The March Garden

We all will soon be ready to get

back out into our gardens and

get our hands into the soil! I

compiled a list of some of the “March

Chores” we can begin to do during the

month of March!

Garden work should begin when the

soil squeezed in your hand is dry

enough to fall apart

Uncover bulb and hardy perennial

beds near the middle of the

month. Watch the weather

though as daffodils and tulips still

need protection from the cold

and drying winds

Plant deciduous trees and shrubs

Prune fruit trees

Set out pansies as soon as the

ground is ready

Repair trellises now before spring

growth begins

- Clean all pots and flats for

starting seeds and plant the seeds now

In late March, begin to prune and

feed your plant material

Edge beds

Top dress beds with mulch

Remove any burlap from gardens

(The above information is from Ct.

Preppers Network, Sam Bridge

Nursery, and Martha Stewart’s

Gardening.)

Remember to watch for the wonderful

programs at the Garden Education

Center including their “Pruning

Plants Workshop” on March 29th at

10:30.

The Philadelphia Flower Show will be

held March 4-11 and the theme is”

The Hawaiian Islands of Aloha”.

From the Pres ident ’s Garden - C i n d y R y a n GCD Calendar

March 1st—3rd

Greenfingers show, The Nature

of the Game, Christ Church,

Greenwich.

Monday March 5th

Board Meeting at the home of

Susie Brewer, 98 Ridge Acres

Road, 8:45 coffee, 9:00 Meeting

Tuesday March 13th

Membership Meeting ,Joint

meeting with New Canaan

Garden Club, at the DCA

House, 9:30 Coffee, 10:00

Meeting

Thursday March 29th

Inextricably Linked: Long

Island Sound and Our Way

of Life, a Conservation lecture

by Chantal Collier at the Darien

Library at 7:00 p.m.

Monday April 2nd

Board Meeting at the home of

Debby McLean, 120 Long Neck

Point Road. 8:45 Coffee, 9:00

Meeting.

Monday April 30th

All requests for resignation and/

or change in membership status

must be received in writing to

both Janet Sargent and Eileen

Smith by today.

Wednesday-Friday October

2-4, 2013

GCD Flower Show at the DCA

Monthly Newsletter March 2012 Volume 3, Issue 7

Garden Club o f Dar ien G a r d e n c l u b o f d a r i e n . o r g

GCD Flower Show

Debbie Bussey and Lisa Brickman

SAVE THE DATE---October 2-4,

2013 GCD FLOWER SHOW

We are pleased to announce that the GCA

has confirmed and published the dates Oc-

tober 2-4, 2013 on the GCA Calendar for

our upcoming Garden Club of Darien

Flower Show. The show will be held

again at the Darien Community Association

(DCA). Please mark your calendars and

stay tuned for some emails with dates to

meet and brainstorm regarding this very

exciting opportunity for us to showcase

our wonderful club and amazing talented

members. We look forward to working

with everyone during the upcoming year

and a half and thank you all in advance for

your input as we collectively plan for this

very special event!

Garden Club of Darien March 2012

Conservation

Susan Balloch, Gigi Garnett and Margaret Smith

As a community with ties to both the land and the

sea, it is crucial that we recognize the immediacy of the im-

pact of our treatment of the land on the health of our sur-

rounding marine environment. Both The Nature Conser-

vancy and the CT Fund for the Environment in particular are

addressing the importance of reestablishing a sense of ur-

gency in putting the health of Long Island Sound back on the

public radar.

As noted by the CT Fund for the Environment, a recent

Hartford Courant article “Long Island Sound Is A Long Way

From Safe” (Long Island Sound Is A Long Way From

Safe - Hartford Courant ) is a call for both Connecticut and

New York to urgently refocus their attention on the health

of Long Island Sound. The Nature Conservancy has also

stated that there are specific areas that need immediate at-

tention. Their Long Island Sound Program has identified the

following as “urgent problems”, 1) Rising seas and stronger

storms, 2) Disappearing shellfish, seagrass and migratory fish

and 3) Increasing pressures from development.

As members of both a waterfront community and an organi-

zation with an interest in conservation, we would like to

make you aware of a program offered this month at the

Darien Library addressing these issues. Chantal Collier, Di-

rector of the Long Island Sound Program for The Nature

Conservancy is scheduled to present “Inextricably Linked:

Long Island Sound and Our Way of Life” We hope you

consider attending her presentation on Thursday, March 29

at 7:00 PM at the Darien Library. For further information on

this important event please consult www.darienlibrary.org

and go to the events tab to find a complete write up about

the program.

2

March Membership Meeting

Ann Mckee and Sheryl Lincoln

A Four Season Garden -- Tuesday, March 13

Please join us for the annual joint meeting with our

neighbors from New Canaan. Coffee and breakfast treats

will start at 9:30 am and the meeting will begin at 10:00

am at the DCA on Tuesday, March 13.

