southernbucksgardenclub.com

We heard a great presentation from Bob Mercer on the effects of Global Warming on our bird populations. Next month our June 2nd meeting will be about Honeybees and how to help support them. Bob Krayer will be our speaker.

Our Garden Tour is June 21st from 10 till 3PM. Tickets are $10.00 and available from members or fron the Silver Lake Nature Center. Map pickup will be at the Nature center. Call Eileen if you have any questions about the tour at 215-943-2277

Our hostesses for next month are Cathy Raupp and Dawn Gifford

We will be installing our new officers for the coming year at our June Meeting.

Pres-Joann Cosgrove

V.P. -Eileen Donahue

Secretary -Connie Taylor

Treasurer- Cathy Raupp

Program Co-Chairs- Grace Byrne and Jean McKusker

Butterfly Garden Co-ordinator – Lois Glasscock

Flea Market is June 20th at Silver Lake. Remember to bring all your fleas!!!! Pat Ditzler is coordinator. Set up starts at 6:30 Am. Sale starts at 8Am. and lasts until 1Pm. We will be selling garden supplies and plants besides other items.

July Meeting will be under the Pavillion for hoagies and potluck and tour Pat Mcgonigle’s garden

August Meeting will be under the Pavillionfor hoagies and potluck and tour Connie Maley’s garden

Our meeting begin at 7Pm in the Silver Lake Nature Center. Any questions call Joann at 215-946-2935 or send me an e-mail joanncos@comcast.net

Our Guest speaker this month was Gary Steinberg of Fairless Hills Garden Center. He answered all our garden questions on soil, containers, sun exposure, soils and mulch! We enjoyed his presentation very much and he also shared some of his favorite flowers…one of the best for easy maintenance and beautiful flowers all summer long are Portulacas! He also shared the secrets of the “Spring and Winter” Pansies.

We discussed  the upcoming Sliver Lake Flea market which Pat Ditzler is chairing this year. Pat McGonigle brought along a large contribution of gardening and seed starting supplies which we will sell at our table along with all the other “White Elephant” items members can contribute. The Flea Market is Saturday June 20th.

Our Garden Tour this year is on June 21st and Eileen Donahue is the chair for that event. We need gardens to tour so please volunteer your garden or suggest to anyone you know with a nice garden that they should consider allowing us to include it on the tour.

Hostesses volunteered for the April, May and June meetings.

Our topic in April is TBA

Our speaker in May will be Bob Mercer of Silver Lake who will discuss Global Warming and it’s effects on Birds

Our speaker in June will be Bob Krayer who will explain all the mysteries of his honeybees and suggest ways we can support our pollinators in our gardens.

Our slate of officers for the upcoming year is forming up so far we have

President: Joann Cosgrove

Vice President: Eileen Donahue

Secretary: Connie Taylor

Treasurer: Cathy Raupp

Butterfly/Hummingbird co-ordinator: Lois Glasscock

Program Chair: Still unannouced..anyone who would like to volunteer please let me know

The New Officers will be installed at our June Meeting.

Our  first ever Harvest dinner and Gourd Fest was a great success. We feasted and then admired some really gorgeous gourds!! Our members are so creative!

The Gourd Fest winners are…drum roll please!!!…

Best Freshly Harvested Hard Shell Gourds – Mike O’Keefe

Freshly Harvested Ornamental Gourds – Cathy Raupp and Alex McVey

Most Gouracious – Sheila Kelly

Best Thanksgiving Theme – Gaye Almeida

Most Amazing – Connie Taylor

Most Festive – Natalina Mulholland

Fall Favorite – Lauren Hall

Our December meeting was focused on creating Christmas Centerpieces from fresh greens and flowers. Pat Porter from Levittown Flower Boutique and her helpers took us through every step and we made some lovely creations!

Our Hostesses for the future meetings are

Feb – Natalina and Connie, Lynn and Paulette

Mar – Eileen and Nanette

April – Alex and Matt

May – Connie

June – TBA

Garden Tour 2009 – Last years was a huge success and Eileen Donahue has volunteered to chair the committe this year. She will need some helpers so start thinking about what gardens would be good to include on the tour. Connie mentioned that there is a beautiful garden area behind the NBA Credit Union next to the Bristol Commerce Center Wal-Mart. Gaye told us that Gwen Shrift at the Courier Times wants to hear about the Garden Tour in April so she can plan to cover it in the newspaper.

Meeting with Bob Mercer – We signed our contract for the year and Bob asked if we wanted to expand our roll to include more garden area. I told him we would do as much as we could depending on the amount of volunteers we have available in the Spring. He complimented us on our hard work last year in keeping the gardens at the Nature Center beautiful.

June Flea Market – We discussed how it works and members are thinking about what we might sell at our table.

