All posts by leadort

An Elite Garden Stroll

December 5, 2016 leadort 1 Comment

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.

1177 — 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.

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 garden

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!

December 4, 2016 leadort Leave a comment

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.

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:)

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 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.

Something to entice you

CSA anyone?

August 15, 2016 leadort 1 Comment

Summer is here, summer is almost over and summer has been a bountiful time for an abundance of flowers and veggies a gardener’s season to see their labor of love all come together. With the distractions of my favorite season, summer; I realized I needed to send out those two blogs I promised. So I thought it would be fun to share with you one of my happy, happy joy places “The Farm” it’s second to the beach for me on my take me away from reality places and warms my heart every single time!

This summer I was asked specifically by Farmer Dan to work the CSA at Coverdale Farm, this invitation I’m sure was given because he knows the joy this place brings me when I’m here throughout the year teaching others about the farm in many ways from leading programs on the farm such as :Farm Life, Farm to You, Yoga on the Farm, hikes and holding special and private cooking events. This place keeps me busy in a good way! But, back to the CSA and why I thought it would be great to share on our garden blog; I have never in all my life been inundated with soooo many vegetables, when I return home my family is just like WOW more vegetables, its been discussed that we now need a full size refrigerator to just house the harvest that comes thru the doors in my arms, bags and baskets LOL It’s Veggie Palooza over here for sure- giggling.

So what is CSA you might ask, it’s an acronym that stands for Community Supported Agriculture many farms in our area have CSA programs. The local farms grow an abundance of food to share in the community, the community in turn pays a fee and buys a share into the farm; either in the form of a half share or full share. This allows families to get the best fresh produce from May to October and the opportunity to try traditional and unusual vegetables and fruits.

Which by the way has been my new lesson on the farm to all that visit, is that what we think are vegetables are really fruits and in the culinary world they are really called botanical fruits not vegetables! A true vegetable is that which is a root, leaf or stem (potatoes, carrots, rhubarb, onions, etc…) anything else especially if it has seeds is a fruit; so yes tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, corn (yes corn), and string beans to name a few are fruits not veggies people, LOL. Fruits are the ovaries of a flowering plant that develops after its seeds are fertilized or in some cases not fertilized. And don’t challenge me by saying broccoli and cauliflower are fruits because they are not, they are actually undeveloped flower buds that never opened so they are vegetables. And if you really want to get technical bananas and grapes are berries since they come from a single ovary with multiple seeds, and while we are in this debate, let’s go there and know that strawberries are NOT a fruit ( I know this is crazy, too funny) but they are really fruit parts called a fleshy receptacle, just a few things I have researched and learned by teaching on a farm part time, LOL.

Bottom line if you are not eating local fresh food please at the end of this blog, gather your peeps (slang for people aka your family) get in the car and go for a nice summer drive and pick up some fruits, veggies, berries or whatever you thought it was until I just made you scratch your head and question all produce, and enjoy God’s natural blessings to us, they are true healers of our bodies, safer than commercialized produce and they makes us get to know the wonderful people who grow our food with love and a purpose. They do this, to do good by us all when it comes to wholesome delicious “old school” food. And if you are growing your own food that’s even better, for the first time this year I grew tomatoes (that actually produced fruit:) with some help from Farmer Dan, even in my mostly shady garden. Let’s just say; I did a dance when I harvested my own tomatoes and put them in a meal for my family, it was a good day indeed!!

As the summer comes to an end and I go to play in the sun for vacation and to celebrate a summer birthday, I hope this end of the summer blog finds you happy, healthy and surrounded by those you love amidst the heat and humidity, sticky sweet fingers of something frozen dripping to cool your soul, sandy toes, dancing in the rain (whenever it comes, LOL) looking at a summer sunset on or near the water or just out your back door, enjoy what’s left of this precious season and till next time when the world is a little cooler grab some local produce, visit a farm and be a true gardener and ingest your harvest!!! Peace to you all.

Garden Tour

Omotenashi!

