March 28, 2023 LAGC Meeting Notes

President Nancy Madeoy welcomed members to the March 28, 2023 meeting. We started the meeting with the question of what's blooming in your garden?  You could feel the enthusiasm in the room about the arrival of Spring by the responses of our members. Members mentioned having daffodils, primroses, star magnolia, hellebores and forsythia in bloom right now.

Nancy announced that we have a new member. Welcome to Amy Foreman! We're glad to have you join the club.

 

One of our members, Ellen Dvorsky passed away from an illness on 3/2/2023. She was an LAGC member since 2001.  A card was circulated for members to sign and it will be sent to Ellen’s family to share our condolences.

 

Two programs have been confirmed for the summer months.  The July 25th program will be a tour of Sandy Csikari’s Garden. We visited Sandy’s garden a couple of years ago and it was fabulous.  We’re looking forward to seeing what she’s growing now! The August 22nd program will be “Edible Landscaping” presented by Penn State Master Gardener, Pat Morgan.  I’m sure it will be an interesting program.

 

Mary Anne Kurtz talked about our annual perennial plant sale to get us organized for Saturday, May 20th.  Please mark your calendars and plan to spend a fun morning with fellow members.  We’d like everyone to participate to help make it another successful plant sale. Be sure to bring your 15-20 potted and labeled plants to Northmont church on the morning of the sale between 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. Paper reminders which can be given to family and friends with all the details about the plant sale were distributed. Denny and Linda, Claudia and Evan volunteered to share the task of bringing boxes for customers to carry their plants. Mary Anne asked members to let her know if you know of any community gardens that might benefit from some of the leftover plants from our sale.  Please give the name and contact information to Mary Anne.  We talked about a few ways to make it easier to count the number of plants that are for sale. No decision was made and we will talk about it again before the plant sale. We were reminded to be alert for jumping worms as we are digging up our plants to pot up for the sale.

 

Terry Sarver brought the arrangement which was a beautiful show of Spring flowers featuring mini daffodils, hellebores, hyacinths and an Easter bunny.  Colleen Fingal brought delicious carrot cake and red velvet cake balls (see recipe at end of these notes) along with chocolate bar cookies. It was a beautiful table!

Dianne Machesney showing one of her favorite reference books.

Program

 “Tree Diseases” by Dianne Machesney, Penn State Master Gardener

 

Our fellow club member, Dianne Machesney gave a very informative talk about some of the disease producing agents which cause stress and or death in trees.  She talked in depth about 20 different diseases which can be caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses or insects. We learned about the Spotted Lanternfly in one of her previous talks so she didn’t include it in this program.

 

Dianne’s presentation covered a number of diseases and tree pests that are somewhat familiar to us such as Emerald Ash Borer, Eastern Tent Caterpillar, Woolly Adelgid, Japanese beetles, Fire Blight and Oak Wilt.  She also put a name to some of the diseases that we may have seen but, couldn’t identify such as Amillaria Root Rot, Anthracnose and Verticillum Wilt.

 

Below I've listed a few of the facts that I found most interesting.

 

One insect that we used to see create a lot of damage to our trees is the gypsy moth which is now called the spongy moth. There is now a natural fungus that is curing the problem so the spongy moth is not considered to be such a big problem anymore.

 

One of the newest issues is Beech Leaf disease which was detected in Allegheny County in 2017 and is currently being studied to find a cure.

 

If you want to get rid of Japanese beetles then, it's recommended to treat the grass for grubs. The Japanese beetle traps that are sold in stores are not a good control because they have pheromones in them which attract beetles from your neighbors’ areas to your yard.

 

Some diseases may only cause superficial damage and others can eventually kill a tree.  It’s important to do your research to identify what is causing the problem with the tree and then discover what is the best treatment.  There are many great resources available and Dianne has recommended the Penn State Master Gardener website as a reputable source of information.

 

It was a great talk by a knowledgeable speaker. Garden club members will benefit from the knowledge that was gained from the presentation and will hopefully, be more confident about identifying problems in their own gardens.

 

Thank you, Dianne!

(Meeting notes by Colleen Fingal, pictures by Rose Mary Highman)

Cake Balls Recipe

A recipe for cake balls that uses cake mix, frosting and candy melts to

create fun and festive bites. Cake balls are perfect for gift giving and

they're easy to turn into cake pops!

Course Dessert                     Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes           Cook Time 30 minutes     

  Chill Time 1 hour                   Total Time 1 hour

Servings 36                           Calories 116kcal

Author Sara Welch                

Ingredients      Instructions

1 box cake mix flavor of your choice

eggs, oil and water as called for on cake mix box

1 cup + 2 tablespoons canned frosting flavor of your choice

1 pound candy melts (I recommend Ghirardelli Melting Wafers)

1/2 cup sprinkles

1. Prepare cake mix with the amount of oil, water and eggs directed on the box. Bake in a 9”x13”

pan according to package directions.

