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THE GREEN THUMB VOL 37 N0 7 THOROLD GARDEN CLUB NOV 2014
THE GREEN THUMB
THE THOROLD GARDEN CLUB
FOUNDED 1929
BOX 417THOROLDONTARIOL2V 4J6
RED GERANIUM CLUB FLOWER
NOVEMBER MEETING
DATE: WED.NOV.19, 2O14.
TIME: POTLUCK 6:30 PM
MEETING 7:30 PM
LOCATION: HOLY ROSARY HALL
SPECIAL: POTLUCK SUPPER
PHOTOS OF MEMBERS’ GARDENS
AGM/YEAR END REPORTS/ELECTIONS
TRIVIA GAME
MINI SHOW/DOOR PRIZES/MEMBERSHIP
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THE GREEN THUMB VOL 37 N0 7 THOROLD GARDEN CLUB NOV 2014
NOVEMBER MEETING
POTLUCK
We are ending the year with a blast- good food and lots of fun. We start out at 6:30 with a potluck supper. Bring along one of the following [or two if you so desire] appetizer, salad, main dish or dessert to share as well as cutlery and plates etc. Beverages will be provided. Throughout the meal, Leslie has arranged a PowerPoint presentation of members’ gardens from the past two summers for us to enjoy.
AGM
After the meal, around 7:30 we will continue with the rest of the program. First we will have the Annual General Meeting [AGM].It will include presentation of financial report/auditors’ report/activity report for 2014 and the budget for 2015. A representative from District 9 OHA will conduct elections of officers and directors for 2015.
TRIVIA GAME
Trivia games are all the rage and lots of fun. Not to be out done by other groups we are having onetonight. Great prizes!!!!
REGULARS
MINI SHOW
Decorative:
Theme-DOWNTON ABBEY
This is your last chance to do an arrangement using the Downton Abbey theme.
Class 1-EDWARDIAN CHRISTMAS
A Christmas arrangement of your choice
Class 2-FOR THE TREE
A homemade natural decoration-in keeping with the times
Horticultural:
Class 1 potted foliage plant
Class 2 potted plant in bloom
Class 3 any vegetable –one
Please remember that all house plants entered must have been in your possession for at least 3 months.
Draws for Door Prizes
Membership Renewal
Throughout the evening there will be opportunities to renew your membership for 2015- $15 individual membership with $5 for each individual family member living at the same address. If you can’t make the meeting mail your membership to ThoroldGarden Club
Box 417ThoroldOntarioL2V 4J6.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT
September 30, 2014-
October 31, 2014
Balance forward from
September 30 2014
$3,523.63
INCOME
Memberships $160.00
Donation 50.00
Refreshments 5.80
Total $215.80
EXPENSES
Postage $ 9.61
Newsletter 27.80
Mini show prizes 5.10
Donations
McMillanPark trees $245.78
St.John’s Outdoor
Study Centre 100.00
Thorold Public
Library 200.00
Richmond Parkette 200.00
Mel Swart Conservation
Area 200.00
Rent for Hall 275.00
Total $1,263.29
Balance on hand as of
October 31, 2014
$2,476.14
Many thanks to Treasurer
Betty Beck for this Financial report.
PAST EVENTS
OCTOBER MEETING
The speaker last month was Dianne Harper, vice president of our garden club. She gave us a very informative talk on how to transform the barren strip of land between our front sidewalk and the road most commonly known as the boulevard but now being labeled as a Hell Strip.
Dianne first of all advised us to remember that we don’t own this land. It belongs to the City and if they want to dig it up they can do so at any time. Remember also that many wires and cables such as gas lines may be buried in this area. Build up the soil for planting rather than dig down. Then mulch.
Other things Dianne said we should take into consideration are cars parking beside the boulevard – leave space for people to get out of their vehicles. Also provide a space for garbage pails and recycling boxes.
Make sure that height of your plants doesn’t obstruct traffic and over hanging vines don’t trip up people walking on the sidewalk.
Plant hardy plants generally perennials that don’t need a lot of water and can withstand road salt and fumes from traffic.
Dianne supplemented her talk with photos of actual hell strip plantings in both Thorold and St.Catharines taken by Leslie Daniels. Thanks Dianne and Leslie.
FALL FORUM
Six members of our Garden Club attended the District 9 Fall Forum that was held this year at Grace Mennonite Church on Niagara Street in St Catharines on Saturday October 25. St Catharines was the host Society.
It was a most enjoyable day- different from many of our past Fall forums. There was no long business meeting and only one speaker. There was a large flower show competition with the theme Autumn Reflections Patsy Ingoldsby won a prize for her chrysanthemums. She also won one of the Society door prizes. Congratulations Patsy.
Amaryllis bulbs were on sale and most bought one or two of them.
Leslie won one as a door prize.
The keynote speaker was Carson Arthur from HGTV. His topic The New Low intrigued me when I first saw it on the tickets and posters. What is this New Low? The answer was somewhat sobering. For many years we have heard how popular gardening and flowers are – look at all the garden centres we have and the plants for sale in the spring
Every place from supermarkets to corner stores is selling plants.
Doesn’t everyone love flowers and want to have a garden? Carson told us itisn’t necessarily so.
Why – people don’t want the work. They have little spare time and what they have they don’t want to garden. They want their outside area to be sparse with large areas of patio and decks and outdoor living rooms so they can go outside and relax. Many don’t want to cut grass so they are putting in artificial turf. Pools are becoming popular again because the ones they are now putting in require less maintenance than they used to.