August 15, 2016 leadort 1 Comment

Omotenashi means hospitality in Japanese, it’s the pure essence of how to treat your guest when they are under your care. We ended our garden club yearend picnic at the lovely home and garden of Hiro and Pat; despite the rain they displayed subtle qualities of the traditional omotenashi tradition but in a lay back and fun way! Of course we took care of business and had our meeting which was quick and to the point because we all are foodies and just wanted to get into the lovely dishes that were prepared by all. If there is one thing Countryside knows how to do is have an amazing potluck truly to be coveted by all. To help digest our yummy morsels we eventually took a stroll in Hiro’s amazing garden, which by the way was weeded quite nicely by his lovely bride Pat while he was off traveling prior to our visit. Thanks Pat for your efforts the garden looked stunning! So we all know, Hiro loves moss and he has a magnificient moss garden full of his favorite mosses.

I was quite impressed it’s the real deal, not just some moss growing under an established tree there is a designated area in the garden just for the moss to do their thing, LOL This garden also houses unique tree specimens and has been carefully designed to have trees strategically placed to create a private garden that’s enclosed on all sides.

When you look out the kitchen window you see the back of the garden with a mix of various plantings but its obvious that when you look to both sides of the garden it is lush, with a diverse selection of shrubs and trees giving the space the feeling of a big hug, its just wonderful and makes you want to be in the space for a moment maybe with a cup of tea and or a nice book.

Just as the clouds cleared to let us take a quick tour, they soon filled again with liquid sunshine and showers began again, with many colorful umbrellas in hand we moved back inside to the garage to work on our Habitat for Humanity garden planters which we make every year to celebrate “Garden Week” and then deliver in our local Habitat Humanity community. We also exchanged plants which is like exchanging a hug in our club because you take a little of whomever donated that plant with you to place in your garden forever and to also look at over the summer when we are apart. It was a great day to an end of another wonderful year of our garden family making memories.

Hopefully this summer has allowed you to give omontenashi or to receive it, either way till we convene again it was a great time had by all to transition into the summer bliss. Thanks Hiro and Pat we had a great time, and we hope the summer has blessed you thus far with the peaceful and joyous time you bestowed upon us!

Garden Tour, Road Trip

Heath, Heather and another Heavenly Road Trip!

May 21, 2016 leadort 2 Comments

Let’s just say Countryside Garden Club gets around and doesn’t let any grass grow under our feet! As the song goes “On the road again….”

Yup; that’s right we set out again on another garden trip adventure this time we started out by eating the most important meal of the day; breakfast at Friendly’s in Lantana Square. Some of us ate before we arrived but most engaged in a lovely chat and chew while our Madam President Ginny showed off her organizational skills

(that’s right it’s an oversized posted noted totally cool, I think me and Ms. Kathe lost our minds with excitement she truly fed our OCD needs to keep stuff in order) and conducted quite an efficient business meeting prior to releasing us to venture out for our little garden excursion.

So where did we end up? On a 2 acre countryside property in Oxford, Pa at the home of Paul and Jane Murphy who also happen to have a Heath and Heather nursery perfectly tucked into this beautiful little haven complete with a backdrop of pillowing clouds, a bough bank barn, neighboring horses and rolling vistas of Chester County, total bliss!

This sweet couple’s

love of a particular plant turned into an after retirement Ma and Pa business specializing in Heath and Heather.

What exactly is a Heath plant and what exactly is a Heather plant? First off, all Heathers are Heath but not all Heaths are Heathers. Don’t you love it when a gardener or horticulture person speaks like that, as if some how it helps you understand more clearly what they are saying when it’s still clear as mud!

In layman terms let’s see if we can break it down for you: the plants Heath and Heather are in the family Ericaceae (phonetically Erica’kay sha’) which includes mostly shrubs, often evergreen, loving poor acidic soil, moors or bogs, they have urn or bell shape flowers and come in mainly colors of pink, purple, white and red.

They form thick mats of foliage, love hillsides,

cool to cold temps, dappled shade area, and too much sun makes them unhappy. They are primarily natives of the rocky highlands of Scotland. And just to make things interesting, blueberries and huckleberries are in this family as well.

We were educated about this interesting plant group in the living room area of the Murphy’s beloved old farm home circa 1860 with other parts of the house constructed in the 1900’s; when searching for the perfect nursery location the old home was a must.