Mar Jennings, home and garden lifestyle expert and TV

host, will speak to us about "A Four Season Garden.". He

is known to be wildly entertaining and fun as he gives his

take on the casual luxury style which is his life at his home

and gardens in Westport. Mar is involved in very medium

available and hosts a weekly TV show on Fox CT called

Northeast Living.

His book, "Life on Mars, A Four Season Garden,". Will be

available to us for a special price of $25 -- it retails for

$39.99. So bring your checkbooks.

Flower Arranging

Lisa Brickman, Beth Crump & Emily D’Andrea

There were 7 entries for the Valentine in-club competi-

tion at the February meeting. For the “Month of Love”,

the entrants were asked to use a visual interpretation of a

watercolor by Jim Dine. The arrangement was to be no

larger that 14” in a container of choice. The judges, Emmy

Ogden and Bridget Bucknall were really impressed with all

of the arrangements, the creativity and willingness to

make the interpretation their own design thus all who did

not place received Honorable Mention Thank you all for

brightening up the DCA. ( see photos )

Thank you to Lisa Brickman and Beth Crump for putting

together a lovely pink and red tea table filled with treats

and the simple elegance of flowering Quince branches!

We do not have a March competition but start thinking

small & spring flowers for the upcoming April In Club

Competition--Miniature Spring Flower Arrange-

ments. Springtime is on the way!

1st place Lynn Reilly and

Cyndy Stamm

2nd place Betsy Hester

3rd place Carol Caufield

Honorable Mention went

to Emily D’Andrea, Susan

Cator, Bridget Rudner and

Joanne Shakely & Francis

Wilson.

Garden Club of Darien 3

Horticulture Debbie Bussey and Debby McLean Kearney

March 2012

Hort Cont’d All GCD members are encouraged to visit the Greenfingers

show and see first hand our club's wonderful entries. A re-

minder to all that Horticulture entries must be entered and

passed Wednesday February 29th between 1:30-4:30pm. Good

luck to all who are entering!

April Daffodil Competition

Looking ahead to April, we will again have our cut

stems of Daffodils competition. Please see the GCD

web site Horticulture section for the 13 classifica-

tions of Daffodils and Daffodil entry cards. We will

be holding a ‘Groom for Show’ workshop in preparation for

this competition conducted by Jennifer Brown on Thursday

April 5th at 9:30am, also at Debby McLean’s home. This is a

wonderful opportunity to learn about Daffodils, and Jennifer

runs a fabulous workshop. Even if you aren’t planning on en-

tering a competition we encourage you to attend this informa-

tive workshop.

Herb Garden Susan Massamillo and Charky Armstong

What a wonderful presentation by Sal Gilbertie on Jan.10th at

the DCA!

Thanks to Clare for some quick notes, here are some of his

tips for your herb/vegetable gardens:

--Root Crops (carrots, potatoes and onions)-always buy or-

ganic-liquid nitrogen in the soil takes away taste

--Garlic becomes hard to digest when it absorbs the pesticides

in the soil-which our body, in turn, tries to process--buy or-

ganic

--Greek Oregano, is the true oregano and is best tasting

--Sweet Marjoram, (which flowers mauve, pink and lavender) is

great for cooking, variegated marjoram is attractive in the gar-

den

--Scented Geranium "citrosa", is a great insect repellent, place

around your patio

--Rosemary "BBQ" is very hardy, can take -20 degrees occa-

sionally

--Basil "Genovese", most popular, has large leaf

(Check your basil topiary plants for bugs-first whiteflies and

now black bugs are very attracted to mine-use insecticidal

soap)

---To dry Herbs: 1) Pick and lay between paper towels, must be

a dry and dark environment. 2)Crumble and store in a dark

area. (Do not hang, as they loose their essential oils, flavor)

In April Newsletter: Spring cleanup of the Herb Garden at the

Historical Society-Herb Garden Committee.

Sincerely, Susan, Charky and Clare

February Club Competition

Congratulations to our three entrants and winners of the

Streptocarpella saxorum competition:

1st Debby McLean

2nd Carol Caulfield

3rd Bridget Rudner

March Forced Branch Competition

We are excited to have the Garden Club of New Canaan

joining us in our March Forced Branch competition. As both

clubs have horticulture sweepstakes, each club’s entries will

be judged separately. Information on forcing branches can be

found on the GCD web site. You may enter as many differ-

ent types of branches as you wish, but each entry can consist

of only one single branch, i.e. one stem of Forsythia, one

stem of a cherry tree, etc. Beakers & wedging material will

be provided. Entries will be accepted at the DCA from

8:30am and must be in place for judging by 9:00am.

