Saturday, May 9, 2009

May Update - Apple Blossom Festival and Plant Sale

Hello Fellow Gardeners!

We had a wonderful turn-out to do the downtown/Town Hall planters. A big thanks to John and Linda, Kris and Ed (and their super-cute grandkids, Sylvia and Abby), Carol, Scott, Fran, Nancy, Penny and Eric.

Mason Farms did an AMAZING job with the plants -- we have some great foliage and gorgeous flowers. It is going to look really great for Apple Blossom Festival. I have tags that Dorothy had made up with our club name and email address. I plan to put them in the planters before next week.

We need volunteers to take a week (or more, if possible) to water plants. For our new members, we ask volunteers to water 3x/week to make sure the planters don't dry out. There are water spigots available outside the hardware store, King's Auto and Mane Attraction. If you can't guarantee 3x/week, let me know what you can do and maybe we can have 2 or more people volunteering for a week. We will need waterers through September.

There were some questions about Apple Blossom Festival. Here is the current plan:
- we will be selling plants on Saturday, May 16th, near Meddy's Musings/the old Fire Hall (near the rides).
- we will be setting up the tent on Friday night, probably around 7ish. Eric and I will be at the tent around 8/8:30 on Saturday morning. if you wish, you can drop off plants on Friday or Saturday.
- we need plant donations for the festival. we typically accept any type of plant (annual, perennial, vegetables, herbs, tree, bush, etc.) if you need pots, let me know.
- I have 2 volunteers to help so far. If you have some free time, let me know. Last year, we didn't sell many plants after 2 so I'm thinking that we will sell from 9-2 this year.


Happy Gardening!
Subrata

Friday, May 1, 2009

April Update for Members

hello Gardeners! I can't believe it's the end of April already. I wanted to send an email as May is going to be coming at us fast and furious and we have some things coming up soon.

1. I think most of our snowbirds are home (welcome back and thanks for bringing back some sun!). I'd like to set up a set date for our members-only meetings. I'd like everyone to send me days that DON'T work for meetings - for example, the Charrette meets on the first Thursday of every month or the Historical Society meets every first Tuesday of every month, etc. I realize not everyone is going to be able to make our meetings but I'd like to make sure I'm not conflicting with other things, if possible.

2. Drag out your calendars - we have a few things going on in May.

a. Main Street and Town Hall planters - Because of a prior commitment, Eric and I are not available Saturday, May 9th. Instead of doing the planters on Saturday, we're planning on doing the planters on Friday, May 8th. Eric is coordinating with Mason Farms and we're thinking of meeting around 6:30-7:00ish. Please let me know if you think you can help out so we can plan accordingly.Perry - do you think you can ask the VP at the school if kids would be available to help us?

b. If you are free on Saturday, May 9th, they are doing a Clean Sweep in the morning. Any help would be greatly appreciated. As you know, our town has looked amazing for Apple Blossom Festival due to the hard work of the volunteers during the Clean Sweep.

c. Apple Blossom Festival - Saturday, May 16thwe are fortunate enough to have gotten permission to set up where we did last year, near Meddy's Musings/the old Fire Hall. Instead of having only a few people watching the tent the entire day, I'd like to try to set up volunteers throughout the day. If you can volunteer to watch the tent, even for an hour, please let me know.

i. If you have plants to donate and need pots, let me know as I have extra pots to donate. I think we're going to set up the night before so plants can be dropped off the night before.

ii. we are very lucky again this year. The Sodus Garden Club is having their plant sale on Saturday morning. They will be donating any remaining plants to us after 12:00. Eric has offered to go and pick them up.

3. Typically our May event is the planter plantings and Apple Blossom. I received an email from the Master Gardener program. Would anyone be interested in an event later in May? If so, I'll talk to the coordinator and see if we can set something up.

4. Scott will be sending out a letter soon regarding dues. if you have not yet paid your dues (or can't remember when you last paid dues), please feel free to contact him. Dues are still $10 for the year.

5. Finally, we need to meet to talk about the Green Space. The bulbs that Shirley planted last year are starting to come up and look really great. I think, after the Apple Blossom Festival, we should meet to talk about what we want to do with that space.

*whew* okay I think that's it for now. I am planning on setting up a meeting in May but it will probably be after the Apple Blossom festival.

Happy Gardening!
Subrata

April 2009 Event - Tour of Mason Farms

Hello Fellow Gardeners! What wonderful weather we are having! I am very tempted to skip work and just play in the garden all day long. My tulips are starting to bloom and I'm starting to see my peonies popping out of the ground. Hopefully this nice weather will continue through this coming weekend and give us all a chance to enjoy our gardens.

Just a reminder that our April event is tomorrow night. We will be having a tour of Mason Farms in Williamson (http://www.masonfarmsny.com/) followed by a Q&A with Doug Mason. We will be meeting on Wednesday, April 29th at 6:30. The Farm is located at 3135 Ridge Road, Williamson, NY.

We will get a tour of the flower greenhouses and, weather permitting, shown how their tomatoes are being grown this year. As you know, Mason Farms is IPM and Organic Certified and Doug and Lorraine have always been very kind to answer any and all questions we've had for them.

In addition, the Market will be open so if you want to get a start on buying flowers, herbs, etc. for your gardens, we'll get the opportunity to do so. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. This event is open to the public - if there are others you think might be interested in the event, feel free to invite them. I hope to see you there! Happy Gardening!Subrata