Beautiful Gardens Begin with the Seed

 

Master Gardener, Shirley Barber, has been growing beautiful annuals, vegetables, perennials, and herbs from seed for more than a decade  Each year she and her Master Gardener assistants germinate hundreds of seeds to be used at school and community gardens.  She also installs stunning landscapes at the St. Johns County University of Florida IFAS extension grounds demonstrating  warm and cool-weather All-American Selections and other top-performing plants.  She has spoken at local events and state Master Gardener Conferences.  You can imagine how pleased we were to have her speak at our October meeting.  Her subject was, "Beautiful Gardens Begin with the Seed."  She did not arrive alone.  She brought a hand truck loaded with flats of seedlings, germination supplies, and handouts she developed to document every seasonal planting.  See the list below. 

• Beautiful Gardens Begin with the Seed

• Seed Starting Supplies and Suggested Suppliers

• Seed Documentation Planting Spring - Summer 2021

• Seed Documentation Planting Fall - Winter 2021

• Seeds from 1998-2021 (Excel/Google Spreadsheet)

Shirley is available for speaking engagements at your organization. Contact us at SwitzerlandGC@gmail.com and we'll put her in touch with you.  You can see her handiwork and that of other Master Gardener volunteers at the St. Johns County UF/IFAS extension grounds open during daylight hours at:  

St Johns County Agricultural Extension Service, 

3215 Agricultural Center Drive, St. Augustine, Florida  32092

In November our garden club with be making eucalyptus wreaths.  If you are interested in joining us, please Contact us at SwitzerlandGC@gmail.com in advance to determine the cost.  Seats are limited.

Butterflies of October

 

Our lucky winners of the butterfly rearing cage are at Alpine Groves Native Plant Butterfly Garden to release its latest occupant, Thelma.  Unlike her sister butterfly, Louise, the day before, Thelma seems reluctant to take the big flight.  We did eventually convince her that the garden was a wonderful place to stoke up on nectar before her migration south.  Bon Voyage, Thelma and Louise!

Butterfly gardening season is winding down, but while we humans stay at home, here are resources presented at the library Butterflies of  October event.  Use them to get ready for the new butterflies expected to appear in the spring.

The Butterflies of October.

A Master Class in Growing From Seed by a Master Gardener

Master Gardener, Shirley Barber, will present, "Great Gardens begin with the Seed."  Shirley is in charge of the All-American-Selections trials at the St. Johns County Extension Center.  She will describe the procedures she uses to assure seed germination, measure plant performance, and landscaping of the flowers.  The presentation is on October 6 at 10AM in the Bartram Trail Library.  Guests are welcome, but are asked to call 904-217-0584 so that we may provide adequate seating.  Master Gardeners are eligible for 1 CEU.

Librarian, Donna Braasch, stands behind a butterfly rearing cage containing milkweed plants and several voracious monarch caterpillars.  That was in mid-September.  Now, all the caterpillars have begun to pupate.  Several of them will probably be ready to emerge from their chrysalis and begin their journey to their overwintering locals.  That event may coincide with scheduled presentation on October 8 by Master Gardener Dianne Battle on The Butterflies of October.  October is an important month for local butterflies.  As the weather turns colder and fewer plants are in bloom, butterflies have to choose a strategy to survive the winter:  Migrate or Hibernate.  Learn how our local butterflies deal with this problem by attending this family-friendly event.

The Butterflies of October:  10/8 11AM 

Bartram Trail Library.  register at www.sjcpls.org

Free raffle for butterfly rearing cage (must be present to win)

 

If any of our butterflies are ready to emerge from the rearing cage, we'll feature a trip to Alpine Groves Freedom Butterfly Garden after the presentation.

First Meeting of Our Program Year

 

September 1 marks our first program meeting for the Garden Club of Switzerland.  We'll be at our usual location and time:  Bartram Trail Library at 10AM.  We are now meeting on the FIRST Thursday of the month, so mark your calendars.  Our entire program calendar is listed on the Events and Calendar page. Organizational information about our club and associated federated garden clubs is at the About page.

Our speaker in September is Connie Gladding, Clay County Master Gardener and President, also our District Director, AND a North Florida Daylily Society show judge!  These aren't your grandmother's old fashioned daylilies (although they are nice too).  She'll be introducing us to their modern day divas - progeny that will change your ideas about these flowers.  Some of them sell for as much as a hundred dollars per plant.  But Connie is bringing the more reasonably priced cultivars. See the list.

