On a lovely Tuesday evening, where we finally felt like spring might be here, Colleen welcomed garden club members. Blooming in member gardens: Tulips, Daffodils, Hyacinths, Hellebores, Grape Hyacinths, Trilliums, Fruit trees are in bud and as are Red Buds.
A tour is being planned for August’s meeting. September and October meetings still need to be planned out. Mary Anne had suggested a tour of the Botanical Gardens, on a Saturday morning instead of Tuesday evening, because it would be getting dark earlier, or there are is the Ken Yost garden in Wilkinsburg. Lynn Betts had suggested a tour to the Kridler Garden nursery in Ohio, exactly 1 hour and 26 minutes from the church. It’s best to go in the spring/early summer for the best selection of plants. They have some more unusual varieties than what you see in the big box stores/our nurseries in this area.
Victoria had suggested a craft meeting for October, where we would make a door decoration with dried stuff from our gardens.
A member is 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.
Officers have served 4 years, so new officers need to be selected in June, for the next 2-year term, 2023-2024. Denny has indicated he would be Treasurer, but President, Vice President and Recording Secretary are needed. If interested, please let Colleen know. If you have any questions of the duties for these positions, please reach out to the current holder of the position.
Solomon’s Seal and White Iris divisions from the chapel garden are available in the back. Claudia also brought in decorations, Lynn had an extra green t-shirt and pots were available if needed for the plant sale.
Passavant sign-up sheet to weed/deadhead the white garden in front of the chapel is at the sign in table. If you did not attend the meeting, please contact Evan Fingal to signup for a week.
Overview of plant sale was presented by Mary Anne.
It will be held rain or shine of Saturday May 14. Pray for rain the prior day, and sun for the day of.
Thanks to Claudia who has already taken care of the publicity for the plant sale. She was instrumental in getting an article of our club/plant sale in the 4/14 issue of the Tribune. She will also bring tables and tent covers on the day of the sale.
Linda will bring name tags, Denny will act as cashier for the entirety of the sale, and Dianne will provide the seed money.
Mary Anne will take care of placing the signs.
Your plants should be potted by now, so they will look nice and healthy on the day of the plant sale. Use 4 – 6” pots, and the value of the plant must be at least $2. Even if you cannot come to the actual plant sale, please pot up some plants and arrange for them to be dropped off with a fellow member. This is our only fundraiser of the year.
Plants should be dropped off in the church parking lot by 7:30 on the day of the plant sale. For those working, or available to assist our customers with plant selection, “apple green” t-shirts are our uniform.
Sign up sheet is at the sign in table. If you were unable to attend the meeting, contact Mary Anne to sign up as a pricer, stager or cashier, for either the first or 2nd half of the morning.
Dianne provided a treasurer’s report. We started out with $4,394.75. After speaker fees, and directory fees totaling $293.88, our ending balance in the checking account is $4,100.87. Adding petty cash and membership dues of $70.06, our total cash available to the club is $4,170.93.
Debra from “Plant Traps” provided her “elevator speech” on her product. You can find Plant Traps on Facebook, Instagram or simply google the term and you’ll learn all about the cool product she invented to extend your planters beyond your deck or porch railings. She is also scheduled to appear on Pittsburgh Today Live on May 6.
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| Floating Garden Shelf on RoseMary's breezeway, planted pot to follow. |
Thank you to Nancy for the beautiful arrangement and to Mary Anne for the delicious dessert.
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| Nancy's Phalaenopsis orchid. |
A very informative presentation on “Backyard Composting” was given to us by John Powell.
He started with a quote from the Bible – “All go unto one place, all are from dust and all will be dust again.”
John considers himself to be a passive composter. He puts everything into the bin until fall, when he sifts it, puts it in another pile to finish composting for use in the spring.
Ingredients for a good compost pile:
Green stuff, Brown Stuff, Air, Nutrients, Water and Critters who do the composting (like worms).
4’ x 4’ is the optimum size for a compost pile.
If you compost at home, you know what’s in your compost, it’s free, environmentally friendly and keeps the ingredients used to compost out of the landfill.
If you put large brown sticks at the bottom of your pile, it allows for better air circulation.
Jane assists by adding the compost layers.
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| Cage type for compost pile. |
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| Bone meal may be added to heat up the pile. |
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| Tumbler compost model on left, stationary unit on right. Typical "greens" food waste in front. |
Chopping up your ingredients, whether it be kitchen waste, leaves, grass or twigs/branches other brown matter, will cause your stuff to compost quicker.
The 3 main methods of composting he covered are the composter (looks like R2D2), a rotating composter and cage method. He prefers the cage method.
The greens in the compost = nitrogen, and the browns = carbon. Basically, you want 1 part green to 30 parts brown.
Your compost pile should be turned regularly to speed up the decomposition process.
You should monitor for moisture. Rotten odor = too much water, ammonia odor = too much nitrogen.
Sifting your compost results in a nicer product, and what doesn’t sift can be returned to the pile to decompose further.
Things you should NOT put in your compost: Kittly litter, Kitty poop, Plants that were sprayed with a pesticide, plants infected with a soil borne fungus or powdery mildew, weed seeds, meat and any cooked food.
John ended his presentation with a quote: “Old gardeners never die, they just very slowly turn into magnificent compost”
Debra had left a plant trap with Andrea to be given away. Rosemary was the lucky winner.
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