Monday night gardening talk series in the City of Rochester

This year we (finally) have the opportunity to attend the Sodus Garden Club's plant sale. As you know the Sodus Garden Club has generously donated their after-sale plants to our club during the Apple Blossom Festival for the last couple of years. This year, they will be having their sale on Saturday, May 22 starting at 9 am on Rt. 88 in front of the Primary School. I would highly recommend that you come at 9 as they have some amazing plants for sale every year.

From: Michael Warren Thomas

Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 12:14 AM

Subject: Monday night gardening talk starts series of ten in the City

Hello Fellow Gardeners! I will be doing a series of free gardening talks at ten different locations in the City, beginning tomorrow night (Monday) at Cornell Cooperative Extension, in their auditorium from 7-8pm. These workshops will be rather free wheeling, based on the questions people bring, plants they bring for identification, and materials that I bring. It will be show and tell, rather than Powerpoint. Tomorrow night I will bring tiny Hardy Cyclamen seedlings for people - mine have been blooming since the snow departed, and they will continue through much of May.

No need to RSVP if you are not coming, but if you are, let me know so I can bring enough seedlings for people. They are tiny and delicate, but the price is right! I hope you can join me for one or several of these workshops. Some are on Monday evenings and others are on Saturday afternoons. They are listed in the Flower City Looking Good brochure, along with dozens of hikes, bike rides and other gardening/nature related events in Rochester. Look for the brochures in libraries or I would be happy to send you one.

Keep your eyes open for the first Tulip and first Lilac of 2010 - the final two categories in First in Bloom. Details on the other 9 categories already awarded, are at www.SavourLife.com under Naturally Green. Also Bristol's Garden Center is having their Spring Open House on April 10 & 11, I'll be there to broadcast on April 10. Then I will also be broadcasting from the Broccolo Earth Expo at Cooperative Extension on April 17 from 9-4pm - a free event.

www.broccologroup.com/events.htm

Mondays from 7-8pm, Free

March 29- Cornell Coop. Extension of Monroe County, 149 Highland Ave
April 5- Danforth Community Center, 200 West Ave
April 12 -Thomas P Ryan Community Center, 530 Webster Ave
April 19 -Edgerton Community Center, 41 Backus St.
April 26 - The Rochester Civic Garden Center, 5 Castle Park in Highland Park
May 3 - North Street Community Center, 700 North St.

Saturdays at the libraries - 12:30-1:30pm, Free

April 3- Winton Branch, 611 N. Winton Road
April 10- Arnett Branch, 310 Arnett Blvd.
April 17- Charlotte Branch, 3557 Lake Avenue
April 24- Monroe Branch, 809 Monroe Avenue

Rose Workshops

, 10 am–12 noon, Sat., May 1, June 19, July 24 and Oct. 9. Maplewood Rose Garden

Michael Warren Thomas
19 Trafalgar Street
Rochester, NY 14619
585-328-8300
Michael@SavorLife.com

March Events

1. We don't normally do this but the Ontario Library is presenting the same lecture we had planned to arrange for March. So mark your calendars for Thursday, March 18th at 7pm:

Spring Garden Preparation - the Cornell Cooperative Extension is loaning us Cindy Ziegler Master Gardener for the evening. It is that time of year again. The time when our thoughts turn to the joys of getting our hands in the rich brown earth and working with it coaxing it to yield those wonderful flowers that we can enjoy for the warm Spring, Summer and Fall months. Call 315-524-8381 to sign up.

2. The Learning Fair is Saturday, March 13th this year. I am going to be out of town and am looking for a volunteer to man the table. It normally runs from 12-3 and we have flyers/brochures to share with the attendees. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering (email or call me at 524-4204).

February 2010 Event

Hello Gardeners! I hope everyone is staying warm during this cold time. It's hard to believe but even though our gardens are covered in snow, it is a perfect time to start planning for this year's gardens.

The Williamson Garden Club is excited to have Penny Higgins, past president of our club, provide a hands-on demonstration on starting plants from seeds. Following the presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to plant seeds. The presentation will be on Wednesday, February 24th in the Williamson Library’s large meeting room at 7:00 P.M.

The Garden Club will provide whatever equipment is needed so just bring yourself and questions for Penny.

The presentation is free and open to the public. For more information, call Eric Herriman at (315) 524-4204. If you need information about Garden Club activities, membership, etc. feel free to email grow14589@yahoo.com. Additionally, you can check out the calendar at http://www.town.williamson.ny.us/ to see when we are holding our meetings and upcoming events.

Happy Gardening!Subrata

November and December Event

Hello Gardeners!

I hope everyone had a great (and spooky) Halloween! At our last members' meeting, we decided to put together/test the christmas trees before putting them in the planters. It turns out that our regular meeting day (the 11th) is Veterans' Day. Therefore, we are going to meet at John Ferrante's house at 7pm on Tuesday, 11/10. Dress warm as we'll be outside/in his barn.

Eric and I took a look at LED lights as a possible replacement for those trees that no longer light. The price is still pretty high and the cost savings is not as large as we initially thought. We're currently thinking about going with regular white lights - this is something we can discuss further when we meet.

Finally, we will be putting the trees in on Saturday before Thanksgiving, which I believe is the 21st. 9am (dress warm!). We also have some plastic candy canes to put in the green space. If you have items to discuss for the 10th, please let me know.

For December, Eric has spoken to John Palmer regarding doing flower arrangements for Blossom View again. John asked if we could make the ribbons ahead of time, as we did last year. Due to the amount of work that this program needs, please let me know if you are interested in helping AND what dates won't work for you. (John had initially suggested 12/2 but I've heard that PHS is having their dinner that night).

Happy Gardening!
Subrata

July Event

Hello Fellow Gardeners!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful today playing in their gardens. The weather is just gorgeous for a fun day outside.

I am very excited to announce that our July event this year is a daylily tour at Joyce Leimberger's gardens. As many of you who attended Parker Zach's gorgeous daylily tour last year may remember, Joyce's garden was the starting point of Parker's love of daylilies. Joyce is a passionate gardener with extensive knowledge of daylilies and a keen eye for mixing colors and textures. Her daylilies are unbelievable - so many different colors and textures Bring your camera because they are a sight to see!

The tour will be Thursday, July 23, at 7pm.

This is free to the public so feel free to forward to other interested gardeners. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. Happy Gardening!Subrata

Fencing Pics

Lowes - Fencing 1

Lowes - Fencing 2

Lowes - Fencing 3

Fencing for Green Space

Fencing Options for Green Space

From John Ferrante - pricing information
HD LOWES
FENCING 4X8 STD $50
3X7.5 GOTHIC $45
36 IN X 92.25 DIF STYLES $30 TO 50
48 X 92.25 " "
POSTS INC CAP 6' $25
POST $15
CAP $2.50 TO $5.00

Note: Some posts do not need a 4x4 wood post inside for support but the HD unit can support itself. Some posts include mounting hardware while others require it to be purchased separately.

For Home Depot, go to "homedepot.com" and type in veranda fencing. You can see what style is available.

For Lowe's, go to "lowes.com" and type in vinyle fencing. You can see some more information about the fencing.

I'm going to try to attach pics of the Lowe's fencing.

Hopefully this won't be overwhelming. Please take a look and let me know if you have a preference for a certain style of fencing. If you feel overwhelmed. let me know and we can print out the specific fencing and information for our next meeting.

thanks!
Subrata

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

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