Longvue Acres Garden Club: May 2019 Meeting Summary & Plant Sale

6/11/2019

May 2019 Meeting Summary & Plant Sale

Colleen Fingal, president opened the meeting up by welcoming all members. No guests attended the meeting this month.

Club members have many plants in bloom in their gardens this month: Iris, Columbine, Phlox, Brunnera, Pulmonaria, Primrose, and Bleeding Hearts.

Old Business:

· Community service project for Ross Township at Denny Park: LAGC members did NOT participate in the project. Too much rain caused the installation of the rain garden to be postponed for the following week. None of the club members were available to help out on the new date.

· Passavant Chapel Garden: There are still weeks available to sign up to help weed the garden. The sign-up sheet was circulated. Colleen said that the garden is in great shape and has been well-maintained over the years. Evan reported that the annuals have been planted and look good. Helen Dean questioned if the viburnum bush had been pruned since it is done flowering. It has not been pruned; Helen will take care of pruning the bush.

· Upcoming Meetings --- We will not meet at Northmont Church for the next 2 months and possibly not in August because Jenna, Program Coordinator is working on scheduling a garden tour.

o June 25 Meeting is the annual club picnic at the home of Andrea Maire. Bring a dish to share, chair and ideas for new programs for 2020. Please watch your e-mail for further details regarding parking restrictions, etc.

o July 30th Meeting is the tour of the Jennings Environmental Center and will be held at 10:00 a.m. on July 30^th(5^thTuesday of the month). Dianne Machesney reminded members to meet in the parking lot across the street from the Jennings Environmental Center. Please watch your e-mail for additional directions.

· Plant Sale: Colleen said that the Annual Plant Sale which was held on May 18, 2019 was a great success. She thanked everyone for their contribution in whatever capacity they were able to help out. A special thanks to Mary Ann Kurtz who did a fabulous job again as the Plant Sale Coordinator. A big thank you was also extended to her husband Ron who is always at the Plant Sale to lend a hand. It was a great day despite a little drizzle of rain.

· Mary Ann Kurtz gave an in depth overview of the plant sale. She thanked all members for their participation and noted that 29 out of 33 members participated which is awesome! The profit is $2044.50 which is just $35 less than last year. We donated the remaining plants to the following gardens: Ross Township’s Evergreen Park, Second United Presbyterian Church in Wilkinsburg and the Christ Lutheran Church’s Friendship Garden from which we received a thank you note.

o We discussed a few things that worked great and plan to continue next year such as bringing flat strawberry boxes, new signs worked great, not necessary to use crates and caution tape to keep out early customers. We’ll be looking for suggestions of other community gardens that might be interested in receiving the extra plants.

o Next year we will add additional tables for customers to use as they fill their boxes, as well as, an extra table in the checkout line for customers to use while they wait.

o We’ll keep a better count on how many plants each member brings to the sale so that we have an accurate number of plants for sale vs. how many we sold.

o We will have more $1 bills at the start of the sale to avoid going to get change.

o Next year we’d like to have a better idea of what common plants each member is bringing to the sale so that we can make sure that we have a good variety of plants and not too much of one item. This idea will be explored further with the possibility of having a sign up sheet.

· Thank you for sharing! Former member, Marilyn Gurtner offered a variety of garden items on the back table for members to take. Dianne Machesney brought special tomato plants for the taking and RoseMary brought gladiola bulbs.

Desserts & Arrangement: Thank you to Linda Keiser for the delicious blueberry pound cake and rice krispie treats and to Peggy Elizeus for the stunning arrangement.

This month’s program was

“All About the Western PA Conservancy” given by Lynn McGuire Olsac

Key takeaways:

· The work of the conservancy involves the planning, planting and tending of over 130 community gardens. The flower gardens are located in prominent public places, within neighborhoods and in business districts across Western Pennsylvania.

· The work of the conservancy is implemented by managing the over 11,000 volunteers who help plant and maintain the gardens.

· Sponsorship of a community garden is made possible by financial support of local businesses, community and corporate partners. The people who live and work in the neighborhood are motivated to create a garden that everyone can benefit from.

· There are also community garden stewards who care for and maintain the garden after it is planted in the spring. Garden stewards can be garden clubs, youth groups, etc.

· Some of the projects of the conservancy include the large planters in downtown Pittsburgh along the sidewalks of prominent streets. The plants are changed for each season. At the time of this presentation, the tulip and daffodil bulbs were going to be removed and replaced with summer annuals. The bulbs were being donated to another organization.

· Corporations are the main sponsors of prominent gardens that are found near the entrances to Pittsburgh tunnels and highways. The gardens are often planted and maintained by the employees as part of a day of service project.

Plant Sale 2019 --Photos courtesy of Bill Goff and Mary Anne Kurtz