Flower Show – I mailed all the Barrier Aide requests to Betty greene at the Horticultural Society. Pat McGonigle has a meeting scheduled with them in mid December and will have more info for us after her meeting.

Our February topic is going to be a review of Winter Sowing!!! Save those gallon milk jugs for me!!!

Questions about the Club or web page please contact

joanncos@comcast.net

Our speaker tonight was David Marable. He did a presentation on growing hardy figs and spoke about the history of Levittown and it’s gardens. We also saw a video of an old film taken by William Levitt in the 1950’s of his development of Levittown. It was a fascinating look into the past. David showed slides of his Snowball Gate Garden and all the historic plants/shrubs he has collected through the years. He also shared his fig growing secrets! 

Take note that our November meeting will be held on Wednesday evening Nov 5th to allow members to vote in the Presidential election and watch the news coverage after the polls close. The meeting will start at 7PM at the Nature Center.

November’s meeting will be a Potluck Harvest dinner and Gourd/Pumpkin fest. Members should bring a dish to share and a gourd item to display. All gourds and pumpkins are welcome!!! Use your imagination to decorate them or use them in some Harvest theme. Freshly harvested gourds/pumpkins are also welcome. We will have an informal People’s choice vote on our favorites. 

Here is a list of dishes members are planning on bringing for the Harvest Potluck.

Main Dishes- Alex – Turkey breast, Gaye – Lasagna

Salad- Grace

Side dishes-Connie Pineapple dressing, Dawn – Garlic potatoes, Joann-Green bean casserole, also a broccoli casserole is listed

Bread & Butter- Shelia Kelly

Desserts Lois-Chocolate surprise,  Jean – cake, Natalina – pumpkin bread

Condiments – Connie – Olives

Tablecloths-Pat, Lois, Alex and Natalina

Beverages other than tea and coffee -

The PA Horticultural Society is looking for volunteers for the Phila Flower Show. It will be held March 1st -8th and if anyone wants to be a Barrior Aide or other volunteer let me know. The names need to be submitted by Nov 10th. The Flower Show theme this year is Bella Italia!

Our december meeting will feature Pat Porter from Levittown Flower Boutique. She will demonstrate how to make Holiday floral arrangements and other seasonal decorations. Materials will be provided by the Club.

Questions about the Garden Club or web page please e-mail Joann Joanncos@comcast.net

It’s been a wonderful summer and our thanks go to Jenny Boccardo and Sheila Kelly for sharing their gardens with us during our July and August meetings. Our September meeting was held on September 2nd and we had Max Burton doing a presentation on Tree Care. Lauren and Pat provided the refreshments. 

We learned lots of information about trees and how to keep them in good condition. Trees are shallow rooted and the root flare should be at ground level NOT buried under a “mulch volcano”!

Lauren presented Awards to the winners of the garden tour. Our next meeting is Oct 7th and we have Dave Marable speaking on Figs and Historical Levittown Gardens.

Questions or comments about the web site or Garden Club please contact joanncos@comcast.net

Our speaker for this meeting was Helena Dewees who  presented on “How to Photograph Flowers”. She is a member of the Focal Planes Club. She  gave us many helpful tips on using our cameras. Tips such as taking pictures in the early morning and late afternoon which are good times because the light is less intense and using a water bottle to spritz the flowers to mimic the dew in the morning. She also gave help with composition of the picture. She brought many beautiful photos to show us and showed how they can be made into notecards or framed for display.

We had the installation of the new officers for 2008-09

President Joann Cosgrove

Vice President Eileen Donahue

Secretary Nanette Wolf

Treasurer James White

Program chair/Trip Planner Gaye Almeida

Butterfly/Hummingbird/Pond Garden Coordinators Ed and Julie Fischer

Nanette gave a report of our participation in the “Flea Market in the Park” to be held June 21st at SIlver Lake Nature Center. Donations can be brought to the Nature Center or contact Nanette if you need her to pick up a large item. Jim will be buying plants at Russell’s gardens to resell at the Flea Market. Anyone wishing for any special plants please contact him or Nanette.

Pat gave a report on our Garden Tour planned for June 22nd. We will have 8 gardens open for touring. Tickets are $10.00 and available at the Nature Center from 10 till 12 Noon on the day of the tour. Maps will be provided when you pick up your tickets.

Our gardens have been weeded and planted with many new plants and are looking beautiful. Two new pond plants were added a pink flowering Pickeral weed and an Arrowleaf.

Gaye presented information about a trip to Herronswood planned for July 12. Several members will be going. Contact Gaye if you need more info at robalms@comcast.net or  215-802-0801

Joann reminded members to plant their gourds and Lauren volunteered to help Joann plan the Gourd Fest that we will have at our November meeting.

Gifts were presented to outgoing Officers and the club members thanked them all for their hard work.

