meadow garden right behind the pollinator garden.

Compost bins with meadow garden in background.

 

In front of the cannon are the trial flower beds.  The North Park trial gardens are a satellite testing site for Penn State’s Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Center (SEAREC).  Their main facility is in Landisville, PA, where they trial 900 annual cultivars.  This became a trial garden 4 years ago.  Prior to that, it was a demonstration garden, where plants were donated by local nurseries in the area.

 

The trial garden beds are used for trialing new varieties.  There are 11 trial beds and this year, there were 181 cultivars, consisting of 40 different genera.  The plants being trialed are for 17 different growers from California, Illinois, Germany, Czech Republic, Israel, Ohio, Massachusetts, Japan and the Netherlands.  These growers submit plugs or seeds for growing, along with sun, water and other plant requirements.  Usually, the cuttings / plugs arrive 3 days prior to the planting date, which doesn’t allow a lot of time for planning on where to plant, spacing … The plants are photographed and graded, using a scale from 1 – 5 on things like growing conditions, bug resistance, disease resistance … etc.  This information is sent to SEAREC, who shares it with the growers.  The trialing for the plants is for patent purposes, therefore, no seed saving is allowed from these plants.  Penn State receives payment for the trialing of the plants.

 

The publics favorite was Salvia farinacea  SALLYFUN , Deep Ocean.  Created by Danziger, a floriculture company based in Israel.

 

Directly behind the cannon, in front of the wall is a permanent planting of an herb garden which is maintained by one Master Gardener.  There is beautiful specimen of Eucalyptus, which is overwintered by the Master Gardener (Dianne checked).

 

To the right of the herb garden, is a perennial garden, which has been there for at least 10 years.

 

All fall maintenance for the garden is done on the same day, i.e. tearing out trial garden plants, cutting back herbs/perennials … etc.

Dianne checked with the team captain about what the plant is in the bicycle garden that looks like bear britches.  She said it is cardoon artichoke.

 _________

Colleen thanked Dianne for being our tour guide and giving us a lot of information about the trial gardens, as well as the permanent gardens that have been put in place.  It is truly a great resource for those interested in gardening.

 

Peggy made a motion, seconded by Denny that we make a donation to North Hills Community Outreach for their campaign to build a bioshelter.  The amount to be donated is $1,0000.  Approval was unanimous.  For more information, or if you want to personally donate, the link is:

 https://www.nhco.org/bioshelter

 

A program coordinator is still needed for next year.  PLEASE consider taking on this important role for our club.

 

We will be collecting member dues of $15 at our October meeting.

 

Mary Anne reminded everyone to take note of perennials that need dividing while you are doing your fall cleanup.  You can either try potting them up now and overwintering them, dividing and replanting now for potting up in the spring, or simply dividing and potting up in the spring.  As the plant sale is our only fundraiser, it is very important that we have healthy plants for the sale, and we want to make it as easy on ourselves as possible.

August 24 garden tour and meeting

On a beautiful, hot August evening, club members were privileged to tour the beautiful gardens of Karen Reilly.  Her garden was on the Shaler Garden Club tour this year, which is how we discovered this gem.  Karen provided a printout of Forest Bathing, defining what it is and listing a myriad of resources where it can be practiced in the Pittsburgh area as well as websites with more information. (Pictures by Dianne Machesney and RoseMary Highman are at the end of these notes.)

 The 20.89 acre property was purchased 14 years ago, and after a year of building their dream home, she and her husband David were able to move in and start gardening.  After 3 years of battling the deer, they bit the bullet and installed an 8 ft. high electrified fence around their main garden areas.  Some areas have a 2^nd fence, and these together have been successful in keeping the deer out.

 

Karen named their property Laurel Ridge, because it was covered with wild Laurel bushes.  They have since been hit by disease, over the last several years, but are starting to come back.

 

The garden is primarily a shade garden, due to the tree canopy which gets bigger every year.  In spite of the shade, there was a lot of color. The garden beds surround the various trees and are defined by stones which were dug up when they had to put a trench in to the garage.  

 

Karen loves to repurpose things and the stones were a free way to define her various garden beds.  Another repurposed item she had was a piece of granite, which is now a bench in her meditation garden.  Another repurposed item is the base of a table, which was a stump from a tree they had to remove, where she layered multiple coats of shellack on it.  She picked up the glass top from college students moving out and together, it made for a unique outdoor table.  Another repurposing are the “stepping stones” in her front garden beds which are made from tree trunks, and have lasted for years.

 

Their chandelier in their garden shed was picked up for the bargain price of $40 from a house built in 1938 in Mt Lebanon.  Some of the windows are antiques from Reilly’s Summer Seat Farm.  Part “she shed/ he shed,” the front part of the shed was setup as a sort of retreat area, and the back part of the shed had a riding mower, various lawn mowers and other lawn maintenance equipment, all behind a wall.

 

Karen loves to entertain, and therefore has many different seating areas throughout the garden, where one gets different vantage points of the various gardens, truly a serene setting.

 

The 2^nd floor of the garage has light system and heat mat installed, which they use for starting many of their plants from seed.

 

One of the impressive plantings was the “heart of the garden”.  Caladiums which were STARTED FROM SEED  by her husband, were planted in the shape of a heart, just beautiful.

 

In the sunnier area of the garden were peach trees, blueberry bushes and grapevines.  The peach trees were started from seed by her dad, and were successfully moved from prior locations, and they produce delicious peaches.  They have baffles around the upper trunks of the trees which are used to keep the squirrels off.

 

They have Japanese Maples around their fire pit, which are the great great grandchild [trees] of the Teddy Roosevelt Estate in Sagamore Hill, New York.

