Vice President Jaime Eriks and other club members set up a table at the Island Village amenity center on Friday, March 24. They sold annual bedding plants and educated people about the garden club. A new QR code that takes people directly to our website was well received and used a lot. Thanks Jeff, Jaime, Judi and Sylvia! Click heading to see photo.
The garden club went on a field trip to Discovery Gardens in Lake County, Florida on Friday March 15. Fifteen members of our club toured the 27 small gardens on the 3.5 acre site. We were led by the head of the Master Gardener program in Lake County and she showed us water gardens, cactus gardens, Florida native plant gardens and a host of other garden types. After the tour we all went to Yalaha Bakery for an outdoor lunch on a perfect Florida day. A very nice end to our field trip. Our next field trip will be held on April 21 when we have our annual visit to pick blueberries at Southern Hills Farm. Click “Read More” to see photos from …
Click on the heading above to see the photos.
It’s true that most plants love peat. It’s light and slightly acidic and it retains water without bogging down soil. But peat bogs, where this wonderful material comes from, are absolutely essential carbon sinks. In fact, while peatlands cover only 3% of the planet, they are the largest of all natural carbon sinks on Earth — they store nearly 500 metric gigatons of carbon. One study I read (linked below) says a single meter deep of peat is approximately 1,000 years of stored carbon! (Honestly, wtf wow.) This means that peatlands store more carbon than all other vegetation types in the world COMBINED and the harvesting of peat releases all that lovely stored carbon into the air; an estimated 5% of CO2 emissions caused by …
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The next lecture presentation to the Garden Club of Celebration will be a fun an educational one. On Wednesday, March 15, Irene Gromulka, an expert in Ikebana, will create three flower arrangements in an exacting Japanese floral art form. She has practiced and taught this art since 1996 in the Orlando area and has been a presenter at the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. The business meeting will begin at 9:30 after a 30 minute social time. Irene’s presentation will begin around 10:00 and be an hour long. Please come to this interesting lecture! Bring a friend! This promises to be one of the best lectures of the year. We will also present the slate of …
The monthly meeting of the club on February 15, 2023 saw about 40 members attend to see Stephanie Gaspar discuss her research on Purple Martins. We had a vote to pass the amended bylaws as required every three years and we had nominations for next months vote for club officers. Two field trips were discussed. A trip to Creation Village School and a trip to Discovery Gardens near Tavares. Next meeting is March 15 and the subject will be Ikebana flower arranging. To see photos from the meeting click on the post heading.
The club took a field trip to DeLeon State Park and took a nice pontoon boat trip and we had a naturalist pointing out the local fauna. After whetting our appetites we headed to the Sugar Mill for a make your own pancakes lunch that filled everyone up. After that we drove to Blue Springs State Park and saw 188 manatees that were in the spring run to avoid the cold water in the rivers. The previous day over 770 manatees were seen in the spring Click on the HEADING above to see a gallery of photos from the trip.
Featured speakers at the January monthly meeting were Hannah Wooten and six year old Brady, who gave a presentation about hydroponic gardening. The topic was fascinating and everyone was charmed by the delightful Brady who has been growing hydroponic lettuce and basil since he was 3 years old. Click on the heading to see photos of the meeting.
Save the date – Orange County Extension Garden Festival and Plant Sale will be held on March 4. Click on the heading of this post for MOREinformation and a link to the Orange County Extension website.
