Author: Joan Hosman

    Designing and Building a

   Sustainable Container Garden

As always, we began the meeting with our social time. Welcoming refreshments provided by our hostesses are always a delight. We also welcomed some new members! 

Here is a stunning example of container gardening on a deck surrounded by native plants in a challenging environment near the ocean.

Our members enjoyed learning all of Molly’s tips for constructing beautiful containers using her technique: ”Fill” with carefully chosen planting materials and plants, make sure one plant will “Spill” over the sides, and, finally, with the plants chosen for color, texture, and flowering and even how they look when they’re done growing, to “Thrill” us with their beauty. We ended our meeting with one lucky member who won the lovely container!

6/17/23

After a busy year working in the Abbot Library gardens at Eveleth, the gardens at Farrell Court, and capped by our annual Plant Sale in May, Driftwood members tossed their gardening shoes into their mudrooms and prepared for the Annual Luncheon in a member’s garden. We are always optimistic, but this time Nature did not give us the warm, sunny day we hoped for!

Thanks to our hostess and others who contributed some wonderful dishes, we gathered inside her home to enjoy lobster rolls and lobster salad (note to all, lobster also makes great compost!), delicious salads, and, of course, cupcakes!

Our outgoing president reviewed this year’s activities and thanked all the members for their hard work. Projects included providing educational programs for members and guests, making lovely holiday decorations for homebound seniors in our community, working on the gardens at Farrell Court, beautification of the gardens surrounding the Abbot Library at Eveleth School, their temporary location, and supporting The Abbot Library with funds raised through our Plant Sale. Our treasurer reviewed the budget and formally announced the happy news that our earnings from the Plant Sale were the highest yet! Our president gave a shout-out to “Unsung Heroes” who magically appeared at just the right times to lend an extra hand! And our outgoing president welcomed our new president and board members who will be leading DCG for the next year.

There were lots of laughs as we reminisced about our experiences this past year at DGC workdays and events!

Here’s to another great year ahead!

(04/12/23)

The Driftwood Garden Club of Marblehead’s April ’23 meeting focused on this month’s work–preparing plants for our upcoming plant sale on May 13. Members gathered at the Abbot Library at Eveleth School, a busy place! Nonetheless, we found comfortable spots to snack, catch up on news, and learn new techniques to prepare plants for the sale.

Our hostesses provided snacks to start off our meeting. At the beginning of spring, we all love to compare notes on what’s coming up in our gardens!

There is a tremendous amount of planning needed to launch the annual plant sale. Every year we have many dedicated people who contribute countless hours to organize materials, recruit volunteers to “lend” out their gardens for club members to dig up extra plants, schedule the “dig and divide” days, and teach members how to get plants ready for the sale.

Our Program chairperson and Plant Sale organizers updated members on dates and planning for the “dig and divide” days and the materials and tools we will need to bring on work days.

We learned how to open the digital plant lists on our phones so we can record the plants we’ll be bringing from our gardens. Driftwood Garden Club is definitely in the 21st Century for technology!

And one of our Master Gardeners showed us how to gently dig up and divide the roots on our plants, plant them in pots lined with damp newspapers and other lining materials, and place them at the proper depth in the potting soil. Who knew that the round basket type of coffee filter is a great liner for the bottom of a pot! We learned about perfect sizes for containers, garden tools we will need, and even advice on the best weather to dig and divide plants. We received a handout of common perennials we might have in our gardens and those we will be digging up for the sale from volunteers’ gardens. We’ll have the list on our phones, too, so we can stay organized!

We’re all looking forward to Spring and our Annual Plant Sale!

At the February 2020 Driftwood Garden Club meeting, Katie Hone presented a wonderful program on the monarch butterfly. Members were fascinated to learn that the monarchs that emerge from their chrysalis in our gardens soon undertake a 3000 mile journey to hidden forests of Oyamel fir trees in the Michoacan and Mexico states. While the residents of these areas were aware of the arrival of the monarchs, it was not until 1975 that Fred Urquhart, a Canadian biologist, was able to locate their southern wintering grounds. In her presentation, Katie shared with the members an extensive list of plants that support the monarchs and many of the other pollinators so important for sustaining our environment. Members received information on plant groupings to provide continuous blooming for the pollinators. Everyone left with common milkweed seeds to plant in the gardens.