April
25, 2017
Attendance: 28 – 26 members,
2 guests
·
Welcome - Claudia Hickly, LAGC
President, welcomed members and guests.
o Special welcome back to
Helen Dean and Mary Anne Kurtz after their surgeries.
o Linda Brown circulated a
get well card for members to sign for Marilyn Gurtner.
·
LAGC Archive 1950 – 2016 now on loan to
McCandless Heritage Center. Their Open House is Saturday, May 20th
1:00 PM.
·
Evergreen Park Update – Anita Wagner
o Anita met Eloise Peet,
Ross Twp. Director of Parks & Recreation, at the park. Anita found the hillside in question to be
long, steep and shared with deer -- not a good fit for most donated LAGC
perennials.
o LAGC can recommend
specific native plants for the hillside and may be able to donate plants for
specific, smaller park sites.
o Anita will meet again
with Eloise to finalize plans including the May 20th pick-up of
donated plants and their transportation to the park.
o Anita will coordinate
pick-up plans with Mary Anne and those plans will be communicated to club
members.
o If Ross Twp. cannot
pick-up plants May 20th, Anita and Eloise will determine an
alternate plan and Anita will communicate that to club members.
o A house at park is
available for event functions such as our picnic costing ~$75.
·
Plant Sale Publicity – Claudia Hickly
o Publicity submitted to
North Journal and Western PA Garden & Landscape Symposium for their packet.
o If you are a Facebook
user, please post plant sale information on your page.
o If you have good photos
of previous plant sales, please email to Claudia.
o LAGC photographers
please take photos of this year’s plant sale to be used for future publicity.
·
Plant Sale Update – Mary Anne Kurtz
o Please dig up your
plants (if we don’t have them, we can’t
sell them) and bring to the sale between 7:30-7:45 a.m.
o Wear your green shirt.
o Jenna Noker will bring
balloons and coffee, Chris Kerin water, Marlow Madeoy and Colleen Fingal
folding chairs.
o Plant tags must be tall
enough to be seen in the pot with name, blooming time, color, sun, special
notes such as deer resistant and water and soil requirement.
o Unsold plants will be
donated this year to Ross Township’s Evergreen Park. If that is not possible,
unsold plants will be donated - at Plant Sale Coordinator’s discretion - to the
North Hills Community Outreach Garden, the North Hills Art Center, or the
Wilkinsburg Community Garden sponsored by Northmont U.P. Church. And possibly a
combination of all three.
·
Discussion of Plant Sale
Practices & Profits
o Lynn Betts questioned
the wisdom of waiting until 11:30 – 11:45 a.m. to sell the plants at half
price. She also pointed out that we are
a non-profit and may have too much money in our current budget.
o After member comment
& discussion, there was a consensus not to change current Plant Sale
practice. We will wait to reduce prices
until at least 11:30 a.m. depending on the weather. Members may not purchase or
set aside plants for purchase before the sale goes to half off. Since members willingly share plants, ask a
fellow member if you’re interested in obtaining a specific plant.
o Treasurer Denny Brown
and others addressed the issue of profits and club stewardship. 2016 donations were reviewed and the $550 in
2017 donations noted. There is also a
concern that increased speaker fees and rent increases will negatively impact
our small budget. All members seemed to
share Lynn’s concern for the good stewardship of our funds.
o Members are open to
making more donations or increasing the amount of our current donations
depending on the success of the plant sale – our only fundraiser.
·
Garden Flea Market—Victoria Zieger
o In Victoria’s absence,
Claudia reviewed information.
o Bring clean and usable
garden or flower arranging items by 7:45 a.m.
o Take home your unsold
items at noon.
o Monies will be separate
from Plant Sale - profit will be added to Plant Sale total.
o Members may purchase
between 9:00 a.m. – Noon.
·
Passavant Chapel Garden—Thank you to Peggy
Elizeus and Helen Dean for twenty-two years of working this garden. Sign up
sheet was passed around for two-week stints of weeding and deadheading. Peggy
will work with you if you have never volunteered at the Chapel Garden.
·
Plants Blooming—Dianne Machesney had a
list of plants blooming in her garden and here are just a few of them:
Brunneria, Solomons seal, wood poppy, arrowwood viburnum, golden alexander,
Epimedium, Grandiflora trillium, and others.
·
Dessert and arrangement —thank you to Mary Jo
Benedetti and Chris Kerin for dessert and arrangement respectively.
Program: “Mushrooms”
by Bob Sleigh
Jenna
introduced Bob Sleigh who showed excellent slides and gave an informative
presentation filled with caution, humor, knowledge, and stories on a topic he
adores and has been involved with since the mid-1960s. He is a Certified
Identifier for the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club and was a founder of the
Indiana Pennsylvania Mushroom Club. At the beginning, he gave cautions—“You are
ultimately the decision maker for what you put in your mouth.” Only eat
widely-known and easily identified wild mushrooms. Never eat a wild mushroom
raw. Even Morels are poisonous when raw.
·
Pennsylvania
has poisonous mushrooms. Learn to identify these before even thinking of eating
a wild mushroom. Death Angel is similar to one Europeans love but it is NOT the
same one growing here next to pines.
·
Mushrooms
concentrate chemical contaminants. Know the area where collected. Always slice
a mushroom lengthwise to check for various insects and freshness.
·
If
you have never eaten a type of mushroom before, eat a little as you might have
an allergic reaction. Save some raw for identification purposes if reaction
occurs. Avoid alcohol 24-hours before and after mushroom consumption.
·
Mushroom
kinds are at least 50-70,000. Growing and categorizing them was pushed forward
by the hippie culture.
·
Bob
grows Oyster and Bear’s Head Tooth in his home. Many mushroom varieties are
tasty and relatively easy to grow. If you want to freeze mushrooms, he sautés
them with onions and garlic, freezes in ice-cube trays, and then tosses them
while frozen into soups.
Calendar:
·
Plant Sale Saturday, May
20th from 9 a.m. – 12 a.m. Bring your 15+ potted plants between 7:30
and 7:45 a.m.
·
Next
two meetings will not be held at Northmont:
·
May 23rd– Tour of Larry Grundler’s
Garden (irises,
bulbs, etc.) 121 Ramage Road, Pittsburgh
15214. You do not need to buy, but if
you choose to, bring cash and a tote bag.
·
June 6th - Picnic at Lynn Betts’ home. See LAGC Directory for details.
No comments:
Post a Comment