Monthly Archives: December 2016

Events of the month

A “Place” for Everyone!

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Merry Christmas / Happy Holiday’s!! It’s the last party of the year for Countryside Garden Club and the sky’s the limit in fun, food, festivities and creativity. This time of year if you celebrate Christmas you “Prepare a Room for Him” most people think this means prepare room for baby Jesus as in the biblical story of making room in manager when there was no space in that infamous inn. We tend to do this by Christmas shopping (overspending), entertaining, decorating, and for some just stressing all the way out in the name of Jesus. Yup, most of us normal people do just that and maybe more and that’s NOT what it’s all about. But Prepare a Room for Him really means preparing a place in your life for Jesus at all times whether you are a believer or not we all know what it means to make room for something bigger than us!

What does this have to do with garden club, well this year we were asked to create a table place setting that would be used (eaten on) only by the creator but viewed and informally critiqued by the rest of the group; it of course had to be a holiday theme setting and displayed with creative or simplistic ideas that would no doubt “Wow” someone. Of course this group gave it their best and there were 17 amazing displays each unique and creatively special. The place setting had to include a plate, glassware, a floral arrangement of some sort, napkin and optional place mat and silverware. In the end we were asked to pick (not judge-thank God) two place settings; one to represent our favorite and the other to represent what we thought was the most creative. Barbara B. won for most creative using a snowman theme and Kathleen M. won for the favorite; Barbara won reindeer ears and Kathleen a homemade gingerbread house made by creative Ms. Patti.

We managed to squeeze in our annual gift exchange PolyAnna aka Dirty Santa where you can steal from “ your friends” which this year included two new garden club family members who joined in on experiencing the joy of a holiday hangout in royal fashion. Both Mary Beth and Mary Lou had a great time and don’t you find it ironic both their names are Mary … Hmm Mary was baby Jesus’ Mum this is starting to sound suspect giggling.

 

In addition, assembled 25 adult gift stockings and 11 children’s gifts to send to our friends at Friendship House.

 

And last but not least we shared a feast and let me tell you something if there is one thing Countryside GC can do that is cook their tails off, we know how to throw down in the food department.

So how does this all tie together in Prepare a Room for Him, when you gather together to exchange gifts of love (by the way the gifts this year were well thought out, practical and generous), experience deep belly laughing, give gifts to those in need, break bread and set a table to share food, conversation and creativity; YOU prepare room for others to join in and be a part of a something special; a bond that allows you to escape from the craziness of the world and focus on what truly matters especially this time of year and that is to prepare in your heart, mind, body and spirit room for the joys of our Divine creator that made us all and allows us to share memorable moments such as a holiday party with garden club “family” and walk away with more than what you came in with, which in the book of life happens to be a priceless gift we all could use everyday throughout the year and not just during the holiday.

Some of the family
CGC Webmasters!

So from all the members of Countryside Garden Club we want to thank you for supporting us and visiting our website in 2016 and we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season filled with love and happiness as well as a Happy New Year that allows you to prepare room for the joys and and blessings of 2017!

Road Trip

An Elite Garden Stroll

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On an October autumnal morning, in the last week of public visitation to the beautiful Chanticleer Garden Estate; we arrived in full force as the first guests with our car grills pressed against the ornate entrance gate, awaiting the garden to open.

As we entered the garden en route to the “house of ease” aka the restrooms; we were distracted by a beautiful water garden being created by one of the many horticultural assistants creating a design completely made out of natural materials. We then, all gathered and began a beautiful journey meandering thru the artistic and whimsical gardens of Chanticleer. We also adopted an honorary garden club member who I named Mr. Biltmore, his true name was Steve and he graciously fell into our garden club family circle while we approached the lower cut flower garden located in front of the vegetable garden.

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Mr. Biltmore said this specimen’s name was somewhat pornographic but of course we begged to know the common name which is “Hairy B—s” yup he warned us it was a spicy name!

Mr. Biltmore happened to over hear us discussing our subtle complaints about the horticultural specimens not being labeled in this magnificent garden and he explained how it was the original landscape architect who wanted the gardens not to be inundated with hideous labels. We reluctantly agreed and I must say it was refreshing not having to worry about remembering what I actually saw but to better yet just focus on the experience I was having while strolling in the garden.