2. Let cake cool completely, then break apart and crumble until fine crumbs form.

3. Stir in the frosting until a dough forms. If the dough seems dry, you can add additional

frosting, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.

4. Roll the cake mixture into tablespoon sized balls. Place the balls on a parchment lined baking

sheet and chill for at least one hour.

5. Melt the candy melts in a bowl in the microwave, heating in 30 second increments, and stir

until completely smooth.

6. Place each cake ball on a fork and use a spoon to pour the candy melts over the cake ball.

Tap against the side of the bowl to remove excess candy melts.

7. Place each ball on a parchment lined sheet pan. Top with sprinkles.

8. Repeat with remaining cake balls and candy melts. Store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Can be made up to 3 days in advance.

Calories: 116kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 116mg | Potassium:

11mg | Sugar: 15g | Calcium: 31mg | Iron: 0.3mg

Two types of delicious Cake Balls.

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.

 

 

June 1st Picnic & Garden Tour, June 22nd Wilpen Garden Tour

 LAGC Meeting – June 1, 2021

 

On a lovely Tuesday evening, Colleen welcomed garden club members to the beautiful home and garden of Lynn and Ross Betts for our annual picnic and she thanked them for hosting the club.

 

Mary Anne gave an update on the plant sale, as well as some recommendations for changes.  We made $2,120 and only had to donate 57 plants at the end.  We started with 576 and over ½ were sold before 10.  The highest sale was $136 and the average was $25. 

 

Mini-blinds are needed for plant tags for future sales.  If you have any you are getting rid of, pass along to Mary Anne, she will take care of getting the slats out.

 

For future pricing efforts, Mary Anne is going to take some cutlery holders and use them to hold the various colored popsicle sticks, to make it easier for those doing the pricing.  We are also going to move further down in the lot, to open up the entrance, making it easier for customers to find parking.

 

In the future, the sale will be cash only, as a $40 check bounced, and cost us $12 in fees.  This will be announced in our advertising for the plant sale.  We will also add a “Pay Here” sign at the cashier station, as it was not obvious to customers where they needed to pay.

 

We have a lot of repeat customers, who have given the feedback that everything they have purchased in prior years grows.

 

Possibility of a “garden garage sale” was discussed.  As a group, it was determined that it was not worth the effort, but if individual members want to get together to set something up, they are welcome to do so.

 

A special thanks to Mary Anne for keeping everything organized and tracked.

 

Lynn thanked Colleen for all of her hard work, both as president, and getting programs put together.  She also suggested a day trip somewhere as a way of using up some of our funds.  This will take some research and coordination.

 

A member is still 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.

 

On June 22, we will be touring the Wilpen Rose and Perennial Garden in Sewickley Heights.  Colleen is going to scope out the parking situation, we’re thinking there will be a need to carpool, as parking will probably be limited.

 

On July 27, we will be touring the Millvale Community Garden.

 

Suggestions are being sought for August, September and October meetings.

 

Rosemary brought some gladiolus bulbs to share.

 

After a delicious meal and desserts, Lynn took everyone on a tour of her many gardens.  They’ve lived in the house since 1990 and have done a lot of work to the various gardens over the years.  She started building a berm along Route 910, both as a visual and sound barrier in 1996.  Over the years, as the berm ingredients have composted down, “black gold” has formed.

 

 

Some highlights:

 

Lynn has placed deer netting up a tree to allow clematis to climb up, a very unique idea.

She moved a rose that was tucked away, doing not much of anything, to her main garden, and fed it banana peels, and it has exploded.  It loves the new location, soil and banana peels.  

Most of her plants in her garden have come from plant sales, friends and family.

The main flower garden is a work in progress.  Members who saw it 4 years ago can see how far it has come.  She is now in maintenance mode.

Her fence around the vegetable garden is a heavy duty black chain link fence.  The top does not have a defined edge, which makes the deer afraid to jump

She has early, mid and late blooming clematis to give her a full season of color. Of note was the “Villa de Leon” which was currently blooming.

In her shade garden, she had many varieties of Hostas, Astilbes, Solomon’s Seal, Sweet Woodruff, Turtlehead and Hellebores, to name a few, which she views from her kitchen.

Pictures by D Machesney & RM Highman

Entry way gardens

Delicious food in a lovely setting

Mary Ann giving Plant Sale results & suggestions

Shade garden area

Another stone wall the Betts family has changed over the years.

Lynn telling about the gardens.

Lovely evening for a tour.

Lynn & Ross Betts

Looking into the vegetable garden.

Lynn talking about some of her plants. 

Recipe from J Schomaker, good pot luck dish we enjoyed.

Wilpen Rose & Perennial Garden Tour, June 22, 2021

LAGC Meeting – June 1, 2021

 

On a perfect June evening, club members were privileged to tour the gardens at Wilpen in Sewickley Heights.