 

Canadian Hemlocks purchased from Mussers in the North were planted to establish a privacy fence.  Karen recommended Mussers for the quality of their stock, as well as the cost – she said at least ½ the cost of what we would pay around here, so if you are looking to pick up some trees for your garden, check them out.

 

Karen had mentioned that she had difficulty with her Roses this year.  Mary Anne recommended the following:

Fill a quart mason jar with water, add a banana peel.  Let sit for 4 days.  After 4 days, remove the banana peel, and add another one.  Let sit for another 4 days.  Water roses with 1 cup of the solution to the gallon of water, about once a week.  There is something in banana peels that roses absolutely love.

 

September’s meeting is still TBD.  If you have any ideas, please let Colleen know.

 

The club desperately needs someone to step up and be the programming coordinator.  Although Colleen has done a terrific job over the last 2 years, Colleen cannot continue taking care of the programming, as well as handling the president duties.

 

If you are willing to hostess the club picnic next year, please reach out to Colleen to let her know.  It can be held on a date that is convenient for you, does not need to be the 4^th Tuesday of June.

 

We will be collecting dues again for 2022 - $15.

 

Mary Anne brought Calendula seeds from her garden for any club members that were interested.  

 

Treasurer’s report:

 

Beginning checking balance                                                   $5,470.05

Deposit: Donation in memory of Lila Johnson                       $   100.00

Expense: Millvale Garden Tour                                               ($  100.00)

 

Ending Checking Balance                                                        $5,470.05

 

Petty Cash                                                                               $     44.61

 

Total Cash                                                                               $5,514.66

Karen Reilly, owner, host, guide, avid gardener and 're-purposer.'

Bubbling fountain, lower seating area.

RoseMary and Jane at one of the many tables.

Karen talking about the garden.

Here lights, pathways, and a framed entrance invite visitors in.

Tiny lights, stepping stones, and gardens delineated by stones which Karen placed.

One of the hearts in the garden.

Looking from the Abe Lincoln Garden back to Helena's Playhouse.

Close up view of playhouse.

Elephant in the Wildlife Garden.

One of the Fairy Gardens.

Glass topped table uses upside down tree stump as its base, concrete slab under base.

Vegetables and fruits are not forgotten.

Sun loving plants such as roses in the front of the Reilly's lovely home.

Heath Bar Cookies from Dianne Machesney

 

Heat oven to 375.  Line jelly roll pan with aluminum foil.

 

Line the pan in a single layer with 45 club crackers.

 

Melt 1cup butter in a saucepan, add 1 cup brown sugar. Boil 1-minute, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Add ¼ tsp baking soda. It will bubble up.  Stir and immediately pour over the crackers and spread evenly.  Bake for 10 minutes.

 

When it comes out of the oven, sprinkle 12oz. chocolate chips. When they melt, spread evenly overall.  Sprinkle with 1cup chopped nuts.  Cool in the fridge until everything is hard – about an hour.   Break into pieces.  Store in an airtight container.  Will last about 3 weeks.

 

 

LAGC Tour Notes – July 27, 2021

On a hot July evening, club members were privileged to tour the Millvale Community Garden, located at 15 Butler Street in Millvale.  Denise Rudar was our tour guide, and she has been instrumental in working / planning the gardens since their inception in 2010. See pictures at end of notes.

 

The community garden encompasses both sides of the street.  The raised beds are available for rent (has been free as of 2020, previously charged $40).  There is a raised bed garden and a gathering area on the right side, which is used a lot by the community to come read, or have an impromptu picnic.  This is courtesy of 2 plots of land where homes that needed to be torn down, due to flooding from Hurricane Ivan in 2004.  The land became FEMA property, which then reverted back to Millvale.  The community decided that the land should be designated as a community garden.  There is also a shed which Grow Pittsburgh helped to build, that has solar panels on it, which are used to power all of the lawn equipment used to maintain the garden.  The tools and equipment stored in the shed are available for use by any of the plot owners.

 

There were another 2 plots of land, also FEMA property which reverted back to Millvale, which has become the orchard with fruit trees and berry bushes, as well as “weeds” which are foraged by some avid gardeners.

 

On the left side is a hoop house which was constructed in 2013 as a result of a grant, 2 garden plots and several raised beds.  There was a fire in 2009 where 7 homes were burned down in one night.  The community garden committee approached Millvale about using the land to extend the community garden and through a lot of effort to track down owners and purchase the land, Millvale now owns.  

 

Millvale is considered a food desert, meaning there is no walkable grocery store in Millvale.  The 2 garden plots and 10 plots plus any abandoned raised beds are being used as an urban farm to grow organic produce, which is then distributed to the community through pop ups in conjunction with the library.  They raise money by taking in donations at the pop ups.  They also partner with local businesses in the area to provide them with locally grown produce, to be used by the business.  They’ve also held cooking classes in the community center, pre COVID, and are hoping to start those back up again.

 

If a community member is interested in starting a garden in one of the plots, there is an orientation where they are instructed in the rules of use for the garden, including language when in the garden.  Over the years, various scout projects have been done to help expand the garden.

 

Our next meeting will be a tour of the Reilly Garden, at 146 Wescott Dr, Pittsburgh, PA  15237.  This was one of the gardens on the Shaler garden tour, and truly impressive.

Denise Rudar, Coordinator & Volunteer.

Raised beds, wooden border, showing sample of what gardeners choose to grow

Herb garden with rain barrels right

Mary Ann showing a container for plant sale sticks

Most of the touring members

Peaches in the community orchard for everyone's use

Cold hardy kiwi

Flowers and vegetables across the road from original garden

Cherry tomatoes, tall plant ~ 5 ft tall

Raised barrel beds

Denny with various plants including large zucchini next to back fence