Meeting Summary April 24, 2018

Claudia Hickly, LAGC President, welcomed members and guests on another rainy, spring day.

Blooms in our gardens include hellebores, grape hyacinths, daffodils, blood root, and magnolias.

·     Group Photo–Due to the rainy weather, the group photo is postponed to the July 10^thAnnual Picnic at the home of Janine Zink.

·     Treasurer –Denny Brown reported on budget with $3000 end of January. Expenses so far are $300 program fees, $125 handbook, $100 signs leaving a balance of $2100.

·      Plant Sale– Mary Ann Kurtzasked members to divide their plants for sale and aim for 10-20 4-6” pots per member. If larger, please divide into 4-6” pots. This is the club’s only moneymaker. “If we don’t have the plants, we can’t sell them.” Mary Ann brought mini-blinds for labels. This year, inside plants are also welcome. Deliver plants 7:30-7:45 and put in the proper category such as “Sun”, “Shade,” “Ground Cover,” etc. Helen Dean has extra pots if you need. Wear apple green shirt. Tags sticking up higher than the pot should include plant name, requirements, sun icon, blossom color, and height. Please use permanent marker on tags because rain can ruin our tags if not prepared for showers.

·      Publicity– Claudia thanked Patty Bumbaugh for the PR.

·      Duties report– Claudia reminded Officers and Committee Chairs to please submit their “Duties Report” by June for our information binder to assist future officers and chairs.  

·      2019 Programs– Add owner of Flowerama; Ask the Master Gardener Roundtable Discussion. Please submit your suggestions to Jenna.

·      Donation to Northland Public Library– donation made to library for a book in memory of Clif Highman. Claudia read a note of thanks from Rose Mary.

·      Officer spotlighton Rose Mary who summarized Corresponding Secretaryposition. The secretary takes notes and pictures and sends these to vice president for accuracy and proofing.  Beginning in January, the corresponding secretary will be a board position. The Blog Managerthen downloads them onto our blog. 

o   Interested for next year?  Let an officer know.

·      Thank you to Janine Zink– for Quality Gardens discount flyer.

·      Dessert and arrangement – Thank you to Linda Keiser for dessert and Linda Brown for the arrangement. 

Program: Compostingby Kurt Malecki

Kurt manages Best Feeds Garden Center on Babcock, is a longtime gardener, both at work and at home and also helps his wife’s gardening business.  He began by noting composting has been happening since pre-Biblical times and is quite easy to do. Thereare basically two overall methods, one cold and one hot. Either method removes about 277 pounds per person each year from landfills and this means no methane is added to the atmosphere as anaerobic landfills produce methane.

·     Hot method– Layering  – best way to compost, repeat layers of soil or starter, green (kitchen waste), a layer of brown (leaves) into a pile ideally 3’ x 3’ x 3-4 high’. Terms wet and dry can also be used, greens are wet, soil and leaves are brown. Turn a couple times a week. Cover pile if too wet and water if too dry. Compost is usable in about 3 months.

·     Cold method – layer wet materials beginning with coarse sticks for bottom into large pile as above. Water as needed. Wait about two years for compost.

·     Materials NOT to use – pet waste, meat or fat scraps, thicklayer of grass, no materials in contact with weed killers.

·      Nitrogen  – Urea or compost starter products adding nitrogen speed up composting.

·      Small piecesspeed up compost process.

·      Compost is ready – when it looks like soil. 

Calendar:  

·      May 19 – LAGC Plant Sale --- Reminder: Wear your green shirt, bring your plants. See above.

·      May 22 – LAGC meeting, “The Basics of Rain Gardens”by Attila Csokai.

·      June 26 – “Neglected Annuals” by Jessica Walliser.

·      July 10 – Annual LAGC Picnic 

Announcements:

·     May 11-12 – 82^ndMay Market & National Public Gardens Day, Phipps Conservatory. Unique plants, vendors, etc.

·     May 11-12 – Glade Run Spring Fest & Taco Trot, a Plant Sale and more, Zelienople

·      May 12, 2018 - Gardenfest & Artist Market on Saturday at the Lauri Ann West Community Center, 1220 Powers Run Road, Pittsburgh PA 15238

·      Spring 2018 – McCandless began a five-year tree-planting program.  Email photo of tree planted to ms4@townof mccandless.org. This is part of their storm sewer improvement project to reduce storm water runoff.