Our next meeting will be held at the Pavillion at the Nature Center on July 1. Come at 6:30 for hoagies and bring along a treat to share. After the meeting members will tour Jenny Boccardo’s garden.

Our August Meeting will be held at Sheila Kelly’s garden. We will meet at her home at 6:30 for our hoagies and then tour her garden.

Questions about the club or web site please contact joanncos@comcast.net

Questions about the Web page or our Garden Tour please e-mail joanncos@comcast.net or call 215-946-2935

See you all there!

We had a great meeting this month. Jim Schmidt spoke on Organic Gardening and shared lots of tips and tricks he has learned over the years he has been gardening. He came prepared with a parachute to demonstrate how to keep the birds from eating your blueberries and also he brought some of his worm friends from home. He uses them to compost his kitchen waste and in general to keep compostable items out of our overcrowded landfills. His presentation was very enjoyable!

Julie Fisher brought along the posters and tickets she designed for our Garden Tour on June 22nd. For more information about the tour click on the link called SBGC Flier. It is not too late to have your own garden featured on the tour. Just contact Pat McGonigle as soon as possible.

 SBGC Flier

We held elections and after a hard campaign all our candidates were voted into office!

President: Joann Cosgrove

Vice President: Eileen Donohue

Secretary: Nanette Wolf

Treasurer: Jim White

Program Chair: Gaye Almeida 

Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden Co-ordinators Ed and Julie Fischer

Publicity: Dolly Ferkel & Ed Fischer

Trip Planner: Gaye Almeida

Nanette Wolf and Jim White are going to organize our tables for the Silver Lake Flea Market in the Park on Saturday June 21st. Bring out all your treasures to contribute to our cause! The Flea Market starts at 8AM rain or shine.

Our next meeting will be June 3rd at 7Pm.

Contact Joann Cosgrove at joanncos@comcast.net if you have questions about the site or the garden club.

We met April 1st and enjoyed a great presentation by Steve Johnson on Perennials. Once again our Hostesses Lois and Pat did a super job of keeping us well fed and happy! After the presentation we had a business roundtable meeting and filled in the nominations for our next years officers.

Pat McGonigle has agreed to organize our Summer Garden tour which is  scheduled for June 22 from 10Am until 3PM. You can call Pat at 267-246-0563 if you have any questions about the tour. The tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the Silver Lake Nature Center from 10Am until noon on the day of the tour.

Nanette will organize our donations to the Silver Lake Nature Center flea market which is going to be on June 21st. Members are encouraged to search through their closets to come up with things to contribute to our table.

We are planning our first Gourd Fest and competition for November and members shared gourd seeds with each other. I added a link to Amish Gourds that is full of information on growing, drying and decorating gourds.

Eileen, Cathy R and Joann  attended the Tree Tenders course and we  received a bucket of brand new tools for the club at the completion of the class. These tools are awesome and include a shovel, pruners, a saw, lopping shears and a new cultivator-trowel combination. Come to our next work party and you can try them out!!

We have had 2 Butterfly/Hummingbird Garden clean ups and the gardens are looking good for the Spring. More clean up/planting will be scheduled weather permitting.

Our next meeting is May 6th and the topic will be “Organic Gardening and Companion Planting” with Bonnie Oliver and Jim Schmidt. The meeting starts at 7Pm and visitors are always welcome!

Questions or comments please write to Joanncos@comcast.net

Sandy Stiegler gave a wonderful presentation on Cottage Gardening. She discussed the History of Cottage Gardening and then went on to describe the evolution of the Cottage Garden in America. She brought some lovely Spring flowers too. We all had an enjoyable time and welcomed many visitors to the meeting.

We had a seed and gardening magazine trade after the meeting while we enjoyed the wonderful refreshments provided by Pat and Lois our Hostesses.

Our slate of officers for the coming year is still open and we need volunteers for the flea market this year and also to organize our garden tour.

Members are raving about the Phila Flower show..the colors are spectacular!

Our next meeting will be on April 1st. Our topic will be “Perennials” presented by Steve Johnson.

Questions or comments please e-mail joanncos@comcast.net

Our Feb meeting topic was  Garden Design presented by Steve Johnson. Our upcoming meeting on March 4th will be on Cottage Gardening. Alex announced she will be stepping down from her position as President of the club when this year ends in June. All the positions are open for nominations.

The Philadelphia Flower Show begins March 2nd and several of our members will be volunteers again this year.

The 2008 Hummingbird Migration map has been posted at http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html

The map has no entires yet but as the first hummingbirds are spotted members sightings will be marked with a colored dot and date. Hummingbirds usually return to our area sometime between the end of March to the middle of April! It won’t be long now so get your feeders cleaned and ready to go!

We welcome new members and our meetings start at 7PM at the Nature Center at Silver Lake Nature Center on Bath Road Bristol PA.

Quesitons about the web site or the Garden Club please e-mail

joanncos@comcast.net