Speaking of the gardens, they were born out of the ideas and dreams of The Rosengarten Family it was their retreat to escape the summer heat of the city of Philadelphia.   Mr. Rosengarten’s great sense of humor led him to name his home after the estate “Chanticlere” in Thackeray’s 1855 novel The Newcomes. The fictional Chanticlere was “mortgaged up to the very castle windows” but “still the show of the county.” Playing on the word, which means “rooster,” the Rosengartens used the rooster as their family crest throughout the estate.

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This garden offers many specimens of flowers and trees that include common and exotic varieties with their origins from all over the world. It even has an asian woodland garden that features a very artistic replicate of an uprooted tree utilized as a foot bridge which created a great scenario for Countryside Gardeners to take a “selfie”! We are sooo cool:) and note the bee box!

The first part of our tour ended with a brief meeting and picnic lunch in a designated picnic grove. We then finished out our day and walking off our lunch visiting the main house gardenimagejpeg_0-6

and then descending upon the pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaries ‘Lenca’)while using the beautifully sculptured elevated walkway and then over to the pond garden finishing up our tour in the infamous ruin garden. If you wish to visit this unique and inspiring garden you will have to wait for the ornate gate to open on March 29, 2017.

In the meantime our in house photo bug Ms. Kathe Worrell has graciously shared her memories of what was capture on our visit with over 300 photos; don’t worry I will not post them all but chose a few in the artistic slide show below.  Thanks Ms. Kathe!!!

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So mark your calendars now for a visit to this infamous public garden in our area it will no doubt inspire you to do something a little different in your own garden giving it an elite flair!

Stroll on…

 

Member's Activities

Busy as a Bee!

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Welcome Back!

Countryside Garden Club kicked off the season in mid-September as worker bees honoring our most proficient pollinators by building bee houses to help conserve our local environment. We were hosted by the generous and crafty Miss Patti, on a beautiful fall morning nestled in nature.

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We engaged in our annual organizational meeting preceded by feasting on miniature morning breakfast treats and then given the lovely task of building bee boxes.

Our bee boxes were constructed to help our local mason bee friends. Mason bees are disappearing in our environments due to the misuse of herbicides and pesticides; providing shelter for them helps encourage and increase their population. Mason bees are solitary bees. They are “solitary,” meaning that every female mason bee is a queen. Which in turn means there are no worker bees, therefore every queen makes her own nest. Their nests are round, hollow shelters roughly the diameter of a pencil. We used old bamboo to simulate the hollow structures they need, and gently pushed them into a wooden box or a recycled soup can mounted on a piece of wood.  Bill also constructed another type of bee box by drilling holes into blocks of wood and creating a specialized home.  We had three homes to offer our bee friends the upper class, middle class or lower class model a funny categorization quoted by our member Barbara and she is right we have something for every bee’s possible socioeconomic environment:)

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Mason bees are not destructive insects. They only use holes found in nature or provided by man.

“Mud bees” is another name used to identify a mason bee because they partition and seal their nesting chambers with mud. Sometimes they are called “twig bees” for adopting hollow twigs as their nesting chamber.

Mason bees are often confused with house flies, as they look like a blue housefly. By listening to the sound of these animals you can distinguish whether it is a bee or a fly. The house flies make a humming sound, while mason bees make a buzzing sound.

Mason beekeeping tips for kids

Mason bees are gentle creatures; non-aggressive pollinators. Only the female stings when she faces serious danger. Her sting is similar to a mosquito bite.

Here are a few tips for hanging your bee house:

Hang in early Spring when the bees are preparing to return to our environment.

You want your bee house to have an overhang to protect the developing bees inside the tubes, if your box does not have an overhang you will need to hang it where an overhang will be produced such as under a deck or dense tree branch.

– Choose a spot with bright morning sun. This helps them get up and moving in the morning. I’m sure you probably don’t like to get out from under the covers when it’s cold in the morning, correct? Then you have something in common with these bees!

– Hang the house at approximately eye level to keep animals from disturbing it and so you can easily observe the bees if you want to.

– Hang the house on a secure spot, like a wall or post, or as mentioned above to keep the house from moving around too much. You can hang it on a wooden fence, too- but try not to hang it near any doors that will be swinging shut and rattling the bee house around. Also try not to have it in an area where it is extremely windy. I plan to hang mine under a railing section of our deck that is exposed to sun.

The next time you are looking for a environmentally inspired craft think about building a bee box and you can also help by refraining from using harmful chemicals in your garden and by providing habitat for these charming little creatures.

“Bee” Good, “Bee” Kind, “Bee” Helpful to our Bee Friends.

Thanks Countryside for starting our year out “Beeing” good stewards to our local environment.