When shopping for these plants or you could just simply go to Jane and Paul’s nursery to shop (or visit them online at http://www.hickoryhillheather.com), if the label says Erica it’s a Heath if the label says Calluna it’s a Heather. Looking closely at the foliage one can see a difference in the arrangement of the leaves and how one is feathery (Heath) and the other tightly compacted (Heather).

I will share my silly way that I will remember- give a Heath bar to Erica and give a Call to Heather yeah silly I know but when learning these botanical names a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do, LOL. Interesting fact the word Calluna comes from the Greek word Kalluna which means to cleanse or adorn; these plants were used for making brooms.

The nursery is subtly showcased in their gorgeous country garden, located in a mid to large sized greenhouse I was told and expected to visit a gift shop with cute little shelves lined with plants intermingled with garden art and garden chotskies; NOT. It was just a standard commercial style nursery sparsely filled with plants mainly Heath and Heather but also other interesting plants that a gardener might want. We had a ball loading up on the perfect Heath or Heather for our gardens.

Prior to shopping we were given a tour of the propagating greenhouse, which looked like a quaint storage building. Inside

were many babies waiting to be planted, that is whenever Jane “got to it” my kind of real deal gardener, she wasn’t stressed at all just passionate about what her and Paul did but not consumed or obsessed and this showed throughout their property. Their lovely space displayed an energy of peace for their love of gardening.

Put it this way, there wasn’t even a sign out front that said Heath & Heather Nursery which speaks volumes it’s tells me the business just happened out of a love for something they enjoyed and the business doesn’t dictate who they are or need to be.

As we were about to leave the propagating greenhouse one table of baby plants were blanketed with the most beautiful moss. As soon as the word moss was spoken Hiro’s ears perked up. And then of course in our love of Hiro we became enablers and contributed to him getting what he needed; some moss! Kathe had no problem picking it by the finger pinches and openly went about handing him a lovely stash of moss blessed of course by Jane to take all we wanted. Let’s just say it was a great bonus for Hiro; to not only go home with Heath and Heather but also with the greenest and moist precious little clumps of moss.

This is the real blessing of gardening : to share unconditionally 🙂 which equals a “Very Happy Hiro”!

We ended our visit with a leisurely stroll through the rest of the garden our arms filled with the plants we purchased, smiles on our faces and quite a bit of knowledge about Heath and Heathers.

Thanks Jane and Paul; we appreciated your time, your passion for your favorite plants, your laid back awesome gardener attitudes, the vista and the views and more importantly giving us another opportunity to bond as gardeners and friends on another lovely road trip.

Events of the month, Flower Show

Recycle, Reimagine & Reinvent

May 9, 2016 leadort 2 Comments

A small standard flower show created with a large dedication to excellence due to a combined and beautiful effort from Countryside and Moonflower Garden Clubs. Two sister clubs that really showed off what it means to recycle in style!

There were a plethora of blue ribbons given to both clubs in design, horticulture and a newbie to the scene photography. The show was held at Cokesbury Village a sassy retirement residence that graciously shares its space and welcomes the outside community to bring in the joys of life that they once embraced on a daily basis. We gave Cokesbury their very own entry for horticulture, open only to this special community. It was our pleasure to encourage them to participate in something they probably had more knowledge about then us, LOL. Its just pure respect for the wise and wonderful and it blessed our hearts to include them.

There were three classes of design, recycle-photgraphy, reimagine- horticulture and reinvent-functional, small and creative designs. The functional table design blue winners were Patti McCarter and Barbara Boyce awesome job ladies.

I just wanted to sit down and have Chinese take out at their table! Hiro gave his best in his entry and placed third while Marsha took a second for her creative design.

In the small design an outside participant took the blue but our very on Phil Worrell proudly took the second he is quite elated with his win. Way to go Phil!!!

In creative mass another outside participate took the blue for a very unique design utilizing small volume water bottles just lovely indeed!

We even entered our challenge plants and as you can see most survived and one in particular bloomed fabulously! Congrats Joan Yulduzian on doing as you said “ Oh nothing, I did nothing” (yeah right, LOL)

The photography class was such a hit there was a waiting list and it closed with the maximum of 27 entries.

