Author: bsaraceno

The Driftwood Garden Club’s annual plant sale will be held Saturday, May 13^th at the Masonic Hall, Marblehead, from 8:30-11:30 AM.  The sale features perennials, annuals, ground covers, and herbs, many from local gardens. Garden Club members will be on hand to answer questions and help select plants for your garden. The Driftwood Garden Club is an all-volunteer organization. Proceeds from the sale are used to maintain and improve several gardens and other civic projects in the town of Marblehead, MA.

The Driftwood Garden Club of Marblehead held its annual Fall Cocktail Party on a crisp and clear evening. Members and their spouses enjoyed a fantastic assortment of hors d’oeuvres provided by members and lots of laughter and fun as members greeted each other for the first event of the 2022-2023 season. Many thanks to member Rose Gould who shared her beautiful home with us, to our hostesses Silte McLaughlin, Cheryl Miller, Andrea Popeo, and Lesley Dexter and especially to our fantastic program chairs Pat Shannon and Harriett Magee who kept it all on track. Look at all of those smiles!

The Northeast District of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts recognizes that every garden club includes members who step up and go above and beyond to make garden club activities enjoyable for all of the members. This year, Northeast Director Kim Edwards requested nominations for the 2021-2022 year from each garden club in the Northeast District for an award of recognition.

As we all recall, during the winter of 2021 we had to rely on virtual meetings and workshops as in person events were canceled. Planning for the next program year was extremely unpredictable, we needed some additional woman power, and asked Maureen Karwowski to help. Maureen was able to use her considerable research skills to find speakers who could present virtually, forward electronic contracts for signature, as well as work remotely with our current and future program chairs to develop the great programs we all enjoyed last year.

We wish to announce that long-time member Maureen Karwowski was nominated and has received this award for her work on the 2021-2022 DGC Program Schedule during the Covid pandemic.

Maureen was presented with this award over the summer while visiting from New York, where she currently resides.

Congratulations Maureen – we will always appreciate your help!

The Driftwood Garden Club of Marblehead’s

Annual Plant Sale is This Saturday!

On Friday April 29th, members of the Driftwood Garden Club of Marblehead traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to the annual Art in Bloom festival. Members Ginny von Rueden and Laurie Boggis created a fantastic flower arrangement reflecting the colors and design intricacies of this exquisite tapestry.

What a Great Job!

Other favorites are shown below – be sure to click on photo to enlarge and get the full effect!

These photos courtesy of Andrea Gregory.

At the beginning of the design or redesign of the landscape around your house, take pictures. They will give you a far more accurate perspective of your site than studying it in real time. At the end, keep and catalogue the tags from the plant material installed so you won’t have to guess when adding material to foundation plantings in the future. These were just two of Laura Bibler’s many suggestions for the Driftwood Garden Club of Marblehead members attending the February 17 program, Residential Design: Try This at Home.

Bibler, who started her West Newbury-based business, In the Garden, 22 years ago, attracted 32 attendees to her presentation, including 5 members from the public. A write-up in the print edition of The Marblehead Reporter and a flyer posted by Abbot Library in their foyer likely also helped boost attendance, in addition to ongoing social media postings.

A running theme of the evening was getting a fresh perspective on the existing area and devising a concept, plan, and installation approach that harmonized with the context and physical characteristics of surrounding landscape. For example, the front, back, and two end areas of a typical house will require plants with differing sun and shade tolerance.

President Susan Smith announced to the membership that the upcoming March 14 program, Healthy Gardeners: Mindfulness in the Garden, will be presented live at the library as well as on Zoom. Good news!

Due to an unavoidable scheduling conflict at the Community Center, our wreath making workshop has been moved to Wednesday, December 8th.

Members of the Driftwood Garden Club of Marblehead returned to the Abbot Library for our first indoor event since March 2020. Library Director Kim Grad enthusiastically welcomed over 50 DGC members and guests back to the library meeting room. Members enjoyed a lovely assortment of treats provided by hostesses Pal Bickford, Pinar Gokce, and Silte McGlaughlin as everyone chatted and reconnected.

President Susan Smith announced to the membership that Charlene Carpenter, a longtime member of the DGC has been made an Honorary Member for her many contributions to the club. Charlene is our third honorary member. Congratulations Charlene!

Deborah Trickett from the Captured Garden presented a fabulous talk aptly named “Winter Wow: Beautiful Containers for the Winter Months”. The timing was perfect as Deborah showed slides of some gorgeous containers – just in time for the holidays!

Some of Deborah’s tips include:

• Try using a theme for your creations: silver and white look amazing!
• Consider whether your containers will be viewed from afar or close up: here the red twig dogwood branches are arranged close together for impact.
• Use fresh greens that will last from December till March: noble fir, boxwood, cedar and arborvitae are good choices.
• Don’t be afraid of accenting with artificial berries or fruit: the birds won’t eat them!

All photos courtesy of Deborah Trinkett at The Captured Garden.

The garden clubs of Marblehead decorated the King Hooper Mansion for the holidays. The theme this year is America the Beautiful and the Driftwood Garden Club decorated the Beth Hendricks Room in a Woodland theme.

As always, designers Laurie Boggis, Sue McMullen, and Ginny von Rueden made the trip into Jacobson’s in South Boston in late October to scout out supplies for the new design. Members gathered cedar, arborvitae, japanese holly, boxwood, pinecones, birch bark and rose hips from around town, and then with instruction from Laurie and Ginny spent a fun morning making some very beautiful and surprise decorations. Four new members, Silte McLaughlin, Rose Gould, Cheryl Miller, and Jeanne Robertson joined Barbara Day, Linda Duvel, Judy Conner, Barbie Saraceno, Nancy Davidge and Susan Smith in cutting, arranging, wiring, and gluing everything in place.

Our Woodlands creations were then installed just before Christmas Walk Weekend by our seasoned team: Barbara Day, Linda Duvel, Laurie Boggis, Ginny von Rueden, Susan Smith, Barbie Saraceno, Valerie Evans and Marie Doughman. New to the team this year was Pat Shannon and Silte McGloughlin who both jumped right in. We are so lucky to have this opportunity to show off our skills every year at the Hooper!