The English Lady

The English Lady

Baroness Maureen Haseley-Jones spoke last night at a Middle Haddam Garden Club event.  About fifteen of the Belltown Garden Club members attended the talk on a beautiful spring evening in a lovely old church meeting house.  The English Lady was very inspiring, urging us to connect to the Earth with body, mind, and soul--and manure!  Her answer to every gardening problem (and joy) was manure.  You can also hear her the third Thursday of every month on WRCH radio Lite 100.5 FM.  She has just launched the sale of her seaweed tea and manure tea on her blog.  She did tell us to use neem oil on the lilies to be rid of the Red Asiatic lily beetle, cayenne for problem chipmunks, and chocolate Ex-Lax in mole and vole holes.

Gazebo Clean-up April 25, 2011

A big thank you to all the garden club members who showed up to clean-up the gazebo, the traffic triangle, and the flag pole beddings in the village center Monday evening.  The weather report called for rain, but it was a lovely spring evening.  Members brought rakes and shovels, pruners and gloves, and, of course, trash bags for the annual pruning, dividing, and sprucing up event. 

Ariadne is ready to work!

We cut down the grasses, divided the Siberian Irises and the daylilies, and started cuttings of the Montauk daisies (a little early, one member warned us).

Dianne, Judy, Cheryl, and Peggy discuss the plant divisions.

 We pruned the shrubs with winter damage and one that had outgrown its mate on the other side of the gazebo facing the road.  We took out about 10 bags of plant material which several members added to their compost piles.  We only had a small container of real trash, including some wooden trellis that had been kicked in under the gazebo. 

Ellen takes out some trash.

The crew at the traffic triangle took extra special measures to spruce up because the VFW will be holding deployment celebrations there in May.  See earlier blog listings for details on the Yellow Ribbon project.

We continued the business meeting at the East Hampton public library with pizza.

Ariadna, Bill, Karen, and Gloria enjoy pizza after the clean-up.

Sue and Lori modeled the new capris with our new Belltown Garden Club logo and DIG IT down the leg.  Several members wore them for the clean-up and will wear them again for the annual perennial plant sale May 28, 2011.

Sue and Lori model our new capris.

Holly described activities for the upcoming plant sale: members should be dividing perennials at home and/or nursing the newly divided plants from the gazebo clean-up.  All items should be labeled with common name, sun or shade requirements, color of bloom, and height at the very least.  These are common questions asked by buyers at the plant sale.  Members signed up to label and set-up on Friday night, May 27, or work one of two shifts (8-11 a.m. or 11a.m. - 2 p.m.) on Saturday, May 28.  Holly will not advertise Dig 'n Donate this year due to good response by "word-of-mouth" in the past few years.  Anyone who can assist Holly at these digs should talk with her after the meeting.  They occur evenings or weekends in May.  Most digs are for the elderly or non-gardeners who know their garden needs dividing but cannot do the work or do not know gardening techniques.

There will be more information forthcoming on this blog on the plant sale at the end of May and the club's Berkshire garden tour scheduled for June.

Save the Date--June 11, 2011

Thankful Arnold House, c. 1794, Haddam, CT

The Haddam Garden Club announces its Historic Homes & Gardens Tour, Saturday, June 11, 2011 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Tickets are available in April at a discount for $20 from Haddam Neck Garden Club members or by contacting Jackie Landsberg at jackielandsberg@sbcglobal.net or 860-345-4518. Tickets will be available at The Old Town Hall, Haddam, CT, the day of the event for $25.  Box lunches are available for $12 and must be ordered by June 4th.  The tour includes 7 restored, historic homes of varied architecture and their unique gardens.

Tie a Yellow Ribbon And April Meeting Announcement

VFW Post 5095 and the Ladies Auxiliary invite the Belltown Garden Club to join them in honoring our local military personnel when they deploy by tying a yellow ribbon around the tree at the center of East Hampton village.  The first ceremony will be held Memorial Day 2011 after the parade.
For the garden club, this means we will need to spruce up the Gazebo and the traffic triangle in the village center with extra care in preparation for the ceremony.  See details below for the clean-up.

Our next meeting will be a Spring clean-up at these sites in the village center Monday, April 25, at 6 p.m.  Please bring garden gloves, pruners, shovels, rakes, and some trash bags. We will be dividing plants for the May plant sale. The meeting will continue at the public library at 7:30 p.m. with pizza.
Call Bonnie at 860-267-4584 to let her know if you will attend -or- for more information.

Garden Book Display at the East Hampton Public Library

If you visit the library this month, be sure to find the East Hampton Belltown Garden Club display with Bonnie's straw hat worn on the Martha Stewart Show in March--

and a wonderful display of books on gardens and gardening, plant selection, rose culture, native plants, rain gardens, floral arranging, and raising vegetables --to name just a few of the topics included.

Many of the titles were recently purchased from recommendations made by Belltown Garden Club members at the January 2011 meeting and book discussion.  Look inside "our favorites" and see a special bookplate that commemorates our donation to the public library.  Many thanks to Sue Berescik and her staff for helping us encourage gardening and the enjoyment of plants in our community.

Just a note of interest: The branches on display are from the Bradford pear tree in the traffic triangle in the East Hampton village center.  They had fallen during the winter and were found after the snow melted.  With a little encouragement, they have actually bloomed!  It must be Spring.