Also many of the new subdivisions are very dense with mostly buildings and little outdoor space to garden. Municipalities are encouraging this kind of high density development.
Carson stressed there is a downside to all of this but there are ways to counteract it.
One example was that with all the paved driveways and patios, rain water is running off either to the roads or into basements. It cannot sink down into the ground and so we have flooded basements and flooded streets. He said to never put pavement right up to the foundation but leave an area of stone that will allow the water to sink down.
He mentioned that the artificial turf takes at least a thousand years to break down. Don’t want to spend a lot of time cutting grass put in a low maintenance fescue grass that only requires mowing once a month and is also drought resistant. Carson had many more ideas. He was a very dynamic speaker and kept everyone’s attention at all times.
Thanks so much District 9 and the St. Catharines Horticultural Society.
UPCOMING EVENTS
SOCIETY MEETINGS
Please note- as is our custom there will be no meetings either in December or in January. We are taking a break for the busy Christmas and New Years events. We also hope to avoid a stormy January.
Our next open meeting will be in February- February 18th our 86th anniversary.
There will be a February newsletter with details of our spring meetings,
NIAGARA SEEDY SUNDAY
March 15, 2015
9:30 am-3:30 pm
DUNLOP DRIVE SENIOR CENTRE
80 Dunlop DrSt Catharines
OHA CONVENTION 2015
The convention is being held in
Ancaster this year.This destination is within commuting distance for members in the NiagaraPeninsula so we hope that many in our ThoroldGarden Club willplan to attend. There will be more information in upcoming newsletters.
LIBRARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY GARDEN BEDS
Our work at the Library and Historical Society flower beds is pretty well over with for the season. Thanks so much to the following for all their work throughout the summer:
Doreen Koch, Patsy Ingoldsby Pam Nye and Barb Berry. Doreen looked after the area by the front window and was assisted by her grand daughter Jamie Lynn Franklin.
VOLUNTEER HOURS
We are including a sheet for volunteer hours covering the months of July- November/ December. If possible please fill this out and bring to the November meeting, If you can’t attend and have hours to record please phone, mail or email Barb Berry 905-227-4307
5 Westmount AveThorold L2V2V9.
Email is
Wronski Family
We extend our deepest sympathy to the Wronski family with the passing of John’s mom Eugenia last week. The Wronski’s did have a very happy event about a week before with the birth of a new grand daughter Emma Claire a little sister for the twins- Mariah and Alexandra. Congratulations Carolynn and Mitch and John and Lou Anne.
SEED CATALOGUES
I just received my Stokes Seed catalogue yesterday. Spring may seem a long way off but we can start planning now can’t we??
There’s lots of great information in these catalogues and the photos are spectacular. Inside the cover is a page on “Vegetables of Merit” and they include such names as Momentum green beans, Asteroid broccoli, Moon Raker carrots and Aquarius Cauliflower. It seems like they are having an outer space theme. Flowers of Merit for 2-15 include an Hibiscus called Honey Moon, and a Petunia called African Sunset.
Stokes also has some wonderful garden accessories in both the catalogue and their store on Collier Road. There is everything from a snow gauge to solar wind chimes, Why not consider them for gifts for gardening friends and relatives.
While we are talking about gifts for Christmas and the Holidays also consider our sponsors that are featured on the back page.Let’s support them as they have most generously supported us.
BEETS
Doreen Koch lives in an apartment but has a vegetable garden out on a farm nearby where she used to live. She grows some magnificent veggies such as squash and beets. Doreen grew some monster beets this year and very generously shared some of them with us in the Garden club. I must say they were delicious. Thank you so much Doreen.
By the way, was just reading the label on a jar of pickled beets and saw where 3 slices of beets are only 15 calories. They are also a good source of fiber.
RBG TRAIN SHOW
We visited the RBG this past Wednesday and they were constructing the tracks and trestles for the Train Show that goes from November 15 to January 4. It was fascinating to watch them. I love to see these miniature trains in operation and hope to go back to see them. This would be a great outing for the grandchildren during the holidays.
There is so much going on at the RBG. They aren’t closing up shop for the winter. For info on all activities go online at
AMARYLLIS
Leslie’s Amaryllis
Isn’t this gorgeous!!! This one is white but they come in many other colours from a deep red to a striped pink one.
To get your bulbs looking like Leslie’s here are a few suggestions.
- Plant the bulbs in a clay pot that has been soaked for 24hours.Many recommend that you soak the bulb in warm water too for a couple of hours but not too long or the bulb may rot
2 Plant in an all purpose potting soilalthough [you often see them planted in pebbles or rocks.]
3. Put a coffee filter for drainage in the bottom and cover that with broken pot chards
4. Fill the pot about half full of the soil and set the bulb on the soil and fill around it pressing the soil firmly.
5. The top third of the bulb should be showing. Do not completely cover the bulb or rot will set in.
6. If you are ready to have it bloom move the bulb to a location with indirect sun and a temperature around 70
7. Do not water again until there are signs of substantial growth and then water thoroughly, Keep watering whenever the surface of the soil dries out. Sandi Martin suggests that it be fertilized with Schultz Indoor Plant Fertilizer every two weeks.
8. In order to have the stems grow straight rotate the plants every so often away from the light source. Stabilize with a stake once the flower stalk gets heavy.
Note by the time of printing all three buds had come out on this bulb.