Many of us took a chance on being creative including myself by entering into classes we have never done before. It’s quite evident that being in a flower show is truly about surrendering to something new and taking a leap of faith, of course you may not walk away with a blue ribbon but you definitely earn a blue for effort!

There were also lessons on how the rule book is really interpreted even by the judges; most of us (the participants) were more by the book then they were. That was obvious with a winner that won by not following the rules a good lesson for all of us to let go and learn; and just being accepting to the powers that be. Another schooling on how judging is totally subjective.

So, a year worth of efforts led by our fearless leader Ann Perry and the commendable support and teaching of Dottie Howatt has finally come to an end, fulfilled with lots of enlightenment along the way. Many thanks to all the members of each club that put forth their time and talent and ultimately encouraging all that visited our show that recycling can be a beautiful thing!

Garden Tour, Road Trip

A road trip!

May 6, 2016 leadort 1 Comment

John Ray was born on November 29, 1627, in the village of Black Notley located in Essex, England. His father was a blacksmith, and his mother was known as a healer and herbalist; perhaps it was from her that Ray gained his love of nature, and especially of plants. Countryside Garden Club was blessed to visit John. F. Ray in this present day and time at his property perfectly named NearWater in Chestertown, MD. Stop!

Wait just one minute. I know that intro seems a bit suspect but fascinating; I too am wondering could they be related and funny how Essex, England is “near water” too!!! If they are not related what a wonderful coincidence to have John F. Ray amongst our circle of gardening buddies and a special thanks to Mr. Bill who met and befriended him at the prestigious Philadelphia Cactus and Succulent Society where they both are members. So we started out our trip at the Fish Whistle Restaurant off the water’s edge of the quaint town of Chestertown, Md., no sooner did we get settled a beautiful schooner floated by

and to make things interesting I played along that I had planned for that to happen just for our pure delight. Our meals were scrumptious and gave us fuel to keep warm on a somewhat chilly spring day.

We then loaded up again and set off to our honored designation and what a wonderful treat awaited us. We were blessed to share in the private garden sanctuary of Mr. & Mrs. John F. Ray unfortunately Mrs. Ray was unable to meet with us but John graciously led us on a beautiful tour

of what no doubt is a gorgeous Mediterranean style display of succulents and cacti perfectly placed in troughs and hyper tufa volcanic like structures causing even a non gardener to drool with amazement. There were alleys of statues

that reminded us of our infamous dupont Estates and a pond that literally took your breath away, when it was so mysterious presented to us.

Some of us lost all control when they were in the presence of that pond!

Really Bill. I’m sure they have a restroom on site. My goodness!

The pond was encircled with the most knobby but whimsical Bald Cypress knees

and at the other end of the pond was a majestic Redwood;

which made you second guess if you were actually in a national park. A visit to the greenhouses (John’s favorite spot) that supply all of the award winning Philadelphia Flower Show specimens was shared with grace.

There were hundreds of babies being propagated and several mature plants waiting their entry into the garden or into a flower show.

Thou shalt not covet, LOL! Let’s just say Bill was in heaven:)

We also had a special moment to dream about having our very own summer cottage which crossed all of our minds when we became child like visiting this very special little getaway tucked away on the property.

This delightful two hour trip did not seem long at all once our visit came to an end. We couldn’t help put present John with a token of gratitude made by Ms. Patti whose crafted talents will for sure bring him a smile.

The same kind of smile John gave to us in sharing his beautiful and magical garden. Many Thanks John!

Something to entice you, Uncategorized

Snowdrops… need I say more

March 21, 2016 leadort Leave a comment

Well as promised, my new friends are here and I can’t wait to have them naturalize in my garden like the picture above. I think I might be becoming a Galanthophile (a what?!) in layman’s terms a person who collects snowdrops and has an ardent love of them.

The common name: Snowdrop, botanical name: Galanthus, group: Bulb; a Galanthus nivalis is a small white end of the winter flower that gives all it’s glory this time of year. It is a member of the lily family and closely related to the daffodil. They are a welcome assurance that the bright sunny days of Spring are on their way.

