February 22, 2022 (Tutu Tuesday) Meeting Notes

LAGC Meeting --- February 22, 2022

 

Welcome to 2022! This was our first meeting of the year. Members were still wearing masks per the covid guidelines of Northmont Church, but it was so great to see everyone again! We are permitted to have refreshments again so we enjoyed some cookies with our hot drinks of tea and coffee. Linda Brown brought a lovely potted hyacinth for the dessert table which was a welcome reminder that spring will soon be here.

Since it's only February there are very few plants blooming in members gardens right now. Snowdrops and the tops of daffodils are peaking out of the ground. Rosemary noticed that her dandelions are coming up! Hopefully, not too vigorously unless she has plans to eat them in a salad or make dandelion wine!

 

We will be printing a directory for 2022 with the intent to distribute the book at the March meeting. Marlow is working on updating the book. We’d like to include some photos of plants and gardens that have been taken by fellow Garden Club members. Please consider sending a photo or two to Marlow or Colleen for the directory. 

 

We circulated a sign-up sheet for the monthly host-hostess to bring a dessert or arrangement. An email will be sent to members to fill in the open slots. Thank you for volunteering! 

 

We are still looking for a program coordinator. If you're interested, please email Colleen. If you are unable to commit to organizing all the programs for the year then, perhaps you could volunteer to handle a month or two. It’s always more fun to work with another gardener so maybe the duties could be shared among a few members.  Colleen will help you along the way. 

 

We're always collecting program topics or speaker suggestions so please, e-mail your ideas to Colleen.  We are especially looking for some gardens that we can tour this summer. 

 

We were reminded that our annual plant sale will be held on Saturday, May 14th, 2022. We will be gearing up at the March meeting. Please mark your calendars so that you can help out at the plant sale. It's always such an enjoyable event to chat with club members and talk gardening with the community. It's never too early to begin praying and hoping for great weather for the plant sale!

 

Program:  “Weeds” by Dianne Machesney

 

We were very pleased to have Dianne Machesney speak to our club again and we weren’t disappointed to hear a very informative presentation about weeds. She explained what classifies a plant as a weed. She explored four different classifications of weeds: noxious weeds, invasive weeds, bad weeds and not so bad weeds. Dianne gave us examples of weeds from each classification which were accompanied by her own photographs. We learned the best methods to remove and try to totally eradicate the plant.

 

After we learned about the different weed classifications Dianne explained the theory behind integrated weed management---how to get rid of weeds. The basic idea is to use the most effective method to get rid of the weed with the least amount of damage to the surrounding plants and soil. For example, don't pour a gallon of weed killer on a plant if it would be just as effective to pull the weed out and throw it away.

Two samples from the weed slides.

 

Dianne said that she does not compost her weeds. A compost bin has to get to a very high temperature to kill the weed seeds. If a compost bin does not get to that temperature then, the seeds will germinate in the compost and the weeds would spread wherever the compost is used.

 

Thank you to Dianne for giving a great talk! 

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone in March where Ryan Wolfred from Soergel’s Garden Center will give a talk about Houseplants.