LAGC October 24, 2024 Meeting Notes

President Nancy Madeoy welcomed members to the last meeting of 2024.

Members were asked What’s blooming in our gardens?  Monkshead, dahlias and mums.

LAGC members agreed to once again donate $250 to the following organizations:

·      Western PA Conservancy

·      Botanic Gardens of Western PA

·      North Area Environmental Council

·      Tree Pittsburgh

The Hostess signup sheet for 2025 was circulated to fill a few openings.

Marlow Madeoy spoke about a few details regarding the holiday luncheon and tour on November 16^th.  The restaurant will accommodate dietary needs and will offer a vegetarian food option.  The club will not be organizing a carpool for the events.  As in the past, members may arrange their own carpool and use the church parking lot as a meetup location.  Directions to the Kerr Museum and Hartwood Whisper’s Pub restaurant will be sent by our Email Coordinator, Claudia.  You may also use your GPS or cell phone for directions.  Dessert for the lunch will be a variety of cookies.  A few members have volunteered to bring cookies.

Claudia gave an update about the plans for the 75^th Anniversary celebration next year.  Plans are progressing smoothly thanks to Claudia and the committee members.  Claudia showed us a sample of the table centerpiece which is a real pumpkin containing live flowers.  The base of the signpost at the Chapel Garden will be sanded and stained.  There’s some positive discussion about having a rededication of the garden.

Our hostesses created a lovely and most delicious table.  Mary Jo Clayton brought an amazing and abundant vase of dahlias from her garden.  Andrea Maire shared her delicious homemade jam along with cream cheese, crackers and grapes.  It was delicious!  Thank you.

 

Program – A New Deal for North Park by Deaglan McManus

Our speaker, Deaglan McManus, Park Ranger for Allegheny County Parks returned to give another interesting talk about the history of North Park.  He began his talk with a reminder about how fortunate we are to have North Park so close to home with its 3094 acres of land and many miles of hiking trails. 

This evening Deaglan came to talk to us about how the New Deal transformed North Park.

He explained that the New Deal is a series of programs enacted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt between 1933 and 1938 to rescue the United States from the Great Depression.

 

The first program that he talked about was the Civilian Conservation Corps or CCC.  The program which ran from June 1933 to October 1935 involved housing about 200 men in a tent camp set up above a hillside on Wildwood Road.  The workers were young, unemployed men and were given jobs to help build some of the various buildings in North Park. This program allowed the workers to earn money, skills and become literate before they left the program.

Our speaker also talked about the Public Works Program and Civil Works Admin Program which are responsible for building some of the many structures in North Park such as the swimming pool, Golf Club House, North Park Lodge, standpipe, boathouse, and gatehouse.  The workers of these programs built the latrines, shelters and even the picnic tables that are still used today.  The most amazing feat is that the workers dug out Marshall Lake. When you are in North Park look for the metal commemorative plaques that were hung to signify jobs that were made possible with federal funding from the New Deal Programs.

 

Deaglan gave a very informative talk.  His love of history and the Allegheny County Parks is apparent in his enthusiastic delivery.  We look forward to him returning to bring another interesting presentation.

For more details about how North Park was developed by programs of the New Deal, please visit the Allegheny County Parks website.

https://www.alleghenycounty.us/parks-and-events/parks/northpark/history-of-north-park

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Special Fieldtrip - Two Local Gardens

On June 11th we toured two local gardens. First we visited Aggie and Bill Barontini's home, recognized as a "Garden of the Month" by the Ingomar Garden Club then on to Dot Sim's garden which was featured on last year's Shaler Garden Club tour. Dot is president of the Shaler Garden Club.

This first group of photos are from Aggie and Bill's garden.  This garden makes me think of a English Country garden with lots of roses, lavender and such!  These first photos are along the side and front of their house.

Starting here are photos on the other side of the house which is fenced in.  Don't know the name of this pretty blue plant but it sure is pretty.

Lots of beautiful roses Bill said they only plant continuous bloom roses which of course is an excellent idea.

This is at Dot's house completely different from the first garden but still very lovely!  These first photos are in the front of the house.

Sorry puppy I should have given you more privacy!!

Here are the photos in the back of the house which is very shady and has this wonderful waterfall and pond.

Some of our friends relaxing by the pond!

Sorry but I lost some of my photos of Dot's garden.  There where clematis the side of the house with ferns and other flowers.  I hope your have enjoyed the photos!