Greenfingers “The Nature of the Game” Show

March 1-3, Christ Church, Greenwich

Many of our members have been growing Amaryllis, Hya-

cinth, Narcissus and Tulipa which were planted at our bulb

workshop run by Pat Van den Broek last fall for entry in this

show. The weather this winter has made our bulb forcing

extremely challenging! We hope that there will be many

entries from our club. Lois Baylis will be conducting a bulb

grooming workshop in preparation for the show Tuesday

February 28th at 10:00am at the home of Debby McLean, 120

Long Neck Point Road. All who are growing bulbs for entry

in Greenfingers show are encouraged to attend and all others

are very welcome to attend.

Our Provisionals have been hard at work designing and creat-

ing their show container, and forcing mini Tulip, Crocus, Iris

and Muscari bulbs for their entry as well as growing ground

covers from seed for their entry “Scene of the Crime”, the

Billiards room from the board game “Clue”. A special

THANK YOU to Lois Baylis for mentoring our Provisionals

throughout this entire project and to Carol Caulfield for co-

ordinating this fun and challenging experience for our provi-

sional members.

Photography

Danielle Granath and Tracy Drippé

Thanks to all who entered our February competition

"Coastal Connecticut". Our GCA judge said any one of

them could be entered into a GCA show! We hope you

will enter an upcoming show. Please contact us if you have

any questions or want additional information on how to do

that.

Our beautiful winning photo is reproduced here. Congrats

to all.

1st. Amy Cholnoky

2nd-tie. Gwynne Tibbets

Susan Cator

3rd. Tracy Drippe'

Hon. Mentions to:

Carol Caulfield

Susan Brewer

Danielle Granath

Debby McLean

Susan Balloch

Debbie Murray

Garden Club of Darien 4

Pleasure Through Plants

Susan Doelp and Pam Elliott

March 2012

Pleasure Through Plants was busy this month spreading Val-

entine’s Day wishes to both the Senior Center and Elder-

house. At the Senior Center, Adria Fitzpatrick demon-

strated making pave arrangements. With some hesitation to

cut the stems very short an assortment of beautiful arrange-

ment were born! Pam Elliott and Sandy Drimal assisted with

lovely red boxes filled with pink and red roses, carnations

and white babies breath and topped with chocolate candy

hearts. All 16 participants were very excited about their ar-

tistic masterpieces! Elderhouse has moved back into their

newly renovated space which provided a really nice setting

for the workshop. Pink and red containers with hearts were

filled with a combination of red, pink and white carnations,

sweetheart roses and alstromeria to make cheerful and lovely

arrangements. Debbie Murray and Bridget Rudner chaired

the workshop with Annie McKee assisting.

Garden Club of Darien 5

Hospitality—Meeting Response

Audrey Cadwallader and Robin Stineman

Mugs Still Available We still have plenty of mugs for sale to bring to the meetings

or keep for home! The Garden Club of Darien logo is im-

printed on both the travel mug and the green ceramic mug.

Ceramic cups will be $5 and travel mugs will be $10 or $15

for the set. Any questions please contact Debbie Murray at

203-655-0902 or debmur@optonline.net

March 2012

The meeting will at joint meeting with New Ca-

naan. It will be held on Tuesday March 13th at

the DCA House, 9:30 coffee, 10:00 meeting.

Please remember to bring your own mug!

April Newsletter Deadline

Monday March 26th

Email to debmur@optonline.net

MEMBERSHIP

Janet Sargent and Varina Steuert

Please note the following from GCD bylaws:

"Any request for change in membership status, including

resignations and reinstatements, shall be directed to the

Membership Committee which, in turn, will present its rec-

ommendation to the Board for action. REQUESTS FOR

RESIGNATION MUST BE MADE BYAPRIL 30TH OF

THE CURRENT YEAR. ANY MEMBER WHOSE RESIGNA-

TION HAS NOT BEEN RECEIVED BY APRIL 30TH WILL

BE OBLIGATED FOR DUES PAYMENT FOR THE FOL-

LOWING YEAR." Requests for change of status from Ac-

tive to Associate or Affiliate should also be in writing by

April 30.

The April 30th deadline for someone intending to resign is

for practical reasons. We pay the GCA dues based on our

headcount. We are charged for anyone who is on our

books as an active member on April 30.

Please send your requests for change of status to Janet Sar-

gent and Eileen Smith.

Many thanks,

Janet and Varina

Lisa Brickman and Beth Crump created this Valen-

tine’s Day themed tea table arrangement that cre-

ated a lovely ambiance for the February Meeting!

Above: Lynn Ryan, Betsy Hester and Deb Carnes gave the

GCD great representation at GCA HQ where they

served lunch at the Zone II Presidents meeting last

month.