We had a wonderful luncheon at the Old Trail Inn in Hadley in November. The room was so festive and filled with members and guests. We’ll try and get some photos up on the visitsacandaga.com website so you can see how great it looked. The Inn put on a superb buffet and it truly was an event to be remembered. Carol Reutzel and Fran Varcoe and their committee made delightful favors for everyone and the centerpieces for the tables were raffled off at the end of the lunch. Thank you to the Old Trail Inn for making this such a great event and our thanks to Anna Johnson and Fran Varcoe for making it happen.
Our auctioneer, Linda Kessler did a magnificent job and it was a lot of fun to watch the items being bid on. Mary Hogan made a gorgeous quilt which was raffled off and we raised money for our community activities such as maintenance of the Northville Library gardens under the guidance of Margreet Monster and the Blue Star marker which was installed a couple of years ago under Michele Acquaro’s leadership. Many of our members have been involved in a landscaping project around the marker and I hope you have enjoyed it this year and watch for the bulbs to pop up next spring. Janice Taylor is leading our wreath making workshop in December to make wreaths for public buildings in Northville and members will also be making wreaths for their own use. Carol and her committee have also been making Christmas gifts for our friends who are not able to get out so much any more and Ginger Driscoll will be leading the effort to make gifts at Easter time.
We had a spell of really nice weather in mid November and I was able to get my garden tucked up for the winter. I cleaned out everything but the radish and lettuce from the veggie garden and put a two inch layer of chopped leaves on it. After the first few frosts I planted my garlic and they will get a great start in the early spring, they love the short cool, spring days. It’s always better to buy potatoes and garlic starts rather than the supermarket where they may have been treated with a growth inhibiter but I must admit that I plant potatoes I have bought at the market and the same with garlic and mine do just fine. On the perennial beds I planted this year I have also put a two inch layer of leaves down and I have spread 5-10-5 fertilizer. I haven’t cut down all my flower stalks because they add interest in the winter and shelter the small insects. My ornamental grasses are standing tall with their plumes and they will wave at me all winter long through the snow. I have two types of tall grasses, some from Margreet Monster and some from Doris Guyon. Gardeners are wonderful, generous people and I love to have these plants in my garden, they remind me of my friends all year. I have some other smaller grasses and one, Prairie Dropseed, turns a lovely red in the fall. I am growing a few of them in my front garden, the one that used to be lawn and I gave up on the lawn and am growing a cottage/wildflower garden instead. The butterflies, bees and various flying creatures have loved it and I was thrilled to see so many Swallowtail caterpillars on the parsley that I planted for them. Parsley and dill are great host plants.
My Amaryllis bulbs are now in my garage going through dormancy and I will wake them up in late December so I can enjoy the blooms in January – January and February are when I tend to get a bit itchy from the winter so I love to have the amaryllis and hyacinth blooming. I bought the hyacinth bulbs in October and put them in the garage to get a cold treatment for about 12 weeks before bringing them gradually into the light and warmth. I have even put my seeds away for the year. I should have catalogued them but didn’t so what I have will be a nice surprise next year. They are in a cool, dark, dry place for the winter.
If you have new trees you might want to put some chicken wire or hardware cloth around the trunk to protect them from the rabbits and other critters that are looking for a snack in winter. I didn’t think I had rabbits near my garden but the other day I was throwing out some old tires and – whoa, there was a rabbit nicely curled up in one of the old tires. S/he jumped out and ran away to safety. Also watch any new plantings you may have made that are sheltered under the eaves. They will probably need to be watered over winter.
Our next meeting is on December 2 with Janice Taylor leading our workshop on making wreaths. We meet at 10:00 a.m. at the Bradt Building. We also have our Christmas party on December 9 at Noon at the Northville Library.
As always if you are interested in joining us or have any gardening questions, you can reach us at POBox 675, Northville, NY 12134.
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