What a great meeting we had yesterday! Lots of excellent information and ideas came out. But first I want to welcome our newest member, Meddy, from Meddy's Musings! She has been a great guest lecturer in the past and joined our Garden Club this past month.
1. 2010 Project - Laurie Van Norstrand from the Cornell Cooperative graciously attended our meeting and was an amazing source of information. While we did stray from our original topic (we had to take advantage of having such a knowledgeable Master Gardener in our midst!), we did get a lot of information for our 2010 project.
2010 project -- Two raised beds in front of "Welcome to Williamson" signs. One on Rt 21, near the school, and one on Rt 104, near Cavallaro Neubauer.
1. Talk to Jerry Hubright regarding drainage issues around Rt 21 site and potential spraying around signs by the department and any potential right-of-way issues
2. Need to be aware of snow/wind/traffic in general. salt may be an issue. Remember that the snow load might be piled on which could crush the plants
.
3. Raised beds, not simply mounded areas, was decided. Recommended mixing existing soil with new soil and use newspaper to smother grass/remove sod.
Use top soil and compost. Additionally these should be well-mulched to reduce the need for weeding. Adding gypsum to soil can help alleviate the salt problem.
4. The soil will probably settle and will need to be re-set. Traditionally these would have been done in the falltime, allowing it time to settle. Recommendation to do
annuals this year to allow soil settlement and reset
5. Discussion of upkeep and maintenance. Important to make sure we can keep up with it otherwise no use in starting this process.
6. Suggested plants: low-growing juniper, tulips and daffodils, daylilies, shorter grasses, sedum, yucca, canna, hostas (not blue-leafed ones), annuals. Laurie to send
list of salt-tolerant plants for us to look at and choose from.
7. Recommended looking at size of flowers before deciding on size of raised beds. Look at impact of long-term plantings once we plant perennials. Keep in mind
lessons learned from Green Space in terms of placement.
8. We could take care of the weeds/seeds with preen or round-up although more organic methods should be look at as options.
We will set up a meeting in mid-June to discuss the logistics of taking on this project for this year. Last year Shirley was the lead person in moving the Green Space project forward. If anyone is interested in being the lead for this project, please let me know.
Then we segued into a discussion of how to handle pests in our gardens, what may be causing rotting in daylilies, and tomato problems.
The CCE recommends using copper fungicide for tomatoes and make sure you plant your tomatoes where it can dry off. The blight survives on live plants so get rid of last year's tomato plants/potato plants that might still carry it.
If you have questions for the CCE, their master gardener hotline is 331-8415 x107 and they are available on Tuesday and Fridays, 9-12p.
Pest Alert: the Emerald Ash Borer. http://www.pestalert.org/
2. MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The Cornell Cooperative is hosting a Great Gardens of Wayne County, Saturday, July 3rd from 11-4pm. There will be 6 gardens and they are IN Ontario, Williamson and Sodus. Tickets are $10 per person and can be picked up at Cornell Cooperative Extension Wayne County, 1581 Rt 88N, Newark, NY 14513, Phone: 315-331-8415.
Gardens include an oriental garden, an arboreteum, perennial/water garden, a straw-bale garden as well as others.
Additionally, the CCE is looking for nominations for gardens in Wayne County that you think might be one of the “Great Gardens” that could be included in our tours in future years. If you or someone you know has a potential tour garden please let us know. This program will be an ongoing program and they will be contacting owners of possible 2011 tour sites this summer.
3. Review of Apple Blossom Festival/Suggestions for 2011
Attendance appeared lower for this year's festival and we did not make as much money as last year/discuss the Garden Club with as many people. We had initially set up at Apple Blossom to publicize the Garden Club and it has segued into a plant sale. Suggestions for next year:
1. Set up on Sunday, during the car show. People park much closer and walk around more. More likely to buy plants and more likely to make contacts with
Williamson/local area for potential members.
2. Set up stand-alone Plant Sale on a following weekend. Would need to advertise more strongly and could set up a sandwich board at Apple Blossom to let
people know of sale.
4. planters status - new planters/current planters
We are getting 12 new planters for downtown. No set date yet on when that will happen. Currently 18 planters downtown are planted. When new planters come, we will
replant 12 of them and keep the remaining 6 planters. Next year, we will probably only do the 12 planters (to be discussed further).
This is the third year that plants have died in May due to the cold weather. Discussion of putting something temporary and then putting in the plants at the end of May. One
suggestion is putting in Apple Twigs with fake Apple Blossoms, in keeping with the Apple Blossom festival. We would create a concrete base so that the planting would not
fly away. This needs further discussion.
5. watering of planters
Kris and Ed, Shirley, Perry and Darrell & Esther have volunteered to help with watering. if you can help, please let me know. Typically volunteers water for one week.
6. updated Garden Club events
Penny is having a sale in mid-June. We will be selling our plants during that time. After the sale, we will have a plant exchange for members (and friends!). if you have any
"wants" or "offers", let me know and I'll see about posting them closer to the exchange.
7. membership dues - Everyone owes dues (except Meddy, our newest member). $ 10 to Scott Utley, PO Box 202, Williamson, New York 14589 or you can send it to Eric Herriman, 2814 Rosemarie Lane, Ontario, NY 14519. Any checks should be made out to the Williamson Garden Club.
8. logos/t-shirts - Penny has created a logo which I will be sending out for people to look at. We want to create a t-shirt that all members can wear so we are easily
recognizable.
Perry, were you going to see where we could get these t-shirts printed/pricing to get them done?
9. We still need to discuss the Green Space dedication and signage
Finally I am happy to say that we were finally able to repay the Sodus Garden Club for their generosity to us these last couple of years. Eric and I dropped off some Japanese Maple Trees as well as some other plants for the Sodus Garden Club Plant Sale. Of course, I ended up buying way too many plants at the Sodus Garden Club Plant Sale which was as awesome as I had heard - it was great to finally attend the sale after hearing so much about it. The Sodus Garden Club was again very generous and gave the Williamson Garden Club their extra plants at the end of the sale.
Happy Gardening!
Subrata
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