The meeting is open to the public.  Please let us know if you plan to attend. Contact us at switzerlandgc@gmail.com.  Oh, and bring a dollar bill or two in case you want to win the daylily we're raffling off.

Image source:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hemerocallis_%27Double_Pompon%27_2020-07-18_03.jpg licensed under Share and Share Alike Creative Commons 4.0

Grazing in the Garden 7/16

 

The public is invited to join us at the Freedom Butterfly Garden at Alpine Groves Park on Saturday, July 16, to celebrate our county parks and recreation department's 50 years of service.  See the invitation for details.   We will be giving away a number of native plants.  For information on each species see our Plant Giveaway July 2022 Handout.    We also will have DIY bubble making activity; see how to do this at home with our Home Made Bubble Kits.

Garden of Excellence for May

 

The Garden Club of Switzerland recognizes Mark and Eunice Ferris of 1405 Satsuma Road for their excellent yard scaping.  Their love of palms is reflected in the variety of species they’ve planted, including pigmy date palms, Bismark, queen, and pindo, and has earned our Garden Excellence Award for the month of May.  If you would like to nominate a noteworthy yard, or are interested in being a part of our garden club, see our website, www.switzerlandgc.org.

Two Meetings in May: 5/5 and 5/10

Butterflies and other pollinators are spreading their wings, and our club is holding two presentations at the Bartram Trail Library to highlight the ones that have visited the Freedom Butterfly Garden in Alpine Groves County Park over the years. The public is invited to attend..  This is an adult-oriented event.

Thursday, May 5, 10AM Manatee Room

Tuesday, May 10, 5PM Bartram Room (pollinator plant giveaways featured)

We'll have photos and information to help you make your yard more attractive to pollinators.   We are collaborating with the St. Johns County Master Gardeners to install more species of native plants, including more that support caterpillars that will grow into butterflies.   

First Meeting - Garden Club of Switzerland 4/7

We're having our kickoff meeting this Thursday at 10AM at the Bartram Trail Library.  It's been a long time since we've been about to get together, so we're just going to say "howdy," swap some stories, and do a little brainstorming plans for upcoming meetings and activities.

The public is invited to join us.  This is an informal get-together, so the more the merrier:

Date:  4/7/2022 Thursday

Time:  10AM-noon

Place:  Bartram Trail Library, Manatee Room (in back of library),  60 Davis Pond Blvd. (904) 827-6960

Awards of Excellence in Gardening

 

The Garden Club of Switzerland is BACK!!!  And our first activity was to drive around the neighborhoods that have popped up since COVID sent us back inside.  We drove through a few new communities and got lost...  So, we got back on familiar territory:  Roberts Road near SR 13.  It had been some time since I'd been in Mallard Landing, but at least I wouldn't get lost there.  

That's when we found ourselves on Pintail Drive.  Once home stood out in particular.  An array of neatly-pruned shrubs in a variety of species provided interest for the eye and privacy for the residents.  It turns out it was the home of Master Gardener Kathy Schwob and her husband, Charles.  They gave us a tour of their landscaping, and container gardens.  Not everyone has an acre of land that can support so many mature trees, but that much landscaping represents a lot of work.  The Schwobs at 1525 Pintail Drive are our first recipients of the Award of Excellence in Gardening for April 2022.  

We didn't get very far.  When we turned on Mallard Lake Avenue, we saw this home and just couldn't leave without stopping in to compliment the owners on their landscaping.  This too was the home of a Master Gardener.  Mary Sue Wolf and her husband Michael had designed a landscape that offered privacy and a lot of horticultural interest.  A sheltered sitting area on the way to the front door looked so inviting and the wind chimes singing in the oak tree added to the ambience.  Mary Sue and Michael Wolf of 1484 Mallard Lake Avenue became our second recipients of the Award of Excellence in Gardening for April 2022.

We'll be out scouting our May recipients and are looking forward to the adventure.  Our club flower is the red Camellia Japonica, which symbolizes "unpretending excellence."  We encountered two examples of that this month.

This month we also started a partnership with the St. Johns County Extension Center to help revitalize the club's native plant pollinator garden in Alpine Groves Park.  We'll be posting our planning, hard work, and progress in enhancing this special part of Alpine Groves Park.  Check out the Resources pages for our Freedom Butterfly Garden Blog.

In the meantime, batten down the hatches - or pull out your frost cloth and move freeze-sensitive plants in containers to a sheltered location.  We have a freeze watch issued for the area.  And before you go to bed, set your clocks FORWARD one hour.  We are headed for Daylight Saving Time!