The Gardeners on the Move

Our garden club members are on the move doing and seeing interesting and important outreach in Zone V activities as well as in our own club.  We are rapidly coming to the end of the calendar year and thought this would be a good time to write up some of the activities that The Gardeners have already participated and look forward to finishing our fiscal year with Christmas arrangements for Surrey Services, Eldernet and Inglis House and a big trip to the John James Audubon Center-field trip on April 23, 2020.

 
The Grange Estate

Anne Barnette has watched over our participation in this beautiful 10-acre site where we have worked each month from April through November. The transformation in the gardens that we maintain is nothing short of amazing. We have bought and installed many beautiful native plants and Sandy Beale makes her intrepid ride from New Castle, Del with a car loaded with native seedlings from her secret gardens. The Grange is grateful for all the participation we continue to give on this important property in Havertown.

 
Ronald McDonald House

This year Presley Schwinn stepped in to organize the flower arrangemets around the beautiful rooms in this vital community of people who come with their children to be healed by the local medical facilities in Philadelphia.  We continue to gladly take our turn makimg these arrangements once a year.Here is what Presley had to say:

“On a cold and blustery November 13th morning, five Gardeners headed down to the Ronald McDonald House to provide some warmth and good cheer. Anne Barnett, Yvonne Bartman, Jane Moore, Judy Shekmar, and Presley Schwinn scouted the premises for placing our floral arrangements and pumpkin designs. After a couple of hours of creating and chatting, we left the building knowing that the public spaces have been spruced up for the holidays with shades of orange, copper, red, and green.”

 
Yellow Springs Farm

This is perhaps our second trip back as a club in a few years.  The cheese, the native plant nursery, the animals and the folks who run the farm all make for one very satisfying visit.  Barbara Geltosky gives her take on this year’s trip:

“Today 11 Gardeners made the trip to Al and Catherine Renzi’s Yellowsprings Farm in rural Chester county. While there we learned all about the realities of breeding and raising goats and making cheese. We also found that goats are affectionate and photogenic, that they need to be milked twice daily, and that Al and Catherine’s house has two front doors because working dairy farms of that era had one door for the family and one for the business. After our tour we tasted a number of delicious cheeses and had a lovely lunch with bread baked by Al and other goodies made by Deb Donaldson.”

 
Magnolia Tribute Garden

Bonnie Buchak had some interesting words on this year’s trip in town:

“Magnolia Tribute Garden Community Outreach

On Wednesday, Oct 23, Jane Moore, Pam Thompson, Judy Shekmar, and Bonnie Buchak traveled to 5th and Locust Streets in Philadelphia to work in the Magnolia Tribute Garden. The garden was donated to the Independence National Historic Park by the Garden Club of America in honor of the founders of our nation. Inspired by George Washington’s love of magnolia trees, the small park was planted with 13 hybrid magnolias representing the 13 original colonies. Along with the other garden clubs in PCGCA, Gardeners help maintain the grounds of this tranquil, green space in the heart of Philadelphia’s historic district.
Our crew, along with about ten other volunteers from the Garden Club of Philadelphia and the Garden Workers spent the morning trimming, fertilizing, removing old plants, sprucing up the grounds, and leaving the garden in beautiful shape for those passersby looking for a respite from the bustle of the city. The effort was organized by Pam Thompson and Marilyn Sprague, Co-Chairs of the Magnolia Tribute Garden for the PCGCA. “

 

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