So at the beginning of the month my husband and I made the trip up to the most magical shade garden in Bryn Mawr, PA to pick up my snowdrops given by Carolyn of Carolyn’s Shade Garden. Last Spring Carolyn invited me to join her snowdrop list, I have always wanted snowdrops in my garden so I thought of course sign me up! And oh boy what a list indeed, she sends a massive snowdrop order list mid December and its on like hot butter popcorn, LOL!!! Within in minutes specimens sell out I was lucky to be able to order G. Elwesii – giant snowdrop, G. nivalis- common snowdrop and G. nivalis Flore Pieno-double common snowdrop. In the end the G. Elwesii was damaged by disease and her whole supply had to be thrown out, a big disappoint since that’s the one I really wanted the most. But I graciously walked away with G. nivalis and Flore-Pieno which is truly a beauty, I just love double flowers and this one is a keeper for sure.

Carolyn in her sweetness agreed to a picture with me

so I could show her off and ensure you she is real and her garden is real and she laughed when I said I had been singing like a canary about her secret garden. It truly is worth the trip I have visited it in all seasons and it amazes me every single time, it’s just fabulous!!!

Treat yourself and take a road trip and visit on one of her open houses.Carolyn’s Shade Garden

If you would like to be an enabler of my new addiction and own snowdrops in your garden please do share, the more the merrier and it will also be even more of a blessing to have a piece of your garden in mine; that way I can think of you as I will of Carolyn when my new friends emerge next year. Someday I hope to be the one that shares these little jewels.

So, if you haven’t considered snowdrops give them a try I’m sure they will bring a smile to your face and no doubt be the sweet little reminders that Spring is near and snow days are a thing of the past.

Events of the month

A Holiday Affair!

December 23, 2015 leadort Leave a comment

This year’s garden club holiday party was held at the home of one of our most creative members, Ms. Patti. We were welcomed into a holiday palooza of Santa Claus collections, gingerbread houses adorned with sugar plums and christmas candies, nutcrackers, assorted trees of all kinds and seating arrangements based on the colored rim of your plate!

A festive event indeed but with a purpose to help others in need; this party of course bought joy to all of us but better yet created joy for the transitional home residences of Friendship House and their children. Amidst the laughter we stuffed many stockings for the adults filled with personal toiletries and pampered the children with stockings chock full of Christmas love and joy.

The party ended with our annual polyanna which this year created joyous sound effects from Tala unwrapping her secret santa gifts wrapped in recycled plant catalog paper; she definitely gets the grammy award for her audible shouts of Ooos and Ahhs. Kathe was even more excited when she shared her joy and love for the sound of tissue paper being unraveled from a present and Hope was adorned in the coolest Christmas garb!

The piece de resistance was Mr. Bill setting his “man card” aside to take a dare to try on the holiday Cinderella Shoe found on the last cleanup of the Brackenville Road Adopt a highway project presented to Patti as a hostess gift. Luckily he has found his “Princess Charming” in his lovely wife Ruth and so the shoe not fitting was all in fun! Thanks Bill for being able to just have fun, we nearly wet ourselves in laughter! By the way if anyone out there knows anything about this shoe please send the club a note in the reply box below we would love to hear about it’s story.

On a serious note; the members of Countryside Garden Club want to wish you a very Merry Holiday and Many Blessings for 2016! See you next year:)

Events of the month

Everything Frogs!

December 1, 2015 leadort Leave a comment

This month’s DFGC (Delaware Federation of Garden Clubs) luncheon and meeting was held at the Executive Banquet hall in Glasgow, DE. Countryside Garden Club had the honor of hosting this month’s meeting. This meeting’s attendees numbered 127 registrations and 16 clubs present from all counties in the state of Delaware. Our theme was based off the new book entitled The Frightened Frog -An Environmental Tale by Brenda Moore and Jean Ohlmann; we gathered as a club and hand crafted frog origami name tags and place cards which adorned each attendee and table place setting and sold all 88 books ordered!

The guest speaker was Dan Benarcik from Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA sharing his 25 must have plants for a garden. It was a wonderful day of gathering with gardening friends, overall it was a “hopping success”!

Countryside Garden Club of Hockessin, DE