Our June meeting marks the unofficial end of our year as we break until September to enjoy our beautiful area with our family and friends.  We had a wonderful presentation from Janet Vinyard on orchid culture for upstate New York.  This was the third community presentation for the year, one of our ways of giving back to our community and a big thank you for the support you give our garden club.  Janet had a great slide show – who knew there were so many beautiful orchids and I certainly did not know that New York has the most wild orchids of all the states.  She was very generous in sharing her knowledge  and armed with that knowledge, I will make a determined effort to lavish extra care on my own orchids.

At our meeting we gave a big thank you to our outgoing officers: Michele Acquaro, first Vice President, Anna Johnson, Second Vice President, Bonnie Desfosse, Secretary and Ruth Ralston our treasurer.  My thanks also go to Doris Guyon who as Club Advisor has been a source of great strength and advice to me during the last few years.

As outgoing President, it was my honor to install the new officers for the coming year: we have co-Presidents Janice Taylor and Janice Winney.  Ann Forgette takes the responsibility for First Vice President and Carol Reutzel takes Second Vice President.  Bonnie Desfosse returns as our Secretary and Ruth Ralston returns as our co-Treasurer and is joined this year by co-treasurer Ginger Driscoll.  Carla Kolbe of the Sacandaga Express was kind enough to take photos of our new officers so watch for that in a future edition.  Also Virginia Conover took photos which she will send to Betsy Emery to put up on our website.

Our club thanks all these ladies.  Their dedication and service to the club is what makes us thrive and our new officers will bring new ideas to guide and grow our club during the coming year. 

On a personal note, I have really enjoyed chatting with you through this column over the past few years.  I have loved Betsy Emery’s additions of some great photos when she posts my column to our website (visitsacandaga.com) but it is time for a fresh voice to take over and in the coming months you will enjoy a new column of ideas from another member of the garden club.

I will continue to putter around my garden with the help of Chloe, my neighbor’s German short haired pointer.  Thank you Rick and Leslie for letting me share her!  Chloe delights in digging up the kitchen scraps I bury in my garden, however she doesn’t like eggshells or tea bags so they are left strewn over the ground.  I have a new strategy now though; when my bag of scraps in the freezer is full, I take it out to a bucket and let it stew in there.  Now Chloe isn’t so interested in the decomposing slush.  Still it reminds me of my old neighbors, Molly and Maddy (black and golden labs belonging to Peggy) who used to do the same thing.  I have this lovely memory of Molly digging in the veggie bed and coming up with a melon rind.  She was so proud of herself and she carried it in her mouth with head held high and tail wagging furiously as she ran it back to her owner.  Oh, and by the way, Terry, Linus is always welcome – I don’t mind dogs running through my garden at all. 

Now I did see Bunny eating my lettuce the other day.  It may be the same one or another who I think shelters under my deck and happily eats in my front garden which I don’t mind because that garden is a combination wildflower and cottage garden for the birds, butterflies, insects and any critters that want to feast.  My cat Tipi, is also interested in Bunny but Tipi is a very old cat now and honestly I don’t think he poses any danger. 

I have birds in most of my nesting boxes, two sets of bluebirds I am happy to see.  So many butterflies, there are so many anise swallowtail butterflies around, it really does pay to mix in host plants for the butterflies as well as the more showy nectar plants. 

My garden is my friend, full of plants, animals, birds and insects and it is a delight to wander around each day to see how each and every one of them is doing.  I wish you well with your own gardens – remember that the most important gift you can give to your garden is that of good soil.  Add organic matter every year and before winter if you are lucky enough to have a source of manure put a couple of inches on your veggie beds.  You can even use fresh manure at that time because it will have six months to age before planting starts again.

Henry David Thoreau said “I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright’.  How true.

Happy gardening everyone and remember that you can contact the club at POBox 675, Northville, NY 12134.