And mark your calendar for November 9, when Master Gardener, Shirley Barber will be back to show us more gardening tips. While we're at it, here's her advice for keeping her tools sterile - preventing the spread of disease! When finished with your gardening chores, soak your tools in a solution of 10% bleach and 90% water for 15 minutes and rinse off. See our Resources tip on Maintaining your Garden Tools for Dave's Garden.
Another popular way of using edibles in the landscape is called foodscaping. Plants like these not only have decorative value but can be eaten (generally without a lot of processing to remove toxins). Such plants are not necesarily native. If you do edible landscaping be careful what chemical (and organic) treatments you apply. Pesticides and fungicides, if used, should not be used in a way that renders the food plant dangerous.
Remember that your edible landscaping may be particularly attractive to wildlife. Unless you plant specifically for wildlife use techniques that will allow you to reap the benefits of your efforts.
The meeting is open to the public. It starts at 10AM and runs until 12:30 in the front Bartram room of the Bartram Trail Library.. Master Gardeners may receive CEUs for attending.
Here's a post from our Factbook page Celebrating National Garden Week:
The monarch caterpillars are emerging strong and healthy. The first one, a boy, was released yesterday at Alpine Groves butterfly garden. We were hoping our latest arrival would be a girl, so we could name her Arlene and release her to find our boy, Arlo. Instead, another boy emerged from his chrysalis. We are going to release him in our yard so he can introduce himself to the other monarchs (especially the females). We're naming him Teddy. We still have two chrysalis waiting to emerge; maybe Arlene will be one of them!
Click to see the Free to Fly Slideshow
Our last meeting before summer will feature a gopher tortoise presentation by Garden Club of St. Augustine member, Steve Davies. When his club found a gopher tortoise had dug a burrow in the middle of the clubhouse parking lot, Steve got busy to find out more about the animal and to protect it. Not everyone is so conscientious about protecting gopher tortoises, which are protected by law. We can't wait to hear about Parker, the tortoise who lives in the parking lot.
The public is invited to join us on 5/18 at 10:30AM at the Bartram Trail Library. Our next program year begins in September. Meetings will be scheduled on the 2nd Thursday at 10:30 from September through May (excluding December). Topics will be posted at this website and in the Creekline.
Keep in mind, you are free to join our club! Use the application form to join or to contact us with any questions or suggestions. If you see us working in the butterfly garden, feel free to stop by and say hello. We also welcome help, whether you are an experienced gardener or not. And if you want a guided tour, we are at your service!
The
saying, “Art imitates life,” is always true. This is the time of year when wildflowers bloom freely (if not mowed down). There are some nearby roadside and meadow wildflower hot spots in District IV. Bradford County Master Gardener, Pat Caren, paid our club a visit to describe the many wildflowers she has photographed - mainly in her own back yard. She is an excellent source of local wildflower information. She has a Powerpoint slide with pictures of the wildflowers that bloom near her property; she also can tell you the wildlife value of each plant. Contact her at her club and ask if she will speak for your group.
As for your own property, look carefully and if you haven't mowed recently, you'll probably see some of them in your yard or around open spaces near you. It goes without saying, that if you apply herbicides to kill these "broadleaved weeds," they'll be nowhere to be found. Similarly, pesticides can kill bee and butterfly larvae, so there will be no beautiful creatures to take advantage of the benefits of wildflowers.
For a free flower show, visit some of the wildflower hot spots in
District IV. The Florida WildflowerFoundation has a photo gallery of wildflower locations by region; these
displays are from the Florida Department of
Transportation’s Wildflower Program.
Several counties in District IV have roadside wildflower programs, includin
g Bradford County and the Alligator Creek Garden
Club of Starke. The Wildflower Foundation has classroom resources, informational pages, and grants to establish wildflower areas.
Pictured on the table is a poinsettia arrangement. These annuals are loved because of their many cultivated variations. Christmas cactus is another tried and true perennial, blooming as the hours of daylight shorten.
We also learned about two plants dormancy strategies:
stratification - a prolonged exposure to low (winter) temperatures that causes the seed or bulb to bloom when warm weather arrives.
scarification - some seeds have extra dense shells, especially in wet or adverse conditions. In order to allow the embryo to break out of its shell, the outer seed layer needs to be broken.
February will feature Kalia Baillene, long time member of the Garden Club of Palatka. She'll tell us about America's first naturalist, William Bartram, and his travels up the St. Johns River, visiting lands in both Putnam and St. Johns County. It turns out our clubs have a LOT in common. We'll meet on February 2 at 10AM in the Bartram Room of the Bartram Trail Library.
