southernbucksgardenclub.com

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

Our meeting for October featured William Cullerton discussing “the Winter Garden”. He discussed many beautiful Conifers and other shrubs, trees and plants that make our Winter gardens beautiful. Our next meeting will be on Nov 6th at 7PM at the Silver Lake Nature Center.  The topic for November is “Bulb Forcing” with Bonnie Oliver presenting.

To see pictures of our tables from the Silver Lake Fall Expo got to the links and click on the album. We had a great display and we gave great presentations.

Our September meeting will be held September 4th and our topic will be “Winterize Your Garden”. Our meeting starts at 7PM at the Silver Lake Nature Center. New members are always welcome! Please bring seeds you are willing to contribute to the Fall Expo Winter Sowing Demo. See you all there!

Questions about the Garden Club or web page please contact Joanncos@comcast.net

Our July meeting was held at the Silver Lake Nature Center Pavillion and was followed by a tour of Shiela’s gorgeous garden. Pictures of her lovely garden are in the Photo Gallery so stop and take a look.

Our August meeting will be held at 6:30PM at the Silver Lake Nature Center Pavillion. Hoagies will be provided and members are asked to bring other treats to share. After the meeting we will tour Alex and Matt’s garden.

Questions about the Garden club or web site please e-mail

Joanncos@comcast.net

Our May meeting was  May 1, 2007. Jim White gave a great presentation on the Spring Flower Festival held at DisneyWorld in Florida. He had just returned and had a wonderful Powerpoint demo for us of all the lovely gardens for us. It was just spectacular!

Our June meeting was held June 5th and Joann Cosgrove and Elaine Hagey presented How to Attract Hummingbirds to your Garden. We also voted in our new slate of officer for the coming year at this meeting.

Our next meeting will be July 10th at the Pavillion at the Silver Lake Nature Center. Hoagies will be provided by our President and other snacks provided by you. Meet at 6:30 PM and after the informal meeting we will tour Shiela’s garden! 

Our August meeting will be held August 7th under the Pavillion as usual.

Our September meeting will be back to 7PM in the meeting room of the Nature Center as usual.

Our Secret Garden Tour was a great Success and Pictures can be found on our Picture Gallery!

Questions about the Southern Bucks Garden Club please e-mail Joanncos@comcast.net

Alex reported that that the Girl Scout clean up at the Silver Lake Nature center scheduled for March 31st was cancelled due to the cold weather.

Election of Officers will be held in May and new officers will be installed in June. We need a slate of people who would like to serve. Volunteers please step up!!!

Upcoming events

Saturday June 23rd Silver Lake Nature Center Flea Market

Sunday June 24th Our Secret Garden Tour

Saturday September 15 Silver Lake Nature Center Fall Expo

The Hummingbird Garden will be expanded between 4-5 feet and will need to be dug or layered or a combination of both.

We need to schedule Butterfly Garden clean up days and need volunteers for the following days:

April21

April28

May 5

May 19

Please plan to attend one or all of these to clean up. Bring rakes, digging tools, clippers and kneelers etc. The gardens need raking, bushes need trimming, the pathways needs to be maintained by cutting back the bushes.

Our Speaker for the evening was Jenny Boccardo who did a presentation on gardening for birds and butterflies. Members painted many lovely birdhouses while Jenny spoke about how to plant native species and provide cover, water and plants to feed and nourish the birds and butterflies we love to see in our gardens.

Next month Jim White and his wife will share with us the gardens they visited on their trip to Disneyland.