 

Wilpen Hall is an estate in Sewickley Heights located at 889–895 Blackburn Road and 201 Scaife Road. It was added to the List of Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks in 2001 and the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 2011. The estate was built from 1897 to 1900 for William Penn Snyder and his wife as a summer home; "Wilpen" is a contraction of the name William Penn. The home was designed by George Orth and Brothers in the style of an English Manor house. Snyder was the founder of the Shenango Furnace Company and other subsidiaries. The estate was left to their two sons, William Penn Snyder, Jr. and G. Whitney Snyder, in 1930. As of 2006, the Snyder family still resided in the home. The mansion served for interior shots of John du Pont’s Foxcatcher Farm estate in the film Foxcatcher (2013), starring Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum. 

 

Verna, the wife of the late William Penn Snyder III was our tour guide, accompanied by volunteer Mark, who has been refurbishing the rose garden on the first and second terrace gardens.  The gardens are maintained by 4 – 5 volunteers.  In its heyday, there were anywhere between 30 – 50 servants who helped maintain the house and properties

 

The estate is registered with the Smithsonian American Gardens.  Upon Verna’s passing, it will become a part of the Heinz History Center.  An endowment has been setup for the upkeep and improvements to the estate and gardens.  Verna has promised to haunt the estate after she passes.

 

QR Codes will be supplied by Verna to Colleen, which will give us more historical information than what we probably want on the estate and gardens.

 

The roof has been replaced on the main house.  It took 70 tons of Ludiwici tile, which is guarantee for at least 100 years.

 

There is a huge Wisteria which covers the entire front of the estate, quite impressive.

 

There are 20+ bedrooms, each one has at least one fainting couch.  Women that were there for parties or some other type of getaway would typically change outfits 4 to 5 times per day.

 

To combat the deer problem, they put up deer fencing around the whole estate to keep the deer out, and it works.  We saw a small fawn on the other side of the fence, looking longingly in at all those delicious hostas.

 

A tree in the pasture area dates back to the late 1600’s, quite a specimen.

 

The first garden we saw was on the one side of the house which is called the White Garden.  Similar to our white chapel garden, all plants bloom white and one can imagine how breathtaking it is in the moonlight.  Some of the plants are potted in pots that are original to the estate.  Lamium, White Sage, Viburnums, Daisies, Impatiens, Bacopa, Catmint, Hibiscus, Angelonia and Hibiscus were just some of the plants planted in this garden.

 

Then we walked through the rock garden area, which has both sun and shade areas, and properly planted by a variety of plants suited to the light requirements.  This garden is maintained by 2 volunteers.

 

The ruins of the old pool house were also visible.  It was a heated, indoor pool  house, with a sitting room, and male and female changing rooms, just to name a few of the amenities.  In the spring, there are “billions” of tree frogs.

 

The outdoor pool is also in ruins, and what to be done to refurbish it is under discussion.  It is actually less expensive to renovate the pool, than it is to putting in a pond in the location.  

 

Mark then toured us through his perennial/rose gardens.  Mark has completed master gardener training and also has a lifetime of gardening knowledge.  All of the roses which have been planted are historic roses.  He said there are only 6 business in the country that carry historic roses.  One of the ones he found is Freedom Gardens, near Ravenna, OH.  They have a large number of antique roses, should any of us happen to find ourselves near Ravenna, it is worth stopping by.  Mark tries to employ natural methods to combat common rose problems like blackspot.  Typically he will cut leaves off, or spray with copper if it gets to be really bad.  Ramblers are planted along the wall, and he is working on trellising them so that the entire wall is covered.   He uses green Velcro to attach the vining branches to his trellis.  What he is working towards is continual bloom in the garden.  All of the rose varieties that he has planted are labeled, as well as all of the accompanying perennials.   He has found that English Roses tend to be fragrant, and that older varieties will produce long canes.  The Gallica Rose is an apothecary rose, known for the rose hips it produces.  Any tender rose varieties that he has growing are brought indoors in the winter and then moved back outside when the weather warms back up.  The nearby nursery that he recommended is the Sewickley Creek Nursery.

 

Outside of the rose gardens were a huge bed of Peonies, several huge Dahlia plants (he thinks they came from Sewickley Creek Nursery) and several raised beds that used to be used to grow vegetables, and now are used for ornamentals.

 

After the tour, we were treated to refreshments, which included Golden Raisin Scones from the Enrico Biscotti Company in the Strip District.

 

Then we were treated to a tour of the carriage house, which houses carriages owned by the family throughout the decades, including a 1909 Horseless Renault Carriage.  The roof of the carriage house is also being renovated with the same tiles used on the main house.  It will take only 40 tons for the carriage house.

 

On July 27, we will be touring the Millvale Community Garden.

 

Suggestions are being sought for August, September and October meetings.

 

Pictures by D Machesney & B Goff.

First 12 by D Machesney.

Verna, owner of the estate.

B Goff getting close ups (see his pictures farther down in this entry).

D Machesney's selfie.

Evan & Marlow relaxing.

Inside the carriage house.

Below are B Goff's pictures.