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.