In The Garden and in the Kitchen - Happy Thanksgiving!

The month of November took us to the Westminster Woods Community Garden, courtesy of St. Johns County Master Gardener, Jerrel Powell.  Jerrel has done something pretty special to take the sweat out of gardening.  He has installed a vertical hydroponic garden system.  After explaining the science behind the hydroponic garden, we enjoyed a visit to the garden where residents were growing anything from flower, to herbs, to some really amazing vegetables.  See the photos at the end of this article.

During our business meeting Arlene shared her latest visit to Julington Creek Elementary in her Junior Gardening report.  Sarah discussed the Florida Water and Land Legacy and the need to keep the pressure on our legislators to honor that commitment.  Mickey updated the club on the Monarch Butterfly Committee's accomplishments; see Year End Report from Butterfly-Monarch Conservation Committee.

November's bounty inevitably leads us to the kitchen, and our president, Claire Fioriti, gave us some inspiration when she served up her roasted kale chips at the meeting.  See our our Holiday and Any Day Recipes posting on the Resources page for her recipe and for other ways to use local and seasonal produce.  Our Publicity Chair, Dianne Battle, wrote an article, Honey in the Mornin' Honey in the Evenin' for her Master Gardener column in the December 2015 St. Johns Sun on her  adventures on Tour de Farm and shared an unusual cookie recipe.

Click on the Read More >> link below to see some holiday ideas that support our affiliated garden clubs.  Don't forget to enjoy the pictures of our visit to Westminster Woods Garden!

Saturiwa: A Habitat for Longleaf Pine and Monarchs!

In October we enjoyed a trip to Saturiwa.  Mike Adams, the owner, was gracious enough to take some of our white aquatic milkweed plants to establish a Monarch Waystation on his property this summer (see the milkweed in the photo).   This milkweed (also called white swamp milkweed) is a moisture-loving native perennial.  It seems to enjoy the spot its occupying and we'll have to wait and see how it does next year.  We will cross our fingers because there are no guarantees in nature.

Read about Saturiwa and our November field trip to Westminster Woods community garden in our Events posting from September.  Read about Monarch Waystations  in our home page posting for September, "Protecting Our Pollinators!" which includes a link to the September 2015 Issue of The Creekline, "Monarchs on the Brink."   They will tell you about the Garden Club’s project to reintroduce native milkweed to our area and establish Monarch Waystations. 

 And October isn’t October without a few festivals.  The District IV GardenFest was at the St. Johns County Extension Center this year, with Doris and Claire ably manning our table.  And we also participated in Old Settlers Day at Alpine Groves Park.   Thank you new member, Misty, for running this event!

November will find us in Westminster Woods exploring the vertical hydroponic system that Master Gardener Jerrel Powell installed in their community garden.  In December, the club will be celebrating Christmas with a luncheon at Town Center.  It’s truly an out-and-about season for us!

Protecting Our Pollinators!

Our program year begins this month, and we're looking forward to an autumn filled with exciting field trips and enjoyable events.  See what's ahead by browsing our Events and Calendar page posting, "Hittin' the Road October and November."

But don't think we've been on vacation this summer!  Our pollinators are in trouble.  So much trouble that one species, the American monarch butterfly, may be listed as an endangered species by the end of this year.  Our Monarch Committee was busy this summer learning about butterflies, contributing to the general store of knowledge about them, and providing native milkweed habitat for the monarch in particular.

In June we held our first butterfly count in Alpine Groves Park as part of the NABA 4th of July Butterfly Count.  We published our adventure, Butterflies Count, in the local Creekline, and wrote a follow-up article, How High Does the Swallowtail Fly? for the August edition on how to identify the butterflies commonly found in this area of the county.  Our companion posting at this website, Butterflies, Our Blog, and a Full Moon, features a slideshow of the butterflies that call our Freedom Butterfly Garden home.

In the meantime we were scouting all available sources for native milkweed in order to create Monarch Waystations to support the monarch's life cycle.  In July we finally hit paydirt:  white aquatic milkweed (aesclepias perennis).  The article, "Monarchs on the Brink," in the September 2015 edition of the Creekline describes where and how we established these native milkweed at Trout Creek Recreation Center and at a longleaf pine farm and conservancy near Racey Point, Saturiwa.  Summer camps were still running at Trout Creek and we partnered with the county Master Naturalist, Ayolane Halusky, to explain the importance of native milkweed to monarch caterpillars.   Many of the children not only knew about the monarch butterfly lifecycle, but were also aware of its precariously low population numbers.   We were able to show them some very happy caterpillars lunching away on the milkweed we'd installed!

To find out more about Monarch Waystations and the great "Native vs. Tropical Milkweed" debate, click the More link below.

Butterflies, Our Blog, and a Blue Moon July 31st

Butterflies

The months of August, September, and October are prime viewing times for butterflies.  Our article, "How High Does the Swallowtail Fly?" featured in the August Creekline describes how to identify some of the butterflies you'll see at Alpine Groves Park, especially in the Freedom Butterfly Garden.  As a companion to the article, the author also created a slideshow featuring the many butterflies you can see at this time of year.  Click here to open the Butterflies of September posting and slideshow.  (Other slideshows are featured in the sidebar on the Awards and Projects page.)

Our Award-Winning Blog

This website is a weB-LOG, BLOG.  It and our membership brochure won us two awards from the National Garden Club.  Read about our Certificates of Merit on the Awards and Projects page.    We also won an award from the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs for our use of this blog as a newsletter.  Get a free copy of our monthly posting by subscribing.  Our first meeting is September 10 at the Bartram Trail Library, at 10AM.   Come on down and meet us for our kick-off to the season!  Email switzerlandgc@gmail.com if you'll come!

Blue Moon July 31st

This July stargazers will be treated to a rare sight:  the second full moon in the same calendar month.  In popular parlance, this event is called a "blue moon."   It will happen on July 31. 


Before 1946, the term "blue moon" had a different meaning:  the third of four full moons in an astronomical season (which is defined by the solstices and equinoxes).  Three full moons a season, is the norm, but when that third full moon is one of a series of four, it is then called the "blue moon."

A blue moon (meaning the second full moon in a month) happens on July 31, 2015.  The last time it happened was August 31, 2012, and January 31, 2018 is the next.   However, the dog days of summer include a lot of clouds and rain in the evening, and for those of us who happen to be in northern Florida on July 31 that is what we can expect on this occasion.  The best we can do is read about it and plan for the next one - in 2018.  See Blue Moon at the TimeAndDate website.    TimeAndDate, among other features, has a calendar of moonrise/moonset times and moon phases for major cities in the world.